“I think that rules out a trip to France,” said President Grayson. “Perhaps we could bring somebody here instead.” There was a general murmur of content as the suggestion to go to France was discarded. After witnessing the aftermath of a ChemWeap attack, nobody wanted to consider leaving the relative safety of the island.
“With all due respect, Sir, a pregnancy for one woman is the last of our concerns. And our most pressing concern is not the hostage we have in Omega Tower, as you seem to think, Gladstone. Neither is it the many we have in Epsilon. You have all just witnessed the footage of what was happening in Rome a few nights ago, but I would still argue, as terrifying as that footage is, that we have more important things to consider.” The others leaned in, waiting desperately for an answer. Could it really get worse than that? “There are ChemWeap attacks on a daily basis across the eastern front, and there are plenty of individuals dying. Or not dying as the case may be,” he added flippantly. “Now, does anybody here remember the Second World War of the Twentieth Century?”
“Of course we remember, Brent.” President Grayson was reaching his limit and he burst from his leather chair, pulling his tie loose in a couple of sharp tugging movements. The image of Sarah kicking and moaning flashed into his mind like a clap of unexpected thunder. “Get to the point,” he snapped as he paced across the lobby.
“There was only one reason why what was once Great Britain stayed out of that war for as long as it did.” Brent looked around like a teacher awaiting guesses that never came. After the mess of an idea that was France, nobody wanted to be the one to hazard a guess. “The water. The same reason that we were selected as the host country for Operation Boa, is the very same reason we remained safe for the first years of the Second World War. It is also the reason that we will remain safe now. Judging by the progress the enemy forces have made we have a long time before they even consider trying to reach our shores. The French are doing a remarkable job at holding them back after sacrificing the eastern suburbs of Paris, and Poland has maintained its borders spectacularly. Everybody knows the war will spread south, to Spain. The enemy forces will take control of the Mediterranean and move into Africa. Germany is already advancing after the recent bombings, and border reinforcements and further defences are being deployed. The north will be fine, at least in the short term. It’s our homeland security that I have more concerns about.”
“Like I was saying,” reaffirmed Gladstone in irritated tones, “the boy in Isolation Two.”
“No,” corrected Brent. “Nothing to do with him. When we lost power to Omega last week there were several unexpected consequences. One, we lost some citizens from Omega Tower. I think we all know who was responsible for that, although it is quite a stretch to imagine that she organised the outage as well.”
All eyes fell on President Grayson, and Emily felt a pull of satisfaction that they all knew she was responsible and yet remained unpunished. It made her feel invincible. Millward couldn’t help but crack a smile and Emily did the same as they watched from the shadows of the bedroom. They had turned off the lights and so worked on a small shoulder-mounted torch on Millward’s uniform. Now she knew that Zack did get out. He was free. She brought her fingers up to her lips and pressed against them, imagined that it was his lips. One day, she said to herself. One day.
“Secondly, we lost Alpha Tower, which was directly attributable to the rebels. Two hundred citizens are estimated to have escaped, eight hundred lost in the destruction of the tower. A few of them found their way to us, and we have accommodated them the best we can in the nearby Resource Centre for intense relocation therapy. Freedom was not on their agenda, and they are fearful. But some followed the Drifters and we can only assume that they will eventually get swallowed up by our forces, who are, by the way, making excellent progress across the southern regions. Omega Today reported that the rebels were responsible for the destruction of Alpha Tower, and this news story is doing us quite the favour. There is a general fear of the unknown circulating in the lower levels of Omega Tower, and what with the Denunciation Ceremony today I do not expect any escalation of trouble in our tower.” The Conservators sat around nodding, following Brent’s certainty. “But we have lost two towers in as many weeks.”
“Both incidences were unfortunate,” agreed President Grayson.
“And both involved the boy,” stressed Gladstone. Hay was quiet as usual and Brand looked like he was waiting on Brent to finish his summary of events before he decided upon his opinion.
“But we lost other systems in the power outages. Simple things at first like hot water and fire safety systems. The doors stopped working. We lost communication between towers, and this resulted in a degree of chaos in Zeta. The subsequent arrests in Delta were unprecedented, with sublevel dwellers forcing their way into the upper levels after the explosions to take out the District Line. There was some collapse of flimsy internal structures and it instigated a low level riot.”
“Destruction of the District Line? On whose authority?” demanded Brand as he erupted from his chair.
“Mine,” spat president Grayson. “Sit back down and calm yourself.” President Grayson snatched a tissue from a nearby table and wiped his brow. His quick response stemmed that line of discussion before it had even begun. Brand sat back down. He didn’t calm himself.
“But most importantly we lost some defence systems. The Northern Defence Dome was temporarily down, and we picked up something that we were not expecting.” He tapped the Control Panel and stood back while he waited for the sound file to play.
Citizens of the so-called Republic of New Omega. This transmission comes from your true leader. You will believe it because you will remember my voice from the days before your imprisonment. You will remember that my voice once stood for freedom and democracy in a time when we took it as our right and privilege. You have been enslaved by a regime that is not recognised by any international community. Your country is in quarantine but we are recovering. I was not killed, and your fellow citizens are not dead. We are here in the North, and we are working to free you. If you are receiving this transmission please know that the time is coming when you will once again live as a free person. These are your instructions. Take shelter. Be safe. Wait for our arrival, citizens of the so-called Republic of New Omega.
During the time that the transmission was playing everybody remained still, with the only exception President Grayson. To hear the sound of his former rival’s voice took him straight back to the days before the war. The secret meetings, the deals with the American President, the times he had negotiated with the former ministers who would go on to become the Conservators, cementing and carving out the plan. Just the sound of the voice was enough to make Anthony Grayson feel guilty.
“Do you remember the voice?” Emily whispered to Millward. They were both pressed up against the door, both breathing harder than before trying to listen in. He was nodding his head.
“It’s him. I’m sure of it.”
“Which means my father is nothing anymore.” They both focussed on the silence coming from the lobby and waited for the discussion to resume.
“There is no way it can be him,” exclaimed Margareta. “No way.”
“I have to agree with her,” said Hay. “Impossible. It’s probably the rebels in the south. A false transmission.”
“Well, just to clear that one up for you,” began Brent, “I ordered a squadron of Challenger Twos south as soon as we realised that the rebels were planning an attack. The main informant, Duke, proved useless, but I had other eyes in Brighton. We got word of something called RUSE, which we have since ascertained was the program they used to hack into our systems in Alpha. Admittedly, that time we didn’t see them coming. But neither did they see us coming this time. Most of the south is currently under attack by our forces. There are still pockets of Drifters here and there, but nothing much to be excited about. Dover is with us. They are doing very well out of the necessary imports from Denmark and have a ni
ce little existence down there. They do not want to see our system fall any more than we do. Which, by the way, Sir,” Brent turned to the President, “we would be best served by trying to further improve their conditions when the time is right. Reward them a little. They have proven invaluable.”
Millward rested his hand onto Emily’s shoulder. She looked for him to tell her that she was wrong, that it wasn’t possible that Zack, or any of the others, were dead. He hung his head and rested it against hers, because when the truth was too painful to bear, silence was the next best thing.
“Whatever, Brent. It is all irrelevant now. That is him, everybody. Whatever is happening in Europe is of little concern when we know there is a population to the north looking to advance south. You heard what he said. ‘Take shelter. Await our arrival.’”
Each Conservator was speechless. Gladstone pulled a fat cigar from his pocket and from somewhere in the corner of the room Maurice the butler appeared to clip the end. Gladstone puffed away sending clouds of smoke into the air. The others watched it rising.
“Sir, are you sure it’s him? It seems highly unlikely. The north was completely destroyed. We do have this saved to disk in the digital display room, so we can run some voice recognition software and.....”
“Why did you play it, Brent, if you don’t think it’s him? Unlikely, yes, but it is. We sent troops north and they never returned, remember? Either they were killed or they joined forces. Neither of those possibilities bode well for us.”
“In which case, Mr. President, we need to come up with a solution because sitting here in a sky-high glass tower waiting for troops to march south is not an option. The Northern Defence Dome has held them back for a long time, but it has been compromised by our assault on the south.”
“We could give ourselves over to them. Make the first approach. It is not unreasonable to think they might want to reunify.” Brand was the first to offer a solution. “We were, after all, a single country once.” It seemed reasonable to Margareta, who was nodding along with him while she stroked President Grayson’s shoulder.
“Once upon a time, eh, Brand,” chipped in Hay. “Do you think we live in a happily-ever-after fairy-tale?” It was the most sensible response. By now it was impossible to consider that those in the north didn’t know about Operation Boa. President Grayson would have a lot to answer for, and staging an attack on his own country and killing thousands in the process was not something he expected survivors in the north to take lightly.
“Brand, Hay is right. Reunification is never going to work. They will be looking for justice. Don’t forget that Operation Boa was never a military strike which fell under the guidelines of international law. It was agreed upon by a select few member states of a larger collective looking for an excuse to start a war. A war that happened on my authority. The same authority that was supposed to take out the Prime Minister. If the old Prime Minister is alive, that makes anything we have created here tantamount to treason. Take a look out there, Brand.” President Grayson stood up and moved towards the window, holding his hand out to present the crippled world. “Do you see a palace? Our choices destroyed the Royal family. A decision that I made and upon which you all backed me. And let’s not forget the reason you backed me. The financial gains were immense. With no other leader left we could do what we want and justify it as long as we bowed down and played dead for a while. Acted like the victim. But if we are challenged?”
“They cannot have the strength to challenge us,” said Gladstone as he sent another cloud of woody smoke into the air. He looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and that any talk of risk to their safety was just palaver.
“Gladstone, wake up. When Operation Boa went live the PM was in Yorkshire on a visit to the largest military garrison we have in Europe. The fact that he is still alive means that the garrison in question survived. Do you know the force they have at their disposal? Cavalry, whole battalions. Infantry. We barely made it through a couple of rebel attacks. We just lost two towers in as many weeks. This system is too fragile. We have to stop them coming, but we cannot do that by force. The only way is to make them believe there is nothing left worth coming south for.”
“Hide?” asked Margareta, shock rippling across her like a cold chill of winter.
“Something like that. Brent, you are right about this tower. We are sitting ducks. If we stay here we are trapped. Give me an update on Canvey Island. How quickly can we be there?”
“Canvey what?” interrupted Hay.
“Canvey Island.” Brent picked up the thread and ran with it. “We have been working on a centre of individualised living. Residing in an environment that permits day to day freedoms but still maintains a degree of geographical control over the residents.”
“For Christ’s sake, Brent, cut the Omega crap and just tell us what it is,” screamed Brand. He had broken a sweat and the drops trickled down his face. He too snatched a tissue and wiped his face. The exterior was cracking.
“Canvey Island is just to the east,” President Grayson took over. “A small town cut off from the rest of the country by a series of blockades and creeks. A safe haven. There were a few survivors but we cleared them out.” Nobody needed to ask what he meant by that. “We have been working on redeveloping the houses and community structures. Additional perimeter walls have been built in the north to control the northern border, and to the south we have the water. A place for independent life to coexist within the bounds of Omega control. Specifically, life outside a tower.”
The idea had captivated them all. Their own space. Their own life. Freedom, of a sort, to switch off from the control that they all suffered with. Only Gladstone seemed disgruntled, but that was only because he hadn’t known about it.
“It’s as ready as it needs to be for the Omega residents to move in,” Brent stated. “We haven’t quite finished negotiations with the Dutch regarding a direct nautical supply link, but in the meantime sustainability is guaranteed by the supplies we get from Denmark. And the boats are ready, meaning should it be required, we could escape.”
“Residency for all Omega citizens? Space for the forces from Epsilon?” asked the President.
“Yes, besides those we have already discussed leaving behind,” Brent confirmed.
“Then organise the move. You will station a ring of Northern Defence Forces around the perimeter. Call them back from the northern borders, but only as many as we need. Return all prisoners to their original towers. Redistribute any supplies from Beta, and if there is any stock left in Zeta, get it out. I understand they were working on new textiles for Canvey. Divert all supplies from Theta Tower for the next three days to Canvey. And I want Omega Tower on lockdown. Nobody gets in. Nobody gets out.”
Brent made a note of the instructions on his Control Panel. He considered telling President Grayson that a seventy two hour move would leave them exposed and vulnerable during and after the event. Instead he followed instructions. He allowed himself only one question.
“And Delta 8652? Zachary Christian. What should I do with him?”
“Leave him where he is in Isolation Room Two. Then withdraw all Guardians and Comrades from their towers and repost them along the route. Order the Challenger Twos in the south to move north, clearing up any Drifters along the way. Then seal the towers and light the charges. We leave no trace.” He began walking towards the main doors of the Presidential Suite. Margareta was quick to follow. “We move within seventy two hours.”
Chapter Fifty Eight
The last footsteps cleared out from the lobby, leaving Emily and Millward stunned and alone in the dark of her bedroom. The nuclear winter played out across her windows as if it was still day one, but now that she knew her father planned to destroy all of the remaining towers her small act of defiance seemed pathetic in comparison. She snatched the Control Panel and ended the Scenic Simulation, returning the view to the break of a new day. With the benefit of sunlight she tried to think clearly.
“He�
��s got Zack. And he is going to destroy everything.” Emily swallowed hard as the words choked her. It seemed so easy for her father to select between different people; save some, kill the rest.
“It wouldn’t be the first time, Emily. Didn’t you hear that transmission? It’s got them spooked. We are not fighting on our own anymore.” Millward was silent as he let the reality of his statements sink in. But his mind was on the invisible clock counting down seventy-two hours. He knew that it wasn’t a case of having to actually set charges. He knew from his early days in Epsilon that every building was rigged. It was considered a safety precaution, the concept that should the buildings have failed in their purpose the kindest thing would be to kill those imprisoned within them. There were charges lining the internal structure on every level of Omega Tower, and he knew the same charges had been fitted into each and every tower. If the president had given a timeframe of seventy-two hours the clock was already ticking, and he had no idea what timeframe anybody in the north was working on.
“I have to do something. I can’t let him kill any more people.” Emily’s eyes searched through the childish belongings in her bedroom. She happened upon a small stuffed teddy bear, old magazines, dated pots of cosmetics which had lost their scent. She peeled open the fingers of her right hand and found the crumpled remains of the photograph that she had taken with Amanda. She thought again of the people she had been forced to lose, and those she had abandoned. She crumpled the picture of her with Amanda and clenched her teeth. “How did they find Zack?”
The Dawn: Omnibus edition (box set books 1-5) Page 56
