by Chris Babu
Relief smothered Drayden like a warm blanket. He sank down into the chair. The Bureau was cruel and evil, but perhaps the tiniest bit merciful as well. Instead of exiling him as they should, they bent the rules and showed humaneness. As usual, Catrice was right. The karma gods had his back. Having things work out the way they should, like the unwritten rules of the universe remained in order, delivered the ultimate satisfaction. He wasn’t going to die. He’d get to be with Catrice and Sidney. Wesley and Dad would move to the Palace. He could find out the truth about Mom. It was the greatest moment of Drayden’s life. For just a second, he wanted to savor it.
I did it.
He’d doubted himself, but he came through in the end. So many people had believed in him, and he didn’t let them down.
The smile faded from Holst’s face, along with any other trace of hospitality. He cocked his head. “There is, however, a catch.”
Drayden swallowed hard. He exchanged a nervous glance with the others.
Holst licked his lips. “Your Initiation is not quite over.”
Drayden’s stomach sank.
Holst stood behind his desk, leaning on the chair. “You see, New America has a problem, and you are going to help us solve it.” He paused, letting the news sink in. “Despite my own efforts to plan for the quarantine of New America before the Confluence, even I did not foresee the quarantine would last forever. Even if I had, I don’t believe I could have done much more.”
“Except maybe bring in some cotton plants,” Charlie muttered under his breath.
Holst glowered at him, the cotton a well-known sore spot. He opened his top desk drawer and pulled something out, keeping it hidden in his hand. “The problem is this.” He raised his hand. In it, he held a small battery, like the ones in their flashlights. “Power storage.”
He paused again, scanning the eyes of the pledges. “The wind turbines and solar cells rely on what’s called deep-cycle batteries. They store immense amounts of energy and last decades. Unfortunately, they don’t last forever. They’ve lasted a generation, but they’re wearing out, as we always knew they would. The solar cells themselves are wearing out too. New America doesn’t have the mineral resources to produce new batteries in any meaningful size. Without power, we can’t grow food or produce clean water. Every person in New America will die. This is happening now. Six of the forty-four wind turbines are no longer usable. We may have a year or two. Or less. It’s only a matter of time until they all go down.”
Holst dropped the battery back in the drawer and walked back in front of the pledges. He folded his hands in front of him. “The time has come to launch an expedition outside the walls. To attempt to achieve direct contact with another civilization. And you, children, will lead it.”
Drayden drew in a quick breath. No!
Catrice, Sidney, and Charlie stared at Holst with shocked faces.
What about our families? Drayden thought.
“Everything I said earlier stands,” Holst said. “You are Bureau members. When you’ve accomplished your mission, you will return to the Bureau not just as members, but as heroes. The saviors of the world. Your families will still move here as promised. This is not a punishment. You represent New America’s best chance of survival.”
Drayden shook his head in disgust. What a load of shkat. He seriously doubted a few sixteen-year-olds were civilization’s best chance at survival. The Bureau probably didn’t care to risk people who truly were valuable to them, like the scientists.
Holst walked behind his desk, pulled his chair out, and sat. “Here is what’s going to happen. You will be given lovely new accommodations in the Palace. For the next week, you will rest and heal. You will spend the following week receiving training. You will be trained in weaponry and other survival techniques by the Guardians. You will study with the scientists. They’ll teach you everything we know about the world outside the walls, and all our endeavors to contact other civilizations. You’ll meet the elite team of Guardians that will accompany you on your journey. Their mission is solely to protect you. Make no mistake. You are in charge. They will be taking orders from you.”
Holst used a handkerchief to buff an antique gold telephone on his desk. “You will receive every safeguard we have, including the latest advances in vaccinating against Aeru. We’ve made excellent progress. Unlike the freshly exiled who pound at the gates, you will be allowed back into New America. Provided you haven’t contracted the illness, of course. In limited quantities, we have the ability to test for its presence. Your families will move to the Palace the day you depart, so you can see them. We will notify them immediately that you have completed the Initiation.” He looked up. “I’m sure they’re worried.”
Drayden’s head spun at all the information Holst dumped on them. The Bureau had an Aeru vaccine? He’d have to wait two weeks, but he’d get to see Wesley and Dad. That would give him only two weeks to investigate the exile.
Holst rose and stood before them. “Any questions?”
Catrice raised her hand.
“Yes, Catrice?”
“Can you please not notify my family?” she asked. “And I don’t want them to be moved here.” She glanced at Drayden before casting her eyes down.
Charlie and Sidney looked stunned.
Drayden recalled what she’d told him. She’d hinted at past abuse.
“As you wish,” Holst said. “Anything else?”
Nobody replied.
Holst clapped his hands together. “In the meantime, please enjoy your time in the Palace. A rep from the Initiation Council will set you up in your new apartments, give you money to spend, and arrange for daily nursing visits to treat your injuries. Thank you. And congratulations again.” He walked to his desk.
The Guardian opened the door, and the other pledges stood up to leave.
Drayden rubbed the hat in his hands, thinking of his mom. Who knew if he’d ever have a chance to speak directly to the Premier again? He wanted to inquire about her exile, but surely Holst himself wouldn’t know anything about it. Drayden needed to start making connections. He could only think of one place to begin: the Bureau rep for the Dorms.
“Is it possible to meet with Thomas Cox?” Drayden asked.
Holst stopped in his tracks. Before turning around, he motioned for the Guardian to close the door again. He spun around and marched right up to Drayden, standing so close he almost stepped on his feet. “And why would you want to meet with Thomas Cox?”
Sidney, Charlie, and Catrice awkwardly sat back down.
Holst’s reaction raised Drayden’s heart rate. Cox was plotting to overthrow Holst. Drayden knew about it. He should have assumed that Holst might know something about it as well. “I-I just thought it might be nice for us to see a familiar face. He was our Bureau rep in the Dorms. Maybe he could tell us about how things are back in our former home.” Drayden thought it was a reasonable explanation.
Holst remained silent, studying him.
He suspected Holst was a master at reading people. You didn’t become Premier and hold onto it for twenty-five years without being able to delve beneath the surface, to read between the lines.
Holst’s demeanor softened. “Thomas Cox was executed. This morning, in fact.”
Drayden’s mouth dried out. “Executed? Why?”
“For conspiring to overthrow the Bureau. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Drayden?”
Drayden’s heart pounded so hard he feared Holst would hear it. “Me? No, not at all.”
“I see. Well, we’ll have a new Bureau rep for the Dorms this week. Whoever that is, I’m certain you can meet with them. Congratulations again on your performance. Get some well-deserved rest.” Holst turned to walk away, motioning for the Guardian to open the door again.
Drayden contemplated everything he’d learned in the Initiation. This moment probably offered his
only chance to challenge Holst. Since he would be sent outside the walls anyway, what did he have to lose?
“Excuse me, Premier Holst? I have another question,” Drayden said, his voice firm.
Holst sat in his chair, now clearly irritated. “Yes?”
“We’ve only been in the Palace a short time,” Drayden said. “But from the little I’ve seen, the Palace offers a high standard of living. Compared to the Dorms, food is more abundant; people appear healthier; they dress in nicer clothes; it’s cleaner…. How is that fair? Doesn’t that run counter to your claims of equality?”
Catrice and Sidney stared at Drayden with bulging eyes. Charlie made a face and slowly shook his head.
Holst rose, and strolled over to Drayden. “I think I’m beginning to understand your true interest in meeting with Thomas Cox. You know, it’s not too late to change my mind about your exile.” He looked at Drayden with piercing eyes.
Drayden glared right back, never dropping his gaze. Don’t back down. “I think you need me to lead that expedition.”
Holst smirked.
Drayden was right, and Holst knew it.
“You’re just a child, Drayden. You didn’t live through the Confluence. I spend every day of my life striving to apply its lessons. You didn’t witness the growing cries of inequality that played a major role in destroying the world. We gave the people what they wanted. Equality. A flat societal structure. Quite frankly, we had no other option, because our world offered nothing. Assets, wealth, all suddenly meaningless.”
Holst held a finger in the air again. “Then things began to change. A few very smart scientists figured out how to purify water from that swamp in the Hudson River. Other brilliant ones devised a modern sewage system. The Guardians protected everyone from chaos. Should we not have rewarded them? Would it have been fairer not to reward them? We didn’t have much to give, but we gave what few perks we had. An extra meal, a better apartment. After all, if a person could solve water purification, what else could they figure out, if properly motivated? Maybe curing the fatal illness caused by Aeru. Or building a solar airplane to establish contact outside our world.”
Holst rolled his eyes. “Of course, Dorm residents started protesting all over again about inequality, forcing us to build walls between the zones to protect everyone. They failed to understand that incentives are how civilizations are driven to advance. If we gave what little extra food we had to all the janitors of New America, would that be more fair? Would that propel civilization forward? Why would the brilliant minds in our world bother to apply them if they received nothing for their accomplishments? What if people incapable of advancing civilization received the spoils themselves? Would you call that equality?
“Didn’t you, Drayden, believe you deserved to join the Bureau because you solved most of the problems in the Initiation? While Alex, who contributed little, did not? Is that so different?”
Drayden scoffed. That was totally different. Alex didn’t…he felt…no, it was just…Drayden exhaled, his eyes downcast. Holst was right. It was the same.
Holst continued. “The problem is this. Human beings, in terms of basic human rights, are all created equal, yes. But from the perspective of human society, humans are not equal. Some add more value than others. I didn’t make it this way; it’s just a fact of life. What you call inequality, I call equality. You complain about inequality, and I tell you there are no easy solutions to it. I wish New America overflowed with food so no citizen would ever go to bed hungry. It doesn’t, forcing us to divide it in the most beneficial way for New America. I believe we do that, as unfair as you shallowly think it is. Leaving people no chance to earn their way out of their birth zone was indeed unfair, but we’ve solved that with the Initiation.”
Holst veered from logical to delusional. Despite the Bureau’s advertised incentive for the Initiation—securing a job in the government—the existence of the Initiation itself implied inequality in New America’s zones. In theory, the Initiation addressed that obvious inequity. Except barely anyone entered, and Holst himself said nobody had passed in eight years. In Holst’s mind, offering the Initiation was enough. It was irrelevant that people chose not to enter and did not pass.
Holst leaned against the front of his desk. “The Confluence taught us that the population must be commensurately sized with its resource supply. Since you enjoy mathematics, Drayden, consider the following. A world with five people, who each require five eggs per day to survive, but in which only twenty eggs are produced daily. If divided equally, each person would receive four eggs per day and everyone would die. Alternatively, if you exile one person, the remaining four would receive their five daily eggs and survive. If you have a limited food supply, and ours is diminishing due to the failing power storage, the only solution is to shrink the population to the right size, or we risk everybody dying.
“The exiles are a travesty. I have no illusions about that. Once reaching the conclusion that it must be done, whom should we exile? The head scientist working on an alternative approach to fighting bacterial infections? Would that be best for New America? Perhaps it makes more sense to exile those in the Dorms. You think I’m a monster, but I’m trying to save the world. I thought you were intelligent, Drayden. Don’t make me change my mind about you.”
Drayden lowered his eyes. He couldn’t win this debate. Holst had spent his entire life contemplating equality. He offered intelligent, logical arguments, but it didn’t feel right. Everyone’s lives mattered. There had to be a better way.
“Now, please, if you will, go get some food and some rest,” Holst said, returning to his desk.
It was time to go. The Guardian approached them this time, forcing Drayden and the others out of their chairs. He escorted them out of the room.
A cool breeze chilled Drayden’s face. The view from the rooftop terrace at Seventy-Five Wall Street astonished him, even at night. With the lights still on, New America glowed, granting a magical view all the way up to the Dorms. The full moon provided enough light to glimpse into the former Brooklyn and even Queens, where Mom grew up.
“How nice are the rooms?” Charlie asked nobody in particular. “Makes my old apartment look like a dump.”
Each of them had received adjacent apartments. The rooms were clean, and expansive. Once a hotel, each apartment had been outfitted with kitchens.
“How much of that food did you guys eat when you got inside?” Sidney asked.
“I ate all the eggs right away,” Charlie said.
The Bureau had stocked their kitchens with food, of far superior quality and quantity than the weekly Dorm allocation. They’d also included items never seen in the Dorms, like ice cream, pickles, and cookies.
Drayden hadn’t reflected much yet on the task before them, and nobody had discussed it. They were being railroaded into doing a job nobody else would do, with no choice in the matter. Anyone else smart or strong enough to undertake such a journey was too valuable to the Bureau to sacrifice. While he didn’t trust Holst, the more Drayden mulled it over, his portrayal of the situation was logical. Thomas Cox had been aware of a secret power problem resulting in forced exiles. It fit perfectly with Holst’s claims of failing power storage. Even the Palace didn’t offer the safety Drayden imagined. New America would die out unless someone did something about it. Why not them? They could die on the expedition, but they could die staying in the Palace too. At least he would have the opportunity to solve it himself. He wasn’t afraid to do so. After surviving the Initiation, it was hard to imagine anything would scare him again.
The real silver lining was Mom. During Drayden’s short time in the Palace, he was going to find out who was responsible for her exile. If she was alive outside the walls, he was going to find her. When the Bureau exiled her, they made the critical mistake of underestimating a son’s love for his mother.
“You guys ready for this?” Drayden asked.
“Well,” Drayden said, “now we know it’s no longer safe, even here.” He faced the three of them. “I was upset too when Holst told us, and it’s not fair that we have no choice, but I don’t think this is the worst thing. Would you rather be sitting here helpless, hoping someone else can figure this out before we run out of food? Wondering when that’ll happen? You guys have witnessed what we can do when we work together. We’re a great team, like Holst said.”
“Yeah, man,” Charlie said, “I’m with you. It’s like an adventure. We get to see what’s outside the walls. I want to shoot some guns too. Maybe we’ll even become famous. They’ll be writing about us in the history books.”
“You spend a lot of time reading those history books, Charlie?” Drayden asked, smirking.
“Oh yeah, all the time,” Charlie said. “Me and Alex used to sit around reading about the Revolutionary War to each other.” He giggled.
“I’m sorry about Alex,” Drayden said somberly. “Even though you guys tried to kill me and all, I know how it feels to lose your best friend.”
Charlie made a face. “Is this going to be one of those things where every time you talk to me you’re going to remind me of that time I almost murdered you? I swear, Dray, I would never do that, or be a part of that. You’re my boy.”
“I’m just messing with you, Charlie.”
Catrice stood close, grinning at Drayden. She looked absolutely radiant, glowing.
Drayden smiled back. He wouldn’t get to test out his theory that the pressure and isolation of the Initiation solely drove both girls’ sudden interest in him. That once they returned to normal life, they would forget about him again. There would be no return to normal life. The expedition would force the girls into another similar circumstance with him. This time around, he knew them better, particularly Catrice. He’d seen her at her best, and her worst. He knew what frightened her and what didn’t. Inside that quiet, petite, frail body lived a strong, smart, fascinating girl who enthralled him. Her physical beauty was merely a bonus at this point. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but she seemed to care about him too. He wasn’t alone after all.
