Rise Against the Faultless (13 page)

I met with Adrian in the Lounge
that night after training. He met my eyes with worry. He looked at me like I
was a time bomb, ready to explode at any moment if he didn’t tread lightly
enough. He was right. I was barely holding myself together. The only thing
pushing me forward was the plan. If I just stuck to the plan, everything would
be fine.

He sat next to me in my corner
booth. I brought my crutches because after the long day and exhaustive upper
body workout, I could feel my leg throbbing, and I needed it to heal for when I
got ready to go on my mission. He brushed his lips to my cheek and wrapped an
arm around my head. He held me there for a second. It felt nice and safe. A
feeling I had long been unacquainted with.

“Rai, I know you wanted us to
meet here again sooner, but I have a lot of work to do.” He stared at me until
I was caught up on what he was saying. I hadn’t asked him to meet me here
again, he meant until he could get me out of here. “I won’t be able to meet
here again until three, maybe four more days.”

“Four days? I can’t wait that
long!” I suppressed the urge to scream out the words.

“This is the best I can do,
Rai. I’m sorry. It’s nearly impossible anyway, but if I could get a little help
on my work, it might go quicker.”

“No, I think you should work
alone. You’ll learn more.” I couldn’t risk him bringing in anyone else. If the
wrong person caught wind of what we were up to, they’d probably kill me and
Adrian. The official report would go something like this, “Raily Stone, earlier
chosen for Command this year, was tragically killed in an unavoidable  accident
with her boyfriend, Adrian Roil, when a tree uplifted its own roots and fell on
both of them, killing them instantly.”

Three days. What was I going to
do for three days? Sit and wonder? I couldn’t stand the thought of it. I downed
my 2 drink limit and told Adrian I was calling it a night. I went back to my
room to stew. I laid on my bed, trying to concentrate on my throbbing leg. It
was slightly more swollen than it was this morning. I probably did too much. It
would feel better tomorrow. I might even try to go without crutches. What if
Dale needed medical attention? What if he was hurting or hungry? I couldn’t
think about it. I need to focus. 

I could bring Ari in on it. He
would know what to do if Dale was hurt. I was sad to admit it to myself, but I
didn’t know if Ari could handle this, or if he was hurt or angry. I hadn’t had
a real conversation with Ari since I was chosen for Command and this wasn’t
going to be the first one I tried on him. Besides, if something happened to me,
I’d hate for Mom and Dad to lose all three of their children. I needed to
protect him from this.

My thoughts were interrupted by
loud banging on my door. I shot up to open it and that’s when I realized how
much the alcohol had affected me. I stumbled a bit and bumped my leg on the way
to open the door. Shane did not wait for an invitation, which was par for the
course.

“Shane, I need rest.”

“No, you need a lesson in anger
management.” He saw me hobbling and looked down at my leg. I was wearing only a
long shirt since fooling with pants was just aggravating with the cast. I
suddenly became very self-conscious.  He temporarily looked derailed from his
mission.

“Different day, same story,
Raily. You’re letting your emotions get the better of you. Oren hit you where
it hurt, no pun intended. You can’t trust that he’ll do anything rational. You
have to expect the unexpected with him.”

“Not just him, though. It seems
like I can’t really trust anybody.” The alcohol was now speaking for me.

“That’s a safe assumption for
someone in your position, yes.”

“What about you, Shane? Can I
trust you?”

He knitted his eyebrows,
perfectly mimicking confusion. He looked at me for a moment before stepping
closer to me. He lifted up his right hand moved my hair behind my ear. I was
suddenly very aware of how close he was standing, but I did not back away. “If
there’s one thing you can trust about me, it is that I will always be on your
side, Raily.”

I looked in his eyes and then
down to his gashed cheek. He had a few bandages holding his skin in place. It
was deeper than I thought, now that I had an up close and personal look at it.
I opened my mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Lo’s loud throat clearing.
            “Rai, can I talk to you?” Shane did not immediately move.

He turned to smile at Lo and
tell her, “I’ll get out of your way, ladies.”

Lo waited until Shane left to
talk to me, “Look, Rai, I don’t know what’s going on there…” I could tell she
was still feeling less than excited about what happened with Shane and me, “but
I am sorry about the way things went at your house. I don’t like it when we
fight. Can we just move past it?”

I had all but forgotten about
our little squabble. It seemed so insignificant now. “Of course, we can. That
wasn’t what it looked like.”

“Really, because…” I eyed her
and she just said, “Never mind.” She walked over and gave me a hug. “How are
you feeling? I heard about what happened with Oren, but I was assigned to
another group that day.” Imagine that, everyone I was close to was otherwise
engaged that day.

“I’ll be like new in no time,
but I don’t want to sit down. Lo, would you like to take a walk with me. You
and Jubal maybe?” From the conversation I had with Jubal the other night, I
knew that if I could get Lo to go along with the plan, he would be right behind
her.

“Sure, I know where he’s at.
Let’s go.”  I slipped some pants on and we headed out. We stopped and got Cyril
on the way. The wind turbines at night was a very different experience. The
place had an eerie feel to it. Maybe it was the howling of the turbines. Cyril
and I told our stories. She barely got through hers without crying. I kept a
steely appearance. I needed Jubal to have confidence in me. I couldn’t break in
front of him like I had with Adrian.

“You know I’ll do anything to
help Dale, Rai.” Lo didn’t look excited about the prospect, but I knew she was
good on her word.

“I’ll follow Lo wherever she
goes.” Normally, when Jubal makes statements like this, he plays it off as a
joke, but tonight he looked dead serious. I knew he would protect her and
follow wherever she led. The feeling that I got from him the other night was
that he knew that something wasn’t right with our world. He already knew it was
broken, he just didn’t know how until this moment. All Jubal really knew was
that if he was going to be in this broken world, that he wanted to be there
beside Lo.

Then Lo surprised us all by
turning to Jubal and kissing him right on the lips. I thought he would cut a
backflip. She pulled back from him and said, “If we’re all going to die doing
this, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

            “I could die a happy man right now.” The smile
did not leave Jubal’s face for three days.

I had my team. All I needed was
to have the freedom to go find Dale, and I wouldn’t get that for three days. I
decided that the next three days would be well spent deciding where I would go
when I got that freedom. I would treat it like one of our simulations. I would
take the clues that I had and go from there. Panicking about having almost no
clues wouldn’t help anything.

When I walked into training the
next morning, Ann was listening to a broadcast by the President and two of his
advisors. I saw her scoff slightly at one of his comments and I took the
opportunity to speak up, but I addressed Cyril, ”Seems like he could learn a
thing or two from Master Chief Brutus.” Cyril smartly nodded her head up and
down in faux agreeance. I said it just loud enough for Ann to hear, but acted
as if I hadn’t wanted her to. She only raised her eyebrows slightly. I needed
to plant some seeds in her head.

After the broadcast was over,
Ann said I wouldn’t be training with Combat today. She said I’d go to the
archives center to speak with a man named Frank Hoster, a former Leader, now
forcibly retired. “Don’t let that old loon influence you too much. He’d be out
of here if it were my decision, but it is a required mandate, so off you go.”

On the way out, again I
mentioned something to Cyril, just within earshot of Ann, “I bet if she were in
charge, things would be different… better.” Small seeds.

On the way over, Shane
mentioned, “I always liked Frank. He may be crazy, but he’s definitely likable,
and the meds keep him from going off kilter. He makes a lot of sense for a
crazy person.”

I began to wonder how this
person ever became a Leader. Shane left us for the day and Cyril and I walked
in to find Frank sitting behind a cluttered desk. I estimated him to be in his
early sixties. He had a full head of messy, thin, white hair that seemed to
float on his head with the slightest of movement, giving him a halo. He had on
thick rimmed glasses and was hiding behind tall stacks of paper with large
print.

“Mr. Hoster, I’m”, he jumped
out of his chair and interrupted me. He must have stood at least six foot four.
He was still built like a man who exercised every day, but I couldn’t see them
letting him escape his small confined office very much.

“Ah! You can’t sneak up on an
old man like that! You nearly emptied this weak bladder!” He had a booming
voice and a thick southern accent, “I know who you are, girl. If it were twenty
five years ago I’d call you Maryl. You look just like your mother did when she
was your age, and just as sexy.” He winked at me. Frank was crazy. I already
liked him. “Don’t dawdle, we have work to do. Who’s this knot head?” He
motioned a thumb towards Cyril.

“You don’t have to ask her, I
know my own name. It’s Cyril, I help Raily.” Cyril took a step closer to Frank.

“Ha! You are a spunky one,
aren’t you? Come on Cyril, I can tell we’re going to be good friends.”

I followed him into another
room with large monitors and flashing lights as he asked Cyril if she was
single.  “Don’t you think you’re a little old for me?”

“Age is nothing but a number,
my dear. It’s not every day that two young foxy ladies get sent my way. No,
they just hole me up here all alone, like a worthless piece of trash.” He
brought the last few words up to a yell. He spoke too freely, no reservation in
his voice, “Seven years ago, I was the most important person in this state, one
little brain scan reveals I’m “not all there”,” he held up his fingers to
represent air quotes, “and they resign me to a life of boredom. They couldn’t
fire me, as the position is forever, but mine is just a title now. Just because
I hear the voices, doesn’t mean that I listen to them.” I could tell that
silence around Frank would never be a problem.

“But you,” he stopped me and
grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “I saw into that brilliant little
brain of yours.” He tapped the middle finger of his left hand to my forehead,
“You were off the charts, honey. No one has ever come close to your scores. And
to think, those idiots almost didn’t select you because of your nonconformity
quotient.”

“What is a nonconformity
quotient?” Cyril piped in.

“Yes, and what do you mean, my
scores? You saw into my brain?”

“Of course they didn’t tell
you. No, no, we can’t have a celebration of an individual’s brilliance. That
would be wrong, wouldn’t it?” His words weren’t illegal, but his tone was
certainly bordering on dangerous. I looked around to make sure no one was going
to sack him. I supposed that Frank could speak so openly because of the sheer
volume of words that spilled from his mouth, everyone just stopped paying
attention to him. “Everything for
their
greater good.” Cyril and I
looked at each other, wondering how we should respond to this man.

“Look, baby, what did you think
all of those brain scans were for? They weren’t just checking to make sure
those neurons were firing. Did you two knuckle heads even pay attention in
school? You couldn’t put together that they were casing you? They have very
measurable ways of determining what actions you will take when faced with
certain situations. They know how quickly you will learn a new skill. They know
how you’ll adapt to new surroundings. They know how fast you can figure out a
problem. They know the level of courage you will display when danger is
imminent. Ms. Stone, you were nearly a perfect case study for what someone
would need to be in a Command role. You had only one downfall, one for them
that is. Your nonconformity quotient. They were scared of you because they
assign risk factors to everyone.  You’re lucky you’re not scrubbing the toilets
right now. The only thing that was almost as high as your Command score was your
risk score. It seems that you would try just about anything. You don’t go along
with something, just because it’s what is expected, or what you’re told is
right. It’s odd that all of these qualities are in one human being. You just
need the chance to try them out, spread those proverbial wings and fly.” He had
no idea, but I had a feeling that if he did, he would help me.

Frank led us through tall
shelves of old manuals. He reached to pull one down and as he stretched his arm
up high above his head, his short sleeve inched up his arm just enough for me
to see the words, “Semper Fi” tattooed on his upper bicep. I was standing at
his right and Cyril at his left. He looked over at me, tapped the tattoo and
winked. He put his finger briefly to his mouth, so that I wouldn’t say
anything, then pulled the sleeve back down to cover the tattoo. I assumed no
one knew about it. I’d only seen this tattoo once before. It was on the arm of
our old janitor at school, the one I had taken up for the day the other kids
were making fun of him. He had been working outside in the sun one summer day
and was drenched in sweat. He pulled his sleeve over to wipe the sweat from his
brow and that’s when I saw the tattoo. I didn’t know what the words meant, but
from Frank’s meaningful glance, I knew I had better find out.

Tattoos, were, of course,
banned since the new laws took effect. The government did not want anyone
feeling like they could distinguish themselves in any way and tattoos were far
too symbolic. They said that criminals used them to appoint their rank in gangs
and mob circles. That’s what we were told.

Frank handed me the huge
manual. This ought to help out with your training a bit. He blew dust off of
the top of it. “Start reading up on it in the Combat section, near the middle.
I’ll give you a quiz on it tomorrow.” I took the heavy tome from him and
followed him back out to his office. Frank took my hand in his and kissed it.
“It was an honor meeting you. I can’t wait to see what you do next.” I thought
it was an odd thing to say, but Frank was kind of an odd duck. “Oh, and Raily,
my dear. Tell that old bat, Master Chief Brutus, I said she can kiss where the
sun don’t shine.” Cyril and I couldn’t suppress the smiles that spread across
our faces. The law was that lower ranks could not speak out against someone in
Command, but since Frank was I wasn’t sure how that worked, but I’d love to see
that trial.

The second half of the day I
tried going without my crutches. My leg was sore, but it didn’t kill me. It
felt good to be so unencumbered. I met back up with Ann and Shane that evening.
“Well is your head full of nonsense now, Ms. Stone?”

I thought about my reply, “You
were right, he is a crazy old loon.” Ann chuckled at this. I wasn’t sure what
she liked more, my concession that she was right about something or that I
thought Frank was crazy. I didn’t think either one of those things were true,
but I had to get in good with Ann one way or another. “I’m sure when they put
you in charge after him, everyone breathed a pretty big sigh of relief.” I said
it offhandedly, like it was fact and something that was probably just accepted
as truth by everyone.

If Ann was conceited enough to
believe that I really did admire her then I would take advantage of her haughty
nature.  I hated every moment of being near her, but the closer I got to her,
the closer I got to Dale. “There were several messes that needed to be cleaned
up after him. Everyone appreciates a tight ship.”