by T. C. Edge
Then, there are the outside concerns; the building of a larger and more prosperous world. So, it will be the duty of another member to see to the growth of external settlements, the clearing of the toxic mist that surrounds us, and the development of new cities to expand into.
Overall, 11 of their number will have very specific functions, and will have a number of other high ranking officials below them who report to them and brief them on progress and important updates.
Director Cromwell, meanwhile, will oversee them all. He will, in the end, have the final say on anything he considers important enough to warrant his attention. And, as such, he will be less likely than the others to hold such a structured schedule. More likely, he’ll meet relevant officials as and when he desires to see them.
And that, in the end, makes our job a little bit harder. Predicting who he’ll see next, and when, won’t be possible. We need evidence. We need schedules. We need specific data.
There’s plenty more work to be done…
That night, with all of this flowing around my head, my dreams are uneasy. My mind works on overdrive, processing everything I’ve seen and learned, trying to figure out a potential plan of action.
I drop off and wake regularly, always finding Adryan hard at work. Until one time when I wake, and find myself in his arms, being carried off to bed. My eyes creak open as he lays me down onto the soft mattress, pulling the blankets over me as I smile up at him.
He doesn’t say a word, and neither do I. He just leans in and kisses me gently on the cheek, before departing to continue his endless exploration of the files.
I drop off again with the smile still lingering on my face. And back in the blackness of my subconscious, I hear a voice calling out to me.
I can’t tell what it is. It echoes from somewhere deep, somewhere far away, hardly audible.
Is it Zander? Is he trying to wake me?
I can’t tell. The voice is so quiet, hard to decipher. I find myself starting to wake, the voice growing louder. And as it does, a single word begins to settle in my head.
But it’s not a word. It’s a name.
Rebecca…
90
“Rebecca,” I repeat, looking straight at Adryan.
He looks weary, having spent most of the night searching the files. I probably shouldn’t have woken him so early – it’s just past 6AM – but let him sleep a little longer.
Nothing that a quick stroll around the gardens on level 10 won’t sort out, though.
He pushes himself up into a sitting position on his bed. The blankets fall off him, clearing a path for my eyes to his chest and torso. I feel a flutter of both embarrassment and desire at the sight, but don’t let it distract me.
Not too much, at least…
“Rebecca?” he says. “You mean, the receptionist?”
“Yeah, the receptionist,” I say brightly. “She pretty much runs the building, her and the others down at the front desk. If anyone’s going to know about schedules, it’s her, right?”
Adryan considers it a moment, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“I…I guess so. If there are schedules for the members of the Consortium, then they’ll most likely be on the system, yeah. Good thinking, Brie.”
“Well, it just came to me,” I say, shrugging.
Literally, it really did. Was that voice just my subconscious? I’m still not exactly sure…
“It’s a pretty obvious idea, though. I just need to figure out how to get access.”
“Hmmmm, that won’t be so easy,” warns my half naked husband. “The security desk in the atrium is manned at all times by two receptionists. And the systems in place there are extremely advanced. If you got Rebecca to, say, download the schedules and put them on file, like Brian Spencer did, then it would probably be found out immediately by the other receptionist. They work in tandem on touchscreens, as you’ve seen. You’d have to manipulate them both, simultaneously, and also hope that there are no Savants or City Guards around in the atrium to see what you’re doing.”
My posture sinks lower as I listen to him speak. I take a seat on the bed next to him. It sounds impossible.
Unfortunately, there are always City Guards on duty in the atrium, their presence there greater than anywhere else in the building. That’s natural, of course, given how it’s the only entry point.
“What about at night?” I ask. “Are there two receptionists at night as well?”
“Yes, always two. And always a number of security personnel on duty as well. The only benefit of trying to do it at night would be the number of Savants. The majority will be sleeping.”
“Well, I don’t need to be there, do I?” I ask, configuring a plan. “I can just manipulate Rebecca at another time, like I did with Brian.”
“You could,” says Adryan. Immediately, I get the feeling that he’s about to offer a ‘but’. He’s become a true professional at smothering my bright ideas. “But...” he continues. Yep, there it is. “…you’d still face the same issues. If Rebecca then tried to extract information from the database, the other receptionist would see.”
“OK, I’ll manipulate her too…”
“And the City Guards on duty? You can’t manipulate them all, Brie.”
“Well,” I say, getting frustrated, “do you have a better idea?!”
He shuffles his position, and I glance across once again at his lean physique. He’s clear proof that the Savants adhere to a very strict nutritional and exercise regimen.
“I need to think,” he says, standing up.
The covers fall off him and he steps straight for the closet, dressed only in a pair of boxer briefs. I avert my eyes through instinct and he sets about covering himself up in a bathrobe.
It’s stupid, really, to act so coy like this. We are husband and wife after all.
Well, not really, Brie, I’m forced to remind myself.
As he ties up the robe, however, my mind begins working down a new path. My brief conversation with Rebecca the previous day comes back to me, and the light bulb begins to flash in my head.
We don’t need her to download the files…
The thought becomes verbal, journeying from my head to my mouth and spilling from my lips.
“We don’t need her to download the files,” I say aloud.
Adryan turns to me.
“Say again.”
“Adryan, Rebecca has a photographic memory!” I beam. “Everything that’s stored on the database, everything she’s seen, will be in her head somewhere!”
“Including the schedules,” Adryan whispers vaguely, catching up. His eyes brighten and he looks at me. “You think you can find that information…in her head?”
I nod, smiling wide.
“Oh yeah. If she’s seen the schedules, and it’s in her head, I’ll find it. We can bypass everything else! I just need to get her alone somewhere. Do you know what she does outside of work?”
“The same as everyone else. Exercise. Eat. Sleep. Her personal scheduling might be slightly different due to her hours at the desk. I have seen her working late before.”
“So she might, say, exercise late as well?”
“Possibly, if that’s what her schedule dictates.”
“It would make it easier for me to get her alone if that was the case, wouldn’t it?”
“Certainly. But it might raise flags too. Unless there’s call for it, it would be unusual to see an Unenhanced woman wandering around the communal levels at night.”
“Well then,” I say, a plan taking shape, “perhaps I should put my acting skills to the test…”
Adryan peers at me suspiciously.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I can pretend to be a Savant. If I’m dressed in grey, then no one’s going to notice me. It’s as you say, Adryan, I need to learn to fit in.”
I smirk at him in an altogether devious fashion. He looks uncomfortable at the idea, but doesn’t immediately shut it down.
Tha
t’s rare.
“It might work,” he admits. “But it’s dangerous. If someone recognises you…”
“Like who? No one cares about me, and like you say, most people are sleeping at night.”
“And what about Rebecca? She’ll recognise you as soon as you show up.”
“True…but not after I’ve got into her head. She won’t even know I was there, trust me.”
He continues to ponder the plan for a moment, most likely working through a number of scenarios in his mind. He’s shown himself to be not entirely risk-averse, and yet will always try to take the safest option if it’s available.
Eventually, when he speaks, he appears to concur with my thinking.
“We need to find out about Rebecca’s schedule first of all,” he says. “If she’s currently working late, then you’ll have no option but to find her at night. If so, then perhaps your plan is the most appropriate option.”
“Thank you for the endorsement,” I say, smiling.
“However, you will need to discover Rebecca’s schedule. How will you go about doing that?”
I shrug.
“I’ll just ask her. Simple.”
“You’ll ask her? That’s quite irregular.”
“Perhaps for you,” I laugh, “but not for me. She won’t find it odd coming from an Unenhanced. I’ll just drop it into conversation.”
“Right…”
“So, did you discover anything new from the files last night? Thanks for putting me to bed again, by the way.”
“You’re welcome.” A grin passes across his face. “The plans, though, will need further analysis. Most likely we’ve mined all we can from them. I’m not seeing any other way in other than straight up through the elevators.”
I’m not surprised. It’s become pretty clear what I’m going to have to do to get up there.
As Adryan heads off to shower, I move back into the living room and order for the walls to become transparent. Down below, a stage has now been fully erected outside of the High Tower, with steeped stands set out beyond and stretching off down the main street that links onto the Inner Spiral.
Looking upon it, my memory turns back to my first time here, weeks ago, when I was standing up there being looked upon by the entire city. I remember looking up and seeing the Consortium looking down upon me, dressed in the purest of whites, with Director Cromwell at their centre.
How things have changed since then. I could never have possibly imagined that I’d be tasked with killing that man. That I’d find myself here, half way up the High Tower, looking upon the world with such different eyes.
My eyes have changed. My body has changed. My mind has changed. And this city has most certainly changed.
It’s so odd to think of what my life was back then, before Zander came into my life. Before he revealed who I truly was, and set me on this path. I’d always imagined that this city wasn’t fair, that the gulf between the various races here was more stark than most people realised.
And yet, nothing could have prepared me for all of this. Each and every day, a new event transpires that further opens my mind, opens my eyes to the reality of what we’re facing.
And yet, while it’s all so grand, and I’m just one tiny thread within this great tapestry, I know that it could all unravel, for good or bad, in the weeks and months to come. That weight upon me has been almost unbearable at times, my knees feeling like they might just buckle, my resolve being constantly tested.
But, with the support of Adryan, I’m beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Slowly but surely, a plan is forming, and my hope is blooming. And, for the first time, I’m thinking that, maybe, by some strange miracle, I might just be able to pull this off.
And I might just be able to get out of here alive.
91
Before Adryan heads off to work, he tells me he may be able to leave early today in order to watch the ceremony.
“I’ll try to get back here if I can,” he says, leaving me with a kiss on the cheek at the door, something that has become a regular fixture whenever we leave or greet each other.
With a smile, he moves off down the corridor. I watch him go, wondering when those regular kisses to the cheek will move to the lips.
My morning is slow, and mostly spent in thought. With the early morning adrenaline that woke me so early fading from my body, I sit on the sofa and relax, sucking down a few of the cups of coffee that the people here seem to love so much to renew my energy levels.
Loading up the hologram, I spend a bit more time looking at the structure of the High Tower again, sitting on the sofa and staring at its summit. I don’t do so in any real hope of seeing something Adryan might have missed – thorough as he is, that’s highly unlikely – but more to fully acquaint myself with the floors above me.
It’s interesting to see how the various apartments on each level grow a little larger the higher you go, with the highest ranking Savants given a larger allowance. I wonder which one Agent Woolf lives in, or Deputy Burns, or anyone else I’ve come across over the last few weeks.
I can imagine that Deputy Burns, in particular, will have one of the most prominent accommodations below the summit. Agent Woolf, being of lower rank, will be several floors down, perhaps around the same level as Adryan was before he moved here with me. If my memory serves, that was level 71, and she most likely resides around there.
I wonder, too, whether these people live alone or have spouses. Deputy Burns, I can imagine, will have a wife who lives with him. The same idea doesn’t quite compute with Woolf, such a hateful woman as she is. Despite my lack of affection for these Savants, I still feel a swell of pity for any possible husband she might have.
To me, marriage seems like a pointless exercise for her. Here, it’s only required as a tool for procreation, and frankly, I don’t see Agent Woolf as the type to ever have children, not that she’d necessarily have any say in the matter. I suspect that any woman able to breed is also required to do so to further the race. But unlike poor Mary, if she did, I suspect she’d be only too happy to give the child up.
As I sit and ponder my mission, my mind turns again to Zander, and the voice that rumbled through my subconscious. Shutting my eyes, I try to get in touch with him to update him on what’s been happening. My attempts fail, as they have done several times in the last few days.
Each time, it sends a new pulse of worry through me. He did say that he wouldn’t be contactable all the time, and that he was busy with his own important business. That said, I can’t help but think that something terrible has happened when he fails to reply.
Could he have been hurt?
Could he have been killed?
Such fears and more begin to rush through me, setting my pulse racing. Then again, I satisfy myself with the knowledge that, should something happen to him, I’m certain that Adryan will be informed and will, consequently, pass the message on to me.
I do briefly consider trying to use Adryan’s communicator myself to speak with Lady Orlando and find out just what’s going on down there. I don’t currently know the code, but with a bit of careful exploration of my husband’s mind, I’m sure I could locate it.
And then, as always, I remember exactly what Zander told me – just keep your mind on your task, he’d said. Don’t let yourself be distracted by anything that happens…
Hard as it can be at times, that’s what I have to do. And so, with that thought in mind, I shut down the hologram, get myself appropriately dressed, and work my way down towards the atrium as the early afternoon begins to shift along at a quickening pace.
My latest task is, of course, to merely spark up a conversation with Rebecca and find out what her schedule is like. When I first arrive, however, I find her completely inundated with work, the scheduling of the ceremony clearly keeping her too busy to spare me any time at all.
I try, of course, to get her chatting, but am quickly told to leave her alone if I have no urgent requests that need immediate att
ention. I can think of nothing, and so head off for a little while, returning to the gardens on level 10 to give myself a much needed energy boost.
Sucking in the life-giving oxygen, I wander around looking at the beautiful plants and occasionally heading for the perimeter to look down at the world below. As it always seems to be, it’s fairly quiet, with only a smattering of people wandering about as I am. Some come only briefly to reinvigorate themselves, while others look upon the plant life with a measure of curiosity, perhaps interesting in studying them further to give them a better understanding of what lies beyond our borders.
As I go about my business, I see a flash of blue amid the grey, and spot the face of Lucy Paulson meandering her way down the little lanes. I hurry my step over to her as she lifts her eyes to mine, hoping to get some update on my genetics test. If Rebecca couldn’t help me, perhaps she can, seeing as her husband works there.
Her face brightens at my arrival, and she pulls me into a hug.
“Brie, how are you? How was dinner at Mary’s?”
“I’m good, Lucy. Dinner was lovely.”
It wasn’t. The food was a little overdone, and the conversation was a little disjointed. I still feel bad for bringing up the topic of family, so sore as it still is for Mary.
“That’s fabulous. Sorry I couldn’t make it, a little short notice in the end for Raymond and me. Are you settling in OK?”
“Um, as well as can be expected, I suppose,” I say. Somehow, I don’t feel I have to be completely fake with Lucy. Of anyone, she’ll understand just how odd it is moving here from Outer Haven.
“You’ll get the hang of it soon enough,” she says with a smile. Her eyes spread around the level, looking upon the natural greenery with a growing affection. “If nothing else, these gardens are quite delightful. They can be a real refuge in your lower moments.”
“You come here a lot, do you?” I ask.
“More than I’d care to admit, yes. I often wander around here at lunchtime. The other communal levels can get so busy during certain times, but here it’s always quiet.”