Hard Boiled

by T L Christianson

  I narrowed my eyes, feeling as if she were hiding things from me. "But, they haven't always lived apart, have they?"

  She frowned. "No. But it would be a good thing if young Prime Carrick were the next PL. I think he'd bring the Elibera back into the fold."

  "Mmmm…" I said as a way of agreement. "Was there a day when you thought Evgeni would be the next Prime Leader?"

  She pressed her lips together before returning my gaze. "No. Evgeni wasn't ever a real member of our community. He has always had a thing for the outside world." Elise pulled her shawl tighter around herself. "You need to remember that we aren't part of the mundane world. We're living in it, but we aren't part of it. Does that make sense? Their borders are not our borders."

  "What are our borders? I've heard people call this a community… but what exactly is it?" I sucked in a deep breath, waiting for her reply.

  Elise tittered her charming laugh as if my questions were amusing instead of serious. "There are no borders for the Dragonborn. We only own land because it's the mundane way, but we, as Dragonborn, share everything, live together, and own everything as a group. For example, have you seen anything dirty here or graffiti or trash? No, that's because everyone cares for this place. After all, it belongs to everyone. As for our community, we don't really consider ourselves a country or anything as paltry as that because we are made of people, not what we own or the property we live on."

  I mulled over her words, and just when I was about to ask another question, she stood.

  "It's time for the evening gather," she said as if I knew what that meant.

  Once inside, I ran into Victoria. She steadied me with an overly strong grip before looking me over with disapproval in her eyes.

  "You need to change," she ordered. "Go put on the things I left you this morning."

  Once I was suitably attired, hair neatly combed, and pendant necklace on, I was rushed into one of the EVs with Taya, my grandmother and her companion. We drove down through the residential corridor, through the central passage and then parked outside the dining hall.

  Light spilled from the room, and when I entered, I let out a soft, "Oh."

  The enormous cavern was beautiful at night, lit by hundreds of glows.

  People filled the space, talking in small groups or playing games or cards. Musicians played stringed instruments in one corner, and in another were plates of appetizer style food. Against the far wall, small wooden kegs were propped up, their taps lined up to fill cups.

  When we entered, a hush fell over the room. Victoria tightened her grip on my elbow and steered me to follow Elise through the crowd.

  My grandmother and I settled on overstuffed chairs next to one of the large fireplaces. A fire burned inside, dancing on a thick log that lay in a giant iron grate. Above it, a rack held a pot full of something sweet.

  I could sense Ashe, but when I searched the room with my eyes, I didn't see him.

  It didn’t matter anyway, because I was kept busy by a steady stream of Briony Dragonborn that came to speak to my grandmother.

  Victoria served as the gatekeeper. She'd usher new people in, usually women, and they'd chat with my grandmother for a few minutes, then move on to gossip, complaints, concerns, and other things. The gossip was juicy and I listened, while sipping my drink. One woman asked for help to find a Prime to give her—fingers crossed—a Prime baby, while another asked for her husband to be brought back home from oversea.

  The complaints weren't too interesting, like someone who was always late for their assigned duty, or something had been broken and needed repairs.

  At one point, I spotted Olivia, who made eye contact before waving and disappearing back into the crowd.

  Taya zipped away before returning with a small plate of finger food and a glass of what turned out to be beer—even though I'd asked her for water. But beggars can't be choosers, and I drank it anyway. I hadn't been told I couldn't leave, but I felt it implicitly. My bum was virtually glued to that chair until Victoria or my grandmother said otherwise.

  Victoria reminded me of the nasty headmistress Mrs. Reed from Jane Eyre—mean and vindictive.

  Throughout all this, I kept quiet, observing the scene like I was watching a movie.

  Elise always had a great response or the perfect thing to say. Even to the stupid or petty stuff. She was like the Queen, Judge Judy, and match maker all rolled up into one.

  I tried to absorb as much as possible, filing away every nuance and detail that I might need later.

  After some predetermined amount of time, my grandmother and Victoria stood, wrapped themselves in shawls, and said their goodbyes. Taya and I followed, smirking at each other as we sat in the back of the EV, happy that we had a ride and didn’t have to walk home… and maybe a bit tipsy.

  11

  Ashe

  Sydney had been avoiding me the past few weeks since our conversation in the alcove. I could sense her, but knew that this was probably for the best.

  I’d been busy anyway working overtime with Corbin and Mia on George’s electronics. We were finally done but with baffling results that I needed to share with Evgeni.

  On my way up to the Northeast Lookout to make a call, I passed several soldiers on their way to the evening gather. The route up there took at least twenty minutes, so instead of walking, I ran the entire way. When I pushed open the hatch, I found the mountaintop empty. Checking the area, I scrambled down into the alcove to check that it was empty as well.

  I was a little out of breath but dialed Evgeni’s number anyway.

  “Ashe? I’m assuming this isn’t a social call?” he asked.

  “No. We’re done going through George’s phone and computer.” I hesitated. “There’s nothing. There’s no research or anything about Celine... It’s just all dumb work emails.”

  “Nothing?” Evgeni growled.

  “Nothing,” I repeated. “If he has Celine’s research, it’s not there.”

  “And you’re sure?”

  I sucked in a breath. “Corbin and Mia scoured the devices as well. I went over everything again, just in case. However, there are lists and lists of random numbers and letters. Sydney told me that George wrote her in code, so I was thinking of asking her…”

  “No, no, no… don’t bring Sydney into this. Were you ordered to try to break the code?” His tone worried me.

  “No, but I’m doing it privately. I downloaded it to a thumb drive and have been working on it myself,” I told him.

  “Hmmm… Have you been able to see him?”

  “George? No. No one is allowed in.”

  Evgeni cussed in Russian. “Arthur’s going to kill him. He doesn’t want George’s research. He wants to destroy it….” More cursing in Russian. “We don’t have a lot of time now.” Evgeni was pretty laid back, even about important things. The fact that he was upset was worrisome.

  I gazed out at the darkening sky and ran a hand over my hair. Sighing, I finally spoke in a low tone, “We need to break him out. I don’t think it can wait any longer.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed reluctantly.

  “I can do it. I’m one of the few people that could pull it off,” I told him.

  “No, Ashe. It’s treason. Treason,” he warned.

  I clenched my teeth. “Fuck! I know that, Evgeni! Don’t you think I know! But I’m not going to sit by, knowing that George is being tortured and starved to death! Especially if you think he has important information we need.”

  “I was just hoping that it wouldn’t come to this.”

  “I know.”

  “Look, I can ask Matt Long to do this.” I heard the scrape of his beard as he scratched his cheek.

  I pulled on my neck, gazing around me in the dark. “No, no. I’ll do it. Matt’ll only fuck this up and get caught. I’ll do some recon and start to plan everything. I’ll call you as soon as it’s a go.”

  I didn’t trust Arthur one bit. That man had a dark side, and if he wanted George Miller dead… then it would hap
pen. And if George died, we’d not only lose all the valuable information he had in his head and hidden away somewhere… but his death would destroy Sydney. She’d be devastated and probably blame herself. I wasn’t a fan of George, but I certainly thought he should be treated fairly.

  Evgeni cleared his throat, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Ashe, be smart about this, don’t get caught.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “Planning will take a few days at least. I’ll update you with details.”

  We said a quick goodbye, and I hung up.

  Pacing the rock surface, I tilted my head up to the wind—it was getting stronger, battering me, nearly knocking me over.

  “Fuck!” I yelled, releasing Eondian. My black beast burst forward, shaking his wings out before stalking back toward me.

  I didn’t want to commit treason, but I refused to have a murder on my hands when there was something I could do about it.

  I’d plan this just like any other mission, but I needed information. I needed to confirm George’s condition. I’d start by finding people who had seen George. Who brought him food? Who guarded the door? Who knew exactly where he was? I’d begin checking schedules, maps, looking for weaknesses. And if what Evgeni and I suspected was true, then I’d pull George out.

  Pressing Eondian to take off from the lookout, he lunged off the rock, raking the air with his mighty wings. As we circled around to the south side of the mountain the glowing windows of Briony came into view. I reached out, calling to Choryth, Corbin’s dragon, to have him meet me halfway down the valley.

  The flight felt good and helped to ease my anger and by the time we neared the meeting spot I had mostly calmed down.

  Eondian’s feet touched the ground, and I jumped off, leading him into the trees to wait for the Eton Prime.

  I felt Corbin before I saw his dragon land. Stepping out of the trees, I waved a hand.

  “Ashe? What’s wrong?” he called, sliding down his beast, his boots crunching on old leaves and pine needles.

  I began explaining everything to him—my suspicions about Arthur and George and how and why I wanted to start planning to rescue him. Corbin listened, his eyebrows raised up into his hairline in surprise. When he said nothing, I held my hands wide, saying, “You can walk away if you want.”

  He shook his head, “No, I’m in. If you say George needs to be rescued, I believe you. Besides, Arthur’s fucking crazy. I’ve heard the rumors about people dying in Lockdown. And no one has seen George, not even any of the Council… PL’s orders. He claims George is too dangerous.”

  I scoffed. “George Miller? Dangerous?”

  Corbin frowned. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s start planning.”

  I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight. “You’re crazy, you know that!”

  The Eton Prime just shrugged and smiled.

  Once inside Briony’s military sector, we jogged along the main spiraling shaft looking for the right level. The stenciled numbers were painted in large glowing white paint next to each opening.

  I stopped and pointed. “This is it, the level the archives are on,” I said, pushing the door open into a quiet hallway. Corbin followed me inside. It was lit only by a few glows this late at night, but during the daytime, this same hall was bright with artificial light.

  When I neared the main locked door to the archives, Corbin stopped me. “Dude, you can’t be the one to access this keypad right now. It’ll flag security.”

  “Then what do we do?” I asked him.

  “I’ll go. Because I know everyone’s code.” He smirked before pulling out his phone and scrolling through something I couldn’t see.

  “I don’t want anyone to get in trouble…”

  He cut me off, “No one will get in trouble. I’m using Alex’s code. He’s on security duty tonight, and it won’t look suspicious. Besides, I can delete it later. If anyone sees it between now and then, it won’t look suspicious.” He stared me down, even though I was taller. “You stay here while I get the maps.”

  I paced while I waited. As a Prime, I could sense the security guard holed up asleep somewhere. Even though this was good news for us, the fact irked me that he was slacking on his duty.

  I didn’t have to wait long before Corbin showed up balancing three rolls of architectural drawings under one arm.

  He grunted as he laid the first map out. “These are for all the sections we need.”

  “Did you know Alex is sleeping?” I asked, taking the other tubes of paper from him.

  He laughed, bringing one of the scarce glow baskets closer. “Yeah, it’s fine. Stop stressing out so much.”

  We laid each map out on the floor one by one, taking turns between holding each flat and snapping photos with our phones.

  The last map, the oldest, was a vertical drawing of Briony. It showed something unusual—an old tunnel near the holding cells that appeared to be erased.

  “Look at this. This looks like a tunnel was once here.” Using my phone to hold the drawing open, I ran my finger along a narrow, faded line on the brittle paper. “What do you think? Why would this be erased?”

  Corbin examined the faint blue lines. “My guess… the passage had a cave in or was purposefully blocked. I’ll check it out tomorrow. If it’s not too bad, this might be our way into Lockup. We might be able to dig it out and go through. But, if it’s blocked off, we’ll have to figure something else out.”

  I tapped the section marked in different ink. “Yeah. Want to go check it out tomorrow night?”

  He nodded, yawning, “Tomorrow.”

  12

  Sydney

  I'd been at Briony for a little over two weeks when Durand agreed to take me to see George. I’d been bothering him about it every day, like it was a part of my schedule—wake up, bathe with dozens of my not so close friends, eat, train, work, and beg Durand to see George.

  The Dragonborn worked on a three-day rotation with the fourth day off. I'd been in the kitchens, laundry, on glows before getting moved to soap making. The work wasn't bad, and it gave me something to do besides earning more bruises in training. Daily jobs like this were rotated among everyone not assigned to a specialization… like Ashe.

  Speaking of my soldier, I saw him only in passing, but otherwise avoided him. We might have had a friendly conversation, but I definitely did not want a repeat.

  Pushing thoughts of Ashe from my head, I sat on the dragon ledge. I was about to get ready for the evening gather when Durand filled the doorway.

  "Hey, I told you I’d take you to see George today, you ready?” he whispered.

  "Of course!"

  He put his finger to his lips to be quiet. "Shhhh…. Quiet. No one is supposed to see him, but I pulled some strings just for you. I'll tell mom and dad that you'll be with me instead of going to the gather tonight. But first I have a few things to take care of." He hesitated. "Do you want to see OPS?"

  "OPS?" I asked.

  "Yeah, it's where I work… it's where Ashe works."

  "Yeah, yeah, I do. What about Taya? Can she come?" I asked, grabbing my school fleece. It may have been summer, but it was cold here inside the mountain and outside at night.

  "No," he answered. "This is only between you and me. I'll let her know that you’ll be with me."

  He disappeared into the back of the house before returning.

  "Follow me," he said, leading me to one of the EVs.

  We took off down the parking garage spiral, slowing for pedestrians before speeding off again. At the main thoroughfare, my uncle turned off, winding up another narrow tunnel. This new section had all kinds of cables, wires, and tubing running along the ceilings.

  Parking, Durand led me through a locked door, then down another passage and into a large workspace that looked out over the valley.

  "This is my office," he said. "I have a few more things I have to do, but then we'll go."

  The evening sun shone brightly in through the windows, illuminating motes of dust.

&
nbsp; "Okay," I said, standing in the entry, looking around.

  "Take a seat," he said, shuffling some papers on his desk.

  His office looked like any other workplace, except that the walls were lined with some kind of paneling.

  I motioned to his desk, "You have a computer and a phone."

  He smiled. "Yep, but it's rare here. If you hadn't noticed, mundane electronics aren't exactly welcome in Briony, but we have to have them to do business… you can get a cell phone signal if you go to the Northeast Lookout. It's where all the kids your age usually hang out."

  "Okay, thanks. I'll ask Taya to show me later," I told him, looking around.

  "I'll be right back," he said, slipping through the door before closing it behind him.

  I sank into a chair next to the table in the center of the room and continued to examine the room. I'd never been in a military office before. On the far end was a large whiteboard that had lists of abbreviations paired with names on magnetic strips.

  I stood to examine it closer. Frowning, I spotted A. Carrick under one column paired with three different initials, each separated by a comma. I rubbed away a rogue dot on the whiteboard before my eyes were drawn to the bookshelf behind my uncle’s desk.

  Closing the space, I sat down in Durand's swivel chair, reading over the titles of his books. "Counterinsurgency." I frowned and put it back. "The Invisible Wounds of War: Coming Home from Iraq and Afghanistan."

  There were books on cybersecurity, weapons, the Vietnam war, the Korean War…

  I pulled out another book and whispered the title, "Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age." Interesting, I thought, as I skimmed the pages before closing it with a thud.

  Sliding the book back in place, I tried another, "The Illustrated History of Warfare."

  Opening it up, I settled in to examine the pictures.

  I was still in Durand's chair studying a photo of Greek armor when he returned, his arms full of packed green file folders.