Again, this is probably more like a 14+ level from now on. I really focused on Esti and August for these chapters, and personally they were probably the most fun I had this entire novel. I owe a lot to BlackSheep, who (whether intentionally or unintentionally) gave me the idea for a few elements (especially the flashback), and who helped me realize these characters a lot better than I had before. The spacing may look weird in some places, just because I tried to space it for the forum in a way that it would still have some contingency but be a little easier on the eyes. So I hope you enjoy... and please no comment is too small!
CHAPTER THREE
The wintry night air whipped cruelly around Esti’s unprotected body, chilling her to the bone. The stars stared coldly out over the streets of Houston, watching as she raced through darkened alleyways and forgotten passages with the stolen load of bread cradled carefully under her arm. Shouts filled the air behind her as the irate storekeeper attempted and failed to keep up, roaring threats to his unknown thief. Police sirens blazed in the distance, and Esti felt the familiar fluttery fear fill her chest. Images of cells and shackles, of starved and tortured prisoners glimpsed through barred windows paraded through her mind.
I cannot be caught. Her mind stated the obvious as she pushed herself harder through the snowy streets, somehow regaining her balance with every slip. The sirens drew closer, echoing endlessly around her in the narrow streets. I cannot be caught.
Then she burst out onto a massive thoroughfare, empty and covered in a thin sheet of ice. Seeing that the other side dropped off into a churning river, Esti carefully backed into the shadow of the surrounding buildings. She frantically scanned the road before her. The sirens were growing louder and louder as the squad cars approached, and she knew she was boxed in.
Suddenly a pair of police cars swerved in from both sides of the thoroughfare, somehow skidding to a stop on the icy asphalt. Two policemen dashed out of each, running toward the trembling figure pressing herself into the shadows as if she could disappear.
“What have we got here?” one of the policemen asked rhetorically as they stopped before the shivering girl.
“Looks like a thief to me.” the second gave the required answer.
“Wait, I was just-” Esti tried to protest, but the first policeman slammed his nightstick into her stomach. She keeled over gasping for breath, the bread dropping from her loosened grip.
“Yeah, she’s a thief all right.” the third policeman muttered. “What do you say, gentlemen?” he mimed pleasantness. “Downtown?”
“I have a better idea,” the fourth policeman replied. “Each of you, grab her.”
Esti tried to fight, but there was no energy left in her malnourished and exhausted body. She was dead. There was no doubt left. Her life was about to end in the most gruesome of ways.
“Hey!” a powerful voice suddenly roared from the darkness of the road. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Governor, I-” the first policeman tried to protest, trying to buckle his belt at the same time.
“Be glad I don’t shoot you where you stand you megalomanious bastard!” A figure emerged from the night. “And I swear if you’re not driving around that corner in ten seconds,” he gestured at the end of the road, “I will keep my promise!”
“Sorry, sir!” each of the policeman grumbled in turn, quickly sliding back to their vehicles and speeding away into the blackness.
The man watched as the flashing lights faded away before turning to the fallen girl and helping her off of the frigid ground. “You okay?” he asked softly.
“I… I think so…” Esti stammered, still in a state of shock. “I…”
“It’s okay.” he said calmly, picking up the dropped loaf and slipping it into her hands. “Be more careful next time; I won’t always be here.” with those words he began to walk back down the street, the only sound the crunch of his boots cracking through the ice.
“Thank you.” Esti murmured quietly, her voice gravelly and scared. For a moment he simply stopped, and then turned back with a strange expression flittering across his face.
“You know what…” he said finally, after a moment of thought, “come with me. My car’s just around the bend.”
“Wait…?” Esti trailed off, suddenly suspicious.
“Trust me.” he replied simply, a cheeky, almost mischievous smile creasing his face. There was a new expression in his eyes, one Esti had never encountered. It awoke something in her, something she had never felt before. And before she realized it, she was following the mysterious man through the glacial Houston night toward his idling car. She slipped in the passenger side just as the first flakes of snow began to fall-
“Esti.” another voice broke through the veil of sleep, and Abraham’s smiling face fractured into a million shimmering pieces. No! Esti thought desperately. No! Stay here! Please! Please!
“Esti!” the voice said again, this time a little more impatiently. Her eyes unwillingly blinked open, immediately aching for more sleep. The car around her was stationary now, and for a moment she held to the illusion that it was Abraham’s leather-upholstered sedan rumbling to life on that cold Houston night. But instead of gentle snow there was rain pounding the roof, and the world outside was bathed in a haze of black and gold.
“Esti!” August shook her shoulder, returning her completely to the present. “We’re here.”
“Where…? What…?” Esti pushed her grogginess away, peering out the window at the roiling Delaware below. They were parked on a causeway overlooking the churning river, half in the shadow of a massive abandoned warehouse.
“Headquarters, for want of a better word.” August answered, unlocking the car and stepping out into the pouring rain. Unperturbed, he pulled a long shape out of his belt and began fiddling with one end. For a moment Esti thought it was a gun, but in the next lightning flash she saw it was a road flare.
“Will that even light?” she called out, loud enough to be heard over the crashing thunder.
“It’s a flare, not a candle.” August replied as he snapped off the cap. “It should light for a few seconds at least.”
“You sure-” Esti began, but almost as soon as he struck it the flare exploded into light. He quickly pointed it up toward the heaving clouds for as long as he could, then as the sparks began to trickle toward his hand he threw it into the Delaware.
About twenty seconds later an earsplitting ping emitted from somewhere in the warehouse as a panel on its rusted door slid open. A face peered suspiciously out, but crinkled with relief when it saw August.
“Got the password?” A voice, deep and forceful, asked from behind the door.
“Delta Five.” August replied loudly. “You’re sounding pretty good, old man.” he added after a pause.
“Yeah I suppose I don’t sound a day over eighty-five.” the voice retorted. “Now get in here August. This ain’t letting up any time soon.”
“I forgot to mention something,” August called back. “I’ve got someone with me, someone you’d probably like to meet.”
“So be it then.” the voice replied. “Now get in the damn door.”
August gestured for Esti to step out of the car and come around to him. The first time her feet touched the ground she almost collapsed as pins and needles exploded over her sleeping limbs. August started over but she motioned for him to stay. After the stinging had stopped and the heat in her joints had dialed down she took a tentative step, then another, and another. By the time she made it next to August she had regained her footing.
“You okay?” August asked, looking mildly concerned.
“Fine.” Esti replied, somewhat grumpily. Her stomach had suddenly burst into life, and it was wasting no time reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything substantial in days. “Just needed to find my land legs, that’s all.”
“Alright, but just for a moment there I thought you were going to take a swan dive into the Delaware.” August protested. Turning back to the warehouse door, he said “you can open up now, Peter!”
“Glad to oblige.” the voice replied, then ordered, “unlock the hatch boys!”
There was a soft click and the door swung inward. However before August and Esti could enter three men, all in pitch-black uniforms, dashed out and jumped into the car. Esti looked questioningly at August, and he shrugged. “Parking it, I think.” he said as they walked through the doorway and into a completely different world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Esti emerged into a room about the size of a small aircraft hangar with a huge arching ceiling and a sheet-metal floor, so large that she couldn’t see the far end. The walls around her were covered in hundreds and hundreds of blinking, flashing monitors. Some showed every possible angle on the causeways outside the warehouse, leaving nowhere unwatched. Some were autonomously scrolling through millions upon millions of lines of code, translating thousands of pages of encrypted information in a single second. Others still were manned by tense operators in headsets, their screens dark and protected to any outside the visible range. And every single one was emblazoned with a foreign symbol that Esti could not pull from the dregs of her mind.
“Welcome.” the gravelly voice that had greeted them outside spoke again, issuing from somewhere in the darkness ahead. Ever so slowly a silhouette emerged from the shadows, followed by the shapes of two sentinels guarding his either side.
“Good to be back,” August replied jovially, “even though I was only gone for two hours.”
“Still, here you’re protected. Out there… you’re anyone’s game.”
“Not in that rainstorm.” August said, raising his arms to the thundering on the roof. “It feels like the sky ripped open up there.”
“Yet still you somehow managed to find our friend here.” the voice said, as the man who owned it finally appeared from the shadows. “Abraham was a good man.” he said simply, nodding to Esti. “He will be missed.”
“He saved my life,” Esti replied, almost matter-of-factly, “a long time ago. I intend on making sure he’s more than just missed.”
The man known as Peter laughed heartily. “That’s what I like!” he said finally, his smile extending from ear to ear. “We got ourselves a fighter.”
It was nearly impossible for Esti to gauge Peter’s height as he grew closer, due to the fact that he lived from a wheelchair. His age was slightly easier to guess, as his hair was short and gray and his face was a nexus of weathered crags and valleys. His skin was the color of a roasted chestnut, and his amber hued eyes glittered with an energy belying his years. The clothes he wore were the epitome of worn; his camouflage jacket and jeans looked as if they’d been used since the day he was born. And every few seconds one of his booted feet would clack against the floor creating almost the methodical tap of a cane. As he grew closer, Esti saw that there no part of his body remained still. Everything was in motion, from his arms through his waist and down to his tapping feet.
“Esti, this is Peter.” August said.
“It’s a pleasure, young lady.” Peter held out a hand, and Esti shook it. His grip was firm and strong, unexpected from a man of his age. “And let me be the first to formally welcome you to Node One.” He spread his arms wide at the massive warehouse and the flickering monitors. “I’m sure you’re already familiar with a lot of this.”
“Some.” Esti said, gazing again at the walls plastered in technology. Suddenly her stomach growled ferociously, reminding her again how long it had been since she’d last eaten.
Peter laughed again. “Get her some food August.” he said good-naturedly. “And give her a tour while you’re at it. I’ll see both of you in the morning.” With that he wheeled away, over toward the bank of computers sifting through code. August took that as his cue, and started off for somewhere in the darkness at the back of the warehouse. For a moment Esti started after the man in the wheelchair, both unnerved and lifted by his spirits, before following him into the darkness.
“Is he always that…?” Esti trailed off. A few minutes had passed since they’d left the lighted hub of monitors and computers, and August was guiding their way with a flashlight. The air had a strange new smell, a musty odor that Esti found almost pleasant.
“Eccentric?” August finished with a smile of his own. “Yes. You get used to it pretty quickly. After a while it actually gets nice to have someone like that at your side.”
“I can see that.” Esti nodded. “He was just a little…”
“Unnerving?” August finished again.
“You’re good.”
“I’m a psychologist remember? I’m paid to be good.” August grinned cockily. “But I remember feeling that way too when I met him… it’ll wear off.”
“But what about the wheelchair?” Esti continued her questioning. “I mean, it looked like he could move perfectly fine.”
“That’s a story for another time.” August said, a faint foreboding note in his tone. He stopped; they had reached the far wall. Then he turned to the right, pointing his flashlight at what in the dark had looked like a nondescript storage container but Esti saw was really the top of an elevator shaft made completely out of glass.
“Aren’t we over the river?” Esti asked quizzically, remembering the causeway.
“You’ll see.” August winked, and pressed the button marked down. The elevator car appeared ever so slowly from the darkness of the glass tube. It ground to a halt and sliding quickly open, but not before Esti saw the same symbol engraved into its doors that she’d seen on every monitor and computer by the door. It looked like a normal triangle, except the right line was just a little thicker than the other two.
“What is that?” she asked as they stepped into the elevator. “The triangle thing on the door?”
“You don’t know it?” August sounded surprised.
“I’ve seen it before.” Esti answered. “I just can’t remember what it is.”
“It’s a delta.” August replied. “It’s a letter from a long gone alphabet. In math, it means ‘change’.”
“Fitting.”
“There’s a reason we’re called the Delta Resistance.” August replied. He tapped a button marked ‘caf’, then after a moment pushed another. There was a brief buzzing sound, and Esti looked over at August, thinking it signaled some sort of emergency. However the psychologist was smiling cryptically, and a moment later Esti knew why.
The polished silver walls of the elevator suddenly turned completely transparent, the hue melting away as if it were a trick of the light. Esti gasped as the world around them came into view, and August chuckled beside her.
They were passing through the Delaware River.
“My gasp was a bit louder than yours.” August said. “And to answer your question, yes, we are over the river. In truth, everything we do depends on the river. You saw all of the technology back there?” Esti nodded, shocked and still gazing in part-wonder, part-terror at the world outside. “It’s all powered by the river. It keeps us off the grid. Without the river we would be a tiny base with a fraction of what you saw… and now with it like this our generators are probably making enough electricity to power the entire city.”
“Cool…” was all Esti could say. A fish tapped softly against the glass, bemused by the apparently ordinary patch of water that it, for some reason, couldn’t swim through. The surface was barely visible from their depth, and the water was as calm and easygoing as on a serene spring day. In contrast, the riverbed almost made Esti gag. It was covered in layers upon layers of trash that had never lost its potency. Old cans and plastic wrappers blew around in the currents like tumbleweeds, and every few moments she saw a fish struggling to escape the embrace of an ancient latex glove or garbage bag. “Disgusting.” she finally managed to say, shaking her head.
“Truly.” August replied as they left the river and started through the mud that made the riverbed. Soon enough it turned to solid rock, and soon after that the elevator began to slow. Finally it creaked to a stop and the doors slid open. Beyond them was a simple white hallway with a single door at the end, and Esti felt a little flutter in her stomach.
“I thought we were going to the cafeteria?” she asked, trying not to show the timidity in her voice.
“We’ll get there soon enough.” August replied, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “First though, there’s someone else you need to meet.”
CHAPTER FIVE
What’s going on?
Esti was suddenly realizing, in one split-second, how tired, weak, and hungry she really felt. That one second involved stepping out of the elevator and hearing it whoosh shut behind her, knowing that there was no way out. There could be no escape plan. She was under a polluted river and several feet of bedrock. Outside of an emergency exit, which she didn’t see, there was no way out.
Relax. You’re fine. You’re safe here. This time the voice belonged to Abraham. For a moment Esti did relax, but then she snapped back like a finely tuned guitar string. Everything was screaming at her to run away. The hallway, painted a sterile white. The single door. The closed elevator. The faint scent of ozone wafting through the air.
This is a safe place. This is the Resistance. They’re on your side. Abraham spoke softly, calmly, clearly. This is what I worked for. They’re my colleagues. They just want to help you.
In the end it was the soothing sound of Abraham’s voice, even imagined, that brought Esti down from the precipice and unknowingly toward her own end. She had no idea what lurked behind that door, and how correct her instincts truly were.
August looked over for a second, no more than a second, but had been caught in the expressions flitting across her face. He saw the fear, bred and never forgotten from years on the streets. It was the fear of being trapped, of there being no way out. In that moment he felt truly sorry for the bruised and battered girl walking fearfully but steadfastly beside him. His own internal conflict was raging, but he had orders. Those orders came from the top, from Judas himself. Peter had delivered them and he was about to carry them out-
-like the bastard you are. His mental yin finished.
They’re orders. His yang retorted militaristically. Orders must be followed.
Have you lost all empathy? Are you a drone? A pawn? Yin protested. Do you have anything left in that soul of yours?
I do what I’m told. Yanreplied stoically.
She trusts you! You can see that can’t you? You saved her life for God’s sake! And now you’re betraying that trust for what… some orders from a man you’ve never even seen??
It’s for the greater good.
I cannot fucking believe that you just said that.
Maybe that’s a good thing. This time it was just August, his two sides dormant and listening to their counterpart. Maybe it means I still have some soul left.
Then for the love of it do not walk through that door! Yin awakened again, and now it had grown vehement. Is this what it’s come to, being as bad as the people they’re trying to stop? Are you willing to end-
-not end. Yang protested. Not end-
-it is ENDING! Yin roared. You are ending her goddamned life! How do you feel about that August? What are your obligations to the man who’s become so mechanical that he apparently can’t see the difference between his friends and enemies?
-Peter is following-
“Orders my ass.” August said softly, and Esti looked quizzically up. They were less than two feet away from the door, and he could hear muffled voices from behind it. “Orders my fucking ass.” he repeated, and Esti raised her eyebrows. He looked down at this charge, something new in his eyes. It was the same expression Esti had seen in Abraham’s the night he’d rescued her. “Come on.” he said, nodding back to the elevator. “And be quiet.”
Once they reached the elevator he locked the doors in place and pointed to the car. “Stay here.” he said. “No matter what you hear, do not leave this car.”
“What’s going on-” Esti began, but August shook his head.
“I’m going to go correct a mistake.” August said, a soft smile spreading across his face. He began walking away, and to Esti he seemed to have almost grown in height. He was standing straight, walking confidently toward the sinister door at the end of the hallway. And for the first time since her mad dash through the streets of Houston, countless days before, Esti felt truly safe.
August stopped outside the door, steeling himself for the confrontation ahead. There would be two people in this room. Technicians. They wouldn’t be expecting any trouble.
Then why are you so nervous?
He pushed the thought and knocked three times.
“Yes?” a reedy, somewhat whiny voice answered.
“It’s August.” he replied.
“Come in!” another voice, this one stiff and strong, replied. There was a click as the lock disengaged, and August slipped through the door as quickly as he could. In the next second he sized up the two techs, feeling almost like a welterweight about to fight a stream of heavyweight champions. The first was only a kid, and he felt a soft pang of regret echo through his gut. Then he remembered what this room was used for, and that regret quickly evaporated. The second was tall and strong, broad shoulders lined with obviously boosted muscles.
Do not be intimidated. You’re the psychologist. August thought, taking a deep breath as they turned around. Read and react. He moved within range.
“So?” the smaller one asked first, his narrow face twisting into a confused expression. “Where’s the patient?”
“I don’t know if that’s what you call it,” August began, “but that sounds like a euphemism.” Suddenly his right foot lashed into the kid’s gut, sending him crashing into the fortified steel of the wall. He doubled over in agony, gasping for breath, before a quick right hook sent him into the dark. “And I don’t like euphemisms.”
“Doc’s being a rebel.” the second technician almost laughed at the demise of his counterpart, watching the shorter psychologist with an almost amused expression. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t like taking orders?”
“I’d tell you.” August said warily, knowing that he couldn’t just take down this one. He was too strong. “But you probably wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” he challenged, loose and relaxed.
“What I mean by that,” August lunged forward, faking to the left. His challenger didn’t even flinch. “is that you’re probably too dense for anything longer than five letters to come through.”
“Nice try Doc.” the tech chuckled. “It doesn’t work on me.”
“Really?” August relaxed, creasing his lips in a confused expression. “It worked just fine on your mother.”
Really August? That’s what you’re going with? When did you turn fourteen? Yesterday?
Crude but effective. He thought, plastering a cocky smile on his face. It was odd, he thought, that the most sophisticated insults do nothing to some people, but the moment you mention their mothers it falls apart.
And it had. The technician had grown red in the second since the words had left August’s mouth, and his hands were now balled into the tightest of fists. “Bitch!” he spat, fury in his eyes. “My mother died ten years ago.”
“I own a Ouija Board.” August replied cockily, the image of an instigator. “By the way, your dad says you’re still too fat.”
“GAH!” the technician roared, all thoughts of strategy erased from his mind. He rushed at August in a blind rage, and the psychologist simply stepped back and allowed him to smash face-first into the wall. After that a quick jab to the base of the neck was all it took to send him on his way.
Well that’s taken care of. August thought, and mimed dusting his hands off. Time for the real show.
Esti watched as August emerged from the room, a satisfied smile wreathing his face. “You look happy.” she said, almost warily.
“Fixing has always been fun for me,” he said, grinning. “especially when it involves acting like a spoiled five year-old.”
“Do I want to know?” Esti asked quizzically.
“Probably not.” August said. “I’d like some respect in the future. And anyway, we need to hurry if I want to do this right.”
“Do what right?” Esti asked, her voice once again tinged with suspicion.
“Come on!” August said, gesturing toward the door and ignoring her question. “I’ll have to give you the quick version, because we have precisely…” he checked his watch, “four minutes before Peter expects to see results. Reprogramming is going to take at least two.”
“Reprogramming…?” Esti said, now just confused.
“The Eraser.” August said as they reached the door.
He turned to Esti, a new expression on his face. It was almost like shame. “Every person we bring in, every refugee, every fugitive, they all have their memories erased.”
There was a pause as her brain processed what had just been said, and then another as it tried to find the words. “You bastards!” Esti finally roared, not knowing where the sudden rage came from. But it was there, and it would be used. “I trusted-”
“Yes! I know! And I’m sorry!” August said, pushing open the door. “I think I’ve already established that! Now we have… three minutes. So please, get in the seat and put the helmet on.” He gestured to the corner of the room where, appropriately, a technology covered chair and helmet sat.
“You want me to-”
“Yes! I do!” August snapped back, stepping over the limp form of the scraggly technician and up to the terminal. “Quickly! We’re running out of time!”
“Why?!” Esti asked, now completely flabbergasted. Everything had suddenly begun to speed out of her control, leaving her defenseless in its wake. It was a feeling she recognized from that night where she had nearly died so many years ago, something she had spent years trying to avoid: total helplessness.
“Because it needs to look like you had your memory erased.” August said quickly, his fingers already flying over the keys. “They’re waiting to see the system report, and in your case they’re probably already a little anxious.” he shot her a look, “not everyone was a fan of Abraham, and up at the top they seem to think that you’re a little too much like him. Now, I can change the report, but doing it without someone to base it on is a bit beyond my capabilities as a programmer.” He gestured once again at the seat, his face a mask for forced calmness. “So please, get in!”
“How do I know you’re not going to wipe me anyway?” Esti challenged.
“Just trust me.” August said frenetically.
Trust me. Abraham’s voice echoed through the hollows of her mind.
“But-”
“Trust me.” he repeated more calmly, staring back into her eyes. The look was there again, the look that had changed her life on that night so many years ago. And almost not believing her own naivety, she stepped into the chair and slipped the helmet over her head. All noise faded away, and the only faint sound was the buzz of faraway static.
August felt the sweat drip down his face as his fingers raced over the keyboard, writing lines and lines of code in seconds. He was playing with fire. He’d been playing fire since he’d opened that door, since he’d taken out the technicians. He’d been playing with fire since he’d decided that he couldn’t stand another trusting face slipping under that helmet, and returning as an expressionless mask. For years he’d been their Eraser, watching as entire lives were wiped off the map and replaced with programmable pawns. No more. He thought. No matter what happens. This is the last time.
Finally, just as the Eraser began to whirr in the corner, he lifted his hands from the keyboard. His fingers trembled like winter leaves in a breeze. His heart pounded like the engine of a locomotive. His eyes flickered across the new snatches of code flashing through the program, all highlighted in red. He had done everything he could do. He had entered a failsafe. Now his hope was riding on the eyes of a blind man to not catch the alteration in the system, the modification that should save Esti’s memory.
This had better fucking work. He thought anxiously.
Or else we’re both going to explode like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Thanks for reading. Chapter Five is the one I'm most unsure of, especially the last sequence... so if you have something to say please say it!
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