The Expedition

by Chris Babu

  He pulled his head back. “Unlucky? I’m not sure what you mean. This was like winning the lottery. I volunteered for it. So many Guardians volunteered, the colonel had to select the team. I feel blessed to have been chosen.”

  Jeez, Drayden thought. Slightly different view of the expedition.

  “You do realize we could die out there from any number of things, right? I think Aeru is the most likely.”

  Eugene eyed him like a disappointed parent. “Yeah, I understand the risks, but we have a chance to save New America—to save tens of thousands of lives. I’d happily give my own in exchange. The real kicker was getting to do it alongside you guys. I was on cloud nine the day they told me. I couldn’t sleep that night.”

  Two other Guardians strolled up, joining Captain Lindrick without so much as a glance at the privates. They spoke in hushed tones.

  As Eugene droned on about how lucky he was to be selected for the expedition, Drayden considered if he should introduce himself to the other two men.

  “Privates,” Captain Lindrick called out, cutting off Eugene mid-sentence. “I’d like to introduce you to Lieutenant Juan Duarte and Sergeant Peter Greaney.”

  Neither Guardian approached. Sergeant Greaney, a totally bald, stocky African American man, almost smiled and offered an informal salute. Lieutenant Duarte didn’t even glance at them.

  In a most unfortunate association, Duarte reminded Drayden of Alex, his former nemesis. Only Alex was sixteen and this guy was thirty-something. His whopper of a nose, and ears that flared out also stood in stark contrast to the model-esque Corporal Austin.

  Doubt crept into Drayden’s mind about his authority over the Guardians. It wasn’t explicitly discussed, and neither Greaney nor Duarte had given them the time of day. He disliked Lieutenant Duarte straightaway. While it may have been his similarity to Alex, his body language spelled trouble. He didn’t respect this group of teenagers.

  Catrice flipped her hair. “So, Eugene, what else do you like to do besides study math?”

  He chewed on his lower lip. “I love art, especially drawing.”

  Oh, for crying out loud.

  It was like he’d seen a profile of Catrice. Drayden felt the sudden urge to clutch Catrice’s hand in front of him. Except she stood just out of reach; in fact, closer to Eugene.

  “Corporal Austin!” Captain Lindrick bellowed.

  “Coming, sir!” Eugene rolled his eyes. “See you guys soon.”

  “Privates, thank you for coming,” Captain Lindrick said. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As Eugene marched toward the other Guardians, he turned his head back, for a second, and smiled at Catrice.

  She smiled back.

  CHAPTER 8

  Drayden approached the alley alone for his meeting with Kim Craig, having brusquely left the others.

  What the hell was that?

  It was the most interest Catrice had ever shown in another person. He’d known Catrice practically his whole life before she ever spoke to him or asked him a question. Five seconds after meeting Eugene it was as if she were conducting an interview. Fine, the guy was handsome and cool. So what? Just because someone loves math doesn’t prove he’s smart. He might suck at it. Though Drayden ultimately discovered his own bravery in the Initiation, he still wasn’t strong or physically gifted. Not like Charlie and Sidney were anyway.

  She also didn’t show any signs they were a couple in front of Eugene. A simple touch, anything. It was like she didn’t want him to know.

  The only consolation came right after they’d left and Sidney called Catrice out. She’d said, “Hey, math nerd, hands off this time. You already stole one guy. You don’t get to have both.” Catrice had scoffed at the threat, but Drayden had loved it because it delivered the message without coming from him. If he said anything he would have come across as an insecure weakling, which, fine, perhaps he was. He was probably being stupid and oversensitive about the whole thing.

  Drayden arrived at the alley and checked his digital watch. 11:34 AM.

  Kim was nowhere in sight, which made sense. He was way too early.

  The alley was cool and dark inside, running downhill from Broadway toward Trinity Place. He walked down it and turned right toward Ninety Trinity Place, where Kim had said she ran surveillance. He just wanted to check it out. After a few blocks he stopped across the street from the bland structure.

  Fourteen stories of brown stone blocks rose up, with seven square windows on each floor. It was wedged between two ugly, filthy buildings—on one side, the former American Stock Exchange; on the other, a former school.

  Surveillance cameras blanketed New America, and most were concealed. To everyone’s knowledge, they only existed outside. All the video feeds would lead to this one building, full of people watching the action across the city.

  It was weird to imagine that the people inside had observed Drayden before. How many times had he popped up on those cameras? Allegedly, the cameras existed to bust criminals. When the Bureau witnessed a crime, they moved fast. If a Chancellor deemed the crime serious enough, they would enforce an exile. The Bureau set the bar for “serious” much lower than a rational person would. If someone skipped work or school, they risked exile. A whole team of Special Forces Guardians and a Chancellor would raid the home at night. After the raid, they drove the victim in a bus up to the top of the city and pushed them out a gate. As they did with Drayden’s mother.

  He recalled sitting in Premier Holst’s office immediately following the Initiation. Holst had said to Drayden that, contrary to what his father thought, the Initiation wasn’t a trap. It had shocked him at the time. There was no way Holst could have known his father had said such a thing. Dad had said it to him in private, inside their apartment. He argued the Initiation was nothing more than a ruse to exile extra people. His father would never have uttered those words outside their home. He was too smart.

  Was it possible that, unbeknownst to anyone, the Bureau hid cameras inside people’s apartments? While using cameras outside to enforce the law was one thing, the Bureau invading homes would constitute a gargantuan violation of privacy. It could trigger a revolt if people found out about it.

  Drayden headed back toward the alley, a chilly breeze smacking into his face. Although it was May, today was cool and the air smelled wintry.

  Kim was waiting in the alley this time, pacing. “Hey, kiddo.”

  “Hi, Kim. Thanks again for doing this.”

  She gave him a look. “Don’t thank me yet; you don’t know if I found anything.”

  Drayden’s pulse quickened. “Did you?”

  “Yes and no,” she said, tilting her head from side to side. “Before that, I need to know you’re on board with our effort. Don’t worry. Your name won’t be on some list of people. Nobody will even know except me. You could be a real asset.”

  He already knew what his answer had to be. He was on board with taking down the Bureau, but he didn’t feel great about it, because he wasn’t entirely sure he could trust Kim. Who knew what her motivations were in recruiting him? Still, he needed the information she had about his mother.

  “I’m in. Have you heard about the expedition? I don’t think the Bureau’s told many people about it, besides the ones directly involved. They’re forcing me and the other kids from the Initiation to go on an expedition to Boston. We’ll have a team of four Guardians to protect us. Because of the power crisis, Holst needs to reach out for assistance. I’d been trying to delay it, but Holst’s chief of staff, this shkat flunk named Harris von Brooks, said either we go or he’ll exile our families and execute us. We leave tomorrow.”

  Kim muttered something to herself then said, “I didn’t know about the expedition. The failing power storage, on the other hand, has become the worst-kept secret in the Palace. It’s one of the reasons we feel compelled to move quickly with our plans. They’re gett
ing desperate if they’re sending you outside the walls. They probably consider you kids expendable. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah. My point is, I’m not sure how useful I’ll be. I’ll be gone and most likely will die on this trip.”

  She blew out a long breath, her cheeks puffing out. “I think you can still help. First of all, try and gauge if your Guardian pals are disgruntled with the Bureau. We have people who could approach them when you return.”

  A terse laugh escaped Drayden’s lips. “Just met them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the Bureau insignia tattooed on their bodies.”

  Kim shrugged. “Hey, you never know. Be discreet but gather as much information as you can on the trip itself. Take note of everything in the outside world. Are people alive outside the walls? That would be mind-blowing, since nobody has been seen or heard from in a quarter century. Same goes for the exiled, who everyone believes are dead. Are they actually alive and well in some community because Aeru is history? If there are large groups outside, we might be able to mobilize them to join us. And you have to make it to Boston.” She paused and cracked her knuckles. “This is where you’re going to have to fire up that oversized brain of yours. It’s highly unlikely there are people. How could we not know by now if there are? On the off chance we’ve been deceived, find someone you can trust, speak to them away from the Guardians. Tell them what’s going on here, appeal to their sense of humanitarianism. See if we can persuade them to bolster our effort. We could use weapons, for one thing. Be careful, though, because it could be even worse there in Boston. Who knows?”

  Drayden was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

  “This’ll sound nuts,” Kim said, “but I used to have an aunt in the Boston area before the Confluence. She’d be in her sixties now. Her name is Ruth Diamond. She’s probably dead, but if you can locate her, she would help you figure out who to talk to. It’s worth a shot if you’re lost.

  “Whatever intel comes out of this mission, I bet the Bureau will fight to prevent it from leaking out. That’s how they control things, by controlling the information, brainwashing everyone. Telling everybody the system is equal, while guaranteeing nobody could ever check.”

  Kim hocked up some phlegm and spat. “Now that I’m saying it, you may want to be careful when you return. It’s quite possible the Bureau plans on executing you to contain whatever information you deliver. You might need to have some bargaining chips to prevent that. And not something they can torture out of you. Remember how I threatened to kill you? It was clever of you to say that I didn’t know who you’ve told. Like that cute little blonde girlfriend of yours.” She smirked.

  “How do you know about Catrice?”

  Kim put her hands on her hips and cocked her head.

  “Oh, right. You run surveillance.” He blushed. “You haven’t seen us…like…making out, have you?”

  She belly laughed. “No, no cameras in the apartments.”

  “Kim…I have to know. Are there cameras in the Dorm apartments?”

  She pressed her lips together for a few seconds. “No. But there are microphones. They’re quite sophisticated, programmed to start recording when voices rise above a specific decibel level. If people are arguing, or if certain words are said, such as Bureau, or overthrow, things like that.”

  My God.

  Drayden’s heart stuttered. That was how Holst knew what his father had said. What else had they overheard?

  “Focus here, sonny boy. This isn’t an interview. I’m just saying, that simple bargaining chip you used on me wouldn’t work on the Bureau, because they could torture you to find out what you’re hiding. It has to be stronger than that. Like, unless you give a signal, an attack is going to happen. Something they need you alive and well for. I don’t have any specific ideas off the top of my head. You’re a smart kid, and you have a few days to think of something.”

  “Kim, thank you. Whether Lily intended it or not, you’ve been a great mentor. If I don’t die, either on the journey or when I come back, I’ll come find you.”

  She raised a finger. “That reminds me. If anything happened to me, you wouldn’t have any contacts.” She pulled an envelope, sealed with wax, from her pocket, waving it in Drayden’s face. “For everyone’s protection, including yours, I can’t tell you too much about our effort. Only open this envelope if you get back and find me dead. Otherwise, burn it. Just so you know, there’s nothing incriminating in it. If someone else got a hold of this, it would be meaningless out of context. But it wouldn’t be to you, yeah? Good,” she said before he had a chance to answer.

  Drayden stuffed the envelope in his pocket. “Got it. Now, Kim…I’ve got to know about my mom.”

  “All right, sonny. I had to break some rules to find out what I did, and it’s not much. I don’t have access to the files that store that information. We’re talking computer files here. I can get a smidge outside of it. So I can tell if the exile was directed or non-directed. Directed means a Bureau member ordered it, usually because someone committed a crime. Non-directed signifies a random exile; that would be your population-shrinking exile. Your mother’s was directed. It wasn’t random.”

  Drayden clenched his jaw. “I knew it. It wouldn’t make any sense to randomly exile my mom. But—”

  “I know what your next question is, and I don’t have the answer. Who ordered the exile is inside the file.”

  He threw his hands in the air, his frustration building to tears. “Dammit!” This was his last chance to find out. “Is there any chance this had to do with my mom being caught up in this plot against the Bureau?”

  “No, definitely not. Lily was trying to recruit her, but she’d resisted from what I hear. In any case, none of their conversations about it were recorded, I made sure of that.”

  Drayden wiped his teary eyes with his palms. It was tough to separate his emotions from the logistics of the exile.

  Kim rubbed her chin.

  “What is it?”

  “Why not?” she mumbled. “It’s your life after all.”

  A chill ran through his body. “What? Tell me!”

  She waved a hand through the air. “It may be nothing. On directed exiles, the person who ordered the exile is in the file, as I told you. But there is often a username alongside the filename. It’s usually the name of the Chancellor who reviewed it. The Chancellor may or may not be the person who ordered it. The username might also be the last person who viewed the file. Understand? It may be meaningless. Some have no name listed.”

  Drayden’s eyes bulged. “Who is it?”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ve been watching you the past two days. Seeing where you’ve been. I don’t want you to do something stupid.”

  “Kim. Please.”

  “It says Nathan Locke.”

  Drayden stormed toward Twenty-One Broadway. He wiped away tears, gathering himself.

  As soon as Kim said the name, it clicked. He realized what was wrong with his conversation with Nathan Locke. It wasn’t Locke’s offensive claim that his mother was to blame, nor his insinuation that Drayden was actually upset with her.

  Locke had said he’d made a big stink about the exile in the Bureau the very next day. That would have been impossible. He said himself they didn’t post the exiles anywhere before or after. The exile occurred on a Wednesday night, and Locke only visited the FDCs in the Dorms on Mondays and Fridays. No phones existed in the Dorms. The Dorm rep at the time, Thomas Cox, came on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Locke simply could not have known by then. Knowledge of exiles were limited to the Chancellors and Guardians who executed them.

  Plus, Locke had warned him not to investigate this further. He wasn’t looking out for Drayden. He was protecting himself from Drayden.

  It confirmed what Drayden suspected all along: Locke was a liar. That weasel.

  He arrived at Twenty-One Broadway, with its massiv
e arched doorways. What exactly was he going to do? He couldn’t attack Locke. Two giant Guardians protected him. It might be smarter not to inform Locke he knew. If Drayden accused him and survived the expedition, Locke might orchestrate his execution when he returned. This guy was a slimeball, and a powerful one. He exiled Drayden’s mother after she dumped him. If he couldn’t have her, nobody could.

  On the other hand, if Drayden died on the expedition, Locke would believe he’d gotten away with murder. Fooled everyone, including Drayden.

  To hell with it. While he couldn’t physically assault the guy, he could apprise him of the recent discovery. He couldn’t tell him how, because doing so might expose Kim. Drayden knew nothing about computers, which might log who viewed particular records. Since Kim was a surveillance expert, however, she would have taken precautions to shield her identity. She was obviously smart.

  Drayden closed his eyes and touched his hat, channeling his mother’s strength. He needed to do something before the Bureau sent him outside the walls to die.

  I’m going to make them pay, Mom.

  CHAPTER 9

  Drayden wondered if Locke would meet him again. This time there would be no fooling anyone about his identity. Locke was clever, in a sleazy way. If Drayden visited him a second time, Locke would probably realize he had figured out the truth.

  It was time to see how spineless the guy was. He opened the door to the office.

  Katelyn lounged in jeans and a T-shirt, her legs up on the desk, reading a book.

  She lifted her head and beamed. “Hey, Charlie.”

  Drayden reflected on the meeting with the Guardians. Catrice had basically thrown herself at Eugene. He whirled around to Katelyn’s side of the desk and eased on top of it, inches away from her.

  She reacted with a mixture of shock and intrigue.

  He gazed into her eyes. “Katelyn, I have to tell you something. I needed to protect my identity the other day. I lied to you. I’m sorry. I’m not Charlie. I’m Drayden. Part of it is, I don’t want people to treat me differently because of the Initiation. I’d rather people like me for who I am.”