When All Else Fails (A Push of a Button Novella)

Chapter Four

VIV AMBLED ALONG beside Seb, trying her best not to look flustered. When she'd told him she'd found a gardener for his mother's front lawn, a position that didn't even need filling, he'd gone along with it with a brief glance at the camera. But he hadn't bought it. Now she was snatching glances at him and trying to figure out if he was annoyed she'd woken him up at five-thirty on a Saturday morning.

Seb glanced at her and took a slow sip of his coffee. "So... This gardener?"

She strode away from the apartment just to be safe and turned to him. "Doesn't exist. Don't be mad, please, but I set up a meeting with a man who can answer all the questions I can't. I would've told you, but it wasn't safe. Even meeting you is a risk."

He was silent. She returned to walking and stole glances at him, only to find him quietly sipping his drink. If he was upset, he was doing a better job hiding that than she was at hiding her nerves. She didn't dare ask if he was mad at her. Not when the Regulators were already giving them questioning looks when they passed on the sidewalk. At least no one stopped them. They walked in the unnatural silence of the dawn hours in the city, side by side. It was a shame she could appreciate the quiet moment instead of feeling tense.

He sighed. "How do you know I have questions you can't answer?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Because I've known you since we were kids. You've been thinking about it since our talk in your mother's fields."

He sighed. "You know, maybe the Supremacy just wanted these people gone to restore peace. Maybe they just cause trouble and should be discarded..."

"Do you believe that?" She sipped her coffee and waited.

"I don't know..." He shook his head. "Things are clicking into place, but as they do, everything just seems more... Jumbled, I suppose?"

"I felt the same way when I ran across this a few months ago." She stopped in front of an empty lot on the West side of the city. "But my mentor Mr. H cleared up a lot of my questions, and with the Father's grace, I believe he'll clear up yours too."

He frowned. "Viv, hate to break it to you, but unless I'm going mad, nothing's here. Is Mr. H meeting us here?"

She grinned. "Nope. Come on. We've got to go behind the buildings around this lot and under the fence. Follow me closely once we cross the fence line. The field's an abandoned minefield, and only certain marked paths are safe."

He sucked in a sharp breath. Wait for it... He'd ask the same things she had when one of the Deixebels had brought her here. He cleared his throat. "What do you mean abandoned minefield? They built this close to something that could blow everyone here sky-high?"

"Look around, Seb."

He did as asked with a deepening frown.

"What do you see?"

"Run-down apartments that should have been condemned by now."

"And who lives here, do you think?"

His gaze wandered around the space then returned to her, and understanding lit on his face then morphed to disgust. "All the people the government deemed unfit for a button or a good life. The ones they'd get rid of if they weren't so useful for all the work no one else wants to do."

"Precisely." She headed across the lot, sidestepping debris and trash piles. "They're citizens just like us, but no one cares if these people die. They're all slotted for labor camps or execution based on age. But most people in their cozy two room apartments or big houses have no idea these people exist. No one respectable comes here. No one wants to risk ending up like them."