Deceit Read online

  The old man they’d taken out of the cell when I arrived didn’t help. He looked as though he’d been locked up for years. Had they put him in lock up to await his verdict, too, and then forgotten about him? Would they forget about me?

  The cells were full of unpleasant noise. The other people on the floor were starting to get agitated. Their shouts and screams echoed against the walls. There was no escape from the noise. My hands were not enough to protect my ears from it. I sat back against the cold, stone wall and tapped my head against it. There was nothing to do.

  I let my mind drift to Sarah. She’d stayed outside of the court building. She obviously was heading somewhere else, I assumed to get her father. I wondered whether she’d seen him yet. I wondered whether the council had been true to their word and whether they had released him.

  I could feel my head starting to hit against the wall harder, as my agitation over not knowing grew with every passing moment.

  The sound of a door sliding open rang out through the corridor outside of my cell. I noticed how everybody went quiet, almost all at once, as though they were afraid of what that sound meant. The whole place was silent except for long, slow footsteps which were getting closer to my cell.

  A tall, broad shouldered man appeared in front of my cell. “The verdict has been made,” he told me without looking at me. “You’re to come with me.”

  I could tell that he was a guard of some sort. He wasn’t wearing the uniform that the other two had been wearing, but he was big built and seemed pretty dense in the area of intelligence.

  I walked over to the cell door and waited for him to unlock it. The clicking sound of the lock told me that I was free to walk out into the corridor, which I did. Then I started to follow the broad man who’d come to take me to my fate.

  I was stopped outside of the same room that I’d been in earlier for my trial. I felt tense, as I waited for the door to open.

  I scanned the room as I entered. The faces that had been there before were still there now, and I couldn't read them. I walked over to the seat that I’d taken before and sat down, so that whatever they had to say could begin.

  “You’re standing accused today of being a traitor to the city,” the man with the glasses said, as soon as the room had fallen quiet. “We have listened to your testimony and we have decided that you pose no real threat to the city. We are happy to have you chipped and sent to be given a job.”

  “Just like that?” I asked in surprise.

  The man looked at me with a smile across his face. “What did you expect us to say?”

  I didn’t say anything. We both knew what verdict I’d been expecting.

  “You’ll need to follow this guard to get your chip implanted. Then there is a small test, which will place you with the job you’re most suited for. After that, it’s up to you where you go and what you do, as long, as you’re paying your contributions and living within the law.”

  It seemed too good to be true. I could actually feel a smile spreading across my lips. They were going to let me live. I was going to see Sarah again. My hopes hadn’t been in vain.

  I stood up and crossed the room, so that I could go and get my chip fitted. It seemed like a small price to pay considering it could have been my life being taken from me.

  The guard let me out of the room and back down the hallway. We stopped outside of a door that was labelled with the word Microchipping.

  “Does it hurt?” I asked him, when he knocked on the door and was waiting for somebody to answer. He didn’t reply. He didn’t even look at me. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d asked loudly and the space around us was silent, then I might have thought that he hadn’t actually heard me at all.

  The door opened. “Microchipping?” a friendly-looking woman asked, as she looked me up and down. I nodded.

  “You better come in then,” she said, as she held the door open, so I would be able to walk past her. “You can stay outside,” she told the guard, who again made no small gesture to prove that he’d actually heard, although he did stay out in the hallway.

  The microchipping office was bright and white. There was a small desk with a computer sitting on top of it, and a medical looking chair that seemed to go right back and turn into a bed.

  “Should I sit down?” I asked her, when she walked over to a small cabinet and unlocked it.

  “Sure, you just sit right down.” She turned to me with a silver machine in her hands and walked closer.

  I noticed how the jaws of the machine were lined with what looked like needles and I realized that it answered the question I’d posed to the guard earlier. Yes, it was going to hurt.

  CHAPTER 5

  Sarah

  A knock came at the door and I walked over quickly to answer it. There was a guard standing on the other side. “What do you want?” I asked, because I didn’t appreciate being interrupted. My father had just shared life changing news with me and I was still trying to process it all. “I’m trying to talk with my father.”

  “Your time is up. We’ve been instructed to take him back down to lock up,” the guard told me with deadpan voice that was missing any sense of emotion or understanding.

  “There’s been a mistake,” I explained quickly. “My father is a free man now. You won’t be taking him anywhere.”

  “I’ve been given my orders. If you disagree with them, then you will need to take it up with the council. I’ll be taking your father to lock up now, though.”

  I could feel my body starting to stiffen. I pushed my shoulders back and looked the tall guard right in the eyes. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t going to move out of his way. I wanted him to know that if he wanted to follow orders, then he’d need to fight to do so.

  “I’m going to need you to step aside.”

  He knew I wasn’t going to do that. I stood my ground. “You’re not taking him. You cannot take him. I have paid off his debt. You have no right to do this.”

  “The council have instructed me to take your father back to lock up. I suggest you take it up with them,” the guard said. Then he shoved me out of the way, so that he could get to my father.

  I wanted to fight back. I wanted to knock the idiot guard out and run, but I knew that my father couldn’t run. I was also in a turmoil with what he had just told me. Did he even deserve a chance to get away?

  I stood and watched as the guard led my father away. “I’ll sort this,” I called after him, as the guard forced him to walk much more quickly than his old legs could easily handle.

  “I’m sorry, Sarah,” I heard him call out, before he was pushed into the elevator and the doors closed behind them.

  I waited until I was sure that I was able to speak and then I walked over to the elevator bank. I pushed the button and waited with a calm look on my face which didn’t match the angry ocean that was storming away inside of me.

  I emerged into the large open space on the top floor and sliced through the busy people on their way to matters of interest to them, but not me. When I reached the council room, it seemed like the councillors hadn’t moved since I left.

  The woman I’d spoken to earlier looked around in surprise. She was clearly unused to people walking in without an invitation. “I don’t know who taught you your manners, but they are seriously lacking,” she said with a look of distaste.

  “What the hell?” I demanded. “I’ve done everything you have ever asked. I have paid off my father’s debt. Why is he being taken back to the lock up?”

  The woman smiled at me. It was a smile full of cruelty. It was a smile born from the pleasure she got in letting her cold heart run wild. “I’m sorry, but your father’s debt will never be paid. The price you paid was simply to see him again. I can, however offer you a chance to earn another visit, if you’re willing to continue working for us.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Nathan had been right. They were never going to release my father.

  I couldn't trust myself to speak. I scanned
the faces, and although one or two could not meet my eyes, the rest stared back as if I were an illustration in an uninteresting book.

  I turned and walked out. I went past the elevators and found the stairs. I had to get away from that floor straight away. I pushed open the door and started taking the stairs two by two until I’d reached the ground floor. I didn’t stop walking as I headed out the door and into the city.

  If any of the other trials I'd heard of and seen were anything to go by, then Nathan's should have been done by now. I needed to get back to the court house. I needed to find him, so that I could tell him everything that I’d learned.

  We needed to stop the council. We needed to free my father and every other person who they believed were traitors. I’d been doing the wrong thing for so long. I’d been trying to tell myself that it was justifiable, but it wasn’t. I needed to find Nathan. I needed him to lead me to my redemption.

  The courthouse still looked busy as people milled in and out of its doors. I had to wait an hour in front of it, until I could calm myself down enough to go in and talk to the person at reception.

  It took me a while to get their attention and my heart skipped a beat, when he woman informed me that Nathan had already received his verdict. That didn’t make any sense to me. He’d pleaded for a chip. He’d told me that was what he was going to do. Surely they hadn’t put him to death?

  I walked back out of the building with my head spinning. If he had received his verdict then he should have been waiting for me. If he’d received his verdict then there was no reason that he wouldn’t be waiting for me.

  Unless of course he’d lied about wanting to see me again. Was that a real possibility? Had they set him free and he’d just left without even saying goodbye?

  I couldn’t believe that. I wouldn’t believe that. Nathan had meant what he had said. If he had been set free then he would have met me. His not being there only meant one thing. Something had gone wrong.

  I waited another hour, before I headed out of the city gates. I could feel a plan starting to form in my mind, but I knew that I needed more than just me to execute it.

  CHAPTER 6

  Nathan

  The back of my neck burned with the itch of pain. The chip had been put into my skin quickly, but the pain from it had lasted much longer.

  I fought the urge to scratch at the thick scabs I could feel forming and looked around the small testing room that I’d been led to. It was pretty dark, with no windows to the outside world. A small light bulb hung over my head emitting a dull glow which turned everything, a strange shade of orange.

  I looked down at the test in front of me. It was pretty simple. There were multiple choice answers to a bunch of questions about what I liked doing. I filled it in quickly, barely double-checked my answers, and took it over to the door.

  I opened the door and the same woman who had planted my chip smiled cheerfully and took the form from me. “We just need to scan this into the computer for processing,” she explained, as she walked over to a screen built into the wall.

  She busied herself with the computer screen for what felt like an eternity, before she turned back to me. She had a fresh piece of paper in her hands and she was reading whatever had been written down on it.

  “So, it looks like you’ve been paired up with a computer job,” she finally said. “I guess that makes sense, considering where you come from.”

  “I’ll be working with computers?” I asked her in pleased surprise.

  She nodded, but the warm look she had been giving me earlier had changed. I could see pity in her eyes. It was like she knew something that I didn’t. “You sure will be.”

  “Does that mean I can go now?” I asked her, as I thought about Sarah and the fact that I was going to go meet her.

  The woman shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. The computer jobs are obviously pretty hard-core. You’ll need to go straight to basic training.”

  “I’m meant to be meeting somebody,” I tried to explain. “Can I come back later?”

  “I’m sorry, but no. The people who work with the computers aren’t allowed to socialize with the people of the city. You’ve got one of the most sensitive jobs out there. The council can’t risk high grade secrets getting spilled.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “Everything will get explained to you at basic training,” she said, as she tried to avoid my eyes. “I’ll take you there now.”

  I followed her. I knew there was nothing else I could do. I wanted to run. I wanted to feel the wind rushing through my hair, as my legs took me away, as fast, as they possibly could. I couldn’t though. I already had the chip settling into me, beneath my skin. If I tried to run then they would just shut it down. They had me and there was nothing I could do.

  The woman led me down a flight of stairs and then into an elevator which took us further underground. Even though the walls were still made of brick, I could smell the damp earth that sat just behind them.

  “I’ll be leaving you here,” the woman said, as she gently pushed me out of the elevator and into a brightly lit room that brought instant sweat to my skin. The doors closed between us, and then I was on my own.

  I was in an open area with a white door at the far side. I walked over to the door and knocked.

  A pale skinned girl with deep brown hair opened the door and stared at me, as though I was some kind of intruder. “What are you doing here?” she asked, with suspicion burning in her narrowed eyes.

  “I’m here for basic training, apparently,” I said shortly. “Sorry if I interrupted you.”

  She examined me with her eyes and then pulled the door open further, so that I could walk in. “You should have told me that straight away,” she scolded me. “What if I had shot you?”

  “Why would you shoot me?”

  “Are you kidding? Do you think working down here is a joke?” She gestured around at the computers and servers, which were stacked high against the walls. “You are standing in the mainframe of the entire chipping network. Do you know what would happen if this room was attacked and we didn’t defend it?”

  I shrugged.

  “Of course you don’t. All the implanted chips would go off. They’d just disarm and there would be nothing that could be done to reverse it. We’d literally have to start chipping people all over again and well, you know how much that hurts, right?”

  My hand reached up to the pain that was still in the back of my neck. “So, you’re saying that the chips all run from these servers down here?”

  She nodded. “It’s our job to look after them and to maintain them. We are literally to die, before we allow intruders to enter this vault. Do you understand that? We are nothing compared to what these computers mean.”

  She was pretty intense. I could see the deep meaning in her eyes, as she spoke. She really meant every word of what she was saying.

  “When did you start working down here?” I asked, because the intensity of her sheer belief made me wonder.

  “I’ve been working here since I was sixteen,” she said with a proud smile. That made sense to me. She’d been working in the vault practically her whole life. There was no wonder why she didn’t know any better.

  “It’s nice to finally have some company, though,” she added, and I realized for the first time that it was only the two of us down there.

  CHAPTER 7

  Sarah

  Nathan had told me where Natasha would be and I needed her. The council had lied about everything. They had lied about my father and they had lied about the choice they gave to the people I brought in. I needed to find Natasha. I needed her to switch off the chips so that we had a chance of breaking Nathan and my father out before something final happened to either of them.

  I headed out of the city and into the jungle again. My heart gave out a soft pang, as I realized that the last time I had been there was with Nathan. It seemed strange that I could miss him so much. I had only met him a l
ittle over a week ago and we hardly knew each other.

  Perhaps it was the not knowing that caused me so much pain though. The not knowing whether we would have been right for each other. The not knowing whether our humor was the same or even what his favorite color was.

  I knew I had a trek ahead of me, and the wound across my stomach was still complaining. If I was lucky, I would be able to catch Natasha somewhere in the desert land between the jungle and the woods. She was a strong walker, but she had nothing on me even in my current condition. I was on my own; I had nothing holding me back and everything pushing me forward.

  I wasn’t sure how much time I would have before the council came after me. I knew I would have a few hours at least. They’d been tracking my chip long enough to know that I spent a lot of time out in the jungle. It wouldn’t start looking suspicious to them until they realized that I was heading out the other side.

  My legs had barely recovered from the walk it had taken to get Nathan to the city. I could feel every step burning into my muscles. I let the pain fuel me, though. I let it push me forward, as my anger towards the council grew. They’d kept the reason my father had been locked up a secret from me. They’d done that on purpose because they knew I wouldn’t have handed any lives over for him if I had known the truth.

  The council were manipulative liars. I could understand for the first time what the old worlders had been fighting for. I’d always thought that they wanted chaos. I’d always thought that they just wanted to see the world burn, but that wasn’t it at all. They were fighting for freedom. They were fighting for the right to live their lives how they chose without fear.

  The hours slipped away behind me. When night fell a quiet voice in my mind told me that I needed to rest, but I ignored it. Natasha had two days of travelling ahead of me and I needed to make sure that she couldn’t put any more distance between us than there already was.