The Birth of The Unity (sequel to Chronicle of Nautilus)

Chapter 16: An Innocent Plan With Brutal Outcome

During the following days, Jason tracked everyone who came out of the tanks during the last two years. The list was not long: Chuck, Nikki, Cain from the gardens, Dave from the library and Arden from the physical education. Whenever he had a chance he would sit beside them and listen to them talk, look at their movements and search for suspicious patterns in their behavior.

It did not take much time for him to learn that the four people excluding Nikki, behaved as lifeless puppets. They never talked to one another and they always avoided conversations. Even at the time of day when the gossip was most active: the lunch, they did not say a word and only listened.

After the encounter with Haas, Jason got himself a handgun from the storage at the lowest levels and spent more time in the gym. He knew, he had already painted a target on his back and wanted to take no chances. The four and the puppeteer behind them were humans with limits. Jason knew for sure that for now their limits were inferior to his. He was the hunter and they were the hunted. But how much time did he have before the scales turned?

He figured that the sooner he forced a fight with the mysterious enemy, the higher his chances were to win it. So he came up with a plan on how to draw the puppeteer into the light or at least try to force an error out of the opponent.

The plan was quite simple. It involved Nikki, her drugs, and drugging of a bunch of people. He asked Adam to give him a hand but did not go much into details of his plan or what he would do with the drugged persons. Explaining that the big idea was to get the man behind all of this, was more than enough to get him involved.

It was just an ordinary lunch at the canteen. Everyone sat by the tables in small groups. They talked and during the talk breaks consumed dishes of their choosing. Today, the majority was digging into a bowl of bean gruel, others chose a dish with soy and potatoes, only a few people chose grits with garlic.

The gossip today was loud as usual. People talked about what they learned at the libraries, about their boring routines, and insignificant, silly things. Their faces were calm and carried little emotion. They almost never raised their voices and the sound of laugh was abundant.

The arrangement of tables in the canteen was different every day. Everyone had a habit of moving around and switching places. The canteen contained at least fifty-four seater tables arranged in various shapes, such as 'I', 'L', or 'T'. People who sat single or in twos used single tables scattered in between the formations.

Today, Adam, Nikki, and Jason picked sitting spots close to the targets. Adam and Jason joined different long tables. Nikki picked a long table with the gardener company. She attempted to have a conversation about the beans on her plate but no one replied. Instead, the gardeners had a conversation about the beauty of water spraying.

The schemers glanced at one another, then glanced at their victims. Jason affirmed that the long faced Dave from the library was within his reach. Straight in front of him a young woman, Arden stared at her meal with little emotion. With her short neck and wide lips, she resembled a frog. Chuck sat to Adam's right. Adam spoke to the engineer but the conversation was mostly one-sided as the only replies he got consisted of no more than two words. The captain always knew what the answers would be. The dirty gardener whose hands was the single clean spot of the body, Cain, sat by the table two steps away from Nikki's. His hair was blond and curly. Nikki gave him a nickname 'nature boy'.

Suddenly, the lights went out. A person flew on one of the larger tables. A female voice screamed. People murmured. The murmur got louder and when it was on the brink of becoming panic, the lights turned on. The schemers sat in their places as if nothing had happened. A bearded librarian, who had been sitting behind Jason before the lights turned out, found himself on the dishes of eight people. Everyone turned their eyes to the librarian and blamed him for fooling around and being silly.