by Natalie Reid
There was silence on the other line before she responded, “I’m sorry you had to knock out Dale. I know you had wished he would have agreed to help.”
“Yeah, well,” Trid nodded absently, “like I’ve been saying; there’s no real proof we’re actually brothers. The whole identical twins thing is just an extreme coincidence.”
She laughed softly on the other line. “So you ready to get this thing started?”
“Just say the word, and I’m gonna make such a ruckus you’re gonna wish you were here!”
* * *
Outside the snow-packed cabin, Jessie held a hand to her ear and smiled, but it left a bitter-sweet taste in her mouth. She was glad that Trid so readily came to her aid, but she wondered if he knew that she had been the one to shoot his brother. If he knew the truth, she didn’t know if he would have still helped her.
Trid’s voice came back on through the line in the earpieces that Griffin and Harper had designed, telling her that he had to sign out for now, but that he would check in once things got started. Everyone except Nel had been given an ear-piece to wear in order to keep in touch. The only way they could pull off their plan was to have contact with each other while remaining untraceable by the government.
Jessie turned in the snow and looked out to the others. Griffin and Harper were already in position outside the Bank of Social Numbers, and Aaron had left earlier that day. Before he had gone, Jessie had spoken with him. She felt bad about everything she put him through, and worse still that he had become a fugitive in the process. However, he had wanted to help, so she had instructed him to head towards one of the Resistance entrances, telling him to ask for a man called Jumping Jack, and to tell him to be prepared to welcome in The Thirty if they succeeded.
Aaron had gladly complied, giving her a sad smile and a brief hug before parting for the city. She found it strange, watching him walk away. A few months ago she felt so differently towards him. She would have run out and asked him to stay. But things had changed. Instead she bit her tongue as she watched him leave, gripping tightly to the warm hand of the scientist beside her.
Ritter knocked his hand against the hull of their ship. His shadow cast in several directions as the lights from the cabin and the hangar struck his form. “It’s about time we took off.” He came away from the ship and knelt in the snow in front of Nel. “I swear to the skies, I’ll be back sweetheart. And when I get home, we’ll have everything we need to travel the world together.” He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out the vial of Harebells. “We’ll find a whole field of these flowers. Just the two of us.”
Nel shrunk away from the vial and stared at her shoes as she muttered, “That’s okay.”
Jessie felt her heart lurch in sympathy for Ritter. She couldn’t imagine what that must feel like. He was doing this solely for his daughter, yet she didn’t even want him to come back.
She was drawn out of her thoughts as Tom tugged at her hand. He silently led her away from the others, around the corner of the cabin where they couldn’t be seen.
“How’re the shadows?” he asked, holding tightly to her arms. She could tell it wasn’t really what he wanted to say, but what words were sufficient at a time like this? What combinations of sounds could possibly make leaving him more bearable to take?
“They’re in the background,” she said. “I think, knowing I might see my mom soon, I’m too preoccupied to even notice them.”
“Good, good.” He nodded his head vigorously.
“Tom,” she said, almost apologetic.
“No, don’t…don’t say anything.” He took in a shaky breath, and the light from the cabin revealed the moisture in his eyes. “It’s already hard as it is.”
“I wish you could come up there with me.”
He shook his head, pressing his lips together tightly in a thin line.
Jessie softly placed a hand at his neck to still his head. As she looked up at him, she wished she could have been more like Ben. He could express wishes and emotions through his eyes better than any words could have. She wanted Tom to understand the anguish she felt at having to leave him, yet uttering the word anguish seemed petty and dramatic.
So instead of trying to stumble through words and the half-dozen poorly rehearsed speeches she had rattling around inside her head, she leaned in and closed her eyes, choosing to speak to him through the language of a kiss. The contact, though heart-pounding and desperate, lasted only a few moments as they were drawn away with the sound of a shout.
“Nel! Get back here!”
Running around the corner of the cabin, they found Ritter jogging towards the tree line, a small set of footprints already dotting the snow in front of him.
“What happened?” Jessie asked, out of breath.
Denneck’s eyes were wide with worry as he explained, “Nel ran away.”
“Guys,” Griffin called out through the line. “Everything alright over there?”
Denneck shook his head. “We don’t have time to find her. We need to leave right now.”
Tom turned to Jessie for a brief moment, giving her a gentle look, and then took off after Ritter. He stopped him from entering the forest, and placed his hands on his arms to keep him from dashing around him.
“I will find her,” he affirmed. “You have to go now. She’ll be waiting here when you get back.”
Ritter took one last look to the trees before letting out a growl. “You find her Tom.” He turned around and charged back towards the others. “You don’t want to know what happens if you don’t.” He stormed into the hangar and pressed the button that opened the doors to their ship. “Come on,” he barked to Denneck and Jessie. “Get in!”
Jessie faltered in the snow, staring out at where Tom stood.
Tom lifted a hand to his ear and spoke into the line so she could hear. “Goodbye Jessie. I’ll see you soon.”
“Now Jessie!” Ritter insisted.
She gulped and pushed the button on her ear-piece. “Bye Tom.”
Her mind was in a daze as they took off. The night sky filled with stars and churning clouds. The ship hummed as they flew, each of its parts vibrating in resonance. This was finally happening. She was going to see her mom.
Ritter tapped his knuckles on the ship’s interior. He looked down to where Denneck navigated the controls and placed a hand on his ear-piece, asking, “Griffin, are you two set?”
“Why do you always address him?” Harper responded sourly through the line. “I’ve been with you guys longer.”
“Yes. We’re here,” Griffin announced.
“Does everything look alright from the outside?”
There was a pause.
“It seems to be. There were some Task Force here earlier, but they’re gone now.”
“Right. When Trid gives the signal that the fight’s underway, head inside. Remember, you guys belong there.”
“Yeah, we got it after the tenth time!” Harper chimed in.
Ritter shook his head and then pressed the button on his ear-piece that muted his voice from the others. Jessie and Denneck did the same thing.
Jessie stepped up to the control panel, looking at the distance still left to their destination. She placed her hand on the screen on the dot that represented The Fulcrum.
“You’ll see her soon,” Denneck reassured her.
She nodded, telling herself that he was right, but it still didn’t ease the guilt that squeezed at her insides, telling her that she had abandoned Carver. She had been given a choice, and she had chosen to save her mother instead of her father. She didn’t know what kind of a daughter could make that decision.
The sound of a gun clicked to her right. Ritter was inspecting his gun. She had only let him bring it because it was part of the plan. He wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone with it. Still, she knew that once they got up there, things had a way of changing fast, and that Ritter always went by his own set of rules.
He looked up from his gun to shoot a glance her way. “You
gonna be fine up there?” he asked.
It took her a moment to realize he was referring to her father.
“You don’t care, remember?” she said, walking over to where he leaned against the cabinet that housed the ship’s emergency parachutes.
“Just making sure you’re not going to lose it up there and leave me with a nut case.”
“I’m fine,” she replied curtly. “Your government’s going to have to try a lot harder than this if it wants to break me.”
He grinned down at his gun and shook his head. “Now I remember why I hated you.” He put his gun back in his holster. “Always thinking you’re better than us.”
“You better hope we are,” Denneck commented from his seat by the control panels. “Otherwise it’s lights out for all of us.”
Ritter folded his arms. “Yeah, I was just making friendly banter. You don’t need to bite my head off.”
Jessie smiled to herself and looked down at her hands. She was wearing fingerless flight-gloves. Before the night was over, she knew that she would finally get to pilot her own plane. Though the dangerous nature of their mission kept her from becoming too excited, she was still extremely eager for things to begin.
Reaching a hand up to her chest, she felt the hard outline of her mother’s CD inside her jacket pocket. She had remembered to grab it from Griffin just before they had left. Though he still hadn’t translated the words of the song for her, she brought it so she could show her mom that she had been carrying out her mission this whole time. Or maybe it was just to give herself comfort during this whole thing. Either way, it brought a smile to her face.
Ritter, who noticed the grin playing at the corners of her mouth, commented, “Don’t look so happy. This is a dangerous mission remember? And you don’t know what state your mom could be in once we find her. She might not even recognize you.”
“You don’t think you would recognize your own daughter if you hadn’t seen her in a few years?”
His face fell and he sighed.
“Are you really going to take her away after this is all over?” she asked, staring down at her shoes as she spoke. “Even if you do find that field or even a patch of flowers, she isn’t going to just start trusting you.”
“Wasn’t it you that said she needed the man who promised to find her that field?”
“You misunderstood me. She needs the man, not the field.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me this now.”
“You know it too,” she pointed out.
“Jessie,” Denneck called out in warning. “Now’s not the time. Just drop it for now.”
“Listen to your sergeant,” Ritter added, turning his face away.
She shook her head and stepped away from the sullen man. It wouldn’t do her any good to feel sorry for someone that wouldn’t change.
Suddenly, in her ear-piece, she could hear the far-off sounds of shouting and breaking glass.
“The party’s starting over here,” Trid announced. “Harper, Griffin, you’re up.”
* * *
From where they waited in the shadows across the street from the bank, Harper raised her fist and gave a triumphant exclamation. “That’s my man! Putting my name first!”
“Griffin, keep her in line, will you,” Denneck interrupted.
Harper lowered her hand. “Aww, Denneck!” she complained.
Griffin smiled at his friend and clapped her on the back. “Come on. Let’s get in there before I lose my nerve and you have to drag me in.”
The two friends started to walk across the street, looking as casual as possible. The clouds overhead in the night sky were still light enough that the snow coming down was not too heavy. It landed in a fine powder on the uniforms that Ritter had managed to nick for them. They both looked very much like everyone else around them, silent government employees trudging to work and ignoring the light dusting of snow falling on their shoulders.
As they walked up the main steps, Griffin’s hand brushed past Harper’s, and he held it for a brief moment before pulling away. She tilted her head towards him and flicked the corner of her mouth up in the briefest of smiles.
When they stepped inside the main lobby of the Bank of Social Numbers, they kept their heads down and walked to the elevators across the room. The numbered key pad was right next to it, and a man stood a few feet off to the side, studying them.
Ritter had told them that if the guards saw they were having trouble remembering the numbers, or if they caught them reading them off of something, they would immediately be taken aside and questioned.
Griffin cleared his throat and then casually asked Harper, “So how’s it going with that guy you’ve been seeing?”
It was the signal for Jessie to start giving him the numbers for the first elevator. It was impossible for Griffin to remember them all, but Jessie had memorized them within a span of a few minutes.
As Harper tried her best to make up a story about a botched date in which her boyfriend mistook a hot pepper sauce for a new trendy drink, Jessie’s voice came through Griffin’s ear-piece.
“One, two, nine, zero, four, zero,” she told him calmly.
Griffin punched in the numbers, confident that the guard could not hear Jessie’s voice over the animated noise Harper was making. The elevator beeped when he had finished punching in the code, and they had to wait a few more moments for one to come down to the first floor. When the doors opened and they stepped inside, Griffin pushed the button for the fifth floor. It was as high as the elevator would go up before they would need to get off and push in a code for a new set of elevators.
When the doors finally closed, Harper kept on with her story, describing the after-math of the hot-pepper incident and the state of a restaurant bathroom afterwards.
Finally Griffin interrupted her, saying, “Okay, you can stop now.”
Ritter’s irritated voice came through the ear-piece, saying, “Don’t subject my ears to that ever again.”
“Don’t lie. You wanted to know how it ended,” she said with a smirk.
“Wipe that smile from your face,” Ritter retorted.
Harper turned to Griffin, mouthing the words, “How does he know!”
Griffin shrugged, hoping that she would just drop it and stop talking to the voice inside her head, but she would not.
“Yeah, well, you wipe the smile off your ugly face!” she came back.
Unfortunately, when she had said this, the elevator had stopped on the fourth floor to let a young man inside. He eyed Harper with suspicion, and Griffin had to cover for her.
“Don’t call me ugly, it’s rude,” he said, shoving her in the arm while simultaneously making room for the man to step on.
Ritter, who caught on to the fact that someone else was there with them, took advantage of the situation, saying, “If I’m ugly, you must be a racking freak of nature, sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart!” Harper exclaimed, unable to stay silent to that.
Griffin cleared his throat and threw an arm around her, saying, “Yeah, sweetie?”
Harper looked up at him in confusion, and then saw the young man in the elevator with them. Luckily they had just reached the fifth floor, and the man stepped off quickly and made his way down the hall. Griffin grabbed Harper’s arm and guided her off the elevator as well.
“To your right,” Jessie reminded him, having heard the elevator doors open.
He followed her directions, and at the end of the hall found the second set of elevators. Being that it was after eight at night, it was much less crowded in the Bank of Social Numbers. They had a night shift, but their workers were much sparser. So this time, as Jessie recited the numbers off to Griffin, there was no guard standing there to watch them, only a camera in the corner.
The elevators opened, and they rode them up the next five flights. They did this a couple more times until, on their last set of elevators, the doors opened before Griffin had a chance to type in the code, and two worker
s stepped out. One of the workers was a man with long black hair, and the other was a young woman he instantly recognized.
Griffin quickly tilted his head down to the floor, hoping that Saturn had not recognized him. Harper smiled to them both and nodded. The protocol called for them to wait for the elevator doors to close, and then punch in the code and wait for them to open again. However, Saturn stopped and turned back around to face them saying, “Just go on in. I won’t tell.”
Harper beamed at her and tipped a finger to her forehead in thanks, but Griffin kept his eyes on his shoes as he hurried inside. He let out a sigh of relief as the elevator doors began to close. Just as they were an inch from shutting, they retreated back in the other direction, opening once more. Saturn slipped quickly inside and pressed the button to shut the doors.
“Did you forget something?” Harper asked courteously.
Saturn ignored her and stared fiercely at Griffin. “I could turn you in right now and send you off to prison.”
He looked up at her weakly.
“Do we have a problem over there?” Ritter asked.
“I’m not sure,” Harper answered. Then, realizing that she had spoken out-loud, she cleared her throat, adding, “…that I know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play stupid,” Saturn said, shooting a glance her way. “An amateur repair-man has no business inside this place, unless it’s criminal. All I have to do is say one word. Then Melissa would never have to see your sorry face again.”
“Oh!” Harper exclaimed. “This must be a friend of the girl you were telling me about, new guy.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I hurt her,” Griffin offered. “Or you,” he added, remembering the night he had found her crying in her apartment.
“I think this is all just a big misunderstanding,” Harper said, standing between the two of them. “And probably stemming from some female jealousy issues, am I right?”
“You aint helping things, sweetheart,” Ritter warned.
“You shut up,” Saturn said, pointing a hand at Harper. Then taking a step towards Griffin, she shoved him in the shoulder. “You don’t know the pain you caused. You not only break up with her, but you make her feel like she was some kind of depraved hussy!”
