Smoke

by Mariah Esterly

  She shook her head, leaning around Vail to lock eyes with Gertie. She smiled. “I’m glad my clothes fit. I was a little worried they might be too big, since I’m so much taller than you.”

  So, this was who had entered the room while Gertie huddled in the shower and wept. Embarrassment washed through her again, but there was no pity in Dicie’s direct blue gaze, no sign that she had even heard her crying. Either she hadn’t actually heard Gertie’s tears or she was pretending she hadn’t and was a very good actress.

  She fingered the fabric of the long sleeved purple shirt. “They’re not too bad. Thank you for loaning them to me.”

  A grin split her face, and if possible she became even more beautiful. “Well, we couldn’t have you walking around naked. You would have caused more of a stir then you already are.” She held out her hand. “I’m Dicie.”

  “Gertie.”

  “Oh, I know.” She glanced at Vail. “You had better go. Atkins will be calling for you soon.” Vail looked grim, but he nodded. Dicie glanced back to Gertie. “Good luck.”

  “Do I need it?”

  Dicie shrugged and looked back at the monitors in front of her. Gertie glanced at them, and was startled to see familiar rooms on the screen. “Is that my apartment?” She asked, though she knew the answer. It was her apartment, though devoid of dead bodies and blood.

  Vail took her hand and gave it a gentle tug. “Come on.”

  She dug in her feet, pulling back. “No, Vail, why do you have camera’s in my apartment? Have you been watching me?”

  Vail looked at a loss, his mouth hanging open slightly, while he tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t go against his orders.

  “You look like a fish,” Dicie murmured.

  “Miss Penn,” a voice said from out of thin air. Gertie started and glanced around, but there was no one in their vicinity. “If you will be so kind as to join me in my office, I believe I can give you the answers you are looking for.”

  Vail tugged on her hand again. “Come on.”

  Gertie allowed him to pull her along. He led her up a flight of stairs and into a large office where a grey haired man sat behind a large black desk. His brown eyes flickered over her in a way that made her uncomfortable. Not like Mr. Lott made her uncomfortable, but as though he had measured her worth in those few seconds and found her wanting.

  “Vail, thank you for bringing her to me. You may go.”

  “No,” Gertie said, instinctively reaching out to Vail, keeping him from leaving. “I’d like him to stay, if that’s okay?” Sure, she didn’t know him all that well, but she would feel better if he was in the room with them.

  The man behind the desk looked as though he was going to deny her request, but then nodded. “Close the door.” Vail did. The man motioned at the empty chairs in front of him. “My name is Jerome Atkins.” He said as they sat. “I run this little operation that you see before you.”

  “What, exactly, is this place?”

  Atkins motioned around them. “This is the Office.”

  Gertie felt a headache building, and she pinched the bridge of her nose to try to alleviate it. “Yes, I understand that this is an office. But what do you do here?”

  “Office stands for Operations Facility for Intelligent Citizens and Extras,” murmured Vail.

  “Extras?” she repeated dumbfounded. But that wasn’t possible. In the rebellion sixteen years ago, all the Extra’s had been imprisoned in Bouldergate or executed, depending on their abilities. “You’re all Extras?”

  Atkins leaned back in his chair. “Well, not all of us. But most. I have the ability to hear conversations within a certain range, and to ‘throw’ my voice, if you will, to be able to be heard within that same vicinity. Vail here can make himself invisible.”

  Gertie turned disbelieving eyes to Vail. His face reddened slightly, but he flickered and disappeared entirely, before becoming invisible again.

  She clenched her hands in her lap to keep from striking out at him. “So, you were ordered to follow me? And that’s how you were there, when it- when it happened?” she asked, when she able to speak calmly.

  It was Atkins who answered. “He was.”

  The door opened and they were joined by a man not much older than Vail with blond hair and blue eyes. “Atkins, what are you doing?” He ground out, closing the door behind him.

  “Ah Graves, excellent. I was just filling Miss Penn in on the situation.”

  “Why?” The newcomer eyed Gertie like she was a bug that needed to be squished. “We don’t know anything about her.”

  Atkins gave him a look that would have withered Gertie had he turned it on her. “It is not your place to question me.” He smiled at Gertie. “I’m sorry, Miss Penn. As I was saying, Vail was assigned to watch you. You see we wanted to know why the government is so interested in you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Atkins glanced at Vail, who leaned forward in his chair, his grey eyes intent on Gertie. “There are camera’s all over the city, all with a direct feed to specific portions of the Government. Its Dicie’s job to monitor those feeds, figure out where each camera’s feed is sent. She came across a feed that at first didn’t seem to make sense. Just random streets in 3rd, the data entry office, and eventually your apartment.”

  “That’s when she realized that the common thread in that feed was you, it was following you.” Graves finished.

  Gertie closed her eyes, trying to relieve some of the pressure in her head. “I don’t understand. Who is watching me? The government?”

  “Not just the government. That feed is being sent directly to the Chancellor’s house in 1st.”

  Her eyes flew open, her gaze crashing into Vail’s. “To his house?” She whispered. “Why?”

  Vail clenched his fist, as though fighting the urge to reach out to her. “That’s what we were trying to figure out.”

  She looked at each of them in turn, ending with Vail. “What did you figure out?”

  “Nothing.” Graves answered. “From what Vail told us, you are exceedingly ordinary. I believe the word he used was boring.”

  “Oh.” For some reason that Gertie couldn’t pinpoint, that hurt. But he wasn’t wrong. Her life was boring. She went to work, the gym and home. She didn’t interact with anyone if she could avoid it. She was bored living her life. She could only imagine what it was like to watch it.

  “That is until tonight.” Atkins added.

  Gertie sat up straighter, ignoring the pain from the bruise on her hip as she did so. “Did the camera’s catch what happened?”

  “They didn’t. Dicie didn’t see anything, the feed was just your empty apartment.”

  Vail’s head snapped over to Atkins. “Do they know we’ve been watching and they gave us a fake feed?”

  Graves shook his head. “No, Dicie says it’s almost like the cameras were turned off and just a still frame of the apartment was being transmitted.”

  “So, they killed the feed of the cameras and sent those men to my apartment?”

  “It would appear so.”

  “Why? I mean, Vail said it, I’m boring. I’m nothing.”

  Atkins leaned back in his chair. “The government has a habit of tracking suspected Extras. But those feeds go to an office in 2nd.”

  “I’m not an Extra.” Gertie said flatly.

  Graves leaned forward, placing a hand on each of the arms of her chair, his blue eyes piercing. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” She responded, refusing to be cowed. But she wasn’t sure. It was true that she’d never displayed any signs of abilities. Until that night, when three men had died in her apartment. She doubted very much that she had just gotten lucky and managed to dispatch of three men without any special abilities. “If they were hoping to catch me in the act of using an Extra ability, wouldn’t they have kept the camera’s running for proof?”

  Graves glanced over his shoulder at Atkins, hands still on the arms of her chair. “I suppose,” said Atkins
. “It depends on what they were hoping to accomplish.”

  The room was quiet while Gertie mulled that over, the meaning slowly sinking in. “You think they were trying to kill me? And didn’t want any evidence.”

  “We don’t know that’s what they were trying to do,” Vail cut in.

  Gertie’s vision blurred and Graves’ face swam before her eyes. She closed them, fighting the nausea that again threatened to rear its head. She took a deep breath in through her nose.

  “I think that is enough information for one day,” said Atkins, he paused, his head tilted slightly as if listening to a conversation far away. “Vail if you would be so kind as to take Miss Penn to see Dr. Bailey? She’s requesting a checkup.”

  Vail nodded and stood. Graves hadn’t moved. He still towered over Gertie, his eyes intent on her face, looking for any sign that she was lying. “Are you going to move?” Gertie asked, tightly.

  He grinned wolfishly at her, and took a step back. “My apologies.”

  Gertie stood, swaying slightly. Vail took her arm, steadying her. She pulled away, walked to the door ahead of him and opened it. She went down the stairs and then let Vail take the lead. He walked beside her rather than in front, and kept giving her sidelong glances, but didn’t say anything.

  She did her best to ignore him.

  He led her to the infirmary, where Dr. Bailey was waiting. “Oh, good!” she exclaimed. “I hoped Atkins would send you to me. I went to check on you, only to find that you’d been pulled into a meeting. Have a seat.” She patted the exam table.

  Gertie sat, while Vail lingered near the door, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. Dr. Bailey reached out and grasped Gertie’s chin, turning her head to examine the bruise on the left side of her face. Almost immediately, the ache in Gertie’s head eased, allowing her to think more clearly.

  She looked at the doctor out of the corner of her eye. “You’re an Extra, aren’t you? That’s what you meant when you said you were born to this.”

  She didn’t stop her examination, but said, “They told you about that, huh?”

  Gertie nodded. Dr. Bailey sighed and sat back, looking Gertie up and down with bright green eyes. “I see you have quite a few bruises over your body, two particularly bad ones beyond the one on your face, but overall you seem to be in pretty good shape.” The physician had not asked Gertie to remove her clothes, so Gertie was at a loss as to how she knew that the bruises existed.

  “Don’t look so surprised, that’s the nature of my ability. I can look at people and know any physical injuries or illnesses that they have. My touch can also sooth certain types of pain.”

  “Wow,” Gertie didn’t quite know what to say. “That’s amazing.” But amazing didn’t begin to cover it. It was such an ordinary word for what the doctor could do. If Gertie had an ability she hoped it was something like that, to be able to help people.

  “Yes,” Dr. Bailey seemed unconvinced. “If you start feeling nauseous or dizzy, come and see me, or send someone for me. I’ll do my best to ease them.”

  “Thank you.” Gertie said.

  “You can go.” Gertie stood up from the exam table and the physician turned to Vail. “How’s your eye?”

  He shrugged, unconcerned. “It’s fine.”

  “You did that to him?” Dr. Bailey asked, eyeing Gertie. She nodded. “Can’t say I blame you. I’ve wanted to hit him a few times myself.”

  Vail laughed, and Gertie allowed a smile to curve her lips, though she felt the farthest from smiling that she had ever been in her life. After all, it appeared that the government was trying to kill her.

  And that she had killed three men.

  What did I do?

  “Go get something to eat, both of you.” The redhead demanded. “And then get some sleep. You need it.” She held up her hand when Vail would have spoken. “If Graves or Atkins have a problem with that, send them to me.”

  Vail laughed again, and ushered Gertie out of the room. They made their way to a large room, that reminded Gertie of the cafeteria at the government office. Not that she’d ever eaten in the cafeteria. She usually just ate at her desk.

  Kay had tried multiple times to get Gertie to take a break. “You work too hard. You’re not in 5th anymore. You can relax a little bit. It’s a perk of moving up in the Sections.”

  But Gertie had always refused. After all, breaks weren’t required.

  She followed Vail’s lead, picking up a tray and moving down the line. She grabbed a sandwich that looked like turkey and cheddar and a bottle of water. Vail put a cookie on her tray.

  A peace offering.

  She followed him to a table, and sat. They ate in silence. Gertie still pointedly avoiding conversation, trying to keep her anger in check. It wasn’t too hard, as she was ravenous and couldn’t eat the food in front of her fast enough.

  Vail cleared her tray for her when they’d finished.

  When they were halfway back to the living quarters, Vail couldn’t remain quiet any longer. “Gertie, what’s wrong?”

  She looked straight ahead. “How long were you following me?”

  She saw the moment he realized what she was upset about, it showed clearly on his face as his eyebrows rose and he gave a small nod. “Three weeks.”

  She stopped in the middle of the hall. He stopped too, turning to face her. “Three weeks. You followed me around for three weeks? You understand how creepy that is, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer, though he was nodding. Realization struck her with infinite clarity. “That night I almost fell in front of the car, that was you, wasn’t it?” He nodded. “Well, thanks for that at least, but that doesn’t make up for how creepy it is. To know that you were there, in my apartment… Oh, god, you were in my apartment, weren’t you?” She thought of all the times food had gone missing and she chalked it up to her being forgetful. All the times she’d felt someone watching her. All the times she stripped off her clothes on the way to the bathroom after working out. Her face flamed. He’d seen her naked. “All those times I thought I was alone, you were there.”

  “Well, not all the time. I came here some nights, once you were in your apartment.”

  “Right, and then Dicie was watching, or one of the other people here, right? You’re just a big group of voyeurs!”

  “Freckles, I promise I was a perfect gentleman when I was in your apartment, and the people here were only watching to see if anything peculiar happened. Trust me, when I say that no one was looking at... that.”

  She started forward again, her face still flaming. “You say that, but you don’t know what they were looking at. And how can I trust you? You’ve basically been stalking me for three weeks.”

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her left when she would have gone right. She jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me!” She almost yelled. A group of people dressed in coveralls rounded a corner, carrying tool boxes.

  He held up his hand in apology, waited until the workers passed, nodding at Vail and giving her curious looks. He kept his voice low as he asked, “can we talk about this in private?”

  She crossed her arms and nodded once, then motioned for him to lead the way. Moments later he was pulling her through a door into a set of rooms larger than the ones she’d occupied earlier. He hit a switch and the back wall of the room flickered to life, revealing a forest and bathing the room in early morning light.

  Gertie went over to it, marveling at the trees. “I thought we were underground,” she said, softly.

  “We are.” Vail came up next to her. “They did tests and found that pretending that our rooms looked out into nature rather than dirt was much healthier for our psyches.” She reached out and touched it, making the image flicker.

  “I suppose something is better than nothing.” They were silent for a moment and then Gertie sighed. “Look, I get that you were just doing your job. And really, I’m lucky that you were there last night. But it just feels weird. And it was definitely an invasion of privacy.�
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  He nodded. “I understand. I can only imagine how it feels. But this is bigger than you or me. We need to figure out why they’re watching you. Why those men were waiting for you in your apartment.”

  “They weren’t in my apartment.”

  “What?”

  “They weren’t in my apartment.” She repeated, still looking out at the trees. She tried and failed to suppress a shiver thinking about it. “They rode the elevator with me, I remember thinking it was weird that all of them lived on the same floor as me.”

  Gertie could feel his eyes on her. “Do you remember anything else?”

  She shook her head. “Not until I woke up on the carpet covered in blood.” Her hands were shaking again. She tucked them under her arms to hide it, though she was sure he had noticed. He was standing so close to her, she could feel the warmth from his body, warming just her side. “So, what do we do now?”

  “Do?”

  “To find out what’s going on?”

  He turned away from the image and went to the fridge, pulled out two bottles of water and offered one to Gertie. She shook her head. “Well, we have a crew at your apartment cleaning up. They’ll replace the carpet and any of the furniture that needs it.” Gertie shuddered, knowing that all of it would need to be replaced. “And then we’ll see. There hasn’t been any chatter about the incident, so it may be that it’s safe for you to go back.”

  “Or it could be that they’re keeping quiet to draw me out, right?”

  He set down his bottle of water and ran a hand through his hair, then down his face. She heard the rasp of his beard scraping against his fingers. “Right.”

  She sank down on the couch, put her head in her hands. “I don’t understand why all of this is happening.” She felt the couch dip as Vail sat next to her.

  “I know,” he murmured, his arm draped around her shoulders pulling her closer. She leaned into his side. “I don’t either but I’m here to help in any way I can.”

  She lifted her head and looked at him. She didn’t know why, but she believed him. Even knowing that he’d followed her, had in all likelihood seen her naked, had entered her own private space without her permission, she believed him. “You said I was boring.”