by Adam Bender
She’d been asleep at least that long, her watch showed. Enough time, she decided. She had to see him, had to see if the man she loved was back. She was worried sick that the operation failed or had unforeseen side effects.
A Guard met her at the door to Jon’s room. “Name and business,” he asked.
“Agent Eve Parker. The man in there was–” She stopped short to correct herself. “The man in there is my fiancé.”
The soldier immediately stepped aside.
The man she loved was sitting up in bed, staring out into the night sky.
“Not much of a view, is it?” she asked him.
He turned to her and smiled warmly. “Eve,” he said know-ingly. “You always did hate the Engine Valley, didn’t you?”
She felt a pit in her stomach. “Jon?” she made out finally.
“Close the door and c’mere,” he replied.
She sat on the bed next to him. At once he had his arms around her. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Eve’s heart felt warm under Jon’s gentle squeeze. “Why?”
“For becoming Seven. I’ve treated you so badly…hurt you.”
A tear fell from Eve’s eye. “It’s fine,” she said. “You didn’t know what you were doing. I always knew you didn’t mean it. When I first met you as Seven, I could tell that you still loved me. And so even after everything went mad, I knew that if I could just help you remember, you would be mine again.”
“And now I am,” he said. He pulled her close and kissed the bead of salt water on her cheek. Eve kicked off her shoes. She pushed Jon down onto the bed and stretched out next to him. He pulled her mouth against his. When he eventually tried to come up for air, she pulled him back. When finally Eve, too, was breathless she pushed Jon onto his back and tucked her head into his neck.
Into his ear, she whispered, “I’m in trouble, Jon.”
“What?”
“Don’t talk–the Guard might have this room bugged and I don’t want them to hear this. Do you remember our mission with the Underground?”
He nodded slightly.
“I don’t know why I went through with it, but I collected the evidence they wanted.”
Jon exhaled deeply.
“I’m not a Heretic, but I don’t understand why they need a machine to watch everyone. I’ve spent nearly my whole life watching people and deciding if they’re Heretics. What they’re talking about is a program that makes everyone a Heretic until proven innocent.”
She sighed. “But at the same time, I don’t know if I can turn on the Guard. Maybe there’s a larger story here that I don’t know about. Maybe Drake is completely justified in launching this program.
“I don’t have to do it. The evidence was recorded to a flash memory card. I can still destroy it. But for some reason, I just can’t decide if that’s the right thing to do.”
Jon’s lips brushed gently against her ear. “Then give me the burden of deciding,” he whispered. “Give the flash card to me and I’ll destroy it.”
The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea. She knew she’d regret either choice. But if she let Jon decide…
She reached into her jeans pocket. Keeping the card hidden in the palm of her hand, she straddled Jon and kissed him. She gently placed the object in his hand and closed his fingers over the top. Then she began to unbutton his shirt.
“You know there’s a camera in here,” he managed to say eventually.
She brushed her hair out of her face and laughed. “Maybe they’ll send us a copy.”
“As much as I’d like to proceed,” said Jon, “I’m also starving.”
She gasped. “Haven’t they given you anything to eat?”
He furrowed his brow. “I think they gave me some kind of consommé?”
“You poor thing!” She got off him at once. “In that case, I’ll get you a proper supper. We can catch up afterward…I know a hotel not too far from here where we can go when they release you. It’s still the Engine Valley, but it will have to do.”
“That sounds nice,” he replied.
Eve leaned over to kiss him one more time. Then she ad-justed her hair and left the room. She was grinning ear to ear as she walked past the Guard and down the hallway.
In the cafeteria, Eve piled a plate high with grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and some kind of pea/carrot mixture. She poured Jon a cup of cola. She didn’t get anything for herself except for a bottle of water. She was too excited to eat. All she wanted to do was sit by Jon’s side and look at him.
When she returned, Eve found the door to Jon’s room unattended and slightly ajar. Then she saw the Guard lying still on the floor. She dropped the dinner tray and the peas and carrots went flying in different directions. Some of the brown soda splattered onto the fallen soldier’s face.
Eve checked the Guard’s pulse and found none. Only then did she notice that his revolver was missing.
Pulling together what courage she had left, Eve stood up and pushed open the door. “Jon?” she whimpered.
The bed was empty except for a single scrap of paper. She picked it up and read a message scrawled in her fiancé’s handwriting:
Thanks for the evidence!
It was signed Seven.
The alarm sounded and Seven cursed. He’d hoped to have made it a little closer to the exit before the hunt began, but instead had gotten hopelessly lost. Facility B was much too large, with far too many branching hallways. As far as he could tell, he was on the fifth floor, but it was unclear how to get down, and he still felt a little woozy from the gas.
He remembered being in Facility B once before, a long time ago when he was Agent Jonathan Wyle. But maybe he had been in a different wing. He thought he was heading in the direction of the fire stairs, but all he had come across so far was a water fountain.
It was strange remembering this place, or remembering anything at all for that matter. But Seven didn’t have time to give it much thought. Thinking was a distraction.
“Hey, you!” someone shouted. Seven spun around and saw a pair of Guard jogging down the hallway. When they saw Seven’s gun, they picked up theirs.
Seven ducked behind the water fountain. An errant shot struck the faucet and water began spraying out of the top of the machine. Seven leaned out, and with his good arm fired back at them. The shots hit their targets straight on, and the soldiers slumped to the floor.
The fugitive did a quick survey of the area. A red exit sign glowed like a beacon down the hall to the right. He ran toward it, eventually coming upon a big door with a metal push bar. Ignoring an all-caps warning, he charged through, setting off another alarm.
“Damn it!” Now they would know exactly where he was. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Now he had two choices: take the stairs, or look for another exit. If he took the stairs, they’d certainly be waiting for him at the bottom. But there were plenty of Guard up here, too, and if he stayed in place he’d be no closer to the exit.
Seven had thought he was pretty clever after collecting the evidence on Patriot ID and giving Eve the slip. Well, the rush from that experience certainly had been short-lived. All of that effort would be meaningless if the Guard caught him now.
He decided on the stairs and took them two steps at a time. He cleared the fourth and third floors easily, but stopped short upon seeing a heavily armed Guard step onto the second floor landing. Seven bounded back up the stairs and took the third floor exit. He came out in another corner intersection that looked nearly identical to the floor he’d come from.
A trio of Guard came running down the hallway in front of him. This group didn’t hesitate to fire their weapons. Seven squeezed off a few shots to disorient them and then turned right. He drew close to the wall and, for the heck of it, slapped the elevator’s down button. He hadn’t planned to wait, but after only a few strides past the machine he heard the doors slide open.
Seven couldn’t believe his fortune. But as he turned, he saw that the elevator was
not empty, but in fact held four more soldiers. These men were more heavily armed than the previous ones he had seen. They were obviously reinforcements brought in only when matters got serious. They carried not only rifles, but an entire utility belt full of grenades and other contraptions.
With barely a pause, Seven took aim at a can of tear gas attached to one of the soldiers’ belts. Instantaneously, the elevator exploded in smoke, leaving the men inside choking and hacking away.
Seven shook his head. He’d been lucky so far, but there was no way he could keep this up forever. He had to find a way out of this building, and fast.
The orange moon caught his eye. Stopping short, he approached the big plate-glass window. It looked out at one of the outer edges of the complex. Down and below was a grassy courtyard with a couple trees and benches–this was probably a place where workers went out to have a quick smoke, or maybe even to eat lunch when it was warm.
He wondered if he was close enough to the ground to survive a fall without breaking anything. It might hurt a little, but maybe if he landed it just right…
“Stop! We have you surrounded!” a Guard yelled.
He checked both ways and confirmed there were soldiers on either side of the hall.
“Drop the weapon and put your hands in the air!”
He didn’t have a choice.
“Drop your weapon, I said.”
Seven blasted the window and dove through. A bullet cut through the back leg of his hospital pajamas, just missing his flesh.
The ground came faster than he expected, but he broke the fall with a forward roll. Soon he was up on his feet again and running for a reinforced concrete wall. He scanned the barrier left and right but couldn’t find an obvious weakness. He thought about scaling it, but it appeared to be iced with broken glass and barbed wire.
Seven couldn’t believe he had been so shortsighted. Why hadn’t he thought of this before?
A heavy thunk interrupted Seven’s despair. Instinctively, he curled up into a ball. A moment later, there was an ear-splitting explosion directly in front of him.
When the smoke cleared, he discovered an elephant-sized hole in the wall, opening onto the street. Parked on the other side of the road was a purple minivan. Shaan stood out in front, holding some kind of detonator.
“Seven!” he shouted. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Agent Parker?”
She was sitting on the bed where Seven had lain less than a half hour ago. Eve looked up, and for the first time saw the Guard standing in front of her. “What is it?” she said.
“Wyle has escaped, sir.”
She shook her head. “Wyle is dead.”
The Guard looked confused. “With all due respect, sir, we’re sure he’s on the move. Shall we send cars after him?”
She thought about it. “No,” she said finally. “Let him go.”
“Yes, ma’am. Anything else?”
“No, you can go.”
The soldier saluted and walked away. Eve fell back into the bed and closed her eyes. She was angry with herself for thinking she could ever bring Jon back. She held her left hand up over her head and watched the diamond on her finger sparkle. The clomping footsteps of the Guard returned.
“I said that you could go,” she said without looking up.
“Agent Parker?”
It was a new voice. She looked up and saw that it was a priest.
“Oh, hello, Father,” she said. “Can I help you?”
“I’m afraid I need to ask you to come with me,” the clergyman said. “The Headmaster has some questions about your recent tour of the facility.”
“How did you find me?” asked Seven as the van sped away from Facility B. He was stretched across the first row of seats in the back. Shaan and Talia monitored him closely from a row back.
Danny Young, riding shotgun again, twisted around in his seat. “One thing I learned from my dad is never to trust strangers,” he said. “Eve was the key to the mission, so I decided we should take a few extra precautions. Shaan was happy to oblige.”
“The flash card we gave to Eve was also beaming us her location,” explained Shaan. “When it became clear that she was planning to break from the plan, I immediately alerted Danny and we started packing our things. Only a few minutes after we pulled up to launch a rescue, the card’s GPS signal started moving erratically. We decided that one or both of you was on the run. Then it was just a matter of finding you outside.”
“Why didn’t you try to rescue me right away?”
“Since Eve knew about our base, we first had to erase all traces of the Underground’s presence in Engine Valley,” said Ana, who was driving. “Haru’s on his way to a safe house now.”
“For the record,” Talia chimed in. “I wanted to come right away.”
Shaan chuckled. “And she nearly gave me a black eye trying to convince me.”
Talia blushed. She seemed to Seven almost embarrassed that the topic had been breached. Maybe she really was starting to care for him, he thought. Seven liked her, too, but now there was a new feeling inside holding him back–a sort of emptiness that he couldn’t explain.
“Did they hurt you?” Talia asked.
Seven hesitated.
She turned him around and looked him in the eyes. “What did they do to you?”
He sighed. “They removed the chip.”
The statement sucked all the air out of the car.
“But it’s okay, I guess,” Seven continued. “I’ve got my old memories back, but I still…I still feel like Seven.”
Shaan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You maintained control,” he said. “Interesting.”
Danny Young shook his head. “Well, there goes your usefulness. I guess you’re fired.”
Seven smiled. “Hey, I could use the vacation.”
“Seriously, though,” said Young, “it’s good to have you back. Did Eve get the evidence, at least?”
“So she claimed,” said Seven, handing Young the flash card. He wondered what was in it for Eve if she really had betrayed the Guard. They would certainly find out she had leaked information, and now the Underground couldn’t provide her any protection. What had she been thinking?
He thought about how her cheeks turned apple red when she saw him after the operation. And then there was the way she kissed him–it felt familiar and yet like nothing he’d ever experienced.
Seven came out of the daze and asked where they were headed next.
“My family has another little cabin outside of Loganville,” said Danny. “We’ll hide out there for now and go through the evidence. Then we’ll send it to my connections in Congress and the press.”
“What about the Enemy?” asked Seven. “There might not be a nation to save from Patriot ID.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Danny with a grin. “I took your advice.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes. As we speak, the Underground is sending its men and women down to the Luna Coast to help drive the Enemy off the coast.”
“What?” asked Ana. “Why?”
“It’s the right thing to do. If I’m serious about leading this country, there’s no way I can stand by and let the Enemy wipe us out. The Underground has the resources to help, and so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“But like, this all assumes we make it to Loganville alive,” interjected Talia. “I still think we should have taken a different car. Like, maybe one that Eve doesn’t know about.”
Remembering the conflict he’d heard in Eve’s voice, Seven shook his head. “I don’t think she’ll come after us. Eve went through with her part of the mission, and I think she genuinely wanted us to report the truth on Patriot ID.”
Talia nodded thoughtfully. “But I guess she just couldn’t get over you–the old you anyway.”
Whatever she decided, thought Seven, he couldn’t imagine this was going to end well for her. The Guard was bound to find out what part she played in all this. When
that happens, he didn’t know what she would do. He wondered why that made him feel so worried.
A Guard led Eve handcuffed into the dark chamber and pushed her into the cold metal chair in the center of the room. Her arms twisted awkwardly as she landed, but she kept the pain to herself. The Guard took a swift turn that looked almost ceremonious, and headed for the exit. The heavy metal portal slid shut behind him, leaving Eve in darkness so black she couldn’t see her hands. The click of the lock was the last sound she heard for many minutes.
A spotlight snapped on overhead. Eve could see herself, and an empty floor about a foot in each direction, but the rest of the room remained hidden from her.
“Eve Parker,” said a familiar deep and syrupy voice. “We are very, very disappointed. You have disgraced God and country.”
It was the Headmaster. She concentrated on her diamond ring, but for the first time found it powerless to calm her.
“Father, I…”
“Silence!” the Headmaster’s voice boomed. “We need not waste time discussing your failure. You know what you have done. We know what you have done. And most of all, He knows what you have done. You are a Heretic and your destination is the Infernal Flames. There is nothing you or we can do to change your fate. Your soul is lost and cannot be Saved.”
Eve wondered if he was referring to her feeding the Under-ground incriminating details about Patriot ID, or letting Seven get away. She didn’t regret either one. The tour of Facility B had confirmed her worst fears about the Patriot ID program. She knew then that it had to be exposed and shut down. She did feel bad about nearly destroying the evidence, but she wasn’t going to tell the Headmaster that.
“You will be moved temporarily to a prison cell here in the Desert Base,” the Headmaster said. “For thirty days you will consider all the evils you have committed against God and his people. Then you will be dropped.”
“An execution?” Eve gasped. “I believe the law says I’m entitled to a trial.”
“Heretics are entitled to nothing but death,” was the high priest’s icy response.
