I struggle to keep my face emotionless. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Marcus has met me, which might help, but he also knows my true involvement with Canton and Josh. He also seems to know Miranda relatively well.
Charlotte leads me down the hall, completely oblivious to my frantic thoughts. I follow, not paying any attention to her babbling.
We arrive in front of plain silver door with the bold word CONS printed on the front. Charlotte presses her Notice strap to the door and explains, “Almost anyone can get into the Cons’ Wing with their Notice strap. The Cons are pretty laid back. You’ll see what I mean.”
The door slides open and reveals a somewhat plain room. It’s rather small, only ten or so paces across. To the side, is a younger girl sitting behind a big desk covered in gadgets and buttons. Her fingers are flying over a holographic keyboard as we walk in.
She smiles when she sees us, “Finally, an excuse to stop working for just a second. What can I help you with?”
Charlotte walks closer to the desk and I follow. Charlotte explains, “We are here for a Rivie tour. It isn’t scheduled, so if Marcus can’t do one to today, that is completely understandable. We just had extra time and figured we would fit another tour in if it worked.”
The girl nods, her dark brown pony tail bobbing up and down, “I’ll send a quick Notice to Marcus. You can wait over there, if you want.”
She points to a few metal chairs lined up against the wall. I sit, wrinkling my nose slightly when I notice a streak of dirt on the wall. The Complex had a lot of flaws, but at least it was clean.
Charlotte doesn’t seem to mind, though. She plops down on the chair and takes up her cheerful chatter. I tune out, letting my mind wander.
I start as the door on the other side of the room glides open. I recognize Marcus as he slips through the doorway.
The girl at the desk looks up, “Hey Marcus, they were wondering if you could do a Rivie Tour right now? There aren’t very many things that need repairing right now, I think you should have time.”
Marcus nods, “Sure, I was getting offie bored back there anyway. Shannon and Justin just left to repair some plumbing and Wane is on his break day. I don’t really know where Kenny, George, and Talia went, I can only hope they are fixing something. Vincent is tinkering around with something somewhere in here…”
“It’s okay, if we need anybody, I’ll send Vincent a Notice. Don’t worry about it. You just go do the Rivie Tour.”
Marcus nods and motions for us to follow him out of the door. He leads us down a non-descript hallway and explains sheepishly, “I can’t keep track of everyone all the time. That’s Lena’s job, making sure everyone is where they need to be. She also takes care of all the Notices people send us when something is broken and we need to go fix it. I doubt I could keep all that information straight.”
Charlotte smiles, “Well, considering you’re a Council, you probably have lots of other things to worry about besides which sink is no longer working in the Toilets.”
Marcus laughs, “True, true.”
I don’t say anything, but I can’t help remembering that Miranda told Marcus to have one or two of his Cons friends by him at all times, just in case he wasn’t safe from the Officials and Heads here in the Unknown. Marcus doesn’t have a single Cons by him.
Marcus explains, “So, this is the Cons. It’s not very spectacular. There are only about twenty Cons, counting me and Lena. We basically fix anything that needs fixing, whether the plumbing or the lighting or anything that’s possibly repairable. It’s a lot to know.”
YOU ARE READING
984 (Complex Series, #2)
Science Fiction-second book in Complex series- Piper purposely gets herself sent to the Unknown in search for a rebel group. She knows what the Officials teach about the gruesome Unknown. Can she survive? How long can she keep her risky past a secret? (the love...
