by X, Alice
“The Oval chamber?” Thomas asked in obvious shock. “Why?”
“I wasn’t told,” the raspy voice replied. “I’m just following orders.”
Ava saw Thomas’s jaw set in a tight square. Her heart rate rose in response, but she kept her face expressionless.
“Who gave you these orders?” Thomas asked.
“Your father.”
Ava saw Thomas’s face change. He nodded once and then turned towards her. “Come on,” he said in a voice that was not his own. “Let’s go.”
Ava stood and stepped forward. She entered the corridor with Thomas at her back. The guard waiting outside was almost her own height; he had an enormous nose, yellowing teeth and straight hair that fell to his shoulders.
“Thank you Simmons, I can take her up alone,” Thomas told him.
“I was told to accompany you,” Simmons replied.
Left with no choice, Thomas nodded and gestured for Simmons to lead the way, while he stayed at Ava’s back. Simmons was too close to attempt to talk, so both of them stayed silent as they made their way through headquarters.
Ava found that she was unable to concentrate on where they were going. All she was able to register was how close she felt to Thomas. Apart from that, however, her mind was like a sieve. Everything else fell through, leaving behind only grainy notches of fear and worry.
They turned a corner and came to a large steel elevator. Simmons stepped forward and swiped his card on the side, and a moment later the doors slid open allowing them to enter. The elevator ride was longer than Ava would have thought, and Simmons’s musky odor was making her eyes water.
Finally, the doors parted, revealing a pristine landing that spun off into several rooms and hallways. Ava was surprised by how nice everything looked. It no longer seemed as though they were underground, rather it looked more like the lobby of a nice hotel. There were even flowers in one corner of the room. They made several turns before they stopped outside two large doors studded with brass and metal. There were two guards stationed outside. They leaned in together and pulled open the doors.
Ava walked into a large oval room with high ceilings and several closed windows that still managed to allow in some light. The table in the room’s apex was oval too. There were two people sitting there as Simmons led Ava forward.
Ava recognized Eliza, but the man standing at the head of the table caught her attention. He was middle-aged and grey-haired. He had an ordinary face that was easily forgettable, but his eyes struck her the most. They were the exact same color and shape as the man walking at her back.
“You may join us, Tom,” he said with a deep silky voice.
Ava felt Thomas walk past her. He stood next to his father, with his eyes lowered. Ava wasn’t sure what was happening, and, with each passing second, she was feeling panic build. Doubt crept into her head as she wondered if Thomas had set her up.
“Hello, Ms. Edwards,” Frederick Madden addressed her formally. “It’s good to meet you.”
Ava said nothing.
“You may sit down,” he continued as though he had not expected her to answer.
Simmons nudged her forward, and she sank into a chair at the table. The moment she had taken a seat, Frederick and Eliza did the same. Thomas and Simmons were the only ones who remained standing.
“Today was to be the day of your scanning, Ava, in preparation for your Cleansing,” Eliza piped up pleasantly. “But it has been rescheduled.”
“Why?” Ava asked, hoping that her voice didn’t shake.
“Because despite my advice, you did not cooperate with me,” she said keeping the smile on her face.
“I did,” Ava insisted.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me,” Eliza went on as though it were a personal affront.
“I didn’t lie,” Ava insisted. She didn’t dare glance in Thomas’s direction, but she could feel the tension wafting between them.
Eliza looked at her pointedly.
“Perhaps you were simply confused that day,” she said in a voice that was meant to be kind. “Perhaps if we try again? This time, I’m not going to hook you up to anything. I’m going to trust you.” She paused again, creating the drama she desired. “What is your father’s name?”
Ava gritted her teeth. “Gregory Edwards.”
“Is that the name he was born with?” Eliza asked.
Ava felt her stomach plummet.
“Yes.”
Eliza shook her head sadly and leaned back in her seat. She turned her head towards Frederick as though she needed help. Frederick Madden turned his intense eyes on her. It was only then that Ava was able to see the differences between him and his son. His eyes were cold, calculating and devoid of sympathy. His face was made of hard lines and little else. Ava could see his features had molded to match his personality.
“We know your secret, Ms. Edwards,” he said. “Do you still insist on sticking to your story?”
Ava held his gaze, refusing to be intimidated. “My father’s name is Gregory Edwards.”
He shook his head and turned back to Eliza.
“Do you have any paternal aunts or uncles?” she asked as though there had been no interruption.
Ava swallowed hard. “No.”
“Are you sure?” Eliza asked with a smile. She seemed to be in her element. Her eyes moved over every face in the room. Ava risked a glance in Thomas’s direction. It was clear he had no idea what was going on. He was studiously avoiding her eyes. Ava looked back at Eliza who leaned in again.
“Very sure,” Ava replied.
Eliza nodded. “Well then, I suppose this is a good time to let you know. Your father was born Byron Gregory Doherty. Which means you do have a paternal uncle. His name is Brad Doherty. He is the founder and leader of the Akkadian Society.”
Chapter 14
Ava blinked twice.
“Excuse me?” she said in a tone that was politely baffled.
Eliza looked smugly unconcerned. “Your uncle is Brad Doherty.”
“No,” Ava said slowly. “He’s not. My father was an only child. He has no brother.”
“I’m afraid he did,” Eliza went on smoothly. “And he happens to be the most dangerous terrorist in this country at the moment.”
“Some would call you a terrorist too,” Ava said
“Those people are misinformed,” Eliza replied with a smile. “And they also happen to be witches.”
“I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.”
Eliza stared into Ava’s eyes, but Ava refused to look away. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be intimidated. “Perhaps,” Eliza said enunciating her words carefully. “You will become more cooperative under… different circumstances.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ava noticed Thomas tense. Her body responded accordingly, but she kept her face clear of expression. “It won’t matter what you do to me,” Ava said, raising her voice to keep it from shaking. “I don’t have anything to tell you.”
“You’re saying you don’t know where Byron Doherty is?” Eliza asked.
“I don’t know who Byron Doherty is at all,” Ava said cuttingly. “He’s a complete stranger. For all I know, he’s a figment of your imagination.”
Eliza was about to say something when Frederick Madden held up his hand to silence her. He shifted in his seat and turned his penetrating blue gaze on her. The more Ava looked at him, the less he resembled his son.
“We do our research, Ms. Edwards,” he said in a low voice. “We know who you really are, and more importantly, we know who your father is. We’re going to find him, and when we do, we will find the entire Akkadian Society.”
Ava sighed audibly. “Let’s say for a second that you’re right, and my father is who you say he is. You’re still working under the assumption that he’s working with his brother. I’ve lived with him for twenty years, and I know that he was never a supporter of the Akkadians. He was against their fight, just a
s he was against yours. He didn’t pick a side. He stayed out of it.”
Frederick Madden gave her a slow smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “You can see how that may be hard to believe.”
“In twenty years he never mentioned that he had a brother,” Ava said reasonably. “Don’t you think that’s proof enough that he wanted nothing to do with him?”
“Very logical,” Frederick nodded. “But, unfortunately, we don’t have proof of that at all. Because all we have at the moment is your word. And I’m afraid that doesn’t count for much.”
“Hook me up again then,” Ava said desperately. “You can see if I’m lying or not.”
“Those machines can be fooled,” Frederick said dismissively. “And it wouldn’t make much of a difference now.” He turned to Simmons who stood just behind Ava, outside of her view. “Take her back to her cell. Post a guard outside her door.”
“What about her scan?” Thomas asked coming forward. His voice was barren, his face stony.
“It’s been postponed,” Frederick replied.
“Why?”
Frederick stared at his son, until Thomas was forced to bend his head in submission. “I’m sorry, sir, I’ll take her back to her cell now.”
“No, you’ll stay here,” Frederick, replied. “I have something to discuss with you. Simmons, take her.”
Ava was forced to her feet by Simmons and pushed and prodded out the door. The entire walk back to her cell was filled with murky thought and fast rising panic. She could see her window of opportunity fade into nothingness, leaving her locked inside a dark hole from which there was no escape. Once she was locked back inside her cell, Ava paced frantically, hoping against hope that Thomas would show up soon.
She stayed up half the night, but he never came.
Chapter 15
Every sound or footfall she heard, Ava imagined it was Thomas coming to her to tell her that he had found another way to set her free. She spent two days without any human contact apart from a tray of food that was pushed into her cell three times a day.
Ava began to see faces in the haunting walls. She went back to looking for stories and pictures and words hidden among the chaos of desperation and lost hope.
On the third night, exhaustion finally won out, and Ava fell into a deep sleep that was free of dreams. From the cloudy darkness, she thought she heard a familiar voice from far in the distance. First it was just a wisp, touching her like the arms of a phantom. Then it became more persistent and consistently louder. Ava stirred in her sleep, trying to push back the voice and settle back into the darkness, but the voice refused to go away.
“Ava, please,” he whispered. “Please wake up.”
Ava woke up seeing Eliza’s face at the back of her eyelids. She woke with a gasp, her arms raised as though to protect herself.
“Shh,” Thomas cautioned. “It’s me.”
“Thomas?” Ava said in a voice that was hoarse from disuse. “Thomas?”
“It’s me,” he whispered. He took her hand and placed it on his face to reassure her. Ava felt the intimacy in his gesture.
“What’s happening?” she asked as her exhaustion slowly slipped away in the face of Thomas’s presence. “What are they planning to do with me?”
“I don’t know,” Thomas replied. “I honestly don’t. I… I’ve been assigned to another witch in a different holding area. They won’t let me near you.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked down. Ava squinted into the darkness as her eyes adjusted. She was only now beginning to see the silhouette of his face and the pinpricks of light in his eyes.
“They asked me to….”
“Yes?”
“They wanted me to… get close to you, so that….”
“I would tell you everything they want to know,” Ava guessed.
“Yes,” Thomas nodded. “It was a tidy way of dealing with the situation… from their perspective.”
“And you said no?”
“I had to,” Thomas replied. “You’d have been confined to this cell until I got results, and that didn’t leave any room to plan another escape strategy.”
“So they reassigned you?”
Thomas nodded.
“Do they suspect anything?” Ava asked.
“They think I’m getting soft,” Thomas’s laugh was devoid of humor. “I don’t think they suspect anything else.”
“How did you manage to get here?”
“Sneaked through,” Thomas replied. “Simmons is out cold at the moment. He’ll come to in an hour or so.”
“Won’t he know something’s up?”
“No,” Thomas replied. “He’ll just assume he fell asleep on duty again, which he does frequently.”
“Why did you risk coming here?” Ava asked the question burning in the back of her mind.
Thomas sighed deeply. “To tell you that I haven’t forgotten you. I’m trying to figure out their plan for you.”
“This is too dangerous,” Ava said surprising herself with the words. “You don’t have to do this anymore.”
“I know,” Thomas said, his voice hardening into resolve. “But I can’t stop now, not until I know you’re going to be okay.”
Ava shook her head. “Why?”
Thomas lifted his eyes to hers. They looked sad. “The truth?”
“Yes, please.”
“Because I can’t get what we’ve shared out of my mind. And… how I feel about you.”
His answer caught her off guard. Ava was silent for a long time, fighting back tears. Thomas reached out and wiped her tears. His fingers lingered along her cheek and jaw line, tracing the lines of her face as though he were scared he would forget it.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen after this point,” he whispered to her.
Ava placed her hands against his chest. She could feel how fast his heart was beating. “I trust you,” she told him. Even as she said it, she questioned whether it was true, or if she was simply blinded by her feelings for him.
“You’re putting your trust in a coward,” Thomas said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t see it that way,” Ava said pulling him towards her.
He resisted for a moment. Then his body relaxed against hers. Ava drew him into the circle of her arms. She felt his breath against her neck as their legs entwined together.
“I have to go soon,” he said reluctantly.
“Stay for a minute longer,” Ava said breathing in the scent of him. “I just need another minute.”
Thomas lifted his head from the nape of her neck and looked at her. Ava could finally see the full brightness of his blue eyes. They seemed streaked with different shades of blue, staring down at her with a mix of emotions.
“Is it true?” Thomas asked. “Is it true that Brad Doherty is your uncle?”
The question sent a spasm of uncertainty shooting through Ava. If she admitted to anything now, that information could get back to Frederick Madden. Thomas had just revealed that he had been asked to manipulate her feelings for him to extract information they could use against the Akkadians.
Ava felt her conflicted thoughts swirling inside her head. He had refused to manipulate her as they had asked, she reminded herself. If he had not refused, he would never have admitted as much to her. Unless, of course, he was playing at a deeper, more complicated game.
Ava gave herself a mental shake. Everything was uncertain. There was nothing of which she could be truly sure. It came down to how far she was willing to go, how much she was willing to reveal to get herself out of here. Ava looked up at him and nodded.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He is.”
Chapter 16
Her cell flooded with light, and Ava shielded her eyes against the glare. She sat up in her bed and blinked hard trying to gain focus. A moment later the door opened, and she heard the sound of heels hitting the stony floor. The sound reverberated through the cell.
“Hello, Ava,” Eliza said with her usual false bri
ghtness.
Ava’s eyes were starting to focus. She saw that Eliza was wearing tight black pants and a bright red blouse. Her hair hung loose around her head, but, somehow, she still managed to look severe. She was looking at Ava with a fixed, tight smile.
“Hello, Ava,” she repeated again, when she got no response.
“What do you want?” Ava asked bluntly.
The smile faltered slightly on Eliza’s face, but she managed to hold it. “I’ve come to ask you a few more questions.”
“I don’t have anything more to say,” Ava said. “You told me what you believe, but this is the truth as I know it. My father had no siblings. I have no uncle, and I certainly have no ties with the Akkadian Society.”
“Are you quite sure?”
“Quite,” Ava replied mimicking her sugary tone.
The smile disappeared completely as Eliza turned away. “Very well then,” she said with a resigned sigh. “I suppose we have no choice. Simmons! Harding!”
The two guards walked in and grabbed her. Each one had a hand wrapped around her arm before she could react. They pulled her off her bed and onto her feet.
“What are you doing?” Ava demanded as she tried in vain to wriggle free. “Where are we going?”
Eliza led the way as the two guards forced Ava to follow. Their hands were firm and unyielding where they held her arms. She could feel bruises beginning to form.
“I told you to cooperate,” Eliza said without looking back. “You were given so many chances.”
“I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
“Unfortunately, I do not believe you,” Eliza replied. “So, extreme measures need to be taken.”
“What does that mean?” Ava asked. “Extreme measures?”
Eliza made no reply. Ava felt nauseous with dread. She struggled against the guards, but they only tightened their grip on her.
They came to a door that seemed to have been crafted from crude metal. Eliza knocked once, and it opened immediately. Ava was forced into a large room divided by a large pane of glass. On the other side of the glass, sat a chair that was hooked up to a menacing black machine.
