Ascent (27 page)

I walk back to the reception area. And that’s when I spot her, standing outside the door, holding a cigarette. She’s small and her sunglasses nearly cover her entire face. She’s the only person I’ve seen wearing sunglasses inside.

I approach her and she smiles when she sees me coming.

“Congratulations.” The cigarette flicks ashes from her loosely held fingers.

“Thanks.”

“It’s quite an accomplishment, Farrah. You should be so proud.”

“Mom?” The words barely squeak out of my mouth.

“Who else would it be?”

She pushes her sunglasses on top of her head. Her face has lines I’ve never seen before. She’s here but I have no idea what she’s been doing the last nine years. Dr. Thompson didn’t say it would be like this. Everything changed – but I don’t know
what
has happened in those nine years.

She reaches over and gives me a hug. I hug back. She smells like cigarette smoke. Her body is like a skeleton. It looks like the last nine years haven’t been good to her, not any better than the years before.

“I’m so glad you came,” I whisper. Tears drip down my face.

“Of course I came. I wouldn’t miss this for anything. No matter what your dad says about me or what this political party you want to join thinks of me, I’d never miss your graduation. Even if they tried to keep me away, I’d never miss it.”

I nod my head. I have no idea what to say. I can’t stop staring at her, examining her features, looking for familiar expressions.

There’s so much I want to say but I’m afraid to say anything.

I feel like I should go back inside, but I can’t stop staring at her, searching for what her life has been like.

And neither of us knows what to say.

The door swings open and Liam pokes his head out. “Farrah! There you are! We’ve been looking for you. We need you to come back inside. Marvin is about to do his farewell toast.”

“Okay.”

Her cigarette burns to the end and she seems to remember it for the first time. “Well then …”

I reach over and hug her one more time. I squeeze her so tight it’s almost like she could break.

“Farrah! You need to come back in here!”

I turn to Mom. “I better go.”

“Okay, dear. Good luck.”

I walk to the door and when I turn to look over my shoulder, she’s gone.

Chapter Forty

Rick

After graduation we move up two floors. I’m wearing khaki pants and a jacket with a flag pin in the pocket.

And I have a computer in my room.

Of course it has all the firewalls as the ones in the business center. But it also has greater access. I can read Party memos.

The opposition has grown since we came to IYD. Now that I have access to the news, I can see what’s happening on the outside. More people are being moving into the ghettos. Cities and suburbs are being emptied out. The Party controls all the resources.

Some of the opposition was killed during an uprising.

President Everson is trying to be elected into power. The public was forgiving of his liaison with his intern. He promised to save the US from recession with his massive wealth. But conservatives are disgusted with his behavior. It’s why the Party needs perfect specimens. They have to stay in control.

I don’t need the access now. Everything is fine … now. I’ve been included. As long as they don’t do anything to make me feel like an outsider, I’m fine.

I can see the opposition from my room. They’re building outside. There are tanks outside again. The Party brought them in to protect the hotel. It’s resources.

Violence is building on the outside.

But I have nothing to worry about.

I’m an insider now.

And being an insider comes with access.

***

We go from being trainees to being junior Party members. Going forward we wear the Party uniform. Slowly, surely, we’re introduced to the Party’s secrets. We’re the first successful graduating class. Last year after Norris Chen disappeared that class was disbanded. I heard a rumor their memories were erased.

The Monday after graduation we’re instructed to meet in the President’s Room. I’m there first, at 7 AM. There’s a banquet of bagels, muffins, scrambled eggs, and fruit. I pour myself a glass of orange juice and grab a bagel. Casey and Marcus enter next, followed by several others. Farrah is the last to arrive. She looks so different in the Party uniform with her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Security guards stand along the wall. They’re watching us. They still don’t trust us, and they shouldn’t. After all, there’s no way they can be certain.

We sit around the table and the murmur of nervous conversation fills the room. No one knows what comes next.

The door opens, filtering a beam of daylight in before it swings shut again. Lisa, Dr. Thompson, and Liam enter the room, each wearing their normal outfit: Lisa in her copycat lab coat, Dr. Thompson in his real lab coat, and Liam in his black security suit.

“Good morning,” Lisa says. She pastes her fake smile on her face. The usual smudge of red lipstick blemishes her front teeth. “Welcome. You may have thought that the hard part was the last six weeks you went through as part of your initiation into the Party. Trust me –” she makes eye contact for each of us in the room: “the hard part is just beginning.”

Dr. Thompson stands alongside her and gives us a welcoming smile. The room has a different feeling, like we’re insiders now, like everything has changed.

“We’re taking you to a new facility today. It’s what we’ve been working on as part of the scientific developmental process for the Party. This morning we’ll enjoy breakfast and we’ll have you sign consent forms. At 9:00 we’ll get on the bus and head out to where you’ll be spending the rest of your training as you learn everything you need to know to become a member of the Party.”

Lisa places a thick case on the table and dials in the combination. The case pops open and she takes out a stack of paper and pens, which she passes around the room.

Confidentiality Agreement

Welcome to the Party.

As a Party member you will hereby be granted access to confidential Party secrets. You will not share this information with anyone who is not an approved Party member. Failure to obey the Party’s rules is considered treason and is punishable by life in prison or even death.

Sign: ____________

Date: __________

Death.

That doesn’t surprise me. I know what they’re hiding.

I sign the confidentiality agreement and wait for time to pull me forward.

***

Today there are no goggles. Now that we’re members of the Party we won’t be returning to the general population. I take a seat directly behind Liam on the bus. I don’t want to miss anything.

The bus heads out of town, but we’re not headed out to IYD. Once we’re out of town, the traffic thins out. We drive through what people in the southwest consider mountains, but they are really just tall hills. The bus’s engine hums its way down the road. Voices whisper around me. A few brought iPods to listen to music. I take in the sights. The surroundings start to look familiar. I recognize the salt flats we pass. We stop in the middle of the desert. I look around and see nothing. It’s just like IYD. No tents, no tanks, no armed guards. This can’t be right. This isn’t what I’ve been watching over the satellite feed.

What if I’ve made a mistake?

Dr. Thompson stands up. “We’re getting closer. We need to retrofit the bus to go any farther. Hold on, we’ll be continuing forward in just a moment.”

We all look around at each other, a few worried faces in the group. I spot Farrah with her face against the window, looking off in the distance.

Suddenly, the bus starts making a crunching noise. The bus bounces. I grab the seat to hold on. Liam and Dr. Thompson sit in front of me. Whereas the fourteen of us in the back look nervous, neither of those two even blink. First the front of the bus goes into the air, and then the back. A voice behind me screams. Then we’re sitting about two feet higher. When the noise is over, Dr. Thompson stands back up.

“That was nothing to worry about, it was just the bus retrofitting itself to four-wheel-drive. We’re going off the road.”

The bus lurches forward and the bumps start. We’re driving on makeshift dirt tracks. It’s not a road. I guess it’s not supposed to be – for a lot of reasons, I’m sure.

We drive around the salt flats. By the look of the sun it appears we’re heading south. A small canyon appears in the distance. The canyon is familiar. I remember seeing it in the satellite photos.

We round a bend and crest a small hill. The bus drops down and a tent appears in the distance. It’s the tent from the satellite photos. It’s surrounded by tanks.

***

Men with assault rifles dressed in the same familiar uniform as Liam stand outside. The bus pulls up to the gate and two security guards board the bus. The men are a good foot taller than me. Their shoulders are wide, their muscles rippling under their clothes. They walk up and down the aisle of the bus. The first guard gives us each a sharp look while the second holds a device in his hand. The device has a green light on the screen. At no point does he look up from it. As he walks, it lets out beeps. The two walk to the end of the bus, pause, and walk back to the front.

“It’s all clear,” security guard one speaks into something that looks like a walkie talkie. Then he turns to Liam. “You’re clear to go in.” They step off the bus and wave the driver through.

The bus pulls into the heavily guarded area and drives towards a lot populated by what look to be military vehicles.

I know Jonathan’s going to be so jealous. I’m sitting on the far edge of my seat, staring out the window. The tent is huge. It must be the length of four football fields. It goes forever. The driver stops the bus and the air conditioning stops. I know we won’t stay on the bus long without air.

“Team, follow me. We’re going to enter through the front entrance. Each of you will get an eye scan when we walk into the tent. Remember to keep your badges visible. Everyone inside the Party Research Institute must have on a visible badge at all times.”

We follow Liam off the bus. He walks towards the tent and we follow behind. I feel someone edge closer to my right. It’s Farrah. She looks nervous, but she doesn’t say anything.

I’m sure she wishes I was Matt, but I guess I’ll have to do.

Finally, she speaks. “What is this place?” Her voice is so quiet I can barely make out the words. “Where are we?”

“It’s the Party’s secret research institute,” I whisper back. I’m not sure if what I said was exactly right, but it’s the best I can come up with.

“What do they do here?”

We walk up to the entrance and are met by more security guards. “We’re about to find out.”

Two guards stand alongside a body scanner. It looks like one of the scanners you walk through at the airport.

“One at a time please,” says a woman in a white lab coat. She has dark hair and holds an electronic tablet in her hand. She doesn’t look at us when she speaks.

“Go ahead, Rick, you always like being the first.”

I step through the scanner. The woman watches the device she holds in her hand.

“You can stand over there.” She points to the wall.

After we’ve gone through the scanner Liam walks up to the entrance of what looks like an airport tunnel. Massive air vents blow cold air on us from above. It’s hard to hear anything above the noise they make.

“Follow me.”

The walls of the tunnel are lit with the same low lighting as the hallways at IYD. Along the walls are hieroglyphics; they start with gladiators fighting in the coliseum, and move towards kings and queens sitting on thrones. There are hieroglyphics of our country going to war and the Apollo missions.

Then there’s something else. I pause at the sight of what looks like a football shaped ship hovering over farm country. It looks like it’s paused above the ground, as if it’s examining its surroundings. The country is familiar. It’s a place I’ve been before: I recognize the familiar road and the leaning barn in the back. It’s Ronald Dunn’s farm, my grandpa’s long time neighbor.

And it looks exactly how Grandpa described.

“Rick?” It’s Farrah. She’s standing about five feet away, examining me. Everyone else has moved ahead. “Are you coming? We’re almost there.”

I take one last look at the ship and then follow Farrah down to the end of the hall.

***

The end of the hall is closed off with a huge metal door, just like the one that leads into the IYD classroom. We wait outside. Beside the door is a metal box: Liam places his face against it. A laser scans his eye.

“Liam Woodman, head of security,” an electronic voice announces. “Visitor approved. Please stand back.”