The Eve Illusion

by Giovanna Fletcher

  ‘Take me back,’ I order.

  The return journey to the Deep is silent. The gentle splash of water lapping against the black boat provides the only soundtrack to the awkwardness in the air.

  I shrug it off and use the time to take in the surroundings, the city. It’s not often I get to see it without someone chasing me. It feels so open, compared to the close walls of the Deep. Here the air is cool and wet, and the spray of the river on my face is a welcome wake-up call.

  Saunders’s motive was wrong, but his plan … Maybe it’s time Eve saw the world I revealed to her.

  25

  Michael

  The Cardinal leads the way quickly from the cell to the lift. Inside he is silent but his eyes are on me, saying a thousand things.

  I root my feet to the floor, trying to appear strong as I escort him and whatever he removed from Hartman to the place they’re all being so damn mysterious about.

  We ascend. Fast.

  ‘Are we going to the Dome?’ I ask.

  ‘No,’ the Cardinal answers bluntly.

  ‘It’s Turner. You have a name?’

  ‘You may refer to me as Cardinal,’ he replies.

  It’s like that then.

  The lift stops and I hear Miss Silva’s voice repeat in my head – If anyone tries to stop you, shoot them on my authority. I place my hand on my weapon as the circular door swishes open and pray no one stops us.

  YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT THE DOME, the automated voice says.

  I scan the area and step out into the space before the Gate, the entrance into what was once Eve’s world.

  ‘Well? I thought you said we weren’t coming here …’ I stop as I don’t sense any movement behind me. I turn to see the Cardinal still inside the spherical lift.

  ‘If you are coming with me, you must remain inside,’ he explains.

  ‘What’s going on?’ I ask.

  He doesn’t answer.

  I don’t have any choice but to step back into the lift.

  ‘Turner?’ a voice calls, before I’m fully in the sphere.

  Shit!

  ‘Hey! Turner, wait up!’ It’s Guard Reynolds.

  There’s always a Final Guard on patrol at night.

  The Cardinal lunges for the gun on my belt. The move catches me totally off guard and he’s armed in a second, pointing the barrel at me.

  ‘If he sees me, he must be killed,’ the Cardinal replies.

  ‘Wait! He’s a Final Guard. Like me,’ I whisper.

  ‘Then you’d better deal with the situation or I will. You heard Miss Silva,’ he says, as Reynolds’s footsteps get louder in the corridor.

  I step out of the lift before he sees the Cardinal.

  ‘Hey!’ Reynolds chirps, walking from the Gate a few yards away. ‘What are you doing up here?’

  ‘I was going to ask you the same thing,’ I reply, trying to sound casual as he comes towards me.

  ‘Ah, I’m on night duty. Gotta keep it up, even if Her Highness has left the building.’ He shrugs. ‘It’s gone six, though, so I’m just about done. All the weapons have been checked and replaced in the stores. The Gate looks tight. The Dome is empty. I’ll ride down with you.’

  ‘No!’ I blurt.

  I can feel the presence of the Cardinal in the lift behind me, Reynolds just a few steps away from receiving my bullet.

  ‘No?’ he repeats.

  ‘Actually, there’s something you can do for me,’ I say.

  ‘You feeling okay, Turner? You’re sweating.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s just been one of those nights,’ I say, wiping my brow. ‘Look, I need you to do another sweep of the Dome. You saw what Miss Silva did to the pilots and I don’t want to end up like Squad H,’ I say, improvising as best I can. ‘We can’t afford to be slack now.’

  Reynolds squints suspiciously at me. ‘Okay … but I’ve already done the rounds. It’s a ghost town in there,’ he says.

  I pause.

  ‘… Better safe than sorry, though. You’ve got me doubting myself.’ Reynolds turns on the spot and heads back through the Gate.

  ‘Thanks, I owe you.’

  ‘Don’t sweat it. You’re the boss now, remember!’ he calls back.

  I return to the lift and allow the door to close.

  The Cardinal flips my weapon around. ‘My apologies. We cannot be too careful,’ he says, offering my gun back to me.

  I take it and, in a swift move, drive the butt into his nose.

  He falls back into the lift wall.

  ‘Never touch my gun again,’ I say, as he nurses his bleeding nose. The adrenalin rushes around my body and I fight to keep it under control.

  That was stupid, Turner. But Ketch always said that at the start of a new relationship someone always grabs the other by the balls and I’d been feeling this guy tugging for a while.

  Still, it was bloody stupid.

  DESTINATION? the automated voice asks.

  ‘Eraeon,’ the Cardinal says clearly, then wipes away the blood with the sleeve of his white robe.

  ‘Excuse me, where?’ I ask, but the lift interrupts with an unusual jolt.

  Are we turning? The ball seems to be spinning on its axis.

  I didn’t know they could do that.

  After a turn of 180 degrees the door slides open again but this time it reveals a new corridor leading away from the Gate, stretching far out in a long, straight line.

  I’ve never seen this place and, as a member of the Final Guard, I’m having difficulty comprehending that. We’re trained to know every possible way in and out of the Tower – lifts, vents, air ducts, cooling systems, doors, anything. It’s a vital part of our training, to allow us to protect Eve in the most efficient way.

  So how is this even here?

  More importantly, where does it go?

  The Cardinal exits swiftly and I follow to the far end of the corridor. Its black walls give nothing away. This place is all purpose and no design.

  Neither of us speaks until a few minutes later when we reach another lift.

  ‘Where now? We’re already at the top,’ I ask, knowing we can’t go any higher.

  ‘To go down, first you must go up,’ he says, sounding like a bad riddle.

  ‘Well, I’m glad we’re back on speaking terms but that makes absolutely no sense.’

  ‘Get inside,’ he replies flatly.

  I step in and the door closes. No voice asks for our desired destination. It just starts descending rapidly.

  Through the glass sphere I see nothing but black as we plummet through this impossibly large building.

  ‘You won’t need that now,’ the Cardinal says, looking at the gun still clenched in my fist.

  ‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ I respond, leaving it exactly where it is.

  The lift slows to a soft stop and the door slides open, allowing a familiar voice to pour inside.

  ‘I don’t care if it was an emergency. Unscheduled movements in or out are always, always, to go through me. It’s the whole point of having security.’

  ‘Ketch?’ I push past the Cardinal into whatever this cavernous place is.

  ‘Mikey?’ My brother’s face is turning white, like he’s seen a ghost. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

  ‘Me? Why are you here? How are you here? Where even is here?’ I shout, needing some answers.

  ‘Is there a problem?’ The Cardinal steps in.

  ‘Problem? Yeah, I’ll tell you the problem. Miss Silva put me in charge of escorting you to some mystery place I’ve never heard of, almost killing my friend on the way, and now my brother is here! I seem to be the only one who doesn’t know what the hell is going on!’ I feel all the stress of the night running out of me.

  ‘You two are …?’

  ‘Brothers, yes, Cardinal.’ Ketch confirms the obvious.

  ‘Miss Silva instructed your brother to escort us.’

  Ketch’s eyes widen. ‘Inside?’ he asks.

  ‘Just to the border,’ the Cardinal sa
ys firmly.

  ‘What is it? What’s inside?’ I ask Ketch.

  ‘I can’t tell you that,’ he says, raising an eyebrow at me.

  ‘Then what are you doing here?’ I ask, pushing him away to get a better look at him. ‘You’re all healed up and didn’t think of paying me a visit?’

  He pulls me aside, away from listening ears. The Cardinal instinctively moves closer, wanting to know what’s said.

  ‘A moment, please, Cardinal. It’s family. You’re clear to enter when you’re ready.’ My brother holds up a hand with an authority that is impossible to disobey. It’s why he’s the best at what he does.

  ‘Look, it’s complicated.’ He pulls me closer. ‘I told you I’d been offered a new job and this is it. They said they’d fix me up if I took it, so here I am. They needed me on duty a little earlier than expected. The border isn’t operational yet and someone needs to monitor anything going in and out.’

  I pull up his shirt revealing his bandaged wounds. ‘And you’re fit to do that? You nearly died and now you’re back already?’

  ‘Well, Dr Wells is working on something big in there and things are moving fast, apparently, so someone’s gotta man the gate out here. Someone he trusts.’

  ‘So, what’s this new job, then? Doorman?’ I scoff.

  ‘Sort of, smartass.’ He smacks me around the back of my head, like when we were kids. ‘It’s border control.’

  He leads me forward to show me the gate.

  My mouth hangs open.

  ‘Yeah, that was my First Response too.’ He laughs.

  I stare at the enormous entrance, only half constructed in places. Black marble floor as clear as a mirror, large information kiosks, walls lined with realiTV monitors, it’s an entirely new entrance hall within the Tower. The gate itself is a circular opening leading into somewhere larger that I can’t see, but the metallic rim of the entrance is ornately engraved, nothing like anything else I’ve ever seen inside the EPO Tower.

  The Cardinal approaches the entrance where multiple unmanned gates wait. It makes me aware that we are the only people here. It’s like a ghost town of tomorrow.

  ‘What is this place?’ I ask, as Ketch leads me across the polished floor.

  ‘You’re in the core of the Tower, the heart of the mountain. This is, or will be, the entrance to Eraeon,’ he says, with mock grandeur.

  ‘Eraeon?’

  ‘I don’t know, Wells came up with it. Era and aeon or something. Whatever it is, it’s beyond classified.’

  ‘Hello, may I help you?’ says a voice.

  A female voice.

  I have to double-take at the beautiful woman standing at a kiosk before us.

  ‘It’s okay, Stephanie, he’s with me,’ Ketch replies. ‘My little brother.’

  ‘Oh, you must be Guard Turner of the Final Guard. Ketch has told me so much about you,’ she says, with her perfect red lips.

  ‘About me?’ I hear myself repeat, like a doofus. ‘Wait, are you the Stephanie?’

  She nods with a proud smile. I stare in amazement at the perfect projection of a person in front of me. Thousands of light particles creating something so real you’d never tell the difference between her and a real woman.

  ‘Whoa, I always wanted to meet you when you ran the main entrance but I heard they switched you off.’

  ‘Switched off?’ She frowns, feigning offence.

  Ketch wallops me over the head again. ‘She’s still a person, you idiot. Just because she’s a projection doesn’t mean she’s software you can power down. Real feelings, real emotions …’ Ketch explains.

  ‘And more real than any woman you’ll ever have,’ she fires at Ketch, and winks at me. ‘And it’s Projectant, not projection. It’s okay – it’s hard for you physical folk to wrap your heads around,’ Stephanie teases, flashing a smile that would be perfect if it weren’t for the tiny speck of red lipstick on her tooth.

  In my peripheral vision I catch sight of the Cardinal walking towards the gates of Eraeon.

  ‘What’s it scanning him for? Weapons?’ I ask, watching him pass through some sort of automated body-scanning machine before the gate. Beams of light waves pass over his body before allowing him through.

  ‘No, no, it’s a Matterscan.’ Stephanie giggles at my ignorance.

  ‘To check that they’re real,’ Ketch says.

  ‘Real?’ I ask.

  ‘Matter,’ Stephanie corrects my brother. ‘The scan assesses whether you are of organic origins or …’

  She stops, realizing I’m having trouble keeping up.

  ‘I am made of light. You are matter. Both may exist within Eraeon but it is easy to confuse the two, so we must keep track.’

  ‘You mean there’s more like you in there?’ I ask.

  She’s silent. I see her perfect eyes glance at Ketch.

  ‘I think it’s time you got back to your own world.’ She winks again, and Ketch turns me away from the gates of Eraeon.

  ‘Look, the less you know about this the better. I’ve got a feeling Wells is up to something big, bad and ugly,’ my brother warns. I look back to see the Cardinal disappear through the gate, taking whatever was left of Hartman with him into that new world. I shudder at the thought of what might go on in there.

  ‘Then what the hell are you doing here?’ I ask.

  ‘I had no choice. I could let them heal me and be reassigned here or be retired, leave the Tower behind and rot away with my injuries out there,’ he explains.

  ‘Don’t give me that bullshit. You just couldn’t resist finding out more about – about – What the hell is it called again?’

  ‘Eraeon.’

  ‘Yeah. That. You’re a sucker for anything top secret,’ I say.

  ‘Just promise you’ll keep your mouth shut and won’t try coming back. Family or not, orders are orders.’

  ‘Brother, I never want to see this place again,’ I say, although something in the pit of my stomach tells me this isn’t the last time I’ll see the gates of … Ah, damn, what the hell is it called again?

  26

  Eve

  I’ve devoured every single piece of information held within the box Saunders gave me. I’ve watched every video on loop, read and reread articles and interviews. I’ve looked at photographs of me at every developmental stage, taking on every obstacle thrown in my way. I’ve tried to see any hint of sadness behind my eyes. I don’t think I can. I was fully immersed in that life. I was happy.

  I’ve had to stop watching because it made me desperate to be there – with my mother and father in that room, running around my beautiful garden with Mother Nina. Or simply sitting somewhere, blissfully unaware and not having to question every little thing I see and hear. My heart has swelled, and as a result I feel more crushed than before. All that footage, those words, those pretty pictures – that world has gone. My life is very different now, but I’m determined to turn it into the one I want.

  ‘Chubs!’ I call, leaping to open the door as I hear his heavy boots clomping past.

  ‘Eve?’ He looks half asleep and dazed.

  ‘Anything?’

  ‘Nothing from outside.’ He sighs. ‘It’s unnerving.’

  I’d have to agree. At least if they were attacking us in some way we’d know what we were dealing with. Their stillness has led to our imaginations taking over. I’m sure I’m not the only one envisaging Vivian blasting her way through the city to find me.

  ‘Has anyone in the Deep come up with anything fruitful?’

  ‘A way of getting in?’ he asks.

  I nod.

  ‘A few of the men helped build the Tower so they’re comparing what they know with the info you’ve given to see if there’s anything we’ve missed in the past.’

  ‘Literally looking for loose screws?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he says plainly. ‘We’ve got another guy who worked in the kitchen with his mum. They’re looking into waste disposal.’

  ‘Everything’s worth investigating,’ I say.
‘Let’s call for a meeting in the morning. They can report their findings then.’

  I want to get moving now. It feels like we’ve been down here for weeks, although it’s hard to tell when we’re constantly underground, away from any natural daylight.

  ‘Absolutely.’ Chubs nods, giving a slightly embarrassing bow as he starts backing away.

  ‘Where are you off to now?’ I ask.

  He shrugs. ‘Told Bram I’d meet him for something to eat.’

  ‘I’ll come too!’ I call, backing into my room to put on my boots. I sigh as I close the door and lean on its frame. I take a deep breath and think of my dad, someone I feel even more connected to, thanks to Saunders’s gift. The thought of us being together makes me feel stronger. I need to channel that energy and focus on a plan.

  But then there’s Bram.

  The last time he was in my room with me alone was when Saunders had left. We’d spent hours together that day. We’ve hardly seen each other since. It could be in my mind, but I’ve felt he’s been yearning to get away while I’ve been longing to have him close to me. My worry is that he’s freaked out or been spooked over our relationship, and instead of talking to me about it he’s backing off and avoiding me.

  I hastily put on my boots, wanting to get to the dinner hall before Bram can be given the heads up and leaves. I make for the door and start walking, aware of my feet stomping as I go. I walk down the corridors, of which there are plenty. I walk through the common areas, past people singing and tapping out rhythms with their feet. Past people laughing while playing cards, couples kissing and snuggling, or shouting and scuffling. Love and hate providing ways to pass the time.

  Walking into the dining hall, I spot Chubs and Bram whispering to each other. Bram looks annoyed while Chubs holds up his hands in protest.

  ‘I’m off,’ I overhear Bram say, as I get closer, only he spins on his heels and knocks straight into me.

  ‘Shit,’ he whispers, grabbing hold of my arm and stopping me falling.

  ‘Going somewhere?’ I ask.

  ‘Yeah, I’ve just got to –’ He stops, his lips buttoning.

  ‘Sit down,’ I murmur, grabbing an empty table and pulling out a chair for him to join me.