Chapter 14: The Interview
The end of the world was coming. Society changed. Governance changed. Education changed. Family changed. Commerce changed. Entertainment changed. Religion changed. Every world system changed as the planet turned its focus to survival. Survival of the species became the primary driving force for everything and everyone—at least that was the spin.
Jayne woke from a dreamless sleep, her bladder screaming, her stomach growling, and her mouth completely devoid of spit. As she sat up, her head swam, but it soon settled. Looking down, she was relieved to see that the IV was no longer in her arm. All that remained was an empty bag of saline hanging limply from a pole.
Awareness of her body returned and she slid out from under the blanket and slipped quietly out of bed toward the beckoning bathroom. Before she could take her first step, a woman in a lab coat entered the room and strode up to Jayne, grabbing her by the arm.
The woman said nothing, but Jayne was surprised as she was helped into the bathroom and allowed to close the door behind her. The woman was waiting when Jayne emerged and kindly helped Jayne back to the bed. The woman stared at Jayne with an unreadable expression on her face before she finally spoke. “I’ve ordered you something to eat. It will be here in a moment. Are you hungry?”
Jayne nodded, looking furtively around the room. She felt like a cornered cat in need of an escape route. She saw none she could manage—yet.
Taking a tube of ointment out of her coat pocket, the woman leaned down and dabbed a little on Jayne’s lips. Moving efficiently around the room, she picked up a small container with two pills in it and a glass of water and handed them both to Jayne. “Here, take these. They’ll make you feel better.”
Jayne hesitated and the woman seemed to understand as she spoke again, “They will make you feel better. It will help to stop the aching and relieve the swelling.”
Jayne reluctantly downed the pills with a small sip of water just as a man carrying a tray of food entered and set up her table. The woman stood and watched Jayne as she ate voraciously, finally realizing how hungry she really was.
“Everything will be back to normal soon,” said the woman. “Someone will be in to talk to you shortly.” She passed a bundle of clothing to Jayne. “Here are some clean clothes. As soon as you are dressed, press this button and someone will come to escort you to the interview room.”
The woman turned and left.
Jayne was alone. She dressed, continuing to scan the room for possible methods of escape. Jayne made sure she was totally aware of her environment—tools, weapons and escape routes. As she dressed and stood up, she scanned the room for cameras. None were in obvious sight but, as she glanced up to where she would have put a camera if she were trying to spy on someone in the room, she spotted a blemish in the wall opposite the bed. “There it is!” she thought.
As she reached down to retrieve a pair of shoes from the floor at the base of the IV stand, she spotted a small needle that someone had carelessly dropped.
Crouching to put on a shoe, she turned her back to the blemish in the wall, reached down, picked up the needle and tucked it into the side of the shoe she was tying. After tying the other shoe she stood, walked over to the door and tried to open it. To her surprise, it wasn’t locked and swung open easily.
Jayne poked her head out into the hall, surprised to find a hallway that was warmly decorated and obviously not part of a hospital. A uniformed man sat across the hall and he stood as soon as he spotted Jayne.
“Jayne Wu?”
She nodded.
He continued politely. “I am to escort you to the interview room. Is there anything I can get you before we go?”
Jayne shook her head. She hadn’t been expecting kindness. As far as she knew, she was a prisoner and captors were not usually subservient to their detainees. She was escorted into the interview room, which was also not what she expected. The decor was warm and inviting. She sat down in a comfortable chair to wait until someone could clarify what was going on. After only a few moments a group of people—two men and a woman—entered the room, holding large VIDs in their hands. Jayne was perplexed as to why they were all standing around the table smiling at her.
As she leapt to her feet, intending to express her indignation at her treatment and detention, one of the men spoke. “Miss Wu, please relax. We are not here to hurt you in any way, and we sincerely apologize for your treatment so far. It was never our intention to cause you harm. The collision in the line-vac…” he paused and pointed to his own eye and lip, “…was an accident. I personally apologize for the overdose of gas. One of our technicians miscalculated your weight, resulting in too much gas. That caused the headache you suffered.”
As Jayne lowered herself back into the chair, her eyes shifted from person to person. They took chairs around the table and continued to smile at her. Jayne pulled both her feet up into the chair and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her index finger felt a slight poke from the needle hidden in her shoe and she was comforted by the knowledge that she wasn’t completely weaponless.
The woman spoke first. “We needed to speak with you privately, and that just wasn’t possible… out there.” She waved her hand vaguely towards the door. “What we are about to say is for your ears only. It will be your choice whether you stay or go. However, if at any time, you do choose to go, we will be forced to administer a compound that will erase your short-term memory. If that happens, you will wake up in your quarters thinking that you had an accident in Section D Sub Level 2, were treated and sent back to rest. However, if you take the time to hear us out, we are fairly certain you will find what we have to say intriguing and will perhaps choose to join us in our endeavors.”
Jayne nodded, her finger still touching the needle. She tried to think of some way she might get it out quickly if she needed to protect herself.
The woman let out a relieved breath. “Let’s get started. First of all, you need to know that we are just like you. We,” she gestured to the others at the table, “are all fixers. As you well know, the mandate of the fixer class is to both ensure the smooth running of society and also to maintain the security of the biomes. Our mission is to simply do our job.”
Jayne’s arms pulled her knees closer. She tucked in her chin and whispered, “Why am I here?”
This time, one of the men answered. “You’ll need some background information before we can explain that part. If you choose not to take part in our quest, we will erase your memory of these events.”
“What if I don’t want my memory erased?” rasped Jayne.
“Then you must agree to join us. What do you wish?” asked the other man sharply.
Jayne’s hand slipped down to her shoe, and she slipped the needle out and into her hand. Her heart began to beat faster; her legs tensed, ready to run.
The woman seemed to sense her fear and sought to allay it, speaking softly and slowly to Jayne. “It’s alright, dear. You have nothing to fear from us. We aren’t trying to hurt you. Relax.”
Jayne felt anger surge out, supported by the needle she clenched in her hand. The anger burst from her lips and once started, could not be controlled. The words spewed forth. Everything she heard and the strange things she saw before she was drugged—the they, Joseph, the nine-fingered man and the heart in a box—leapt into her mind. “You are threatening to erase my memories. Are you planning to brainwash me like you did Joseph? Who are they? Who is the nine-fingered man that stole the box with a human heart inside?” She felt the silver star, hanging from the chain around her neck, become warm against her skin and on impulse she stood on her chair, pulled it out, and shouted, “Did you give me this?”
She held the star, dangling from the necklace, out in front of her. As it hung, the center spokes rose up to a point like the first day it drew her blood. The light caught the tip, and it sparkled.
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room. They seemed to be frozen in place. Every eye was drawn to the silv
er star.
Only two heartbeats of time passed before the man who initially presented Jayne with the ultimatum jumped to his feet, flipped open a small panel by the door, placing one hand on the lock pad, while pressing a red button with the other.
Metal panels dropped from the ceiling, covering the door and window that led to the hallway; the clang reverberating in the small space, sealing the room.
A droning voice began to speak through the PA system. “Interview room M is now running dark. A level 7 lockdown has been initiated.” The announcement continued to repeat its message over and over.
“Please silence that,” snapped the woman after a few tense moments.
The man reached over and replaced his palm over the lock pad and the announcement stopped. Jayne slid down into her chair, clutching her legs again. She still concealed the needle in her hand. Her eyes were wild. Not knowing what to expect next, she remained tense, holding her body as tight as a bowstring.
When the spokes thrust from the star, Jayne released the chain to prevent the needle point of the pendant from piercing her skin. It now hung loosely from its chain, openly displayed. The center spokes were still elevated to a shimmering sharp needlepoint.
The interviewers stood, forming a semicircle, facing Jayne. “Where did you get that?” demanded the woman, pointing to the star.
Jayne hesitated.
“Answer her!” barked the man who activated the security system. “Where did you get that… thing?”
“I found it….” Jayne trailed off, unsure of what to say as she studied the tense faces watching her. “I found it in my music box on my first day here.”
She looked down at the pendant, hanging from its chain around her neck. “It’s usually flat. It was a simple flat pendant when I first got it. Then I received a message telling me to wear it. So I put it on. I thought it was something I was supposed to wear. I don’t understand why you’re all reacting like this. It’s just a necklace.” Jayne paused for a moment, thinking about the truth of her words.
“Well, except for the first time when it did this and pricked my finger.” She indicated the still shimmering point of the pendant. One of the men reached under the table and pressed something, causing a small section of the table surface to retract in front of him, revealing an empty, rectangular space. One of the other men began to move cautiously closer to Jayne. Jayne turned to face him, the needle from her shoe clenched tightly in her fist.
Aware that the situation was about to explode, the woman walked calmly around to the other side of Jayne and spoke to the men. “You’re upsetting our guest. There’s no need to be rude.”
She turned to Jayne and spoke softly to her. “It’s alright, dear.” The woman smiled as Jayne turned to face her, and at that same moment, the man reached out and grabbed the pendant chain in his fist, tore it from her neck, carefully avoiding the sharp, gleaming tip and quickly dropped it in the open compartment at the other end of the table. The cover lid snapped closed.
Jayne’s hands reached up to stop the theft, but she was too slow. The star was gone. She saw the compartment lid close. She saw the compartment in the table vanish into the tabletop. She saw the star disappear. She heard it disappear. She felt it disappear.
Suddenly a tsunami of nausea rose from the pit of her bowels, rising first to her stomach, then to her throat. She tried frantically to swallow, to keep the contents of her stomach in their rightful place, but it was impossible. She vomited on the table. She vomited on herself. She leaned over and vomited on the floor. She vomited over and over again. A cold sweat sent chills outwards from her core and she shivered, even as she retched again and again. Her stomach soon emptied and still she retched.
Jayne caught glimpses as the woman removed a syringe from her lab coat pocket. One of the men held Jayne, keeping her body still as the woman injected her. Jayne felt the nausea ease as she slipped into unconsciousness.
When she woke she was in a bed again. The nausea was gone, but her throat was sore and the muscles in her stomach, neck and chest ached when she tried to move. She felt a warmth in her chest, as if it were flushed with blood. The flush swelled outwards and, as it did, the pain in her muscles ebbed and faded.
She reached out and lifted a glass of water from the side table, sipping slowly from the straw and sighing in relief as the soreness in her throat eased and faded. She lay back in the bed and relaxed as she could feel her body growing stronger every minute. She reached up, relieved to feel the warmth of the silver star on its chain around her neck and closed her eyes.
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