“Have you seen Lucien?" Dante asked as he changed the subject. "He's fourteen now. He’s a tech wizard. He might one day be as skilled as Father.”
“He might,” Medea said, “but would Father allow it?” Dante was quiet, contemplating her words. He started the car, the slow electrical hum filling the silence. It ran for a few moments before Dante spoke up.
“Do you ever wonder,” he said, “what you would do if you weren’t serving Father?” He looked at Medea calmly.
“Do you mean if I had been born human in this city?” Medea said. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” Dante said, “all my life I’ve just known Father’s orders. Father’s plans. Ares’ orders. Even Wolfgang’s orders. Sometimes I wonder if Will was the lucky one. The one who was able to escape, get away from all this.”
“You’re worrying me,” she said. “We're the only ones in this snow globe that are actually free.” Dante looked at her hard.
“Are we? Are we really free? I’ve killed for Father, and watched my brothers and you kill for him. What has this accomplished? For all the good of Father’s plan, I’ve seen enough death to last a lifetime.” Medea returned his stare.
“You need to pull yourself together, Dante,” she said. "Do you know why? If Father had any idea you said anything like that, you would be gone. You’ve seen what he’s done to his own Family. His sister. His nephew. What he’s wanted to do to the rest of them. He’s more powerful than all of us, even in the state he’s in now. He’ll kill you in an instant, without hesitation. You’ve seen him do it, as I have. Do you know why I’ve never thought about leaving? Because I know what he’ll do to me. I’d rather survive, and be Father’s pawn, than the bug he squashes.” She stopped, and Dante saw something he’d never seen in her eyes. When she realized, she turned away from him.
“I guess that’s what it comes down to,” Dante said, “surviving.”
“Maybe,” she said with a calmer voice, “it’ll be easier if we can survive together.” He smiled, and started to pull the car onto the street. He’d missed his sister, and he didn’t feel quite as alone with her.
31
Christina sat in a desk that was one of many in a large office. Her red hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she wore a dark blue blouse and a black skirt. Her workday was nine to five every weekday. It was a basic clerical position, reviewing and filing of documents, and it was very boring. She was in the capitol, working in the finance department. She was a part of the mayor’s staff, although on the bottom level. It was very tedious work, and nobody was too excited about it. If Christina had actually cared about working in the capitol and for the mayor, she would have thought that the woman who hired her wanted to spite her by placing her in that position.
Christina had only just started the job and she could do it just as well as the people who had been there for years. The only real benefit was it would allow her to see how mayor’s office worked. Right now she was just working on some financial statements for the end of the week. Her supervisor, another elderly woman named Sandra Dunkum came over to her.
“Christina,” Mrs. Dunkum said, “you seem to be doing very well here. When you finish those statements bring them to me. I’ll check them over and bring them to Mayor Callahan.”
“Yes ma’am,” Christina said. She smiled to herself, thinking that a child could effectively do the work she accomplished. She felt a little guilty for looking down on them, but only a little. They chose this occupation for themselves, this lot in their lives.
It did not take very much time at all for her to finish the statements, a matter of transferring data to one data screen. She took the data screen to Mrs. Dunkum. The woman seemed very busy; a large amount of expenses had cropped up. She noticed Christina and took the data screen from her, pausing long enough to glance at the data. She tapped the screen a few times quickly. She then looked back up at Christina.
“They look good enough,” she said, “why don’t you go ahead and take them to Callahan’s office? Two clerks just quit, and now I have to cover their workloads.” Christina nodded quietly and left the office with the data screen in her hands.
Mayor Callahan’s office was two floors above her own workspace, making it necessary for her to use the elevator. Employees were discouraged to use the stairs unless there was an emergency or drill of some kind. The city’s capitol was intimidating on the outside, but the inside was a different story. It mostly appeared to be a large office complex from the inside, with workers busily keeping track of different aspects of the city.
The elevator felt like it was moving fast, but it was hard for her to tell since she only had to go up two floors. She noticed it every morning, though, when she took it from the bottom floor. The inside of the elevator had dark reflective panels, and music that was sometimes so soft it could barely be heard at all. She couldn’t place the tune, of course there were very few tunes that could be heard or recognized in Dirge. There was very little music.
The elevator beeped a positive tone, the two doors opening to the hallway. She walked straight ahead, which took her to the lobby outside Callahan’s office.
Next to the double doors of his office was a secretary’s desk, with a young woman working diligently on a data screen that was imbedded into the surface of the desk. Christina walked over to the secretary, stopping in front of her desk.
“I’m from accounting,” Christina said, “and these statements are for the mayor.” She held up the data screen as the young secretary stopped and looked up at her. She had a kind face, but her eyes were sad. Christina wondered what her story was.
“Just leave them with me,” the secretary said. "I’ll give them to him when he returns.”
“Mrs. Dunkum told me to put them on his desk if he’s not in."
“Well, all right. If that’s what she said.”
She was surprised to see how much apathy the woman had exhibited. Christina watched as a small display popped up on the data screen on her desk where the secretary entered a code. A positive beep came from the screen, and the doors made a click as the mechanisms unlocked. She wondered how many people actually cared about the city, or the government. She opened one of the doors and walked in. It closed behind her automatically.
Mayor Callahan’s office was large, almost luxurious in the spaciousness and decor. It echoed a wealth and arrogance that wasn’t present in most of the rest of the city. The entire back wall was a window viewing the city in its dim glory. There were shelves filled with data screen books and small pieces of abstract art. There was a large desk that did a very good job of mimicking wood patterns. Christina laid the data screen on the desk and quickly walked around it. There has to be something here I can use, she thought as she opened the first drawer.
The top two drawers had nothing but office supplies and some blank data screens. The bottom drawer had several data screens filed away with digital labels on the screens. One was labeled Civic Protection; another, High Council. All the others were various departments and divisions in the city. She pulled out the Civic Protection data screen and activated it, scrolling through the different files and documents as fast as she could. There were several transcripts, as well as a stack of memos and new laws. One memo caught her eye:
By order of the High Council, the department of Civic Protection is ordered to obtain the Vanguards by all means, while being as discreet as possible. This is a high security matter, as the Vanguards are suspected of treason. All of them are to be detained, no questions asked. They will be interrogated by select members of the High Council.
She found it odd that the order hadn’t been signed by anyone. She continued to look through the memos, not seeing anything too interesting at first. She then ran into another memo, unsigned just like the first one and just as interesting:
It has come to the High Council’s attention that there is an
individual who refers himself as “the Hunter.” Civic Protection is under orders to stop him with any means necessary and detain anyone who may be in collaboration with him. This includes the Vanguards, who are suspected to be in league with him. This individual has not only continually flouted the laws of this city but has resisted numerous arrests and has incapacitated dozens of CP and more importantly is responsible for the deaths of over thirty Civic Protection officers. He is considered armed and extremely dangerous, even when he might not appear to be. Extreme caution is to be exercised when apprehending the individual, and armor piercing rounds are recommended due to the unique type of body armor the individual utilizes...
The memo went on to describe places the Hunter had been identified; locations in Old District, East District and Lower District. She hadn’t realized James had already reached that level of infamy. He was the most wanted felon in the city. She shook her head, not knowing what to think.
She looked up as she realized she heard voices outside the office. She quickly reorganized the memos in the data screen the way they were before and placed it back into the drawer, shutting it silently. The voices were getting louder now, just outside the office doors.
She stood up and headed towards the doors, moving quickly while trying not to run. The doorknobs were turning, and they opened inward. She had to stop herself, avoiding getting hit by the door. She caught it with her hand. The man who opened it was tall and slender with blond hair. He had a smirk on his face that was slightly surprised when he saw her. Christina remembered the descriptions she’d heard, and knew this was the man named Dante. Elijah had warned her to watch out for him.
“Hi,” Dante said while smiling, “who are you and what are you doing here?” Christina stopped for a second, scared. She started to stutter something out, when the receptionist spoke.
“She was just dropping off some statements. Apparently Mrs. Dunkum doesn’t trust me enough to leave them with me, so she insisted on putting them on the mayor’s desk. I…”
“All right,” Dante said, “whatever, I don’t care. Just get out of here.” Christina realized the young receptionist was covering for her. She glanced at the young secretary as she rushed off to the elevator while hearing Dante mutter, “I really don’t have time for this...” He trailed off, muttering incomprehensibly. There was a strange woman behind him, a woman Christina had never seen or heard about. She rushed off too fast to actually get a good look at the woman, but she did notice the woman’s hair, an unusual color. It was white with red highlights.
“She’s pretty. Maybe you should think about spending some time with someone like her. She stands out; too, only like a few others I’ve seen.” He scoffed at that remark, and said something back. Christina could not tell what he said, because the elevator doors had closed. She pressed the button and leaned back against the wall. That was close, she thought as she prepared her mind to get back to work. She wasn’t looking forward to it.
32
Christina was sitting outside in the courtyard of stone behind Vanguard University. It was her sophomore year, and she’d just finished classes for the day. She was on the phone with her friend she had stayed with in high school, who lived in Lower District. She was giving Kayla an update of her college life.
“Well yeah, he’s a really great guy. I spend a lot of time with him outside of class, actually most of my evenings. He’s just so fun, and interesting. Yeah, his name is James. No, I haven’t met his parents, and I probably won’t. He was adopted. Yeah, he’s an orphan like me. Yes, he’s emotionally stable. Well, probably smarter than I am. We talk about the collapse a lot, and how things could have happened. No, it’s a lot of fun. We both love history. No, he doesn’t live in the dorms. He lives in Old District somewhere. What are you talking about? We lived in Lower District, and that’s not too far.
“Yes, he’s a student. He’s in several of my classes. He hasn’t decided on a major yet. Oh wait, here he comes. Talk to you later. Bye.” James was walking up to her from one of his classes. She waved to him as she put away her phone. Her eyes lit up as they met his.
“Hey,” he said, “I’m finally through with class. I thought you had a class right now.” She smiled coyly at him.
“It’s out. Professor’s sick today or something. I’m not sure. I just hope Civic Protection didn’t take him away or anything, and that's why class was canceled. He was the most interesting professor I’ve had all year. He was really nice, too.” James smiled at her reassuringly.
“I’m sure he’s fine. I’m really hungry, let’s get some food.” She just smiled back at him. He grinned as he stared into her eyes again, and they paused there for a moment. He finally took her by the waist and pulled her close, pressing her body against his. He kissed her without hesitation, surprising her. She couldn’t tell how long it lasted, but when they finally pulled away, she bit her lip for a moment.
“What was that for?” she asked, her face bright red.
“Well,” James said, “we’ve been hanging out for a while now, and I wanted to confirm my suspicions.”
“Do you do this with every girl you’ve hung out with for a while?" she asked.
“There’s only girl I want to be with,” James said, “which is why I kissed her.” She bit her lip again, and then leaned into him. She kissed him back, lingering on with their moment. She pulled away suddenly.
“Well,” James said.
“I’ve just confirmed my own suspicions,” she said. James took her hand and they walked together down the street.
There were a few small cafes nearby the university, all trying to appeal to the students. James led her to one of them. The city had dealt with a food shortage in a unique way a long time ago. The same cabbage that was used to make most textile materials was also a food source. The plants were made to grow extremely fast in extreme conditions, which were necessary since the city was permanently under dim lighting. Many of the restaurants that had been established tried to find unique ways to prepare and serve the plants, so it would be more enjoyable. It was hard for anyone, however, to want to eat what was basically protein and vitamin enriched lettuce. It could be dried and ground into a type of flower to also make breads. People got used to it. They adapted.
They stopped at a cafe that wasn’t too expensive and also had a nice atmosphere. They both sat down at a small round table outside the front of the building, where lanterns hung above them to light up the eating area, even though it was only early afternoon. People had adapted to the darkness a long time ago. There weren’t too many Civic Protection soldiers around the area. They tended to keep a distance from the University for some reason.
“So that was the friend you stayed with in high school?” James asked.
“Yes, she needs an update every now and again. She’s concerned about me. We’re practically sisters. She stayed in Lower District, working in a factory with the rest of her family. She never felt like she had what it takes to go to college.”
“I’m sorry she feels that way,” James said with concern on his face.
“It’s funny,” Christina said, “sometimes I wonder. Does it really matter if I go to the university or not? Either way I’ll probably get stuck in a job, a career that I don’t like. If anyone really tries to make a difference here, they fail. Or they disappear.”
“It won’t always be like this,” James said.
“Will it?” she said. She looked down at the table as she broke eye contact, “I’m tired of being afraid. I’m more worried about being stopped by a Civic Protection officer than being mugged. I’ve known people, girls who have been stopped by them. Those soldiers are ruthless monsters of men.
“Why don’t people do anything? Where are the ones who are supposed to save us? Where are the heroes in this city, in this world? What’s the point in living in this prison, one that we didn’t even do anything wrong to be placed in?”
James rea
ched out and took her hand. Their fingers interlocked as they sat across each other in silence.
“Christina,” James said, “we’re the ones. We’re the ones who have to stand up. Who have to fight.”
“How can we save a city if we can’t even save ourselves?”
“I don’t know,” James said, “but you give me hope. When I think about you, I think about a future in this city that isn’t sad.” He smiled, and she could not help but smile back. Every time she looked into his face she felt better. There was something beyond what could be understood in his eyes. The same thing that first attracted her to him. His hope.
33
James stood on the roof of a building in East District. He’d been watching for her, worried. Finally a bus came around the corner, and he could see her inside it. Christina was just heading back to the small apartment she’d rented a week ago. I haven’t actually had a chance to talk to her, he thought. I need to speak with her. He moved to the other side of the building.
He waited for a gap in the late afternoon traffic of people walking the sidewalk. Watching with his mind’s eye, he could see a moment where no one was paying attention to the alley below him. He fell down the wall, landing softly with his wings instantly morphing into his coat. He’d practiced this numerous times to get it right. He needed to rely on stealth.
He looked like a normal person; the part of the xeno on his back that never went under his skin now changed color to mimic his skin’s tone. He walked out of the alley into the crowd of people moving through the sidewalk. Even through the events of the past month, people still seemed to live their lives as normally as possible. It was the only way they could survive. They’d continue to work, go to school, and do whatever else they had to do during the day. It was like nothing had happened. It was like nothing ever happened.
To James, it was a sea of auras. He could feel them as easily as he could see them. The different shades and tones of color; identifying each individual person. He watched for the particular one that stood out in the crowd, the aura he was looking for. She was just now exiting the bus. There was a small line of people getting off, as another line of people waited to get on. People pulled out their barcoded ID’s to scan when boarding it, hoping each time that the Civic Protection didn’t have some reason to arrest them. The people getting off quickly dissipated into the crowd.
City of Twilight: Rise of the Hunter (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 1) Page 15
