When Emily pulled herself away from Zack’s neck she saw that Margareta had positioned herself at the side of President Grayson, looking on with an unreadable expression. Emily clung onto Zack’s hand and slipped into the next chair. She studied his face and stroked the undamaged skin on his arms. Somebody had done a poor job at patching him up, and she couldn’t take her eyes off the scabby wound on his upper lip. One eyelid was so swollen that it nearly didn’t open. The more she looked at his face, or what was left of the face she remembered, the more she forgot about her father and Margareta and the two Guardians in the room with them.
“Just wait,” she said to Zack as she kicked off her shoes and ran back up the corridor. She returned no more than a minute later with her mother’s nurse. Emily was holding a bag of gauze swabs and a few bandages, and the nurse was carrying a bowl of water which spilled angrily to the floor as Emily hurried her along. Emily looked on as the nurse worked, her anxiety rising further as the water turned pink. The nurse cleaned Zack’s facial wounds, before applying a layer of yellow antiseptic cream to the swelling above his eye. A couple of bandages finished the job and Zack tried his best to smile. That was when Emily recalled Josh telling her that once they were reunited there would be something that resembled hope. That out of that hope a plan would form. But all she could see before her was damage inflicted by the Republic, and each wound acted as a reminder of its strength. What was she in comparison? What could she do now on her own?
“Thank you. That will be all,” President Grayson said, dismissing her. Up until that point he had remained silent, and at one point Emily was sure that she had seen Margareta restrain him with a neat little grip on his shoulder. The nurse rose from her kneeling position and scurried out of the room, stopping only to attempt a nervous curtsey before disappearing into the shadows. President Grayson rose to his feet and pulled a chair in front of them both. Zack felt Emily’s fingers digging into his palm, and he allowed himself to hope this was something more than an elaborate plan.
“Look what they did to him,” Emily said in a flat, cold voice. She stared at her father, her eyes void of emotion, which reminded Zack of Delta Tower. She had changed so much from the mental image he had of her. Gone was the long flowing hair and the smell of jasmine that he liked so much when he first caught it in the stale air of the sublevels. The Omega uniform had been replaced by a sharply tailored dress of which he hadn’t seen the like in many years. It clung to her curves and it was the first time that she really looked like an adult. A very beautiful adult he realised, but one that looked more like her Omega-self than ever before. It made him fearful of the plan.
President Grayson took his seat opposite Zack. “Yes, Emily. These wounds are unfortunate. But in difficult situations, especially those which are viewed as rebellious in nature, such injuries are sustained.” Emily saw Zack’s head drop, and she dug into his palm with her fingernails. He shuffled upright in his seat as well as his injuries permitted.
She shook her head. “Civilised and just societies do not instil the need for rebellion in their citizens, Father.”
“There will always be some who rebel, Emily, irrespective of what society they live in. But we are addressing issues irrelevant to this meeting today. Guards, please leave us.” The Guardians marched away without question. Emily glanced in Margareta’s direction before returning to look upon her father. Her glance was just enough to suggest Margareta’s presence was unwelcome. He obliged, and motioned for Margareta to leave. She threw a wounded glance at Emily, as if the unreported theft of a lipstick had somehow led her to expect more, before skulking off towards the guest bedroom. Emily spoke in hushed tones, conscious of the fact that she knew Margareta would be listening in as best she could.
“Father, I must thank you for finding Zack. I am and will always be grateful of that.” She meant every word, but it still wasn’t enough. He couldn’t undo the harm he had caused with any number of acts of kindness or good decisions. “You understand my disgust regarding Zack’s injuries, so let us also put that to the side for now. What has gone before is the past. That is what you always wished I believed, right?” He nodded and she continued. “It is time to move on. I have found my partner and I wish to raise our baby together.” Her father folded his arms, rubbed one palm against his chin. Zack didn’t dare glance up. “We will need our own quarters, and Zack will receive a full pardon.”
No sooner had she finished speaking President Grayson was up on his feet, his hands resting against his hips. “Let’s just slow down, Emily. The next thing I know you will be asking me to organise an Adoration of Life Ceremony.” Emily wanted to move the conversation on. She wanted this part to be over so that she and Zack were safe. She found it hard to focus, and as strong as she tried to make her words sound, it was impossible not to hear the quiver in her voice when she spoke. With her free hand she fiddled at the hem of her dress. “Now, Zachary,” President Grayson began as he paced back and forth in front of them. “Let us first clear something up. I know Emily would like to gloss over these facts, but there are some unfortunate truths that cannot be overlooked. Let us begin with those that we all know. You chose to leave Omega Tower and you were instrumental in assisting in the departure of another resident who had been with us from the start. Admittedly this was not without help,” he said as he stole a glance at Emily, “but you were involved and so you must take a share of the burden of responsibility.”
“Sir,” Zack began, certain that showing some level respect, no matter how false it was, must be better than nothing. In the very least it couldn’t hurt. “Serena was carrying the child of a Guardian. I knew that she would be denounced. I valued her chance at life.”
“And the life in my daughter’s womb? Was that not valuable to you?” Zack swallowed hard to buy time, unsure of the script. Emily jumped in.
“He didn’t know,” Emily said. This fact didn’t go down at all well with President Grayson who raised his arms up before letting them drop violently to his side. For a moment he turned away from them as if he was trying to stifle his anger. Not for the first time today Emily was grateful. Zack took the opportunity to look upon Emily. She saw the hopeless look in his eye, outweighed only by his gratitude for his rescue. Even though they barely knew each other, there was nobody else that either of them would have rather had on their team. When her father turned around his brow was slick with sweat, cheeks flushed an urgent shade of pink.
“Emily, this really couldn’t get any worse. Not as your president, or your father.” He reached over and picked up the glass of green water and sipped. Margareta had been forcing him to drink the vitamin waters of the Mineral Enrichment Programme for the last couple of months. After all, how else was she going to get pregnant? President Grayson set the glass down and turned to Zack. “And now you are back and I am supposed to trust you. Is that it?”
Zack opened his mouth to speak but the split on his lip opened and he winced, the words catching in his throat. He brought his fingers up to the wound to apply gentle pressure before trying again. “I would like an opportunity to put things right, and to be here for Emily.” President Grayson appeared less than certain.
Emily stood up and reached out to her father, gripping her hands on his arms. “Father, I need him. We are unified now,” she said as she glanced down and stroked her belly. “That is what Omega is all about. If you can provide us with living quarters I just know that together we will be able to create a future that the whole of New Omega can be proud of.”
“He will remain in the basement for now.”
“No, Father. If you enforce that, then I will remain with him.”
“Emily, until there is proof of a pregnancy I am not even going to consider providing you with living quarters in Omega Tower. Do you understand that this man was responsible for the demolition of Alpha Tower, Emily?”
It was perhaps the wrong moment for Zack to find his voice but the words were coming out before he got a chance to think about them. “Sir, wit
h all due respect I only smashed a few windows.”
“And a few skulls,” President Grayson reminded him as he shook Emily free. “And I never said that you acted alone. But eight hundred residents died in that tower for which you are partly responsible.”
Emily jumped between them, her eyes locked on her father’s. “Let’s not get into who is responsible for what, Father.” Her words acted a warning, and not for the first time today she felt that she wielded some power over her father’s actions. “I don’t think we can hold him responsible for our decision to destroy Alpha Tower.”
Her use of the word our didn’t go unnoticed, and she saw her father’s shoulders relax a little. His attention shifted from Zack to Emily, his face wrinkling up inquisitively wondering if it was really possible that he had finally won her over.
“Well, we saved a few, but some got out.” By out he meant free, and the irony of this fact was not lost on either Zack or Emily. To get out, they had to have previously been in something. Which meant that they were trapped without ever having realised it. “Those that did were taken by your rebel Drifters. We are still trying to locate them.”
While Emily had been contemplating her new found ability to manipulate her father as he had manipulated her in the many years of her captivity, Zack had been thinking about Duke, and what a dangerous game he must have been playing by working for both sides. Nobody had explained to Zack what had happened to him, but the very fact that he was here and Duke was nowhere to be found told Zack that it didn’t look good for his old.....friend? Colleague? Fellow rebel in disguise? Whatever Duke had been to him, he owed Duke his life. Perhaps three times over if he counted Gamma Tower, the day of his escape, and saving him again outside Alpha Tower. A fact which Zack had accepted most likely cost him his life.
“The other towers? What about them?” he asked without looking up. Learning that Alpha Tower had been destroyed reminded him that the other towers were also at risk. But he had left Jackson, Street, and Stoat with the intention to liberate the other towers on the same night that Alpha was destroyed. What had gone wrong?
“They are still standing, Zack,” she answered on her father’s behalf. “Father, this level of stress is not good for the baby.” She sensed a moment of unease in Zack, and she hoped that her father didn’t notice it as Zack dabbed at his swollen lip, which had started to ooze. “Whatever mistakes you see that Zack has made, I am now carrying his child. You always wanted me to be happy.” She slipped her arm around her father. “Please give us a chance to be a couple. To do the right thing. We have the right to Unity Quarters.”
“Very well, but I will place a Guardian outside the room and neither of you will leave. You will be allowed to stay together. To be honest,” he said as he rubbed Emily’s arms up and down, “it will be a relief to have you where I know you are. You have both demonstrated a keen ability for evading our security and breaching our perimeters.” He made a call on his Communications Panel and two Guardians arrived, quickly followed by Brent Ravenscroft. He must have been just outside all along. “Take them up to level forty” he instructed the Guardians. Brent affirmed his understanding with a sharp nod of the head. “One of the more comfortable rooms. I will have food and refreshments sent to you, and as soon as possible we will complete the necessary tests.”
Emily kissed her father on the cheek before turning to steady Zack as they walked away. He was still pretty wobbly on his feet, and she was glad that she had kicked off her stilettos. She picked them up and took them with her. She didn’t turn back to look at her father as they left the Presidential Suite, but she was thankful that this time it was under her own control, with Zack, and with the tiniest flicker of hope that they stood a chance. Maybe Josh had been right. A chance at what she wasn’t sure exactly, but what she was sure about was that they were in a better position than they were an hour ago.
President Grayson watched them leave. Just as Brent was about to follow President Grayson reached out and touched him on the arm. He leaned in close to Brent’s cold, translucent face.
“Give them tonight, and then see to it that I never have to see his face again.”
Brent nodded, and tapped the instruction into his Communications Panel.
Emily rode the lift with Zack to level forty and they stepped out onto a narrow corridor, regularly interrupted by slick dark brown doors. Solid cherry wood. The scent of beeswax permeated the air, but Zack’s nose was badly damaged and full of clotted blood so he couldn’t smell it. He got the feeling of walking into a hotel, and half expected to see a room service trolley tucked into a door way. There were dark items of furniture placed in the occasional recesses which punched their way along the corridor, topped with artefacts from the old world like crystal vases and wooden sculptures. The two Guardians marched ahead and Emily clung onto Zack’s arm. She was terrified of what they might say to each other once they stepped behind the door of their Unity Quarters. She didn’t want to learn that he was just going along with a plan. But whatever he had to say there was no backing out now. She had to face reality, whatever that was. She found herself wishing that Millward was here with her. He was the only one she could really trust amongst the Guardians. He would have been able to help them both, no matter how Zack really felt.
Chapter Sixty Two
After leaving Emily in the Presidential Suite Millward had ridden the lift with Josh down to the Community Level on seventeen. He had thought about asking Josh why it was that he wanted to help when only minutes before he had been standing guard outside the Presidential Suite. But the question seemed so hypocritical considering they were both wearing the uniform of the Guardians. What right did Millward have to question Josh’s motives when he too carried an Assister, and had on more than one occasion used it to strike a person back into line.
After the war began, Millward spent the first few days in Epsilon Tower. They waited for confirmation that all but one of the towers had survived, and then they made their move. He dressed as instructed in his uniform, joked as he was tattooed at the wrist. A ‘G’ created by the lines of a barcode much in the same way as the Omega symbol. It was all fun then. After securing his boots and gloves he had glanced in the mirror and thought how ridiculous he looked. The uniforms were like some sort of fancy dress costume that he might wear for Halloween, or the kind of birthday party where the intention was to look stupid. He didn’t feel like a police officer in that getup, that was for sure, and he got the impression when he looked around at the other faces that many of the others didn’t feel like that either. It was all like one big joke. But there were others who revelled in the power that the uniform gave them. They would stroke the epaulettes, relish the tight fit of the glove. Their Assisters were off their belts and in their hands before they’d even left Epsilon Tower.
Millward’s early days in Beta Tower, aptly named for the level of force used upon the residents, were days he would rather forget. It went against everything he had ever learned. He could never summon the enthusiasm for the fear they were supposed to inspire. You are Beta, the other Guardians would shout as they roamed the narrow, rabbit-warren corridors, banging their Assisters against the apartment doors to wake up the residents. Residents who rested to stretch their backs as they planted and tended crops were struck on the fingers or the ribs. Some of the Guardians had taken on the old Nazi motto that work set them free, and would chant it over the megaphones as the residents dug and picked and planted until they broke, muscle by muscle, wound by wound. The nightmares of those days still troubled Millward’s sleep, but since he was re-stationed in Omega, they had eased.
As the lift doors opened Josh patted Millward on the arm and wished him luck. As he descended he watched Josh run through the quiet corridor and slip into the Community Level. He didn’t use his wrist tattoo for entry, and instead pulled up his sleeve to expose another part of his arm. Josh had a second tattoo somewhere near the crease of his elbow. This obviously wasn’t the first time he had required a false identity, and
that alone helped settle Millward’s apprehensions.
Millward moved through Basement Level One with efficiency and speed. He was adept at avoiding the other Guardians, but because of the recent Denunciation Ceremony most were out on other duties and there were few on patrol. There would be more action on Basement Level Five where they monitored the CCTV. He knew that there was the potential for somebody to be watching him, but knowing this was going to be a one-way trip meant the best approach was speed and decisiveness rather than cautious consideration.
It didn’t take long to secure a set of keys for one of the smaller recon vehicles. The Red Eyes were not stored here, and taking one would be ridiculous. He would never be able to manoeuvre a Red Eye through the streets at speed, and a Red Eye was just about as conspicuous as it got. There was a row of smaller vehicles that were once black London cabs, and beyond those a series of boxy red vans which seemed to be designed with deliveries in mind. These were the same as those the Comrades used, only were yet to be painted white or have PROVIDING YOUR FUTURE painted on the side. But these vehicles had received extensive modifications; bars on the windows, grilles on the front and covering the tyres, and once he stepped inside he realised that something had also been painted on the windows. It looked like some kind of translucent green that he assumed was designed to keep out radiation. Perhaps some kind of lead-based paint. The keys were in the ignition and the vehicle started first time, even though he knew from the layer of dust that coated everything that the van hadn’t been used in years. He drove straight through Basement Level One, over the grilles in the floor, and up the ramp which led him outside without even the slightest resistance.
The Dawn: Omnibus edition (box set books 1-5) Page 60
