“Breathtaking…”
I walked past him, toward the door, desperate to leave. Even though I knew he was dangerous and that he seduced people without hesitation to get what he wanted, I could not stop the fluttering of my heart at his compliment. My reaction frightened me more.
“Be careful tonight, Little Lily,” Dana called after me. I stormed away, trying to keep from shaking.
In the conference room, I was met with another shock.
“Lily…” Clark whispered, lifting his hand. What I saw in his fingers startled me.
Folded pieces of paper—more notes from the anonymous person helping us.
“What? When?”
“They were just laying on my book when I got back,” he hissed. I stared at him, and then turned to Mark, who was standing by the door, watching us both, confused, not knowing what was going on.
“Was it Mark?”
“It couldn’t have been,” Clark said. “He came with me to find Dana.”
I looked around the room, nervous and confused. Someone must have been watching us, knowing we were both out of the room. They must have seen we were gone from the security cameras. That would also mean they were being recorded placing the notes on Clark’s book, unless the cameras were turned off, or not real…or any other number of possibilities.
Clark followed my gaze around the room. When we both had found the five security cameras, we looked at one another again.
“Are those real?” I hissed.
“I thought they were,” he said. “Now…I’m not so sure.” He looked at Mark, who was clearly distressed at not knowing what we were worked up over.
Clark quickly slid the notes into his pocket, shaking his head.
“I really hate this place,” he groaned. “We better go.”
I agreed, though I could only think about the notes. As I picked up my bag, the door opened again and Dana walked in, causing us both to halt. Mark backed away from Dana, and turned to nod at the other man in sunglasses behind the leader of the Commission. He looked like the Asian I had seen walking out of the lab the day I had my tracers put in.
“Ready to go to Archangel?” Dana asked, smiling as he looked between the two of us. We nodded slowly, nervous, particularly since Clark had the notes not particularly well-concealed in his pocket.
Dana glanced at Mark and the other man.
“Josh will be joining Mark tonight,” Dana told us. “This is Josh, by the way,” he told me, pointing. “You will not ride the Commission bus from the club tonight.”
“Why not?” Clark asked.
“Because I do not want you to.”
“But it’s dangerous to have Mark and Josh there,” Clark snapped. “What if someone sees them and notices that they’re Asian? Can you imagine?”
“You seem to have no faith in Mark,” Dana noted with a chuckle.
“I have faith in Mark, I don’t have faith in other people,” he clarified sharply. “I just don’t want to put him, or the Commission, in a difficult position.”
“They won’t be standing outside the doors,” Dana laughed, rolling his eyes. “They will pull around the back after dropping you off and stay there until you are ready to leave. Just slip out the side door. They’ll be waiting for you.”
“Why are you so worried about us?” I asked suspiciously.
“I’ve angered a lot of the young people recently with that ridiculous fiasco concerning Miranda and Julie,” he explained, looking at his nails, disinterested. “And, since you two are my favorites, I must be sure that you are safe. I wouldn’t want you two swept up in some insurrection against me.”
“Are you really worried about that?” I challenged. “I thought that you had control over everyone.”
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” he said, bored. “Who knows anymore? So, if you kids are ready…”
Clark was angry, grabbing his backpack and storming past Dana. When I started to walk past Mark and Josh, Mark elbowed the other lightly. Josh stared at him for a moment before bowing shallowly and reaching his hands out for my bag. I blinked, but slowly handed my backpack to him. He carried my things, both experiments following me as I tried to catch up to Clark.
Clark was waiting by the elevators.
“I can’t believe he’s doing this…” Clark groaned, rolling his eyes. “He was the one who always told me not to put Mark in unnecessary danger by taking him out in public, and now he does this.”
We reached the lobby of the Commission building, grabbing our phones from the reception desk as Mark retrieved the car.
It was a short, awkward drive to Archangel with Josh and Mark in the front seats. Josh made a motion to Mark at one point, but Mark shook his head and motioned something else. After that, they did not look at one another. I glanced at Clark, who shrugged, not concerned with the silent conversation.
The club was as loud and bright as ever with teens filing in excitedly, eager to get out of the cold night.
“When we’re doing our rounds, we’ll look at the notes,” Clark whispered as we started into the club, the car pulling away for the two experiments to hide where the crowd of teenagers could not see them.
As usual, we stopped at the table where Becca, Jill, Taylor, and the others were waiting.
“Ah, there they are! Finally!” Devon smiled broadly. “How are you two?”
“Good,” I answered tiredly.
“Are you ready for the Halloween party next week?” Jill grinned, an excited light playing in her eyes.
“Already wanting tonight to be over?” Becca teased.
“Of course!” Jill gasped. “The Halloween party is the best one of the year! You’ll see, Lily.”
“I’m sure I will,” I groaned. All I could think of were the plans we had for our rebellion.
The group chatted for a while before Clark skillfully told the others we were going to go do our rounds. As we stepped into the crowd, he turned to me and whispered in my ear over the loud music.
“Maybe we should actually do our rounds and see if anyone is talking about the rebellion,” Clark told me. I quickly agreed and we started our shuffled wandering to hear the hot gossip of the evening.
I was not sure whether to be disappointed or happy when I did not hear anything of our rebellion.
When we had rounded the room once, I grabbed Clark’s wrist and pulled him behind one of the raised platforms on the dance floor. He glanced around before extracting the papers from his pocket.
“Have you looked at these?”
“No. I didn’t want to risk it.”
He unfolded the notes while I held my breath, unsure what to expect.
S18Q1B009E1-1**
S12Q5B118E0-3
S4Q19B787E12-0
S23Q2B107E6-9*
S10Q1B027E8-1
S9Q4B423E7-2
I blinked at the strange set of numbers.
“What is that?” It looked nothing like the codes we received before.
“I don’t believe it…” Clark hissed, his eyes darting across the page.
“What?”
“These are addresses.”
“They’re what?” I repeated.
“When Central was being established during the post-war radical uprisings, they created a new system of identifying buildings in the city so that uprisings would not know which buildings to target,” Clark whispered. “These are in that code.”
“How do you know that?”
“I got bored and researched some things in the Commission library over the summer,” he admitted. “I don’t know exactly what they mean, but these are definitely addresses.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” I said slowly. “Wonder what they’re addresses for.”
Clark flipped the page and looked at the next note, which had a strange drawing on it. Below the sketch that appeared to be a map was the title of a book.
“This must be in the library,” Clark mused. “Maybe there’s something in this book that could be useful.”
“Looks
like we’re studying in the library on Monday,” I said slowly. Clark nodded and looked over the two pages.
“I really want to know who’s giving us this…” he murmured, folding the papers and tapping them against his hand. “Do you want to keep them?”
“Sure,” I said, taking them only to realize I really had nowhere to put them. “On second thought, you keep them,” I laughed. He placed them back in his pocket, smiling.
We made our way to the balcony where the Commission Kids seemed more tense than usual. They were feeling nervous from the incident with Miranda and no one was sure how to feel or act around one another.
“Clark,” I whispered as we made our way to an empty corner. “I invited Becca to my house on Sunday, is that allowed?”
“What?” Clark gasped. “Of course that’s not allowed! You’ve got Mykail there!”
“I know…but…” I stopped. I realized that even though we had spent so much time together over the last week, I had not told Clark that Becca knew of our intent to overthrow Dana and the Commission of the People. I hesitated, knowing that he would be heavily against the idea of looking for help outside the Commish Kids.
“But nothing,” Clark snapped. “What are you going to do if she catches a glimpse of him? Do you really think you can explain that?”
“Well…” I started slowly, refusing to meet his eyes. He was silent for several long seconds and then he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Please, please, please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did…”
I did not respond. He groaned again, hiding his face in his hands. “Lily…” he moaned, sounding as though I was physically hurting him.
“I’m sorry, but she knew something was wrong and I needed someone outside the Commission to talk to…”
“You just put both of your lives on the line,” he told me sharply. “She is in serious danger, and you put her there.”
“She wants to help.”
“No, absolutely not,” Clark snapped.
“Why not?” I challenged. I knew we could trust Becca, even though she was outside the Commission. I thought that Clark would know her well enough to understand that she would not say anything to endanger us.
“We can’t trust people outside the Commission,” Clark said strongly. “When you were first introduced to the Commission, and you saw everything that happened there, you were frightened, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And if Dana had taken Miranda in the same night, or even one week later, you would not have said anything in protest because you were still processing. You were trying to figure out the situation and what the boundaries were. If Becca becomes a part of this, she’s a weak link. She will not be in the Commission every day. She will be the weakest against Dana’s influence. She’s not with him every day, she doesn’t have to face him, and as soon as he puts a little pressure on her, she will fold.”
“How can you say that?” I growled. “Becca is your friend as well.”
“Of course she is,” Clark sighed. “But she’s now in danger, as we all are if she exposes us.”
“Alright, alright,” I groaned. “For now, we’ll keep her on the outside of the plan, but she already knows about it, so it wouldn’t be fair if we just leave it at that.”
“It might not be fair, but it will be safer,” Clark murmured. I glared at him, not liking his reaction. He glanced at me and sighed heavily. “Fine. She can come over to your house and meet Mykail, but that’s all. Until we really know what’s going on, it’s probably better that that’s as much as she knows.”
“Thank you, Clark.”
“I’ll be over there as well,” he declared strongly.
I huffed, but was secretly pleased that he would be there. It saved me from explaining everything and telling Becca something I shouldn’t. Since Clark was more in tune with what was safe for other people to know, he would be able to stop me from saying anything dangerous.
The night wore on. All of the Commish Kids were tense, and most didn’t even leave the balcony. No one was speaking to one another. They were just walking around the metal grate balcony, looking at one another, not sure who to trust. Clark and I watched from our spot, sensing the tension. When the club was closing and people were leaving, I felt a nervous ball grow in my stomach watching the Commish Kids gather, waiting for the meeting to begin.
“Alright,” Melissa said, calling the meeting to order. She went through the procedure of recording her voice as she opened the meeting. “Who has anything they would like to share?”
For the first time since I had been part of the Commish Kids, no one spoke. Melissa looked around, annoyed rather than surprised.
“No one?” she groaned. “Come on, everyone. Pull it together.”
“Let’s face it,” Dean growled. “No one actually went around the club tonight to hear the gossip because we were too busy gossiping among ourselves about last week.”
Many Commish Kids murmured in agreement. Melissa turned off the recorder.
“You mean this whole thing with Miranda?”
“What else?” Dean snapped.
“Are we just supposed to pretend that nothing happened?” Samantha hissed. “Just go on like everything’s alright?”
“People get taken into the Commission every day, why should she be treated any differently?” Melissa challenged.
“That’s different,” Brent said. “Miranda wasn’t a criminal. And Julie sure as hell wasn’t a criminal. Now, Dana’s doing God only knows what to both of them, and they haven’t even done anything wrong!”
Again, most of the kids in the Commission agreed. Melissa looked around until her eyes rested on Clark.
“Clark?” she asked. “What do you think?”
Clark got very nervous, as did I. I felt my heartbeat pick up and a nervous sweat form on my palms as I wrung my hands together. Clark took a deep breath and lowered his eyes.
“Why should you ask him?” Gracie groaned. “He’s Dana’s pet. He’s going to favor what Dana does more than what happens to any of us.”
“Why would you say that?” Clark growled. “I don’t agree with what Dana did with Miranda and Julie, but if I’m honest with myself I know I can’t do anything to change it.”
“Why not?” Dean challenged angrily.
“Dana is the second most powerful man in the world. What he says is law, particularly when it comes to the Commission and who gets taken,” Clark said. “If you want to say something about what he’s doing, you have to make a deal more appealing to him rather than just order him to undo what he’s done.”
“We tried to exchange ourselves,” Dean reminded him.
“Why are you all forgetting that Dana is extremely smart?” Clark laughed incredulously. “He knew that if he took you in exchange for them, more parents would get upset because he had no grounds to take you. He can afford to have us upset, but the parents have a lot more power than we do, and they can raise concerns more effectively.”
“Why can’t we?” Karmen snapped.
“Yeah, why can’t we say that we’re pissed as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore?” Ryan seconded. Several of the Commish Kids who had not shown support or opposition against the idea of rebelling against Dana’s decision began nodding and voicing agreement. I felt my hair stand on end. Feeling the anger mount on the balcony was exhilarating. The more they talked about the situation, the angrier they became. The tension was building to a point where action could be tasted in the air.
All of the Commish Kids had been turning the ordeal over in their minds for the whole week, and they were frightened that they could be next. That fear turned into anger very quickly. I had to force myself not to smile, but it was exciting to watch everything play out so perfectly.
“Look,” Melissa said carefully, trying to silence everyone, though the tension remained, “there might be legitimate evidence against Miranda and, if there is, then we cannot say anything against Dana’s ruli
ng.”
“But she’s innocent!” Dean snapped.
“Of course you think she’s innocent. You love her.”
“No, I think that because it’s true!” Dean said angrily, standing. “Dana’s just taking people to scare us. I don’t know what we did, or which one of you motherfuckers did whatever stupid thing you did to catch his attention, but Dana cannot just take someone innocent to use as an example. He thinks that this will make us more obedient? Fuck that! I’m pissed! And I’m going to let Dana know it!”
Several of the other Commish Kids nodded and clapped their support.
“Anyone else?”
“You bet I’m in,” Trevor said. “I’m sick of this fear-mongering shit.”
“What are you going to do if you fail?” Melissa challenged. “Are you going to try and take out the whole Commission?”
My heart stopped.
“If I have to,” Dean snapped. “Look, maybe all of you are alright with just accepting what Dana’s doing, but I’m not about to lay down and take it.”
“Then you could be next,” Matt hissed.
“So be it,” Dean retaliated. “I’ll work from the inside, but this is not fair to us and it sure as hell is not fair to Miranda and Julie. So, for them, I’ll do what I have to.”
A shiver of anticipation ran through me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
My insides were in knots Saturday night. I took a few deep breaths as quietly as I could to calm down without calling my parents’ attention while in the elevator. That night would be our first act as a rebellion against the Commission of the People and I was frightened that it would go horribly wrong.
It was impossible to tell my brain to shut up about the different ways things could turn on us. I continued to think that the wrong words would sentence all of us to the back of the Commission, and as much as I wanted to believe that we could also work from the inside, I had a feeling that we would be unable to overthrow the institution unless we got the general population to realize what was really happening inside the Commission of the People.
We went to our normal spot in the meeting room and my parents started socializing, but I was looking at the other Commish Kids. There were a lot of younger kids, more than I remembered actively noticing before. What would happen to the younger children if their older brothers and sisters started rebelling against Dana? Would they follow? Would Dana take them as revenge? Would they stay loyal to the Commission?
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