Kings and Crowns: A Dystopian Thriller (Age of End Book 2) (5 page)

When she reached the room, she turned the corner and glanced inside. There was a table full of well-dressed men and women. The men wore full suits and ties. The women wore business skirts and button-downs. They listened to Greene as he spoke at the head of the table.

He looked up. “Ah, just the person we were talking about. I take it you’re Charlotte Marble.”

She nodded. “Yes, I am.”

“Very good.” He turned to the others in the room. “Ms. Marble is Vince and Saul’s monitor agent. I’m sure you’ve heard the news about your test subjects. It’s all very exciting, isn’t it?”

“It sure is.” She entered the room and took a seat. “They’ve had one wild journey.”

“It must be captivating to watch.” He paused. “That is all for our meeting today. I would like to speak with Ms. Marble in private.” The others gathered their things and shuffled out of the room. When they were gone, Greene took a seat across from Charlotte.

She adjusted her posture to look more professional. “It really is an honor to meet you, Mr. Greene.”

“The pleasure is mine. It’s always nice to meet one of my employees.” He glanced down at her journal. “Could I see that? Do you mind?”

“No, not at all.” She handed it over.

He flipped through the pages. “It really is amazing what those two have been through.”

“It’s amazing to watch.”

“I can imagine so.” He clapped the journal closed and handed it back. “You’re a lucky one. Vince and Saul are front and center right now.”

“The credit goes to you. Your broadcast is what made them popular.”

He nodded. “I suppose that’s true. It was necessary. You saw footage of the rally. You know Simon’s intentions, right? He was going to do the same thing. Make those two a symbol, but for the Crowns. I had no choice. I had to turn his plan against him.”

“I agree,” she said, keeping firm eye contact with her employer. “It was the best move on your part.”

“It was at the time, but now I’m stuck with another problem. A problem I’m sure you’re aware of.”

“They want to kill you.”

“Correct. They didn’t come here to support our program. They came to put a stop to it. They killed Barnabus. I’m next.” He stood up and paced around the room. “You are their monitor agent. The only one who’s seen the footage, other than me. Of course, I’ve only seen snippets. You have the whole picture, and everything you’ve seen is packed into that little journal of yours. Only you and I know the truth about them. We need to keep it that way. You cannot tell anyone what you’ve seen. You cannot show them your journal. If it gets out, it will cause a lot of trouble. Do you understand?”

A knot formed in her throat. She gulped and then nodded.

“Good. I have an assignment for you. I have transported Vince and Saul to the Spire. They are here right now. Their whole group. I would like you to give them a tour. Show them around. Take them to the labs, the monitor rooms, the safe rooms, anything. But keep an eye on them. I don’t know what to do with them yet, but I’ll figure something out. Maybe I can show them what the Crowns are really like. Get them on our side. I still have some planning to do, but in the meantime, I can’t have them wandering on their own. I need you to watch them. Can you do that for me?”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Good. You can stay here. I’ll send someone to get them.” He walked to the door. “And try to be friendly. We want to make a good impression. Maybe we can change their minds. Show them all the good we do.”

He left, leaving Charlotte alone, waiting patiently at the head of the table.

TWELVE

VINCE AND THE others followed the young gentleman. “You’ll all love it here in the Spire,” he said as he guided them through a maze of halls. “We have a lot of impressive stuff to show off, and it’s all thanks to volunteers like you. You help us make the City a better place.” He turned the corner and led them into a room.

A woman sat at the head of the table. She stood up and extended her hand. “Hello! My name is Charlotte. It is so good to finally meet you in person. I will be giving you a tour of our facilities.”

“Nice to meet you,” Vince said. “I’m Vince. This is Saul, Ella—”

“Please, no need for introductions. I already know all of you.”

“How?” Rupert asked.

Charlotte gripped her journal, concealing it behind her back. “Mr. Greene briefed me beforehand. He was very thorough.”

“Speaking of Greene,” Alan said, “where is he? When that guy said we were meeting someone, I assumed he meant Greene.”

“Unfortunately, Mr. Greene is busy at the moment. He couldn’t be here himself, but he assigned me to show you around. I can get all of you familiar with what we do here in the Spire. Shall we get started?” She led them out of the room.

As they walked, Alan examined the walls. “These hallways are so…blank.”

“We like to keep a clean look to our facilities. Hallways, labs, even our bathrooms.”

“What do you do in the labs?” Rupert asked.

“That’s a good question. And that happens to be our first stop.”

She pushed through a set of double doors that read
Testing Labs
. They opened up to a glass hallway. The walls on each side were floor to ceiling windows. Beyond the glass were small rooms. Some were dark and empty. Others were occupied by two or three people, whose clothes were torn up rags covered in dirt. They looked weak and ill.

Ella stared at a skinny old man through the glass, shivering in the corner by himself. “Why are they all so weak?” she asked. “Are all of your subjects like this?”

“Not at all. This is the rehabilitation sector. Every so often, we find someone from the outside world who is in critical shape. This is where we help them recover.”

Ella took a closer look. The man was quivering back and forth.

Charlotte continued walking. “We have various sectors that study different areas of research. As you may have heard, the two of you are part of the vitality sector.”

“Vitality,” Saul repeated.

“Yes. The rehabilitation and medical sectors are branches of our Vitality sector. It is Mr. Greene’s most valued sector. We experiment with ways to extend the human lifespan. To avoid death.”

“Nobody can avoid death,” Rupert said.

“These two here have done quite a good job of avoiding death actually. The average lifespan of a human from the outside is sixty years. In Rodin, it’s eighty. How long have you two lived?”

“Just about two hundred years,” Saul said.

“I’d call that a success. Wouldn’t you?”

“It is impressive,” Rupert said, “but everyone dies eventually. That’s just a part of life.”

“Well, Mr. Greene is trying to change that. We make progress every day. We’ve also made breakthroughs in transportation, medicine, cosmetics, food, defense, and the list goes on. I can show you one of the other sectors later on. The Spire is split up by floor, so each floor is identical, for a different sector. Now that you’ve seen some of the labs, I can show you a monitor room.”

They followed her out of the labs. “Monitor room?” Ella asked.

“Yes. Every patient is assigned a monitor agent. They all observe their subjects through cameras. The monitor room is exactly what it sounds like. It’s full of monitors that help the agent track their subject. Some monitor agents have multiple subjects, but a big case like Vince and Saul is a full-time deal.”

“So they watch their subjects all day? That’s it?”

“For the most part. Of course, they get time to eat and sleep. Whenever they aren’t watching, they’re recording the footage so they can watch later. They keep track of everything in a journal. If anything important happens, they write it down and report it directly to Mr. Greene. It’s a hard job that takes a lot of commitment, but big cases pay a lot. Most monitor agents retire after their first big case.”

Vince looked at the cameras all around them. “So who is our monitor agent?”

“Yeah,” Saul said. “If they’ve watched us for two hundred years, their pay must be crazy.”

Charlotte hesitated. “I’m not sure who your monitor agent is, but I’m sure their getting compensated quite well.” She pushed through another set of doors. “This is a monitor room.”

The walls were stacked with dozens of screens, most showing footage of the labs they were just in. The bright aura of light from the monitors made the room glow an unnatural color.

Alan entered and sat in the empty chair. “There’s no one here. Where is everyone?”

“You probably heard about the attack we had yesterday. The Crowns were bombing our walls. All employees in the Spire are instructed to stay in their safe rooms until everything is safe. My guess is they want to secure the hole in our first wall before letting people out.”

“You have safe rooms?” Rupert asked. “What kind of things do you keep there?”

“All of the necessities. Preserved food, beds, that kind of stuff. There are televisions for the news to keep us all updated. And if things get really bad, the safe rooms are located on the back side of the building. We have evacuation pods that shoot out over the City wall and into the ocean.”

“Have you ever used those?” Alan asked.

“The evacuation pods? Only for drills. We’ve never had to use them for a real emergency, but it’s good to know it’s an option if something goes wrong. Especially with all of these terrorist attacks lately.”

“Can we see them?” Vince asked. “The safe rooms?”

She shook her head. “Unfortunately, they are currently being used. We’re not supposed to open them while an alert is in effect. However, once the alert is over, I would be happy to show you our safe rooms.”

Saul walked up to the desk and picked up the journal that was lying face down.

“Please,” Charlotte said. “You shouldn’t be reading that. All monitor agent journals are confidential. This agent shouldn’t have left it behind.”

“These entries are so detailed,” Saul said as he flipped through. “There’s an entry for every day.”

“Rehabilitation subjects are usually under closer watch. They require constant supervision. Subjects like you and Vince don’t require as much detail. Only the highlights. Now please put down that journal.”

Saul listened, and laid the book down on the desk how he found it. “We’ve definitely seen some
major
things, that’s for sure.”

She chuckled. “Believe me, I know.”

Vince studied her reaction. “What exactly
do
you know about us? What did Greene brief you on?”

She pondered the question, thinking very carefully of how to answer. “I know that you volunteered as subjects when you were boys. I know that your case was such a success that you wanted to come to the City to thank Mr. Greene in person.”

“That just about covers it,” Alan said. “Here to meet the man himself. Victor Greene. The man who gave them immortality.”

Charlotte locked eyes with Vince. He was watching her very closely. She broke eye contact and glanced at her feet. “Of course, everyone here in the Spire is ecstatic about your visit. There’s nothing like a great success story to boost everyone’s mood. People will be lining up to shake your hands. We don’t get many visitors from the outside.”

Ella looked up and down the halls. “I don’t see anyone here to see us. In fact, only three people have spoken to us since we got here.”

“It’s hard while the Spire is still under alert, but Mr. Greene may hold a conference to introduce you in person. He might even broadcast it across the City. His first broadcast was so well-received; the people of the City would love to see more.”

“Really?” Ella said. “They seemed pretty set on killing us yesterday.”

“Those weren’t normal City goers. They were Crowns. Terrorists. Violent people who act on impulse and hurt innocent people to get what they want. Trust me, you don’t want their approval.”

“When exactly will we get to meet Greene?” Saul asked. “We’ve come all this way. He must be a busy man, but surely he can put aside a few minutes to meet us.”

“I promise, you’ll meet him. Though it’s hard to say when exactly. We will have to wait for his call, but in the meantime, I’ll stay with you. I can show you around some more if you’d like. We could stop by one of the other sectors. Perhaps the food sector to do a little taste test.”

“I presume Greene intends for us to stay here overnight,” Vince said. “Can you show us to our beds? It has been quite an exhausting day.”

“Of course,” she said cheerfully. “Follow me.” She brought them to a room with five beds. “I believe this room is yours.”

Their bags sat on each of their beds. Rupert picked through his things to see if anything was missing. “How did you get these?”

“We have agents undercover in Simon’s base. The same ones that rescued you grabbed your bags as well.”

“We really owe them one,” Alan said. “If it wasn’t for them, we’d be dead.”

“You owe Mr. Greene one. He is likely the one who gave the order.”

“Of course,” Vince said. “We will make sure to show our gratitude when we finally get to meet him.”

“I assure you it will be soon. He is a busy man, but he keeps his priorities straight. You two are right up there on his list.”

“Thank you for showing us around. If you don’t mind, we would now like some privacy.”

Charlotte bowed. “Yes, of course. I’ll just be over here in the corner. Don’t mind me.”

Saul squinted at her. “I think he meant to ask for you to leave.”

“I apologize. Mr. Greene has asked me to stay with you. The Spire can be an overwhelming place, and you are not yet familiar with our technology. We wouldn’t want you to get lost.” She wandered over to the corner and leaned against the wall. “I’ll just be over here, out of your way. Feel free to rest. I’ll let you know when Mr. Greene is ready to see you.”

The group turned their backs to her, huddling around their bags, pretending to ruffle through them.

“What do you think of her,” Vince whispered. “She seems a little off. The way she’s acting. I think she’s hiding something from us.”

Ella nodded. “I agree. I think she knows more about us than what she says.”

“So what should we do about it?” Alan asked. “We can’t prove she’s lying. And even if we could, there’s still nothing we can do about it.”