“After four hours, Josh will move the car to the mall.”
“Josh?” we both asked.
“He should be watching the car right now from the Commission computers.” Mark wrote quickly, glancing around the parking lot before continuing his message. “Josh has leave privileges as long as he’s careful and he lets Sean know first. He’ll check back in four hours and if the car is still here, he’ll move it.”
“You two have done this before, haven’t you?” I smiled. He smiled as well and nodded, capping the pen and nodding to the side of the parking lot, walking around the cars to the far, deserted end of the zoo parking lot.
Once we left the asphalt area, we snuck around the back of the storage buildings and along the fence of the wolf enclosure, hearing the families and children on the other side of the solid fence.
After carefully making our way down a steep slope at the back of the zoo, we hiked to a rocky hill, which we rounded carefully, picking our way along the deer path until we found ourselves at the cave entrance that Clark and I had explored a few weeks previously.
“Wow…” Clark blinked when we entered the cave. “I have never taken that way to get here before.”
Following the somewhat-familiar passageway to the underground tunnels, we were silent, carefully feeling our way around with the limited lights of our phones. Mark, on the other hand, moved very easily in the dark, making the correct turns to bring us into the main bunker. Mark flipped the switch for the lights as easily as if he had lived there.
“The others shouldn’t be here for another hour. Some are taking one passage and others are taking another…” I said out loud for Mark’s benefit.
He motioned for us to follow and we walked into the library-type room with the tables. He set the notebook and pen on the table and opened the page, writing a quick message.
“I stole the completed blueprints of the Commission from Dana’s office. I hid them in here for us to look over.”
“When did you do that?” I gasped, watching him walk to one of the bookshelves and pull it from the wall, reaching behind it and pulling out a large folded piece of paper. As he straightened and pushed the bookshelf back into place, he held up two fingers. “Two days ago? He’s probably looking for it by now.”
Mark shook his head, handing the paper to Clark as he moved to write another message.
“He hasn’t looked for these in two years,” Mark wrote.
Clark unfolded the blueprint and laid it flat on the table, smoothing out the creases as the three of us looked over the extensive and intricate blueprints.
“It’s nice having it all on one document,” Clark chuckled, looking over the confusing squares etched in white on the blue paper. “And that’s the Dome…” he whispered, pointing at the circle directly in front of him.
Mark grabbed his notepad and wrote a question.
“Do you know which cells you want to break the humans out of?”
Clark and I pointed out the various cells we had decided to take people out of and Mark put an X on the boxes with his pen, his eyes looking carefully over the plans. When we had finished with the humans in the holding cells, he went down to the different wards, marking Xs on the cells of the experiments we would break out.
I looked over the blueprints carefully, seeing the area for the offices and the main security room that led into a hallway where the termination cells were and then led to the larger hallway that branched into the Wards One and Two. I remembered Ward Three from when Dana took me into the back. But the main hallway of Ward Three led into an even larger hallway that branched into Wards Four and Five and then into Ward Six. At the end of the larger Ward Six, there was a hallway where some unmarked cells were and it led into the two laboratories. I vaguely remembered the labs, but I could not clearly recall how large they were.
On the far side of one of the labs was a large section where the words “LIVING QUARTERS” were clearly printed. There were far more rooms than I expected, and it surprised me how large the underground portion of the Commission of the People really was.
The main hallway that had gone through Wards Three and Six and between the two labs led to Ward Seven, and at the end of Ward Seven there was a large room where six doors were clearly marked. One of these doors was the door to Ward Seven, while one on the left wall led into a large hallway and led to both Ward Nine and the holding cells. Directly across from that door was another door into Ward Eight. The two other doors that were on the each side of the empty room led into the two different sections of Ward Ten.
The final door was across from the door that led into Ward Seven and it entered a hallway that ended at the Dome.
“These are all the cells that we need to get to in seven minutes?” Clark blinked when Mark backed away from the blueprints. “How many people do we need to do that?”
Mark looked over the map, his eyes lost in the Commission, thinking carefully through what he had planned before he reached for his pen and wrote a number I was not expecting at all.
“4.”
“Four?” Clark and I said simultaneously.
“Four people to get to all those cells?”
“Four people breaking others out of the cells. And maybe eight people for distraction.”
“Distraction?” I gasped. “Like a suicide mission? Send some people in there just to distract the guards?”
“No. The distractions will come from inside.” He moved his finger to the offices area and pointed to the records room, where a scribbled note about the secret passageway between the library and the records room could be seen. “There are three secret passage ways leading into the records room. One from the library, one from Dana’s office, and one from the car elevators.”
He moved his pen and drew a line where the passageway would be in the records room.
“If you two go through the records room passageway and into the car elevators area, you can get into the holding cells and start releasing people from the far end, getting them to run to this hallway,” he pointed to the one that ran past Ward Nine and into the empty room connected to the Dome, “then by the time you get done with them, you can release the experiments from Ward Nine and Ten.”
“But for that to happen within seven minutes, we would need all the guards in this area,” Clark motioned to the holding cells, “to go this direction and go somewhere where they would not see everyone running to the Dome,” he pointed toward Ward Ten.
Mark nodded and then moved his pen to Ward Ten, circling three cells at the furthest end in the western side of the ward.
“What about them?” Clark asked.
“You want to turn them loose…” I whispered, understanding immediately. “Three Ward Ten experiments? You want to set them loose?”
Mark grabbed his notepad.
“When a Ward Ten is loose, all security personnel is called to that area to make sure that the experiment does not leave the ward. But if we release three on a Sweep day, there won’t be enough people to contain them. Our protocol is to seal Ward Ten and be sure that the experiment does not escape. But when a Ward Ten does get out, the Eight Group specifically is supposed to take care of it.”
“So?” I said, waiting for Mark to continue.
“Oh my God, that’s brilliant…” Clark whispered. He turned to me. “Lily, if Mark tells the others of the Eight Group to go easy on the experiment, they could prolong the distraction and get the security guards out of this area,” he motioned to the room where the hallway to the Dome was. “Then we can get people out.”
“But how can we be sure that will be believable? How will the others not know that the Eight Group aren’t going easy on the Ward Ten experiments?”
“If three Ward Tens are loose, we only need to get one of them out of the ward, because then the ward locks down. At that point, we need to get the one Ward Ten into Ward Seven and that will allow the people from the holding cells and the experiments from Wards Eight, Nine, and the one in Ward Ten to get to the Dome.�
��
Mark pointed to the first of the three cells he circled.
“This is Trisha,” he wrote. “She’s strong and an amazing fighter. Her stealth and strength are top-ranked in the Commission.” He moved his finger to the next cell. “This is Cameron,” he continued. “He’s a friend of mine. He’ll know of the plan and distract any guards that will be locked in Ward Ten.” Mark pointed to the last cell. “And this is Goliath. He’s the one we’re going to count on to break out of Ward Ten.”
“Why?”
“He’s broken out twelve times in the last four years. Each time, he gets closer and closer to Dana’s office. He’s very predictable and very strong. Last time he got free, we finally brought him down in the Termination Cells area. That’s how close he got to the offices. Since then, we started talking, and he said that he would be willing to fake-fight with members of the Eight Group and get as close to the offices as he can.”
“Okay, well, if that works for all of these experiments, great,” I said, pointing to the higher wards. “What about everyone in Ward Seven and below?”
Mark took a deep breath and slowly let it out, putting his pen back to the paper.
“This is where we will need the fourth person,” he wrote. “I can get the experiments out of Wards Eight and Nine if I need to, but we will need an experiment to start here,” he pointed at the lab, “and wait for the security to run to Ward Ten before breaking out the experiments from Wards Six, Four, and Three. Then they will wait in the lab until Goliath and the Eight Group pass into Ward Six, when they will run through Ward Seven with the experiment that freed them. Possibly, that experiment could also free the experiments in Ward Seven if we are short on time.”
“Do you have someone like that that you can trust? One of the Eight Group?” Clark pressed.
“Not one of the Eight Group,” Mark shook his head. “But yes.” He pointed at one of the cells that had been marked with an X in Ward Nine. “Griffin is a very good friend of mine. He would be perfect for this.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“He was the one that hacked into the military computers and scared Leader Simon. He was getting information for me about the military we might be facing if we go through with this revolution.”
“You’re kidding me…” I whispered.
“So, wait,” Clark said. “Griffin and the Ward Ten guy and the Eight Group I understand, but what about the Dome? You said that we would need to have a rope so that people can swim under the wall against the current and that you would have two of your friends do that, but if they’re all fighting this Ward Ten guy…who’s going to handle the ropes?”
“Once Goliath is out, we will follow protocol. There will be one member of the Eight Group at each door to contain the area.” Mark pointed to the empty room with all the doors. “The others will be fighting him. Once Goliath is in Ward Seven, the ones that are standing guard won’t need to do so anymore, and they can lead everyone into the Dome and start getting them out into the pipe.”
I stared at the paper, replaying everything that Mark said in my mind, my eyes moving over the blue prints, trying to see how everything flowed together. The more I thought it over, the more I saw how the plan could work, and since Mark knew inside information about the protocol of the security personnel, he would know how everyone would react to the situation as it arose. Everything would have to be timed perfectly, but it was possible.
Clark was obviously going through the same thought process and after a few minutes, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Wow…it…might work…”
“There’s a lot more, though. Dana cannot know that I was a part of this, or that any of the Eight Group helped. We will have to stay behind and pretend that we were fighting. We can get you and everyone else into the pipe, but after that, we have to stay in the Commission. That means you have to get everyone in the fort and you have to get their tracers out as quickly as possible and dispose of them.”
“Wait, how are we going to sneak back into the Commission?” Clark asked. “We can’t just disappear either.”
“I can pretend to drive you home, but you can sneak in on one of Josh’s cars in the car elevators and hide in the passageway until we start the plan. There’s one more thing. You will both have to remove your tracers before this.”
My stomach flipped.
Mark and Clark both turned to me, and I shook my head.
“Oh no, I already had to remove Mykail’s tracers, I don’t want to have anything to do with sharp objects and slicing into flesh…” I said quickly.
“You removed Mykail’s tracers?” Clark furrowed his eyebrows.
“Long story,” I lied.
“We need to remove them,” Clark said. “We’ll just have to find a way to keep the tracers in roughly the same locations on our bodies when we’re in the Commission.”
Mark quickly went to his notepad.
“Hand – jewelry. Foot – in the shoe. Back – bra strap.”
“I don’t wear a bra, Mark,” Clark groaned, exasperated. I smiled before I could help myself, as did Mark.
“Pretend it’s an injury and tape it in gauze.”
Clark sighed.
“It’s not just going to be us,” he looked at both of us. “All Commish Kids are going to need to get their tracers removed as well.”
“We can just tell them to remove them but keep them on their person,” I said. “They can just have them removed by the time we break people out of the Commission.”
“We need to break them out in the next two weeks. By the end of next week, we need to pick a day. I will go into the security computers and see when the Sweeps are and then we’ll match it with Dana and Sean’s schedules to be sure that they’re gone, too.”
“Will they be gone at the same time?” I asked.
“If Dana is out of the Commission, Sean is with him. Always.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Mark slipped out of the fort when the first Commish Kids showed up and agreed only to meet with the other Commission children after the breakout to be sure that no one blew his cover accidentally before we succeeded.
Clark and I discussed with the Commish Kids taking our tracers out and the new plan, though we left out some details until we knew what day we were planning the breakout. The seven people who came to the fort that day reacted the same way we had. They were shocked that there was a strong possibility the plan would work.
Mark was waiting for us at the mouth of the cave exit when we left later in the afternoon. He was sitting quietly, looking over the city below as the winter sun started to descend.
Clark and I stepped up next to him and sat down. I dangled my feet over the edge of the large bolder I was perched on and looked over the city in the sunset, still trying to wrap my head around what we were planning to do.
We remained silent for over an hour. The sun was gone when Mark finally stood, nodding to the road where a black car was pulling into the parking lot for a park next to the river.
“Is that Josh?” Clark asked. When Mark nodded, Clark looked at the experiment skeptically. “Do I even want to know how he has a spare key to the car?”
Mark smiled mysteriously before starting down the slope to the car. I walked behind him, Clark behind me as we carefully picked our way down the rocky hillside to the road, running to the parking lot when there was a break in traffic.
Josh was leaning against the side of the car, moving loose pebbles around with his foot when he noticed our approach. A small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth and Mark walked to him, hugging him briefly with one arm.
A little surprised at seeing Mark affectionate, both Clark and I hesitated before stepping closer. Mark’s hand went up to Josh’s face and he pulled on the wire attached behind Josh’s ear, pulling the adhesive microphone off and yanking the communication device out of his collar.
I assumed Josh rolled his eyes with the way his head moved before he said something
short in a foreign language. Mark glanced at the plastic device in his hands before nodding and putting the communicator in Josh’s lapel and jerking his head to us.
“Hello,” Josh said. My jaw dropped.
“You speak English?” Clark and I said simultaneously.
Josh tilted his head to the side. “I understand more than I speak,” he said, his accent thicker with the longer sentence. “He told you about the plan?”
“Yes,” I managed to say when I got over the fact that we were speaking to one of the Eight Group members. After the silent Mark, I never thought I would be speaking to one of the Asian security experiments.
“Good,” Josh nodded. “He asked me to translate for him, since…” he touched his throat, glancing at Mark.
“That would be a huge help,” Clark laughed. “No offense, Mark, but writing notes takes a while.”
Mark nodded, though he looked reluctant to admit it.
“But, my English is really bad…I’m sorry…” Josh admitted. “I don’t get chance to speak it.”
“No, it’s good,” I said quickly. “Does Sean or Dana know you can speak English?”
Josh shook his head. “Sean knows I can speak a little, but he doesn’t know I understand English.”
Mark tapped Josh on the arm and then tapped his right wrist twice.
“Marina,” Josh said. Mark nodded and reached into his pocket, grabbing his own set of keys. Josh shook his head and snatched them from Mark’s hand. “I’ll drive.”
Mark stared at Josh through his glasses and Josh laughed.
“You drive like crazy,” he chuckled.
Mark rolled his eyes in an exaggerated motion before opening the back door for Clark and me as Josh climbed in the driver’s seat. When Mark closed the door behind us, Josh started up the car and Mark moved to the passenger’s seat, climbing in last.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“My tracers are at the marina,” Josh answered, backing out of the parking space. “I’ll go there, and he will drive you home.”
“How long have you two been friends?”
“Since we were kids,” Josh answered Clark’s question. “We lived next to each other before the Commission.”
Inside Page 72