by T. C. Edge
"Yes, well, maybe it does sound stupid," Elian admits, considering his words. "But...that's just the way it is. The Prime have spoken. Are you going to deny them?"
I see his face begin to brighten as he says their name, a smile blessing it. It's brief, something I haven't really noticed before. Do we all do that? Do we all smile like that when we merely say their name, let alone think about them?
"I...I don't want to answer that right now, Elian," I say. "Not in this mood you're in."
"Mood? What mood?"
"Look, it doesn't matter. I just came to see that you were OK, and hoped I'd be the first face you saw when you woke up. I thought you might freak out a little bit when you found out where we were."
"Freak out. Who's freaking out?"
"You are."
"I'm not freaking out. I'm...well, what do you expect?" he grunts. I see him cringe, all this drama upon waking clearly plenty to set a heavy ache to his head. "I didn't expect to wake up here. I...I didn't expect to wake up at all."
"Then this should be a positive," I say, trying to smile. "Better this than being dead, right."
"I'm not so sure right now."
I step towards him, using some of my feminine wiles to try to calm him. I press my palm to his cheek, soften my eyes and my voice. "And what about me?" I ask. "You're not...happy to see me?"
He sighs, nodding slowly. "Of course. Of course I am. I...I saw you on the battlefield at the end. You came, Amber. You came back for me."
"I had to," I say, the room suddenly closing in, turning quiet. "I couldn't abandon you like that out there."
"So you...got Jude out?" he asks.
The question sets a renewed throb to my heart. I nod, slowly. "It's...complicated."
"All of this is complicated," he says, flashing his eyes on the door, on the eminent figures conversing outside. "What happened?"
"I...I was going to get him out, but, well, he already had plans."
"Plans?"
"To escape with some of the other workers," I explain. "There were a couple dozen of them, I think. He didn't need me, Elian. He escaped into the wilds."
"Ah," he says, understanding the fears on my face. "Maybe he should have come here." He says it slightly sarcastically. But really, he's right.
"That's what I said," I tell him, quite serious. "He was never going to listen."
"Well, I guess once you've been a slave, it makes it hard to trust anyone," Elian muses. "I'm sorry, Amber."
"Don't be. I'm trying to sort it out."
"Sort it? How?"
I glance towards the President outside. "They're helping. Trying to track him for me, bring him here."
He recoils, frowning. "Really?"
"You sound surprised."
"Well, I...I guess I am," he admits.
"You see, they're not as bad as you think."
"I don't think that," he interjects. "I never said I thought that they were bad."
"Well then, maybe that's a good start," I say. I turn my eyes towards the door. I can see Secretary Burns peering in again, a slightly impatient expression on his face. He probably has a lot to do. I shouldn't keep him waiting any longer. "I...I should probably go," I say. "I have an appointment to keep."
"An appointment?" Elian asks, raising his eyes. Everything's a question to him right now. Everything's confusing.
"I'll tell you later," is all I say.
"Later?" he says, sounding a little nervous and unsure. "When will that be? I have more questions, Amber. I need to know what's been happening."
"You'll find out soon," I say. "I promise." I step back from the bed, hesitating slightly as I move away. "But, um, well, there's something else you should probably know..."
He frowns, my tone of voice clearly making him cautious. "What?" he asks darkly.
"It's...um, it's Perses," I say.
I begin moving towards the door, reaching for the handle.
His expression darkens. "What about Perses?"
I set a smile to my lips, and brighten my voice. "He's, well...he's alive," I say hastily.
As his expression builds into a state of shock, and before he can utter one of the many questions likely bubbling in his head, I shoot off through the door, escaping into the corridor outside.
115
"OK, Amber, take a seat, and let's get started."
I sit down on the chair placed in the middle of the room, one not far from the cell I woke up in this morning. This room is similarly unpleasant and unwelcoming, designed, I imagine, to be that way. It holds a hostile feel and, apparently, hostile purpose. The chair makes that perfectly clear; fitted with chains and shackles as it is, its base bolted to the floor.
I look upon it with some trepidation as I sit.
"Don't be alarmed," Burns says to me. "There really is nothing to fear."
"It's a torture chamber, Mr secretary," I say, pointing out the obvious. "You can understand my concerns."
"No, not torture," Burns corrects me. "Merely interrogation."
"And when the subject doesn't give answers?" I say. "Then it becomes a torture chamber, right?"
"Perhaps," Burns says, one corner of his mouth tweaking into a grin.
He steps towards me, his hands reaching out to attach the straps to my wrists. I recoil on instinct.
"Just a precaution," he says calmly. "Don't worry. I'm just not certain how you might react."
I take a steadying breath, and let him fix me into position. Really, there is no 'letting him'. There are, I know, soldiers stationed outside of the door. I don't have much choice in the matter.
"OK, all done," he says. "I hope they're not too tight?"
I try to wriggle my wrists, pull my hands free. "About tight enough, I'd say."
"Enough to keep you in place, but not so much as to cut off circulation?" he suggests.
I nod. "That about sums it up."
"Good. The ideal amount of tightness, then."
He begins moving around the room, wandering in a circle and out of sight behind me, before coming back in front of me again. He holds his hand to his chin musingly, pondering things as he goes. I sit, waiting for him to do something, and hoping he doesn't suddenly clip his fingers, and bring in some terrible device to 'deprogram' me. Some sort of shock therapy or something that will cause all thoughts of the Prime to flee.
Eventually, he speaks, stopping for a moment in front of me.
"Explain, if you will, Amber, exactly what happens when you think of the Prime."
I gulp, and take a breath. "Well," I start, trying not to think of them too clearly, knowing how I'll react, "I suppose it starts with a sort of internal vision of them. In the back of my mind somewhere. All bright and radiant and beautiful and perfect..."
My words tumble and my thoughts betray me. The Prime come as a dual figure, wondrous and glowing, bringing that typical bloom of happiness with them. It consumes me for a moment as I recollect my first meeting with them, when I first looked upon them and felt such intense joy, as if nothing bad could ever happen when I was in their service. As if I'd do anything, anything at all, to make them happy in return, make them proud of me as all children want to do with their parents.
I indulge the moment, before slowly coming around. And when I do, I find Secretary Burns looking at me with a keen interest, his cool blue eyes staring right into my own.
I try to haul the wide smile off my face. It's so broad my cheeks almost hurt from the effort.
"Er...sorry," I say.
"Don't be," he tells me. "Do you know how long you were sitting there, smiling?"
I frown. "A few seconds, I guess."
"Make it minutes, Amber," he says. "It would appear that you can lose track of time when lost to this bliss they bring."
I shake my head, not entirely believing him. "No, that hasn't happened before."
"How would you know?"
"I..."
"And it has happened, hasn't it?" he says, still peering at me with those deep eyes of his.
"It happened when you first met them. It happened in the days that followed, when you yearned to see them again."
"How do you know about that?" I ask.
"Don't ask questions to which you already know the answers," he responds quickly. "I was in your mind with you just now, Amber. I could see the vast joy that you were experiencing. This is something I have never encountered, or even heard of. I am starting to understand just how the Prime have spread their rule."
He begins walking again, moving slowly around me, slipping behind my back as he speaks. "You would do anything they desire," he tells me. "You would kill. You would destroy. You would abandon your family, or even murder them if you had to. You would do it all to please them, if they saw fit to make you. And you'll do anything, I know, to defend them..."
I feel something new brewing inside me at his words. Some darkness beginning to spread, knowing what they intend.
Knowing that I have agreed to help them.
That they have tricked me into this...
My breathing begins to intensify, my wrists working to pull at the straps. I twist, trying to look at him, a great anger starting to fill me. "I take it back!" I growl. "I take it all back. I'm not going to help you...I'll kill you if I can..."
"Calm, Amber," he whispers smoothly, coming back around to my side. "This is the reaction I was expecting. You don't even realise how deeply brainwashed you are. You are two people, in essence. The conscious you, logical, rational, caring and kind. The girl who wants to save her people, and depose this ruler who controls you all. And then...there's the other you. The brainwashed you, the part that has been overtaken by this infection of the mind. The part that feels that great swelling of joy when working to do the Prime's will. The part that, now, is threatening my very life, absolutely committed to protecting its master."
He comes back around ahead of me. For a moment, he goes quiet, waiting, perhaps, for me to respond. Inspecting my reaction as his words settle in.
Then, he begins to nod. "Yes, I can see it now," he says softly. "The battle inside you. You are fighting against it, trying to repel it. You want to break free. But it's not quite so easy as that."
I find my body trembling as I do exactly what he's saying. As I try to fight off the dreadful anger, coming from nowhere. As I try to step outside of myself and see what I truly am. I didn't know it. I didn't truly realise it.
"Get it out," I say through gritted teeth. "You...you have to get it out."
"That is my intention," Burns says quietly. "But first, you must realise the depths of the problem. The issue, as I see it, is that no one really knows how far in they are. Your people, your leadership, they are all subjected to this subtle form of control. And it is subtle, Amber. We are not speaking about mindless drones. We aren't talking about the Stalkers, or the Con-Cops we have here, programmed to be emotionless, to act without question. No, this is different. You have the illusion of control and free will, but in truth, no matter how much you might doubt or question something, you will always end up in the same place; doing exactly what you're intended for." He nods to himself, appearing quite impressed, intrigued by it all. "It's very sophisticated," he muses quietly. "Very sophisticated indeed."
He begins moving again, as I sit and think and try to clear my mind, try to rid myself of the controls, the impulses, within me. And even though I know he's right, know what he's saying is true, that won't stop me lashing out if I get the chance. If I think again of the Prime, of this plan to eliminate them, I will respond in the only way I'm meant to. Violently. Aggressively. Like a cornered animal protecting her offspring, a mother bear defending her cubs.
"You had doubts," Burns goes on, moving back around me and out of sight, "about your task here. We know this. And yet, when the time came, would you have gone through with it, do you think?"
He moves ahead of me again, linking eyes. I sense his intrusions, though don't deny him entry or try to look away. "Yes," I say, not able to lie, knowing he'll see the truth anyway. "I battled against it, but I'd have gone through with it anyway. Elian would have led me. He would have helped me through it."
"And did he have doubts, as you did?"
"Some," I say, nodding. "But...he knew it was his duty. He was more willing to follow through than me."
"Of course," Burns says, turning his eyes away, thinking. "Of course he was. He is deeper in than you. The controls in him are more substantial, more imbedded. Yet even you, even someone with such a history of defiance and heresy, would have still gone through with something that made you so utterly uncomfortable. Something you knew, in your conscious mind, was deeply, monstrously, primally wrong."
Again, I can't deny it. As much as I want to, I can't.
"I think we can help you, Amber," Burns says. "From what I can tell, the influence within you is manageable. It sparks great joy when you consider pleasing them, and great anger and hatred when someone seeks to challenge them. But...these things can be removed, I feel. Elian, and Perses, may be more problematic."
"They're good people," I whisper, turning my eyes down.
"Of course they are," comes Burns's voice. "This isn't about being good or bad. In fact, good people are better subjects in this regard. Within the appearance of their free will, they seem to do good things. And, in many ways, they do do good things. Yet, when called upon to perform a more insidious act, they will follow through with that as well. Herald Perses is, as we have discovered, a kind man at heart. Yet even he was willing to carry out this plot. A man who values human life, who takes no pleasure in killing innocent people, would have committed genocide against many tens of thousands. And all in the name...of the Prime."
The words settle in, causing my heart to throb with a dull, empty ache. I have questioned all of this myself, many times over, and even know, perhaps, that this was the case. Yet, I've never been able to do anything about it. Such is the power of the Prime, such is their influence and near divinity, that I've never delved deep enough to escape them. Any time I've begun to truly doubt my place and my role, I have quickly found myself swept back into it, making some excuse, or merely choosing to follow the word, the leadership, of the others.
Perses himself helped guide me, draw me back onto the right path, as he saw it, many times. The Overseer did the same, a man who is, most likely, less under the influence of the Prime. An agent himself, in helping to keep others in line, strengthen those bonds and ties when they begin to fail. That, perhaps, is why he's really here with the army. To make absolutely sure that no one wavers. To see that the will of the Prime is seen through to completion, so far from home.
I like the man. I have even learned to trust him. But now, now I see that, maybe, all of that is just another means of control. That his kindly nature was merely a ruse, a deceit and a lie. I don't, honestly, know what to believe anymore.
"Will you be able to help the others?" I ask. "Can you give them back their free will too?"
Secretary Burns considers the question. "I don't know, Amber," he says. "Some people might just be beyond saving. Perhaps Brie would have been able to accomplish it, but she is not available at present. I will do what I can with them. But right now, my focus is you."
I nod, staring at him, a sense of anxiety growing inside me. I try to fight it off with my own sense of resolve. Still, the battle rages within. The battle between the two sides of me, fighting for control.
"Then, do it," I say. "Set me free, Secretary Burns."
He smiles and steps towards me. "That, child, is the plan."
116
I sit in the chair, my wrists locked tight, as my mind is opened up for invasion.
I keep my eyes wide open as a chair is drawn in front of me, and Secretary Burns takes a seat. He stares right at me, with that cool blue gaze of his, entering through the windows into my mind, the only way in for all but the most powerful telepaths and Mind-Manipulators, as they are called here.
I try to clear my mind of all thoughts as he slips inside, speaking to me calm
ly as he does so.
"Just sit back, and relax, Amber," he says smoothly, drawing me into a trance. "Stay calm. It will all be over soon..."
I find myself falling away, doing what he says. Just imagining myself in a bubble, all my senses muted and shut down. No sight, no smell, no sense of hearing. There is nothing to see here, nothing to hear. I drift in space, surrounded in darkness, focussing only on the nothingness around me.
Yet, in the distant, around the borders of the blackness, something begins to stir. Some horrible feeling, some terrible reaction. It is the infection fighting back, I know. The controls in my mind will not easily relent.
A flash of a thought comes, light blooming as the Prime steps forward as a pair. That radiance is overwhelming, turning the darkness to light. I can see them so clearly all of a sudden, see their perfect faces looking at me as they have several times before. So caring. So parental in those expressions. They love me. How...how can I do this to them!
Child, I hear Mother whisper, her voice so clear in my mind. You would abandon us? You would abandon your people?
He is controlling you, child, says Father, taking over. I turn in my head to look at him, so handsome, so flawless. They will come and destroy us. You know this, my child. What will happen to your family? What will happen to your sister?
A new image forms in my mind, a new figure appearing before me. Lilly, her face so bright with a smile, standing on the balcony of Lady Felina's apartment, laughing with her mistress as they look out upon the beautiful city. They seem so blissful, so happy. I sense the joy all around them, down in the streets, the people in a state of delirium and revelry. Joyous, celebrating their freedom, their safety, as their army returns victorious from the war.
This is how it should be, Mother and Father speak together, their voices overlapping, combining into one. Look, look closer, child. See, they are all happy. They are all happy...together.
I peer closer, looking down to the street. There, I see the sight of the Worthy in celebration with the Olympians. I see normal, regular people, those from the Fringe, being treated with respect, treated as equals. They laugh and sing and dance together, a vision of unity that I've so long desired.
