by G F Cusack
“Water is fine.”
Zap poured a tall glass of cold, clear water and handed it to Flo. “Come with me. There’s a small office just round the corner where we can talk in private.”
Soon they were in a small room filled by four large, comfortable chairs. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ve so much to tell you,” Zap said. “We’ve been so busy passing information for others but the things I have to discuss needed to be said in person.”
“Tell me everything,” Flo said impatiently.
“The reason why we are so alike is that we are brother and sister.”
For a few seconds, Flo was speechless. “You’re my brother? What makes you think this?”
“I can’t remember our mother and until recently I didn’t know that our father was alive – but recently I met him.”
This was a lot for Flo to take in. “Our father, we have a father who’s alive?” She started burbling, “I was only young when my mother took me away and I only recently found out that she was called Mary.”
“That’s a nice name,” Zap said thoughtfully. “I wish I’d known her.”
“What’s our father like? Can we meet him? Is he close by?”
“He is relatively close by but you do not want to meet him.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you were to meet him, you would be in danger from him.”
“What?” All this was just too much for her. Now she understood why he had waited until they met in person. “What do you mean I’d be in danger from him?”
“He is called Brand and he is the leader of the elites. The true head of the Company known by some as the supreme leader.”
“That doesn’t make him a bad person.”
“The elites treat everyone else as though their lives are worthless. Their greed is the main reason why the masses are starving. Yet, as bad as the rest of the elites are, compared to our father they would be seen as reasonable people.”
“How do you know this?”
“I only recently found out that I can read minds. Can you do that?”
“My powers have been growing over the last year or so. I’ve progressed from reading people’s emotions to also reading their thoughts.”
“Before meeting our father, I had communicated with you of course but I didn’t known I had other mental gifts. Then when I met our father, his thoughts started filling my head. Maybe it was the strength of his emotions but, whatever it was, he didn’t seem to be aware I could tell what he was thinking.”
“And what was he thinking?
“He didn’t care about me or you, he just wanted to know which of us he could use best. His thoughts made it clear that he was happy to dispose of whichever one he decided to be of least use to him.”
“Are you sure that’s what he was thinking? Sometimes when I’m reading other people’s minds, it’s not that clear.”
“I’m positive. As well as his thoughts, he threatened me with his words. I was supposed to report your location to him by today.”
Flo was quiet for a few minutes but the excitement of meeting Zap overcame the news of her father. “We seem to be alike in our abilities. Perhaps it was because I was under stress that mine blossomed early but yours too will grow.”
“The signal between us has been getting stronger,” Zap said. “Perhaps our abilities are growing.”
“Do you think there are more people like us?”
“I don’t know. I only sensed you by accident. Maybe it’s just because we are brother and sister that our gifts are strong or maybe we will get stronger and be able to sense others.”
“Gifts, is that what you call them?” All this information was starting to wear Flo down.
“You can see it as a gift or a burden, depending on your frame of mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to trust other people if you can read what they’re thinking. Most people tell lies, even small lies.”
“So you do think it’s a burden.” By now Flo felt like crying. “I was kidnapped because people wanted to use me. Although we’ve been helping the resistance, it seems as though I am still being used.”
“We have been willingly using our gifts for the greater good and if I had to choose, I’d say it is definitely more a gift than a curse.”
“What makes you think that?”
“This gift has helped me reunite with a sister I never knew I had and has given me the opportunity to save people’s lives. Hopefully we can be part of something great. Something that’s going to stop the people from being downtrodden. To help them overthrow the greedy.”
Listening to Zap, Flo was filled with a sense of hope. After they talked in the room for over an hour, they went back to wait for Frank outside the meeting room and talked some more.
When Frank joined them, it felt to them like they had only just begun talking.
“Can we stay here tonight? I’ve got so much more I want to find out,” Flo asked Frank.
“I’m afraid not now, there’ll be time enough for that later. I still need you to help us communicate with Zap for a little longer.”
“How much longer?” Flo asked, echoing Zap’s thoughts.
“Once we put our plans into action, it’s going to get dangerous out there and this is one of the most secure places in the city. You’ll be coming back here to stay with Zap then. Promise me you’ll take care of her, Zap?”
Without hesitation, Zap heard himself say, “I promise.”
“Good, I’ve come to think of this young woman as family and I can’t afford to lose any more family,” Frank said.
“Can we just stay a little longer, please Frank?”
“I’m sorry, just by being in the city we are putting ourselves and others at risk. We need to get back to the fighters and prepare for what’s to come. It’s been nice to meet you, Zap.” Frank offered his hand.
“It was nice to meet you too.”
“You have five minutes, Flo. Say your goodbyes and remember you’re coming back soon.”
The beaming smile that Flo had arrived with was fading. Feeling her sadness, Zap blurted out, “Don’t be sad, you know we are going to have lots of time together when this is all over. Can you feel it?”
A small smile came over Flo’s face. “Yes, I can feel it.”
As she walked towards Frank at the top of the stairs, she shouted over her shoulder, “See you soon.” At the same time, inside their heads she said, “I can’t wait to come back and talk some more”.
Zap shouted after her, “I look forward to your return. I’ve always wanted a sister.”
With a start, Frank turned to Flo. “Sister!”
“I know, I only just found out myself.”
He was suddenly speechless.
After Angus and Miyamoto escorted them back to their vehicle, Frank left with Flo to brief his fighters.
49
Prepping for the warriors’ escape
27 September 2202
As computer programmers in the central information unit, Zap and Dick had been working together for several years. Their computers weren’t as advanced as the computers of a hundred years ago, but they did control a lot of the security and environment for the Sanctuary.
Over the last twelve months, Zap had believed that he and Dick had become pretty good friends but, all the same, he had held back from telling him about his interactions with the resistance and the warriors. At first it was because he hadn’t wanted to put Dick in danger, even though Dick’s input could have helped sometimes. But now that he knew Brand had placed Dick there to spy on him, Zap had an even bigger reason for not bringing him in on the secret.
When Dick asked Zap what his plans were for the evening, he wanted to say, “I’m helping to stop this system of useless mindless death for the fun of the elites.” Instead he said he would probably stay home and play computer games. He could hear Dick’s thoughts, “This will be the last time that you play games as I know what you’ve done,”
Zap had known some of the people in the fighting pit for a while. These were the trainers, the medics and support people. The warriors themselves generally never lasted long enough for him to build a strong relationship with them.
Although the security systems around the warriors were mainly mechanical, the alarms, lighting and some electronics linked to the main stadium security were controlled by computer.
The plan was simple: at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon, he would disable the electrics and the external security locks so that the warriors could overpower the guards.
Finding people willing to guard the savage warriors wasn’t that easy so the Company troops were only responsible for watching the outside of the stadium while the trainers and ex- warriors were expected to police the inside.
The Company security was always stretched and recent raids had further reduced the number of troops guarding the stadium. The warriors now outnumbered their Company guards on a scale of more than ten to one.
Through his dreams and mind contact with Flo, Zap knew that there was more to the world than the Sanctuary. His access to intelligence had also shown him that the damage outside the Sanctuary wasn’t as widespread as the internal media control would suggest.
Only the military were allowed to use or carry guns in the Sanctuary. This didn’t mean that the warriors didn’t have weapons. Although the warriors tended to fight hand-to-hand, they could use weapons for specific tournaments and bouts. Spears, clubs, hammers and rudimentary weapons could just as easily kill a sentry caught off guard as kill another warrior. The warriors in the pits had never imagined they would have a chance to escape. Once Karla outlined her plans to them, they gained some hope that they might.
Brand’s recent show of power and the arrival of the rebels from the south had initiated the actions that were to follow. Zap’s initial intelligence support was now being extended to technical support. He’d been asked to coordinate the power cut in order to increase the warriors’ chances of success and accepted without a second thought.
The resistance had planned coordinated hits of the gel plants and the other key areas of the Sanctuary at the same time. This would give them the best – if not the only – chance of success.
Checking the system, Dick had seen that Zap had input the code that would disable the electronics and the lights of the pits at three o’clock on the afternoon of September 30th. Dick was ecstatic – what kind of rewards Brand would provide him when he turned over such valuable information?
Dick normally reported the information about Zap through an intermediary. However, once before when Brand had wanted some more detailed personal information, Brand had summoned him to the big house. The cover story had been that Dick was going to sort out some computer issues. Given Brand’s status, it was plausible enough that one of the best technicians in the Sanctuary would go to the big house.
However, just as Brand had his own spies throughout the Sanctuary, the resistance also had many ears and they had raised their suspicions of Dick.
Zap had been informed of these suspicions a few days before. Reading Dick’s mind confirmed them. It was time to do a little misleading of his own.
Unbeknown to Dick, the attacks would actually be carried out tomorrow. Dick would pass on the wrong information to Brand.
Zap needed to reprogram the system after Dick had noted the initial settings. The resistance had provided equipment at the pits so that he could access the systems remotely. Now was the riskiest part of the strategy as he had to remain in his apartment until Dick reported on him.
The plan was for the resistance to apprehend Dick after he had passed on the information. Although Zap realised that Dick was endangering all of their lives, he was unsure how he felt about the death of somebody who he’d spent so much time with and had been one of his only companions for so long.
In the early days, Zap had taken some solace in having somebody to confide in. Unfortunately, this had led Zap to tell Dick about the female voice in his head and their communication through shared dreams.
Fate was a strange thing. Zap had told Dick about dreaming of a young woman who felt so comfortable and familiar to him it was as though it was himself. When Dick had passed on this information in his weekly report, it had seemed minor to him yet it was this information that had initiated the summons to the big house.
After reading Dick’s mind, Zap learnt that this was the information that Dick had presented to Brand personally at the big house. It was this meeting that had sparked Brand’s suspicion that the female was Zap’s twin and perhaps still alive. The opportunity to have some kind of telepath at his disposal had been part of the reason why Brand had been searching for her in the first place.
Zap knew that he was playing a dangerous game by stringing Dick along. With the deadline to report to Brand now passed, at any stage the soldiers could bring him in for the report. With this false information about the attacks that Dick was passing on, Zap just hoped that he would be left under surveillance for a little longer, with Brand assuming he could learn more this way than arresting him three days before what Brand believed was the date of the attacks.
Dick and Zap were two of the few people allowed access to the system. For it to be monitored around the clock, one of them was usually on-call to fix any problems. If they both disappeared it was unclear who would check the system but the remote access would allow Zap to wait until the last minute to reset the system.
It was getting late and Zap’s nerves were on edge. He hadn’t heard Dick return and wasn’t sure if this meant that he was coming back with an escort of Company troops or had been taken by the resistance.
A soft rapping on his door startled him. “Open the door,” came the voice of Angus.
As Zap quickly opened the door, Angus and another man pushed Dick through the doorway ahead of them. He had his hands bound behind his back and tape over his mouth.
Looking into Dick’s eyes, Zap could feel the hatred in him as he listened to his thoughts. “You idiot, you think that you are winning but I have told the Company of your plans for the 30th. The troops will be here for you in a couple of hours and you’re screwed.”
“He’s given them the information we wanted and the Company troops will be here for me soon,” Zap said to Angus.
Dick looked confused.
“If they’re on their way, we need to get moving. We’re going to take you with us and, if you behave, you may live. If you cause any trouble or try to raise an alarm, we’ll still take you with us but we will be carrying your dead body,” Angus said to Dick. “Do you understand?”
Dick nodded and produced a muffled sound that Angus took to be yes.
“If you are attached to anything in this apartment, I suggest you take it with you now as I doubt you are ever coming back,” Angus said to Zap.
Zap had a small knapsack hooked over one shoulder. “I have some clothes and a few tools in here and that’s all I need.”
The four of them left the apartment, never to return.
50
Attack on the elite compound
28 September 2202
Frank’s people had been chosen for the attack on the elites’ winter homes. They had brought Flo along and, as was expected, Eric had insisted on coming too. It was quite a distance between the winter homes and the council buildings so they hoped for little interference from the Company.
With the Company forces already stretched thin in the capital, the elites relied primarily on their own security. Living in a gated compound also contributed to their safe keeping.
Lacey had been sent with some of the rebels to bolster the fighters in the capital and Pepper had volunteered to go with them.
The plan for the compound was relatively simpl
e. For several weeks before the festival, the elites tended to retreat to their winter homes. This was a time when they carried out their final preparations for the winter but it was also a time for preening. Tailors visited the rich to create an array of amazing outfits for the festival. Of course, over the three days of the ceremony, the elites would require at least two outfits for each day. Only the lucky ones among the masses had a change of clothes at any given time of year.
A key part of the strategy had been for the rebels to get a large group of fighters to this isolated compound. Its isolation was one of its security strengths but also created a certain level of complacency.
For the last week or so, the resistance had set up their own food distribution point nearby, still under the guise of the SUP organisation so the elites would have found it hard to reject. In reality the elites didn’t concern themselves with anything happening outside their compound. So it was of no concern to them that, as news of the daily free food spread, the size of the crowd grew steadily.
As with any routine, people came to depend on the daily food and if this supply was disrupted, trouble would ensue. Nobody had asked or cared about where the food came from. If the hungry people learnt that a new distribution point was now inside the elites’ compound, they would accept it readily.
This was the plan. On the day of their attack, the resistance would spread the word of the new distribution point. This would create an extra strain on the security at the accommodation and also allow Frank’s numbers to be bolstered by the crowds. With excessive stocks of food inside the compound, if the rebels could get people inside they would go on the rampage, gorging themselves on the surplus food.
Zap had provided Frank with schematics and plans of the compound. The numbers were in their favour but Frank was still cautious. It was expected that several thousand of the Norm class would show up to storm this place. By breaking through the fences and approaching the main gates from behind, Frank’s people would take out the defence force at the main gate and throw them open.
