In the midst of this incredible hypocrisy of City law and historical teachings, he was faced with a decision of conscience and principles. He looked to Eve. She knew what was coming. Callen leaned forward and said, “I’m sorry.”
The remark brought instant tears from Eve. Callen refused to make a statement of any kind. The Chairman looked at Callen hard.
“The alternative is body donation.”
Callen nodded his understanding and explained that he couldn’t stand up and declare what he knew to be true, as false. He couldn’t and he wouldn’t and if his life was the price to be paid, in a show of youthful defiance, he vowed to pay it.
Alexi asked for Callen to be removed and guards came into the room and quickly escorted him away. Eve screamed for Lien to do something. She even pleaded with Gerda, who remained silent and unmoved as she ignored the heartfelt cries. Lien tried to calm his daughter, but she wouldn’t be calmed. She let fly with a diatribe of the most uncharitable remarks towards the two worlds’ leaders. She was at a loss to comprehend the remarkable amount of misinformation that she, along with so many others in both worlds had been foolish enough to believe and set their life’s goals and ideals alongside. She stormed from the room, having given all present a dressing down. She headed after Callen, determined to be by his side for as long as possible. Lien went to follow, but was stopped short of the large wooden doors. The Chairman assured him, his daughter would be fine. He also felt there were issues concerning the girl Lien should be aware of before he made any further decisions. Lien’s curiosity was piqued by the comment and he gave up his attempts to follow Eve, who had been met outside the Chairman’s door and taken by guards to be placed in a detention cell of her own.
Left in the office, the two parties settled themselves, before Alexi broached the subject that had brought them together.
“Ask the girl to persuade him to make the statement,” he said.
“The girl’s name is Eve,” Lien said with annoyance to the way his daughter was being used to do the City’s dirty work.
“Lien, please,” Gerda pleaded, trying to diffuse the situation.
“No! I don’t blame her for being upset. She’s not the only one people have been lying to.”
Gerda gathered herself to speak and began by placing her hand on Lien’s shoulder. She explained that as leader, she inherited a system of government which included the wrongs of the past. And she spoke of the dangers of revealing such wrongs to their people, warning that to do so would undermine the respect and admiration with the past and therefore, reduce the legitimacy of the current leaders. She made it seem that Lien’s compliance with the pressing issues of the moment may well influence the survival of the Outlocked. Lien listened without response, he wasn’t about to push his daughter into a role, helping dishonest leaders continue their dishonesty.
The City Chairman nodded to one of his underlings who strode forward and handed Lien a medical report. He read it. The contents changed both his mood and complexion.
“Why was I shown this?”
“If you can convince your daughter, Eve, to speak to the boy and he in turn makes the statement we’ve asked for, then they can both leave to live in your world and that will be the end of it,” said the Chairman with a chilling disregard for the lives involved.
“And the alternative?” asked Lien, staring directly at the Chairman who didn’t seemed in the least challenged by the emotionally charged question.
“The boy will be sent to body donation and that will also be the end of it.”
Lien was sickened by the discoveries he’d made in rapid succession about the world he’d once lived in and the world he’d adopted. He felt betrayed by both sets of leaders, leaders he’d once respected and now defied at one time in his life. On this occasion, as much as he despised those asking him to compromise his principles, he had a higher loyalty. No longer was he worried by his leader’s will, his people’s rights or his homeland’s survival, he was now solely worried about his daughter, his family. Quietly, he agreed to speak to Eve. He knew that if anyone could get Callen to make such a statement it was her and Lien was the only one capable of getting her to do that.
Eve sat on a plastic moulded bench in a well lit room without edges of any kind. The door had a small eyepiece that magnified the outside world into a blur when she tried to peer outwards. On the wall high above, a black plastic lens, resembling a small ball, sat imbedded in the ceiling. From this lens, the city authorities watched Eve’s every move. They saw her tense up as the door to her cell opened and they watched as her father tentatively entered and sat next to her on the cold and sterile bench. The view of those outside the cell would be uninterrupted, as would their intrusion upon the privacy of the pair’s conversation. The feed was sent straight into the Chairman’s office. The Chairman sat, side by side with Gerda on his large leather couch. They looked like old friends sharing a quiet afternoon in front of a popular cabled show.
Lien’s great strength had all but disappeared.
“They want you to ask Callen to make the statement.”
“I won’t.”
“No, good. You shouldn’t. I’d be disappointed if you felt any other way.”
Father and daughter sat in silence for a good time.
“So go and tell them I won’t ask Callen to do it.”
Lien nodded as if ready to go and do as asked, but he never moved from beside Eve.
“You love him, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been feeling fine, lately?” he asked with some tenderness.
“Why?”
“If Callen says what they want him to say, you can both come home, straight away. They won’t bother us anymore.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Lien paused. He reached out and took Eve’s hand and then spoke very quietly as a concerned father.
“Your child’s going to grow up without a father.”
The door to Callen’s cell opened and he braced himself, ready for whatever was in store next. When he saw Eve standing there he ran forward and took her in his arms. They kissed briefly before settling on an embrace that was held so tightly an onlooker may well have thought they were trying to press their two bodies into one. Eve was quick to explain why she’d been allowed to see him and Callen was appalled that Lien would put her up to it. Eve explained he was simply looking out for her. He honestly felt they should give up on trying to change what couldn’t be changed in the world of the City and accept and enjoy the rest of their lives together in the world of the Outlocked.
Callen listened to Eve speak. He had to assume she’d been convinced by others, including Lien, to tow the line in order to make him perform as the City wished. Eve assured him this wasn’t the case.
“I’m pregnant,” she said, bringing the conversation to a halt.
Callen reacted as if he’d been winded and he stood giving a silent speech, his mouth opening and closing, without a sound being uttered. It was a moment of sheer joy for the young couple and as the reality sank in for Callen, he drew Eve back into a tight embrace.
The couple’s celebration lasted only a moment before Callen became subdued by his own situation. He was to be a father, whether he returned with Eve or not. This was more than he’d ever expected while living in the city. Even those lucky enough to be assigned a child would hardly dare dream the child would be theirs biologically. Now he had a choice to make; a choice about his own ideals and principles. He desperately wanted to leave the city and live with Eve as her partner and share in parenting their child, but he didn’t want to do so at the expense of those within the city who’d given him their trust. He closed his eyes and stood, as if chastising himself for his own character. Eve’s eyes opened wider and a single tear led the way down her cheek. Callen opened his eyes to find her crying. She knew his decision before he even spoke.
“I can’t do it,” he said, his voice quivering, wanting to break and join Eve in tears. He went to take E
ve’s hand, but she pulled it away. She loved this young man so much that at this very moment, she hated every cell in his body. Her voice gave sound to her tears for the first time and she began to cry openly.
“Please,” Callen said. It was all he needed to say. Eve turned and threw her face into his chest as her arms wrapped around him. Together they stood still. The only sound a muffled sobbing coming, seemingly, from deep within them both.
Two guards entered the cell and began to prise Eve and Callen apart. Callen protested against any manhandling of Eve, but he was touched by a pulse gun that stung his hand away and brought a scream of “no!” from Eve, as she was pushed through the door. Again the cell was tight and smooth, without an opening. Callen was in silence. Outside, Lien would be allowed to leave the City with Eve. In the end, the young girl would need to be sedated because of the uncontrollable state she worked herself into over the fate of the man she loved. She knew that the City had little regard for Callen and in her mind leaving him behind would be to leave him forever.
Twelve hours later, she woke, back in her own room at camp. Lien sat anxiously beside her. Her senses were dulled as she looked around the room as if for the first time. The sedation was still within her system, although she was fast finding herself from within the haze. Callen’s image came to her and she sat bolt upright. Lien caught her and held her tight as she leapt from the bed.
“No, it’s over,” he said, doing his best to console her.
Eve was a long way from accepting this.
“It’s not over! He’s still alive and I’m going to help him!”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Lien said.
Eve gave up her fight to reach the door and looked to her father like an animal sizing up prey.
“If you hadn’t helped them this wouldn’t have happened!”
“I had to protect you,” Lien said.
“You’ve killed him! Do you understand! He’s going to be killed because of you! You didn’t protect me, you’ve ruined my life!”
The two began a wrestle, Eve trying to win her freedom to nowhere. Lien held her to him, pinning her without movement.
“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding helpless.
“Gerda could stop it!” Eve screamed.
“No,” Lien answered quickly. “She can’t. She can’t do anything. Callen’s the only one who can change things and he’s made his choice.”
Lien was finally starting to understand the true nature of the worlds he belonged to - both old and new. Value was derived for those in the City, by wealth. The Outlocked may have been beyond the City walls, but they were not beyond their influence. Gerda’s relationship with the Chairman was a hollow diplomacy - the politeness of a smile to stop an awkward conversation. If the City ever found an economic need for anything the Outlocked had, both ownership and their survival would be revised. This simple truth left Lien with little to believe in. All he could do was concentrate on trying to help his daughter through her grief; grief she was feeling for a man still living.
“You have to think about what Callen wants,” he said, almost trying to work through the logic of his argument as he spoke.
“The only way he can leave, is to do what they want. And that undoes everything he’s done.”
Eve began to sob as Lien went back to holding her tight. Her mood would swing between despair and fury, as she lived alongside, what she felt were Callen’s last moments of life. Moments she would never be part of; moments she could never make easier for the man she loved.
A whole day passed before the City decided on its next course of action. Callen’s will was holding firm, but the authorities were not giving up. The door to his cell opened again and he quickly came to his feet in the hope he’d be allowed more time with Eve. The hope was short lived, in the doorway stood a man and a woman in their fifties. Callen went back to sit on his bench unimpressed by the visitors who now entered his cell to be locked inside with him.
“Hello, Callen,” the woman said.
The man said nothing. He simply stood and stared. Callen looked up from his feet to take these people in properly. Their presence left him unmoved. The woman smiled as he looked at her. Callen’s face suddenly dropped. He didn’t recognise either of these people in front of him, but that smile he knew. He looked harder, this time concentrating on what he saw and slowly their faces grew in his memory, until recognition came.
“Mum?!” he said to the woman as if it were a question.
Leona Carrus nodded as she burst into nervous laughter. Callen looked to his father. He too was smiling.
“What are you doing here?”
“They told us to come,” Leona said. “We didn’t understand at first because it meant breaking the law, but they insisted. They told us the law didn’t matter.”
“We’ve been watching you on the news,” Callen’s father said. “We knew it was you from the very first report. We just knew.”
Callen and his parents sat down together and began to talk. They had a thousand questions. Callen was happy to answer them all. The only moment of any tension between them came when Callen asked why they’d come. The question was met with an awkward silence that Leona broke.
“We’ve been asked to try and talk you into.... doing what they want. They told us you made the whole thing up. If you explain that to people, you won’t get into any more trouble.”
Callen was disappointed Leona had come to believe the government’s version of events without ever hearing his. He explained there was no more trouble he could get himself into. He was beginning to understand the world in which he lived and the people who ruled it and he was far from impressed on either count. What they were asking of him he couldn’t do, out of respect for himself and his friends and those who’d decided to believe him. What he’d been saying was true, every single word of it.
He began the task of telling his parents of his journey since he left them all those years ago and he left nothing out. It took some time to tell and at least an hour passed before he could do the story justice. His parents sat shocked by the tale.
“You believe me don’t you?” he asked, when he’d finished.
He received stunned looks as he tried to hammer home what the discoveries he’d made could mean. Not just to himself, but to Leona and Jonathan’s lives and to all those within the City. It was difficult for them to understand the simplicity of what Callen was preaching. It went against everything they’d come to know and believe. Everything they’d been taught would need to be discarded in order to accept his suggestions that the world outside the City’s walls held more opportunity than the world within.
When Callen had finished, Jonathan carefully turned the conversation back to the statement the government wanted from him. Callen realised he hadn’t managed to convince his father who pleaded with him to do as asked. The request came out of misplaced loyalty that time and teaching wouldn’t allow him to abandon. As he continued, Callen’s eyes glazed over in a mixture of pity and growing resentment to his father’s attempts. Jonathan sensed his son’s attitude and began to waiver. Leona had her back to them both, unable to share in the task of trying to pervert their son’s ideals. She was thoroughly ashamed of her husband’s attempt, although she had no intention of stopping him or making her protests known.
Jonathan paused as the tension in the small cell grew. Once more he began trying to convince his lost son, building up to a crescendo of rhetoric, but he stopped short, faltering mid sentence.
“To hell with it, son. You do what you think is right!”
He grabbed Callen’s shoulder and brought him forward in a manly hug, coupled with a solid slap on the back.
“I’m so proud of you!”
Leona turned and joined them. Holding Callen as tightly as any mother could, she wept, as all three embraced for the first time in over a decade.
The visit was brought to an abrupt halt as those monitoring the meeting had seen it come to nought. The cell was opened and Leona and Jonat
han were forcibly removed. It was a moment that had come out of the most bizarre set of circumstances and now the ending was nothing but emotional pain. Neither side was being given the opportunity to issue a proper goodbye. Callen’s emotions had taken a battering and finally his resolve let him down. He began to weep as his parents were taken from him for the second time in his short life.
“We love you!” Leona shouted as she was roughly dragged from the cell.
“We both love you!” Jonathan added, as he too was removed from the cell. Callen came to rest at the foot of the cell door as it closed him in. He was crying loudly out of emotional exhaustion. All he could do was open the floodgates and let the crippling feelings he’d been trying to contain spill out. To hold them in was a task he no longer had the energy for.
Chapter 21.
Gerda and Alexi watched the viewer. Alexi shook his head and tapped the screen with his finger, sending the image away.
“He’s given up,” he said, showing for the first time any sign of sympathy for the young man being held in the cell. There was stillness for a moment, almost as if news of a death had been broken. Alexi brought the silence to an end.
“So, now we know what we have to do.”
Gerda nodded in agreement. The two shook hands.
“He’s very dedicated. I don’t think he’ll give you any trouble,” she said, before leaving to begin the journey back to her own land. Her time away would be dismissed as a sabbatical and only Lien, Eve and the most senior Elders would ever know it was anything more.
Alexi turned to the five other board members in the room.
“Are we ready?” he asked, receiving five positive responses. He tapped the voicepad on his desk. It was the size a small coin imbedded within the desk top. A voice came from a speaker within the room.
“Yes, sir?”
Inner City Page 20
