The Secret Citizen (Freedom/Hate Series, Book 3)

by Kyle Andrews

  “Now, I went down to the local school and asked some students to submit questions about the new system. I'd like to ask a couple of those if you don't mind.”

  “Sure,” the man in the suit agreed. The gel in his hair caught the light of the sun and created a small lens flare. His teeth were also too white. Collin didn't understand why these people always insisted on having bright teeth. It made them look inhuman.

  The reporter flipped through her notes and then asked, “Why do we need this new system?”

  “Great question,” the man replied. “The Civvie system is outdated by decades. It's simply not as effective as it should be anymore. If doesn't allow us to create a personal relationship with each citizen. The MeID system is more efficient and makes us all more secure. Plus, you can forget your Civvie at home, but you can't forget your DNA.”

  Both the man and the reporter chuckled at his joke. Collin was not amused.

  “We have time for one more student question, so I'll make it a good one,” the reporter informed the man. She chose another question and asked, “What happens if you don't have a hand to scan?”

  Another round of chuckles ended with the man saying, “Well, the hand isn't necessary. Your head could be scanned just as easily as your hand. All we need is a scan of your DNA for the system to work.”

  “That's good to know,” the reporter said, turning to the camera and saying, “And coming up in the next hour, we'll be interviewing voters and getting some of their reactions to the new system, and maybe a little hint or two about who they're voting for.”

  The shot cut away to show the inside of a news studio, where two male anchors were sitting behind a desk. They looked like they could have been twins, with puffy blond hair and fake tans.

  “Ooh,” one of the anchors said. “I'm looking forward to that. Thanks for reporting, Tiki. We'll see you in a little while.”

  The second anchor turned toward the camera and said, “And just how is your MeID information updated? We'll take you inside a local doctor's office where the entire process will be explained to us, coming up after the break. Stay tuned.”

  38

  Marti made her way from Justin's apartment to the Campus as quickly as she could. She wouldn't be expected in class for another two hours, but time was of the essence. Honestly, she didn't expect much to come of the scan, but Aaron was the boss and she followed the orders that she was given by him.

  Of course, ask anyone else in the Campus who their boss was and they might have a different answer for you. After the Garden burned and the survivors scattered, most found new homes in new bases with new leaders. Aaron, Simon, Marti and several others joined the Campus, and suddenly the place had two leaders who didn't always see eye to eye on things.

  Aaron wasn't thrilled with the idea of the Secret Citizen. He didn't like Mig taking it upon herself to allow the paper to be printed, letting the world into Freedom business without so much as informing the other bases in advance, much less asking their opinions on the subject.

  Marti didn't think that Aaron was opposed to the idea of the paper necessarily. He just didn't like the idea of one person taking such a drastic measure that effected the lives of hundreds—possibly thousands—of people around the city, without so much as a heads-up.

  There was also the possibility that Aaron didn't like living under the command of someone else after being the leader of the Garden and calling the shots for so long. Marti suspected that his objection to the paper had something to do with his need to assert himself in his new home.

  Meanwhile, Aaron was inserting a Freedom spy into HAND. Mig took every opportunity that she could find to tell him that she thought it was a foolish decision for him to make. Even if Justin were assigned to HAND, which wasn't a sure bet, there was no way to direct his career path. There was no way to make him a valuable asset to the cause, so all Aaron was going to accomplish was endangering Justin's life while running the risk of his being captured and tortured for intelligence.

  When Aaron informed Mig that he had a plan for directing the course of Justin's career, Mig wasn't exactly jumping for joy. His plan could very well spark a backlash, and another Garden incident could occur.

  This push and pull went on for over a year, and truth be told, Marti didn't really care who said what or who did what. She was wasn't loyal to Aaron, she was loyal to the guy who was looking out for Justin's best interests. She was loyal to Justin, not because he was her friend, but because she believed that he could pull off this mission and she wanted to be there when he did.

  Marti followed orders and played nice with people, both in Freedom and out in the world, but she wasn't truly herself in either of those places. The truth was that Marti didn't simply want the authorities to be overthrown. She wanted to douse them with gasoline and throw a lit match at them. Literally. She wanted to watch them burn and listen to them scream until they couldn't scream anymore. They took something from her. Something that she could never get back. They caused her pain, and she wanted to return the favor.

  39

  There were no quiet little corners of the Campus that Aaron could hide out in or have a private conversation in. There were no food vendors in the basement. There was no hospital. There was no fresh fruit. Before the fall of the Garden, Aaron used to think that they were roughing it, living in a rundown old building and having to enter and exit through sewers and tunnels. Now, he missed those days. Looking back, the Garden seemed like a mansion to him. He dreamed about being back there, with all of his people still alive and worrying about the next big power grab by the authorities. He only wished that he had the type of stress that he used to live with back then.

  He was thankful for the Campus and he never wanted to sound unappreciative of their support, but he wanted his own home. He wanted to have room to spread out. He wanted quiet, dark little corners where he could gather his thoughts and battle his demons.

  Actually, no. It wasn't the demons that he needed to battle the most. It was the ghosts of everyone he had failed. The people who counted on him for leadership and safety when they had nowhere else to turn. Children died because of his failure, and they weren't just random faces that he passed in the halls, as they were for most people. To Aaron, they were family. He knew the name of every person who lived in the Garden. He had watched those kids grow since birth. Hell, he'd known some of their parents when they were little kids. Every death, young or old, big or small, took something from Aaron. It was more than just his leadership and his freedom that had been lost that day. It was the light in his life that he never even recognized before it was gone. It was the rare moment when everyone would laugh at the same time, or when a parent was tossing their child into the air as the kid squealed with delight. The soothing moments of quiet conversation with older members of Freedom who remembered the world before it fell apart.

  He saw their faces every time he closed his eyes, whether he was trying to sleep or simply to blink. Those people chose him as their leader because they believed in him, and he failed them. He wouldn't allow that to happen again. He had a plan to go at the authorities from every angle that he could think of, and this was the day when it would all start. This was the day when he could close his eyes and see those faces, and know that he was doing something about them.

  There was a staircase in the Campus which might have led somewhere at some point in the building's history, but now it only led to a wall. Those steps were where Aaron went when he needed to think. He sometimes walked up and down the stairs for hours as he tried to work out his latest challenge. Ever since he first thought of sending Justin into HAND, he'd been trying to spot all of the holes in his plan, because if he could think of what could go wrong, he might be able to prevent it. It was his way of believing that he would be able to help Justin once he was in, but at the end of the day, Justin would have to be able to help himself. There was no way to plan for every situation, because Aaron had no idea how the inside of HAND worked. He'd discussed it with Mek and one o
r two other Freedom members who had once worked for HAND, but they didn't know how the upper levels functioned. They only knew how they received orders and how they followed orders.

  He hadn't slept much in the days leading up to Election Day, and he noticed that there were others in the Campus who shared his insomnia. Collin Powers, for one. The man was so similar to Aaron in so many ways, but in other ways he was the complete opposite. He was the thorn in Aaron's side, because while Aaron was trying to plan every detail, Collin was throwing caution to the wind. While Aaron was trying to remain in control, Collin was throwing information out to the public and then stepping back to see where the dust would settle. Aaron only hoped that Collin's style wouldn't interfere with his own plans.

  There was no way to blame Powers or Mig or anyone else for what they were doing, but if they ever did something that got one of Aaron's people hurt or killed, he wasn't sure how he would react. 'His people'. That thought alone could tear down everything that Freedom hoped to accomplish. If they weren't all on the same side, they would fail without question.

  He checked his watch. It was later than he thought and Marti still hadn't returned with Justin's blood sample. He was just starting to worry when he looked toward the entrance and saw her walking toward him.

  Aaron moved away from the stairs and met Marti in the hall. She handed him a vial of Justin's blood.

  “You're wasting your time,” she told him.

  “I'm okay with that.”

  “You're wasting my time,” Marti joked. At least, he thought it was a joke.

  “I just want to make sure. We have the scanner, so why not use it?”

  As they started to walk toward the former classroom where Simon was sleeping, Marti asked, “Is it still spitting out gibberish?”

  Aaron shook his head, “We've tested it. Both Simon and myself came back with normal results. Same with a dozen other people here.”

  They reached the doorway and Aaron held up a hand, telling Marti to wait for him. As she waited, he walked into the dark room which was filled with cots, and made his way to Simon's as quietly as possible. He bent down and gave Simon a gentle nudge.

  Simon's eyes shot open as though he'd been expecting someone to come for him, though it hadn't been planned. A lot of the Garden citizens were sleeping lightly those days.

  “Come with me,” Aaron whispered to Simon.

  The two men made their way out of the room and joined Marti in the hall. As they headed for Simon's safe room, Aaron continued his conversation with Marti.

  “The gibberish wasn't just gibbering,” he told her. “It was corrupted data. Genetic anomalies that couldn't be read. We were hoping that we could recreate the results—”

  “But we'd probably give people cancer in the process,” Simon finished. He unlocked his safe room, which was really just a small closet that Mig had allowed him to use. It was now lined with shielding that prevented any signals from getting in or out—Triple the amount of shielding than Simon thought was necessary, but Mig didn't want to take any chances and Aaron couldn't blame her for it.

  Once they were in the room, the door was closed and Simon walked to the heavy case that they stored the scanner in. The case was also shielded. There were only two people who knew the combination to the lock, so even if the scanner was stolen from the shielded room, it would be difficult for the Campus' location to be leaked by mistake.

  After opening the case, Simon grabbed the scanner, which had been taken apart, put back together, damaged in the Garden attack and tweaked by Simon so many times that it now looked like a monstrous version of its former self.

  “What are you expecting to find?” Marti asked.

  “Nothing,” Simon answered.

  “But we don't know. And we need to know,” Aaron pressed. “Just do it.”

  Simon nodded and took the vial of Justin's blood from Aaron. He looked at the vial for a second or two before turning to Aaron and asking, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “Scan it,” Aaron replied.

  “I could have scanned saliva. I could have scanned hair. This is a vial full of blood. It'll scan as glass. What do you want me to do, pop it open and pour it on the scanner?” Simon blurted, far more sharply than he normally spoke, especially to Aaron. He then pulled back his emotions and said, “Sorry. I'm still half asleep.”

  Marti grabbed the vial of blood. She shook it a little, opened the vial and handed Simon the lid, which had Justin's blood on it.

  “I would have thought of that,” Simon told her, taking the sample.

  While Simon prepared the scanner, Marti turned to Aaron and asked, “What caused the anomalies? I don't understand why the scanner wouldn't just read it as a mutation or some other medical condition.”

  “I wish I could tell you. All I know is that the authorities didn't like what they saw and they tried to nip it in the bud. How many of those flu deaths were really murders being covered up? Maybe they were all failed experiments. Maybe the authorities were trying to write data and got it wrong.”

  Marti raised an eyebrow and said, “Murder is a crime. The authorities can't commit crimes. They were executions.”

  Simon was having problems with the scanner. He smacked the back of it and shook the device, mumbling curses under his breath and shaking his head. Finally, the screen came to life and Simon smiled.

  “There she is,” he said to himself.

  “You think Justin could have one of these mutations?” Marti asked. “And you're just now checking?”

  Aaron shook his head. “I don't think he does. I just want to make sure that he doesn't.”

  “We've run Justin's Civvie a dozen times. Poured through his school and medical records...” Simon told Marti while shaking his head, letting her know that Aaron had been perhaps a little bit too cautious.

  “Just do it,” Aaron ordered.

  “It's starting up,” Simon replied.

  They waited quietly while the scanner came online. Once it was up and running, Simon scanned the sample of Justin's blood. It didn't take more than a second for the results to appear on the screen, and after all the joking and doubting that they had done, Marti and Simon were no longer questioning Aaron. But even he never expected to see what was on the screen in front of them.

  “We have to stop Justin. Get him back here,” Aaron said. He then turned to Marti and snapped, “Now!”

  40

  Justin walked into the assignment building fifteen minutes before it officially opened. The lobby of the building was one of the most well kept lobbies that he had seen in his life. The marble floor was still shiny. The walls looked as though they had been painted within the past decade or two. Everything in the place was a shade of gray and white. It looked cleaner than he had expected, but just walking through the place made him feel dirty. It was something that he would have to get used to.

  Once inside, he passed through the security station without any trouble and made his way to the registration desk where he signed in and his Civvie was swiped. A sign told him that the Civvie would be taken once he was called for assignment, and he would be entered into the MeID system at that time.

  There was a large waiting room in the assignment building, with a dozen or so rows of chairs slowly being filled by the young citizens who were scheduled to be assigned that day. They were all the same age as Justin. Some looked nervous. Others looked excited. Justin was neither of those things, and didn't want to sit next to any of those people, so he found a seat near one of the back corners and he waited, watching the others. After this day, there would be no mystery about their futures. Their careers would be assigned and from that point on, the only question would be how far they would be allowed to advance in their assigned field. For most, the answer to that question would be simple—they wouldn't advance at all.

  Whether excited or nervous, all of those people were lambs being led to the slaughter. They had no control over their own fates and most of them didn't even wonder why that was. They
simply went where they were told and did what they were told.

  As he sat there, Justin wondered what he was fighting for. Was he hoping to take down the authorities and free all of these mindless drones from the oppression that they didn't even recognize as oppression? No. He wasn't fighting for them; not really. He was fighting for what was right, and he was fighting for his own freedom. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he didn't care. Nobody should have the type of power over him that the authorities had.

  There was a line from the Declaration of Independence that kept repeating over and over in his head as he sat there, watching the mindless many:

  'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'

  This meant that even the idiots deserved the same basic rights as he did, whether they wanted those rights or not. Some might say that the idea of controlling one's own fate was scary, but looking around the room, it didn't strike Justin as any less intimidating than allowing someone else to make the choice for you.

  The office opened and one by one, Justin's fellow citizens were led out of the room. He watched their eyes as they went, looking for that moment when they would realize how unnatural this process was, but he saw that glimmer of realization in only a few of them. One girl even looked directly at Justin as she left the room to be assigned, and he could see that she wanted nothing more than to run, but running would most likely get her killed. She had no choice, so she wiped a tear from her face, turned to face forward and marched out of the room like a proper citizen.

  Justin realized that he was tapping his foot on the ground as he waited. Some might read this as a sign of being nervous, but he wasn't. All he wanted was to get called into the assignment office and get this thing over with, once and for all.

  ҂

  Once Simon slammed the protective case shut, Marti pulled the door to his safe room open and ran into the hallway. With every second that passed she felt her chest grow tighter and tighter. Justin was in danger. Their entire operation was in danger, and she couldn't move fast enough.