Rena, Syon, Hidinger, and Zamoro walked through the kitchen and fell into single-file as they entered the hallway leading out of their living quarters. Barrett was already meeting with Commander Ryce, and he had just summoned the remainder of his team to the recon checkpoint communications room to receive the briefing for their next mission. The journey would take several hours, after which they’d gather whatever weapons and supplies were needed and strike out from the there.
As expected, the two guards stationed at the entrance to their living quarters snapped to attention as the recon team passed between them. The narrow, earthen tunnel opened onto a ledge carved into the wall of the main chamber. From this elevated position, the entire village was visible, covering the floor of the hemispherical chamber from one side to the other.
Rena turned uphill to the right, and as her gaze swept across the village to the path in front of her, she noticed Dal sitting on a rock a few meters ahead. He stood up as soon as he saw her.
“Dal?”
Rena’s team marched past him and continued up the path as if he weren’t there. Rena stopped in front of Dal, and Zamoro glanced back over his shoulder to make eye contact with her.
“I’ll catch up,” she told him.
“We need to talk … in private,” Dal said in a hushed voice, his eyes focused on something behind her.
She turned to see that the guards were still visible around the bend in the wall of the path. They appeared very interested in whatever might be taking place. “Wouldn’t they let you in?”
“The Opposites don’t like me.” He pulled on Rena’s arm to lead her farther up the path.
Rena couldn’t help but smile. She’d never heard that name before, but it fit the guards perfectly. “Hey, I meant to come say thanks for the birthday present, but—”
“Our family’s ratings have dropped,” said Dal, coming to a stop and turning to face her.
“What?”
“Their ratings have dropped. Really low. Like … both our parents are in the low thirties now.” His voice was quiet, but each word shot out of his mouth like it was in a hurry to get somewhere.
“Wait. Are you sure? How do you even know?”
“That … doesn’t matter right now,” he said, waving his hand as if to brush aside her questions. His eyes began to wander, like they did when he felt guilty about something. “Why would their ratings have dropped so much?”
“I still don’t understand how you could possibly—”
“Just TRUST ME, Rena!”
She put up both her hands and took a step back. “OK …” She couldn’t remember the last time Dal had raised his voice at her. A signal that she should probably forget about how he had come to know this information and assume it was true.
“It couldn’t be because of us, right? John removed us from the system completely?”
Rena thought carefully about that moment in the sewers, standing atop the tunnel pod as Barrett disabled their implants. “Yes.”
“So … we shouldn’t still be associated to them anymore.”
“No. We shouldn’t.”
“Then how does the system work? Why would their ratings be so low?”
Rena considered the possibility that she and Dal’s identities were still active in Esh’s system. If they were rated 000, that would drag down all their associations. But surely the Outliers would have developed a more thorough solution to removing people from the system. If all associations to an Outlier convert lost rating points, everyone in Esh would know about the risk. It would be common knowledge—part of the propaganda that citizens blindly accepted. No one would ever become an Outlier. But the Outliers had extracted thousands of citizens over the years. Maybe hundreds of thousands for all Rena knew. Which meant the Waites’ and Rigbys’ lower ratings had been caused by something else.
“It’s artificial,” she concluded.
“What is?”
Once she realized it, another question in Rena’s mind suddenly found its answer. “That’s why he acted so weird!”
“Who?”
“He knew, and he didn’t tell me.” Now it seemed so obvious.
Dal put his hands on her shoulders. “Rena, you’re not making any sense.”
The concern in Dal’s voice broke through Rena’s concentration. “Sorry. OCON must have … downrated our families. I think Ryce knew about it and didn’t tell me. That’s why he was acting strange at our debriefing. I felt like he was keeping something from me, I just didn’t know what it was.”
“Downrated? Is that even a thing?”
Rena shook her head. “It’s not supposed to be. But OCON controls everything.”
“So, it is because of us?”
“I have to go talk to Ryce,” she said, pulling away.
“What do we do about our parents?”
Rena didn’t even hear the question until a few seconds later, as she walked away. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. Her mind raced, playing out different conversational scenarios to figure out the most effective way to confront Commander Ryce.
“RENA!”
She stopped and turned around.
Dal’s eyes were wide and full of realization. “It’s our fault.” His hands hung open at his sides, helpless.
“I’m sorry, Dal. What else could we have done?”
His shoulders slumped.
Rena felt helpless too. She had so many thoughts running through her mind since she’d seen the Ocean and talked with Evelyn about what used to exist beyond it. So many more questions begged for answers. So many implications to the ones she already had answers for. Now this. She couldn’t stand to see Dal so powerless. The thought of Todd and Janelle suffering for a choice their son had made … that Rena’s decisions had forced upon him, was too much. And then there was Marshall and Clarine. Gareth. Suzanne. They were innocent in all this.
“I’ll think of something. OK?”
Dal’s shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath.
“I’ll figure out something.”
The sparkle that had been absent from his eyes now returned.
“Thanks for telling me about this,” Rena added. “It’s good to know I still have at least one true friend down here.”
Dal smiled.
o
It took Rena an hour to catch up with her team, even though they moved at a casual pace. She didn’t see the point in wearing herself out before the next mission got started. And she had plenty to think about anyway.
Fortunately, no one said anything as she jogged up to the rear of the team and fell into step behind them. They glanced back over their shoulders, but only Zamoro nodded to her.
She returned the gesture and settled into the pace the team had set. Their silence was normal, especially before a mission. The possibility that all of them might be dead before the end of the day made for a tense and introspective atmosphere. It wasn’t until after they came home alive that everyone would relax, and that’s when conversation would begin to flow.
Over the next couple hours, Rena’s thoughts vacillated between future and past—between imagined arguments with Commander Ryce and the decisions that had brought her and Dal to the Outliers. Both led to their own negative digressions, too numerous and exhausting to fully explore. Eventually, Rena settled on a memory that helped clarify her situation, even though it didn’t provide comfort. When she and Dal had been in the city, looking for Rena’s old house in Segment Eight, OCON operatives had apparently been following her.
Then they decided to close in.
That’s when Rena grabbed Dal and fled.
And the operatives began to chase …
Not Dal. Me.
They were chasing Rena. Dal just happened to be there.
Now OCON had downrated Rena’s family and everyone associated with them. It had nothing to do with Dal. OCON was pressing on the citizens that mattered to Rena, using the only bit of leverage under their control. Were they trying to remind her that her life was still attached to other citizens? That she couldn’t just do whatever she wanted?
But why me?
Why not do the same with the families of every other Outlier? Why was she being singled out?
And what am I supposed to do about it?
She couldn’t go back to Esh and become a citizen again. OCON would torture her for everything she knew about the Outliers. There was no going back to the way things used to be.
So what’s the point of it? Why is OCON doing this?
It was frustrating that the consequences of her actions had affected so many other people.
Innocent people!
But even if she had known this would happen, she couldn’t have changed it. Sure, she’d wanted to join the Outliers more than anything, but that didn’t mean it was entirely her choice. The operatives had already decided to chase her. By the time she and Dal stood on that tunnel pod, arms extended to Barrett as he prepared to disable their implants, Rena was already considered an enemy of OCON. The truth was, whether or not she wanted to join the Outliers …
I was forced into this!
The thought of being manipulated made her angry. But that anger became fury when she thought about Commander Ryce knowing about something this important and keeping it from her.
It’s not only OCON trying to manipulate me!
“Nice of you to finally join us,” said a guard.
Rena looked up from the gravel at her feet and realized her team stood outside the metal door of the communications room. They’d arrived at the checkpoint, and she’d been too lost in her own thoughts to notice. Now that she was paying attention, she saw the smirk on the faces of the guards standing on either side of the door.
Zamoro walked up to the one on the left and stopped only when his face was centimeters from the other man’s chin. The guard was almost a head taller than him, but it didn’t intimidate Zamoro. “You know,” he said, looking up, “there’s a reason why you guys spend all your time standing outside of doors.”
Hidinger laughed under his breath.
Syon walked up and patted Zamoro on the shoulder. “Yeah, isn’t there some rule about guards being seen but not heard?”
The smirks on the guards’ faces disappeared. The one on the right looked as if he were imagining what it would be like to smash in Zamoro’s face.
Hidinger must have noticed the same thing. He stepped forward and came face-to-face with the guard, who was similar in height but far less muscular. Hidinger squinted. “Run along and tell your boss the recon team is here. Unless … you have a problem fulfilling your guard duties?”
Rena kept absolutely quiet as she studied the facial expressions and body language of each soldier. The tension was thick. Enough that the situation had a very real possibility of spiraling out of control right here in this hallway. It would only take one sudden movement to set it off. A misplaced step. A tensing of the muscles around the eyes. Anything that might be interpreted as a signal of a coming attack. The guards, she noticed, had weapons. The recon team had only their hands and feet, if it came to that.
The guard on the left had his arms at his sides. The fingers of his left hand curled into a fist.
Rena shifted her weight to her right foot, ready to lunge forward.
The guard slowly raised his fist, then pounded twice on the door behind him.
A loud clank sounded, and the door swung inward.
Rena let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Good boy,” Zamoro whispered, stepping past the guard.
The rest of the team followed, and Rena chose not to make eye contact with either guard as she slipped into the communications room behind Syon, heart racing. The two additional guards inside the room shut and locked the door. Neither one appeared to have heard what had taken place in the hallway.
Commander Ryce and Barrett were the only other people in the room. They leaned over the table at the center, while Fijal’s completed holographic map of the city hovered in the air between them.
Barrett looked up from the map. “Gather around.”
Everyone chose a place around the table, and the commander straightened up and crossed his arms. “I trust you’re all well rested?”
“Yes, sir,” the team answered in unison.
“Good. Now … as you can see, our map is finished. We are in the final stages of our war against oppression. Very soon, OCON will lose their grip on power, and we will lead Esh’s citizens into a new era. But there are several critical missions to complete before we’re ready. Your next one will be to secure detonation timing modules for our strike on the rating system. This warehouse here in Segment One is owned by the contractor that set the footings and pylons for the Transit system. After construction was completed, the Transit Development Committee oversaw the dismantling and storage of the blasting supplies. Each type of component was shipped to a warehouse in a different segment, for security reasons.”
Hidinger and Syon both smirked at the irony.
“This is a standard infiltration,” Barrett added, “so we’ll be going in quiet with the usual firepower. Russell will drop us at the perimeter, here. Then we’ll follow the Outskirts to Segment One before coming at the warehouse from the northeast. Any questions?”
Rena had a question, but only for the commander, so she kept her mouth shut.
“Alright. Go get suited up. I’ll join you in a few.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the team turned and headed for the door, Rena stepped over to the commander. “Sir, may I have a word?”
Barrett walked quickly around the table to join them. “Is there a problem here, soldier?”
“No, sir. I just have a request.”
Barrett was always more tense and formal around the commander, but he was good at keeping his emotions limited to words. A subtle change in his eyelids was the only signal—on his otherwise deadpan face—that he felt embarrassed in front of his commander about Rena ignoring the order to get suited up.
The commander held up his hand. “It’s alright, Barrett. What’s your request, Rena?”
She’d been furious only a few minutes ago, when all she could think about was how the commander had lied to her. Now that she stood in front of him, she didn’t feel quite so prepared to show him disrespect.
“Sir. It has come to my attention that my family … and Dal’s family … have unusually low ratings. I believe OCON is punishing them for my decision.”
“Is there a request in our near future, soldier?” asked Barrett.
Rena looked from Barrett to the commander. “I’d like to have them brought in.”
The commander’s eyebrows rose, and he let out a soft laugh. “What makes you think they want to be Outliers?”
“Well, if I was able to talk with—”
“Do you think we just kidnap citizens and hope they want to participate?”
“No … sir.”
“As far as I know, they are still willing participants of Esh’s system. We have an entire department responsible for recruitment, because that’s what it requires to be extremely careful about whom we bring in.”
“But OCON is only doing this because of me.”
“Yes. And their strategy is obviously working. Instead of concentrating on your next objective, you can only think about what they’re doing to your family. Effective, wouldn’t you agree?”
It wasn’t the only thing Rena could think about. “You knew about this and you didn’t tell me.”
The commander raised his head and straightened his posture. “I knew it would be a distraction to you. And there’s nothing to be done about it anyway. That’s part of being a leader—knowing what to say, when to say it, and when it’s best not to say anything at all. You clearly struggle in that department. I hope you’ll live long enough to learn that skill someday.”
Rena let out a breath through clenched teeth. She wondered if Barrett knew his commander used to be an OCON operative in his youth.
Commander Ryce’s posture relaxed. His eyes lost their intensity, and he crossed his arms. “I like your spirit. Your passion. Don’t lose that … ever! It’s what will keep you going when your strength has failed you. When your options have vanished before your eyes and your meticulous plans come crumbling down around your ears. That … inner fire is something every soldier needs.”
Instead of encouraging her anger, the commander’s affirmation had the opposite effect on Rena. It seemed to diffuse it.
“But let me suggest you take a step back from that fire,” he continued. “Just far enough to gain perspective. To see the entirety of it and the situation around it. I’m not suggesting you hold it in. I’m suggesting you let it loose … when you know exactly where to point it.”
“What do you mean?”
Ryce uncrossed his arms and motioned to the map of Esh beside him. “You tell me. Which is a more effective use of our resources—to re-task you, your team, and perhaps a dozen other support personnel to the effort of removing your family and friends from an oppressive system? Or to keep focused on the last few missions required to destroy the system that is oppressing them and millions of others?”
Rena suddenly felt like a selfish child.
“Very soon, their low ratings won’t matter, because there won’t be any ratings at all. You see, we can’t give in to the distractions OCON creates for us. The stakes are too high. So, please … channel your anger toward OCON where it belongs. Help us destroy the source of their power and set everyone free.”
Rena didn’t know what to say, so she nodded instead.
Barrett put his hand on Rena’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go get suited up? We have work to do.”
o o o
As soon as Rena left the room, the commander made eye contact with his guards and tilted his head. They stepped out as well, shutting the door behind them. In the privacy of the empty communications room, Ryce raised his eyebrows. “See?”
Barrett didn’t want to believe it, but he had to admit the timing of Rena’s request was convenient.
Ryce turned to face the three-dimensional map of Esh. “She’s convinced that we’re close but still not ready to strike. So she’s looking for a way to pass a message to OCON and warn them. Rescuing her family is only a cover.”
Barrett leaned on the table and stared at the map without replying.
“I know you didn’t believe me at first,” said Ryce, “but she’s an operative. I understand how Director Terrell thinks—he’s a master of misdirection. He trained Rena and put her where she would attract our attention. But look at what we’ve accomplished by playing along—the map. The brain center of the rating system. She’s worked harder to fit in than I anticipated. And she’s contributed to our campaign in ways no ordinary citizen could have.”
Barrett nodded. There was no denying those facts.
Ryce stepped away from the table and clasped his hands behind his back as he paced the room. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t ordered her execution … now that we’re done benefitting from her insider knowledge.”
“Yes, sir.” It was exactly what Barrett had been thinking, or fearing, to be more precise. Despite his suspicions about Rena, he liked her. She was a natural-born soldier. Being a spy for OCON wasn’t a satisfactory explanation for all that he’d observed in her character. But until he could prove otherwise, he was obligated to follow orders.
“I’ve thought about it,” Ryce admitted. “But I’m not entirely convinced that Terrell has no method of finding out if she’s dead or alive. We disabled her implant so they couldn’t track her, but who knows what other technology they might have installed? I won’t risk our entire campaign on an assumption.”
Barrett nodded again, relieved.
“As much as I hate to waste the resources, you and your team just need to keep her occupied and out of the way. Don’t go near the Center tonight. Don’t cross paths with any other teams. And make sure Rena doesn’t overhear something about the armory.”
“Yes, sir,” Barrett replied.