Shards

chapter 35

Chapter 35:

“I have an arrangement with a guard.” He smiled as he said the words.

At first I thought I'd misheard.

“Wait what?” Ian spoke for me.

“He gets me things, like chocolate or time in the computer lab. In return I do favors for him.” At my shocked face he continued. “No... not those kind of favors.”

In sync, Ian and I heaved a sigh of relief.

“It's usually just things like stealing the wallet of a girl he likes, or tagging along when he's on duty in the psy-ops wing. But if I had you guys, we could trade bigger favors for bigger favors. He hates this place, he's told me. Some of the guards are just as stuck here as we are. They know the secret, and that's dangerous to them and their family.”

“But that's not true!” Ian protested.

He slammed his fist against the ground and turned away.

I continued where he'd left off. “They're not trapped here. They can leave, they can expose this place. Let me talk to this guy... I'll...I'll...”

Julian cut me off. “You'll ruin an amazing opportunity. It doesn't matter if it's true, it matters that he believes it.”

I'd never seen Julian so serious.

He continued. “This man will be intimidated if he meets with all of us at once. He'd feel threatened. If you wanted to go ahead with this, we'd have to go about it delicately.”

For a few moments no one spoke. The other three had made their way back over, drawn by the yelling. I worried that others might have heard us, the training room did tend to echo. I decided to break the silence.

“You're right Julian. This is an amazing opportunity and one we can't waste.”

There was no disagreement, not even from Dale and Audrey. Our group had been reunited under something; the need to escape, different than it had been before we'd tasted the outside world, before we'd lost Desmen. We planned, and plotted, and tried to predict what the guard would ask of us in return.

Julian set up the meeting, and it was decided that just I should accompany him. Having both Ian and I go would probably be pushing our luck. We met in one of the guard offices, where children would sometimes enter if they wanted to request more sparring mats, or rat out someone they saw doing something suspicious.

I recognized the guard, I'd seen him around although I couldn't remember having any direct interaction with him. He never said much, as far as I'd seen. Right now he looked rather nervous, staring at us from across his desk.

“What have you gotten me into Julian?” He spoke past me, like he still refused to acknowledge my existence. “I know her and her group. They're as bad as they come. I help her then she slits my throat and drives off in my Jeep. No thank you.”

I couldn't help myself. “Now don't you think that's a little harsh? I'm not asking you to stage a breakout, although that would be nice.”

The man was still shaking his head. “What is it you want me to do?”

I bit my lip. This was the moment of truth.

“Is there any way you could smuggle us into the maintenance garage, where the food trucks come in every morning?”

The man laughed. “There's not a favor you could to that would convince me to do that, and don't try promising money on the outside. I know none of you have a cent to your name, and your parents don't neither, or you wouldn't have ended up here.” I opened my mouth, but he shushed me. “And don't start talking about that morality stuff. Your lives aren't worth my daughter's.”