Pearl's Number: The Number Series

by Bethany Atazadeh

  Jeremiah and Evalene followed Noble through the revolving door. He moved toward the line on the left, while they went right.

  A screech sounded from a few lines down. Evalene flinched. Everyone swung around to see what the commotion was about, including the security guards. Evalene paused, distracted by the chaos, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. A few of the guards left their post, running toward where a crowd was forming.

  Jeremiah bumped Evalene, subtly nudging her forward. Swallowing, Evalene stepped up, and scanned her badge, passing through with a distracted nod from the security guard. He half stood from his stool, ignoring Jeremiah completely. Yells sounded on the other side of the room, echoing off the marble floors and tall ceilings.

  “Was that you?” Evalene whispered as they continued walking, putting a few yards between them and the entrance before stopping. Jeremiah nodded, busy watching for the rest of their group, tense.

  Evalene turned back too. Noble’s scar caught a guard’s attention—who would have a scar when they could BioGrade? But then someone yelled, “Gun!” A woman screamed. Her shrieking set off a baby wailing, and the volume in the room rose to the point it was hard to hear. The guard frowned, waving Noble through and shutting down his line to go help.

  Olive and Sol caught on to the distraction, but the line of ahead of them wasn’t moving. Evalene, Jeremiah, and Noble hovered a few yards away, as if curious about the commotion, while waiting anxiously for Sol and Olive to get through.

  From this side, Evalene could see the computers, and the images of the employees that popped up of their badge photo, enlarged.

  “Controlled!” A guard shouted. The other security guards who’d come to the scene either shooed people away or returned to their posts, revealing a young teen handcuffed on the floor. “No weapons,” the first guard shouted for everyone nearby to hear. “False information.”

  The excitement slowly died down and the lines began moving again, though everyone continued to watch the guards with interest as they hauled the teen back outside, tossing him off the stairs with disgust. The guard waved Sol through without issue, but settled into his chair with a sigh, slumping over bored to stare at his computer once more as Olive stepped up.

  Her badge photo flashed on the screen. It was a woman, but she had green eyes, pitch black hair, and sharply accentuated cheekbones—a strange blend that likely came from a BioGrade.

  “Ma’am,” the security officer said with a frown. “Is this you?”

  Olive peeked at his computer screen to see what he meant. Evalene and the others tiptoed closer, in support, although Evalene had no idea what they would do if they didn’t let Olive through—she was the only one who knew how to find Pearl!

  “Oh, that!” Olive laughed breathlessly, and tossed her blonde hair. “I had a few BioGrades done,” she winked at him, flirting outright. “You don’t like it?”

  Evalene bit her lip, eyes wide as Olive had the guts to pout, as if genuinely hurt the guard was pointing out the so-called ‘change.’

  “No, no,” the guard immediately deflected, waving Olive through, “that’s not what I meant at all. Just doing my job,” he chuckled nervously as if Olive wasn’t the first woman he’d ever accidentally offended. “Have a nice day, ma’am!”

  “Thank you,” she replied cheerfully, practically skipping toward them.

  Sol stepped forward as if he might hug her when she reached them, and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  “What’re we waiting for?” Olive asked with a smile, taking off down the wide hall of the corporate building. They stuck to the same formation, walking in pairs, keeping up a brisk pace, as if on their way to a meeting or work assignment.

  Olive hunted for a computer she could access without suspicion. But every desk held an employee or was surrounded by low cubicles, who’s neighboring employees would quickly notice an intruder. Not to mention five.

  “Let’s go up a level,” Sol suggested as they reached another quiet, beige hallway and found an elevator. Olive agreed and pressed the button. Evalene stepped in last. They waited for the elevator to ding closed before everyone started speaking at once.

  “How long do we have before they close?” Evalene asked Olive.

  “This is taking too long.” Noble’s scar stood out on his pale face.

  “We have to find a computer that I can use without anyone noticing,” Olive argued, trying to defend herself.

  Sol took her side. “She’s doing the best she can.”

  “Everyone relax,” Jeremiah spoke over them, holding out a calming hand. “Next computer we find on this floor, we let Olive sit down to work. The rest of us will spread out and look busy. Anyone heads her way, we stall them. Got it?” Evalene nodded, and so did the others. The elevator dinged to signal it was about to open. “How much time do you need?” Jeremiah asked Olive in a hushed voice as the doors slid to the sides, revealing an empty hallway.

  “At least… five minutes?” Olive’s answer turned into a question, and she groaned. “Probably more… I just… I don’t know for sure…”

  Jeremiah caught the elevator door as it tried to shut. “We’ll figure it out,” he reassured her, waving her and Sol forward to lead once more. “Remember. First computer you see.”

  With a nod, Olive strode out into the hall, and the rest of them followed. This level was quieter. Most of the hallway doors were closed, and a dead end appeared up ahead. Sighing, Evalene was about to turn around, when Olive ducked inside the room at the end.

  Evalene and Jeremiah picked up their pace, hopeful. The classroom style chamber held at least a dozen empty work stations with a computer at every desk. It was perfect.

  Olive dropped into the nearest one, instantly beginning the process of logging in. “They all have guest passwords taped to the screen,” she said excitedly. “I don’t even need the flash drive!”

  Sol settled into the chair by the door, his posture stiff, watchful. Noble moved toward the back corner, to look out the window, leaning against the wall. Evalene felt too restless to sit. She moved into the open space near the front of the classroom to pace. Jeremiah pulled the door closed behind them and dropped into the desk chair behind Olive’s. The only sound in the room was the clicking of the keys.

  Evalene paused at the instructor’s desk at the front. A cold cup of coffee sat forgotten in a Styrofoam cup and a pair of glasses rested next to it. She sank into the instructor’s chair, suddenly exhausted. Her emotions felt ragged.

  Olive spoke in a hushed voice. “This is definitely the right place.” Her voice sounded loud in the quiet classroom. “I’m finding thousands of names… hundreds of thousands… all marked H.E.V.” She brought a hand to her mouth, leaning in to read. “This is horrible,” she whispered, more to herself than to any of them. “How is this still going on and the rest of the world doesn’t know about it?”

  None of them had an answer for her.

  “I can’t find any trace of Pearl in the database,” she said after another moment of searching. “But that’s probably just because they didn’t include her name in here…” She swiveled to face Noble. “What day did you say she was captured?”

  “Just under two weeks ago,” he answered, hunching over as if preparing for defeat.

  “And what day would you guess she reached Archland?” Olive pressed.

  Noble considered it, doing the math in his head. “I’d say between three to five days ago.”

  Nodding, Olive flipped around to face the computer again, typing quickly. “I’ll search the database for someone with Evie’s height and build,” she mumbled to herself glancing up for approval. Evalene nodded. She couldn’t remember many details about her mother anymore, but her father had always said she looked just like Pearl.

  “I’ll put new arrivals during that time frame into the search parameters,” Olive continued to talk to herself as she worked. “Mmhmm… Okay…” She paused, “Hold on, there’s a dozen or so that meet the criteria.”r />
  Evalene jumped up from the instructor’s chair and raced over to Olive’s computer, peering over her friend’s shoulder at the list on the screen.

  “It looks like there are pictures,” Olive said, “One second…”

  A couple clicks and she pulled up the first photo.

  “No,” Evalene shook her head immediately. The next photo popped onto the screen. “No, no… no.” She vetoed each one the instant they appeared. “Stop!” She gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth.

  Evalene blinked at the image. It had been ten years since she’d seen her mother. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? The woman looked like she’d aged twice that many years, but Noble’s voice spoke in a hushed whisper from behind them, “That’s her.” He was clutching his ID badge in white-knuckled fists, eyes glued to the screen.

  Evalene swallowed hard. Her mother looked so much older than she remembered. In the photo a collar was shackled around her neck. Evalene’s hands covered her mouth as she struggled to breathe, trying not to think about all the implications that collar had, of the hints of fear she spotted in her mother’s eyes. They had to find her. They just had to.

  “Okay, give me a few minutes to figure out where they’re keeping her,” Olive was saying. But as she typed, a frown formed on her face. The more she clicked, the more her scowl deepened. “That can’t be right,” she mumbled to herself.

  Evalene returned to pacing at the front of the room. Back and forth, back and forth. Dropping into the instructor’s chair once more, she rested her head in her hands.

  “This can’t be right…” Every word from Olive set Evalene more on edge.

  The door to the room clicked as someone turned the handle. In the quiet classroom, it felt like a bomb had gone off. The door began to swing open, and everyone froze in their desk, eyes glued to the door like deer in headlights.

  Evalene glanced around the room panicking, eyes landing on the glasses and coffee cup in front of her. On an impulse, she picked them up, just as a dark-haired man poked his head inside the room.

  She cleared her throat, placing the glasses on her nose as she turned to look at him, ignoring the way they turned her view of the man fuzzy. She frowned to the point of a glare. “Can we help you?” she asked, as if he was interrupting. Her voice wavered a little at the bold question. She hoped he wouldn’t notice.

  His gaze touched on the rest of the group, all wearing ID badges and seated facing Evalene, where she sat at the front of the classroom in the instructor’s chair. “Oh, I um… Please excuse me, I thought we’d booked the room for the 4 o’clock?”

  Evalene made a show of looking up at the clock on the wall behind her, before shaking her head at him. “We have the room for another hour,” she told him, as firmly as she could muster.

  “Of course, there must have been some mistake and we were double-booked,” he said.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Evalene said.

  Jeremiah spoke up from his chair two rows back. “This class was booked months ago.” Evalene sincerely hoped they weren’t digging themselves into a hole.

  The man cleared his throat, nodding to them, “My apologies for interrupting. Please, carry on.” He ducked out of the room and the door slowly swung closed, clicking shut.

  Everyone let out their breath in a whoosh.

  “Quick thinking,” Jeremiah praised her.

  “You too.” Evalene smiled weakly, feeling all the bravado leak out of her as she set the cup and glasses down on the desktop. She forced herself to stand, to ignore her fears. “We need to find out where my mother is as soon as possible, before they figure it out and come back.”

  “Evie,” Olive said, waving to get her attention. When Evalene met her eyes, Olive’s face was white as a sheet. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before that man came in,” she said, “Pearl is in the computer, I mean, you saw her…”

  Evalene nodded, crossing the room to see Olive’s computer screen again, even though the codes Olive was typing didn’t mean anything to her. “Well, now,” Olive’s voice fell to a whisper, “there’s this huge sticker over her picture with a long number and the words, “TEST GROUP.”

  38

  Evalene

  “NO!” NOBLE’S VOICE MADE Evalene jump. She swung around to find his face contorting in anguish. “No, no… it can’t be,” he cried, “we were so close!” He kicked the chair in front of him and it crashed into the desk in front of it, hard.

  “Shhh,” Sol shushed him, “someone will hear!”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s too late,” Noble moaned, sinking onto the floor next to the chair he’d just kicked. “She’s gone.” He buried his face in his hands, and his words came out muffled. “If she’s in a test group, I guarantee you she’s dead.”

  The words sank into Evalene like a physical weight coming to rest on her shoulders. She stepped back and fell into one of the chairs against the wall. “That can’t be right… she was just there,” she whispered to herself.

  Olive continued frantically typing at the computer, but Jeremiah and Sol’s eyes were trained on Evalene, with side glances behind them at Noble, where he wallowed on the floor.

  “It can’t be,” Evalene repeated. She felt numb. They’d come all this way only to lose her mother now?

  “Olive, is there any way to get more information?” Evalene begged, even though it was unnecessary. Her friend hadn’t stopped typing. But Olive nodded and hit refresh, typing a few commands again, refreshing again.

  The room grew so silent they heard the seconds tick by on the clock on the wall. Finally, Olive turned to face her. “I don’t… I don’t understand anything I’m reading…” she admitted to Evalene. “I can’t seem to find a location for her anywhere…”

  Evalene felt as if she were underwater; everything was moving in slow motion and every breath was a struggle, like the air itself was drowning her. Her eyes grew unfocused. Were those tears? She couldn’t feel them. Couldn’t feel anything.

  “Can you keep looking?” Evalene vaguely overheard Jeremiah saying to Olive. She felt like she drifted above their little group, watching mindlessly as Noble wept openly and the others looked lost. She watched herself sit, frozen, expressionless.

  “I’m sorry, Evie,” Olive’s voice floated to her and away. Evalene knew what it all meant. Her mother was dead.

  But at the same time, Pearl had been dead for ten years. The day of the riots was burned into Evalene’s mind forever.

  When she was nine, the Regulator had come knocking while Evalene and her father were watching the news of lower-class Numbers being shot down in the streets. Others, higher-standing in society, were given a short, public trial before execution by hanging. Evalene was curled up in her favorite chair, staring at the television screen, at that bright red blood filling the cracks in the cobblestone streets, when she overheard the words, spoken carelessly by the Regulator to her father. “Pearl Vandereth was labeled a conspirator and sentenced to death.”

  “Conspirator to what?” her father’s voice rose behind her, where he stood at the front door. Evalene crept up to peek over the back of her chair at them.

  “To the rebellion,” the Regulator answered, and there was no room for argument. The way he glared at her father, one hand on his weapon as if hoping for an excuse to use it, spoke volumes.

  “Well, when is the trial?” her father said, hand to his forehead, rubbing at the worry lines. “We’ll prove her innocence!”

  “It’s already been carried out,” the Regulator informed him coldly. His eyes shifted to Evalene where she peeked over the cushions, but his expression didn’t change, and his indifference didn’t waver. “This is a formality from the Number One due to your status, informing you Pearl Vandereth is gone.”

  She was gone.

  And now… she was gone again.

  Evalene felt the tears fall. Through the haze she saw Jeremiah’s profile lean toward her and felt his hand on hers, squeezing it in comfort, holding on.
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br />   She blinked rapidly, trying to stem the flow of tears, wiping at her face with her free hand, clutching Jeremiah’s with the other like a lifeline.

  Noble lifted his head and through her blurry vision, she saw tears making tracks down his face to match his scar. His hands, clenched in anger, slowly loosened. “She gave everything for the mission,” he said into the silence, mourning openly. He spoke as if giving the eulogy at Pearl’s funeral. Maybe in a way, he was. “We were married for nearly five years, and they were the best five years of my life.” He stopped, choked up.

  Evalene spoke softly, more to herself than the others. “It was stupid of me to hope I’d see her one more time.”

  “That’s not true.” Jeremiah shook her hand a little to get her attention. “Don’t say that.”

  They let the silence return, a moment to honor Pearl. The clock’s ticking began to sound like a countdown to their discovery.

  “We should go,” Noble said finally, after what felt like hours, though it was likely just a few minutes.

  “No.” Evie heard the word, and swallowed. Had she said that? “No,” it was definitely coming from her. “I can’t give up.”

  Noble’s face twisted in agony, and his eyes burned with fury at the situation, frustrated at having to explain to her again. “I told you, she’s gone. We’re too late.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Evalene said. She shook her head, running a hand through her hair. “I can’t believe it.” She stood, letting go of Jeremiah’s hand. The sound of her chair scraping on the floor as she stood sounded loudly in the quiet classroom. “I can’t just give up. What if she’s still alive, and we’re just minutes from finding her?”

  She took two steps back to Olive’s desk, leaning down to peer over her friend’s shoulder, thinking hard. “Olive, could you do that first search you did to find my mother again? For women brought here during the last week?”