by T. C. Edge
His voice of doom leaves a silence behind. It seems as though many others are thinking along the same lines, opening a pathway for a few negative opinions to be expressed.
“What will it even accomplish?” calls out one man in a manner that suggests he’s been itching to speak. “If Cromwell is killed now, can Burns just step in and take over? Everything’s changed! This was meant to be a secret assassination. It was meant to be covert switch of regimes. We’re talking about storming the castle here. We’re talking about revolution!”
Others agree, voicing their support. The room fills with enough voices that Zander has to step forward once more, his voice cutting through the din and calling for silence.
“Quiet!” he shouts. “Let her speak!”
The brief tumult fades. The following lull is broken by the poised and calm voice of our leader.
“Perhaps you’re right,” says Lady Orlando coolly. “Perhaps we’re no longer looking at just a simple change in regime. Plans change, ladies and gentlemen. We wanted to merely install a Director who would be sympathetic to our cause. That chance may be gone. But the end goal remains the same. Artemis needs to be eliminated…”
“And what if someone else steps into the void he leaves behind?” calls out another woman, her voice squeaking from the shadows. “What if we’re just trading in Cromwell for another despot. They’re all the same up there! If we can’t install Commander Burns, what’s the point?!”
Once more, the room begins to rumble, and Zander’s roars douse the growing flames.
Lady Orlando remains composed.
“The point, Heather, is to change the course of history. We’re all aware here of the threat that the people face. It isn’t just the Unenhanced. It’s not just your friends and families in Outer Haven. It’s about saving everyone, the Enhanced included. Artemis has long held designs for the Savants alone. His mind, his programming, is bent on the concept of eugenics. He sees the Savants as the saviours of this planet. He considers emotion to be weakness, to be evil. He and all who follow him need to be destroyed for the sake of humankind. It really is that simple, Heather.
“Now, I appreciate all of your opinions and concerns. However, I will only condone constructive comments. Rycard has made a good point, and one we must consider. However, we cannot allow this forum to descend into a rabble. We must stay focused. Time is against us.”
Her words - authoritative, calm, logical – are enough to cool the tongues of those in the room. Yet there’s clearly a division appearing. Many simply don’t believe that we can win.
It’s written across their faces.
It’s splattered through their minds.
I can see it all, feel it all. The swell of negativity and doubt has been quietened. But it still remains, gnawing from within.
“We don’t have a choice.” It’s Zander, taking over from Lady Orlando. “But there may be another way…”
He turns to Lady Orlando. They lock eyes for a moment. She nods her consent, suggesting that they’ve discussed something before, something he’s about to share. His eyes return to the crowd.
“The High Tower isn’t as invulnerable as everyone thinks. It has a weakness that we can exploit.”
I turn to Adryan, standing beside me. We spent hours going over the schematics of the High Tower and all its security protocols. No weakness revealed itself. None at all.
“What weakness?” I ask, turning to my brother and voicing my concern. “Adryan and I know the layout inside out…”
“It isn’t a weakness of the interior, Brie. It is a weakness of nature.”
I frown.
Nature? What does that mean?
“The Savants think purely by logic,” he says, his voice filling the hall. “That is their nature. In order to outfox them, we need to think outside of the box. We need to do something that they would never expect. Something…terrible.”
I don’t like the tone of his voice. He’s unsure about what he’s saying.
“The High Tower is mostly impenetrable,” he goes on, his voice slow, methodical. “As Rycard rightly says, penetrating through the base might be impossible. And if we do, we will suffer great losses that we may not be able to afford. But…a direct attack may not be our only option.” His voice lowers. He takes a breath. “There is a vulnerability beneath the building, however, that may present an opportunity.”
Heads begin to turn, looking to each other. A heavy silence swamps the room. My brother glances at me with a guilty eye, before continuing.
“We may…be able to kill many birds with one stone,” he says. “We may be able to destroy the entire structure…”
His words empty into the room and hang for a few moments. No one speaks.
Destroy the entire structure.
Blow up the High Tower…
I look to Adryan, whose face has fallen into a frown. He stares forward at Zander, at Lady Orlando. Others do the same.
I do the same.
The silence is finally broken by our leader.
“I know it sounds awful,” she says. “But destroying the High Tower might be our only means of victory. Lives will be lost...innocent lives…but many more will be saved. They will not see it coming. They would never expect us to condone such an action. And that…that is why it might just work.”
The room remains silent. The concept begins to settle in the people’s minds. I look to their faces and sneak into their minds. Some consider the idea appalling. Others find it appealing. Yet those that do are consumed by guilt at the thought.
And Adryan? A man who’s spent his entire life living in that building?
I look to him and don’t need to read his mind. His expression is enough to show me that he considers the option unpalatable.
And as I look at him, he speaks.
“You can’t,” he says. “There are thousands of people in that building…they’re innocent. They know nothing of Cromwell’s plot.”
“No, they don’t,” says Lady Orlando. “They are merely slaves to his system too. But in war, Adryan, there is always collateral damage. We must give this idea serious thought. It may be the only way.”
“It is the only way,” comes a voice from the crowd. I turn. Others do too. And it’s to Rycard that they look.
There’s a grimace on his face, a curl of hatred that won’t go away. He’s been twisted by his injuries, his soul turning black.
“You’ll never get to Cromwell with what you’ve got here. You don’t have the manpower. He’ll see any direct attack coming. Destroy it, my Lady. Destroy the High Tower. Burn them all.”
Adryan starts shaking his head. Others do the same. But there are others who nod, some guiltily, others with a little more fervour.
But his words shock me. He’s turned bitter, willing to see hundreds, thousands of innocent people die for the sake of killing one man. And not just the Savants in the tower, or the City Guards who defend it – men and women that he once called his colleagues – but the Unenhanced who have married up too.
Women like Mary and Lucy, so kind-hearted, will be locked in that building as it crumbles, unable to escape the inferno.
As Rycard speaks, the room begins to rise with a hundred voices. Voices of agreement and voices of dissention. Voices calling for calm and others shouting for sanity. And in that tumult, I find myself walking away.
Walking away from all of this.
This talk of murder and death.
This talk of genocide.
If this is truly the only course of action, then I know I can have no part in it. Because if we go through with it, then we’re no better than the man we’re trying to depose.
And we’ll already have lost our humanity.
So away through the crowd I walk, moving for the rear door. And reaching it, I open it up and slip out into the misty air, and turn my eyes to the city in the distance. To the very building that is now under dispute.
But I’m not alone. From behind me, Adryan comes. He stands beside me
and looks at his old home, and our hands link together.
And with the church roaring nearby, we just stare in silence. Lost in thought, lost in doubt.
28
The first words I say come after an age.
They come from somewhere deep, some profound place in my mind. A place of dreams and ambitions. A place where anything is possible.
“Let’s leave this place,” I whisper.
I’m still staring forward at the High Tower, glittering through the mist. I can see Adryan look down at me through my peripheral vision. But still I just stare forward.
“And go where?” he asks.
Slowly, I turn around on the spot, looking off as far as I can into the opposite direction. Through the old ruins of the town. Through the woods around us. Through the hills and mountains and over the rivers and streams.
“Somewhere,” I say. “Anywhere…”
I speak without hope or expectation. I speak without belief. The words just come, like a daydream. A daydream I’ve had so many times before.
A daydream that, deep down, I always knew would never come true.
“Out there,” says Adryan, nodding forward. “After everything we’ve seen?”
I’m not thinking of that. I’m not thinking of the dangerous tribes, or the beasts, or the Shadows that lurk beyond. I’m not thinking at all of anything real. I’m just speaking, allowing myself some cathartic release, as the church continues to shake with the sound of a hundred arguing voices.
But here, it’s quiet. Here, it’s peaceful. A place for silly dreams that will never come true.
“Genocide,” I whisper. Reality is dawning. The respite provided by my imagination is closing up. “They’re talking about genocide…”
Adryan nods. He takes a tighter grip of my hand. My eyes are drawn to his.
“We could go,” he says, nodding. “We could take our chances.”
Is he saying it for me? Does he really believe it?
He can’t. His Savant mind would never allow such a thing.
Already I feel the daydream slipping away. It was never real.
I turn back to the High Tower, away from the unknown. Back to the place that dulls my heart, dulls my spirit.
“I won’t be part of it,” I say. “I won’t help.”
“They wouldn’t ask you to,” says Adryan. “Your brother wouldn’t…”
“My brother…” A scowl of disappointment curls on my lips.
How can he wish for this? How could he live with himself if he saw it through?
“You’ve done your part, Brie,” Adryan tells me. “And so have I. Let them figure it out, let them do what they need to…”
I shake my head, seeing in my mind’s eye the towering structure being eaten by flame. Seeing it crumbling to the floor, crushing the thousands who reside within.
“You don’t believe that, do you?” I ask. “You wouldn’t let them…”
“We don’t have a choice,” he answers quickly. “I…I hate the idea. But I see the logic in it. I see the bigger picture, as ugly as it is.”
A sigh drifts from me. I hate that I see it too, that I understand that they’re saying. But there has to be another way. This cannot be the course they take.
The fires of a revolution cannot be lit like this.
“If only I’d completed my mission,” I lament. “Look where we are now. Whatever happens, thousands are already being killed and reconditioned. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for…”
“Don’t, Brie,” says Adryan sharply. “It’s not your fault.”
“I…I know. I’m not blaming myself. I’m just...” I shake my head and let my chest deflate. “I don’t know. I’m just disappointed. We could have saved so many lives. We could have changed the world.”
Adryan takes my shoulders and turns me to him. He draws me into a hug, sensing that that’s what I need.
“We tried,” he says softly. “We tried our best.”
I hate the thought. If our best isn’t good enough, then what’s the point in trying at all? What was the point in any of this?
I slide from his arms and he lifts my chin. Again, he repeats what he said before.
“We could go,” he whispers. His eyes look again to the world behind us, to the great unknown. “We could find somewhere peaceful. Live simple lives away from all this.”
I smile weakly at his words. He’s never uttered such a sentiment. I’ve told him before of my desire to explore, to escape this city. His ambition has never been the same. All he’s ever wanted is to free Haven from the grip of Cromwell, to see all its people cooperating, working together for a brighter future.
And yet, here he is, willing to leave with me. Willing to leave for me.
I reach up and take his cheek in my palm. The lightest of touches draws his face in, and our lips lock in a gentle kiss.
And in that moment, with all these emotions flowing through me, some words escape me that I never intended. Words that I never thought I’d utter.
“I love you,” I whisper, so quiet as if I’m afraid to bring to life my feelings. A little girl, timid and shy.
I dip my eyes, too frightened to look into his. Across the street, the noise in the church fades into the background, and all the world turns silent.
A second passes. Then two.
My eyes rise again and, nervously, I look into his.
I see a smile on his face. His lips part, ready to speak. They delay a moment, and then he says: “I…love you too.”
I can’t help myself. Against my better judgement, I enter his mind and see confusion. I see me, my face prominent in his thoughts. But it’s not quite me. There’s something different. And as I look, I see my features alter slightly, turning into someone else.
And then I see it.
Amelia. His first wife. The woman whose abduction and death set him on this road, to this moment.
He’s still thinking about her. He’s still in love with her.
And me? I’m just a residue of that. A reflection.
Nothing more.
I turn away, and blink hard as a tear gathers.
“Brie…” whispers Adryan. He lifts my chin.
“You don’t have to...” I start.
I don’t finish. I don’t even know what I’m trying to say.
I steady my emotions, and shut away the foolish girl. Foolish for telling him how I feel. Foolish for feeling that way in the first place.
And foolish for even considering running away, leaving this place.
I turn back to the city, and a fresh resolve fills me. My friends are there, my family. Mrs Carmichael. Tess. Abby and Nate and the others at the academy. Drum down below us right now, at his sentry post, fighting the good fight.
Fighting for what’s right.
I can’t run from that. I can’t hide from it.
I will never abandon those I care about.
Those I love.
Those who love me.
Who really love me…
And as the debate continues to rage within the church, I know that, one way or another, I still have a part to play. As long as there are those I care about in the city, I will always be here for them. I will always do what I can to help them.
And turning away from Adryan, I look to the church, and begin marching back towards it.
Like Commander Burns told me when he revealed who he really was.
There’s more to be done out here. And I still have a role to play.
I just have to figure out what it is…
The Enhanced will continue in Book Six…
Next Up - Renegade
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Brie is at a major crossroad now, and so is the fate of the city. Right now, no one quite knows what will happen. And beyond, the world is beginning to wake…
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