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Government Bunker
It was getting easier to bribe the guards at the lift. Bribe them into letting him up top in the first place, and now to keep silent about his regular forays.
The tall metallic doors loomed before him. He walked toward the lifts as soundlessly as he was able on the polished concrete floors in the silent Bunker. Most of its inhabitants were ‘early to bed, early to rise’.
This Government Bunker still had plentiful supplies of luxury goods. People liked to feel special or surprise their loved ones. Having access to the stock kept deep in the stores, and even the archives, came in handy. It surprised him, sometimes, what people wanted. Jewellery and other valuables, small trinkets, old wines and scotch, perfume for both men and women. The corner of his mouth twisted in a smile.
Human nature, so predictable.
He slipped the small ball of very old, and possibly stale, marijuana resin into the upturned hand of the guard on the night shift in front of the lifts.
“Thank you, Major McLellan,” the guard whispered.
The journey up was a quiet one. He’d read in the archives they used to have music playing in lifts. Antony hummed to himself, returning to his thoughts.
In the Bunker, it was all altruistic. Everyone lived for the good of humankind. For the good of Scotland. But in the end, personal greed won.
Mostly.
Now, he was all for Scotland. Pro the Scottish Government taking back its rightful position and ruling the people once more. He wanted to be part of it, for sure.
Power.
Another thing that made human nature predictable. There are those who have it thrust upon them and want it. Those who have it thrust upon them and don’t want it. Those who work for it and get it. And those who would only get a look-in if they fought tooth and nail.
At present, he was the tooth-and-nail guy.
To get a look-in you had to impress. And impressing those who are the watchers in the Government Bunker—those who see the rising stars—wasn’t an easy task. He’d tried. And, according to the watchers, he was second best to everyone else.
Not as gifted. Not as perceptive. Not a people person.
Well, do you want someone nice, or do you want someone who can do the job? What do they know anyway? They haven’t governed for nearly four decades. Really governed. Those plebs out there, who don’t know their arse from their elbow, wouldn’t know what was good for them if it jumped up and bit their balls!
He had to do something grand. Proved right. Prove another wrong.
Strange how you can sleep with the enemy and never suspect a thing. Well, he’d suspected it. As soon as Siobhan had outgrown her usefulness, he’d extricated himself from her. Broken off their relationship once she’d shown her hand. All the drone-footage-watching had turned her mind.
And she actually thought the Community plebs were the good guys?
Antony stifled a laugh; his shoulders quivered in silent amusement. Then the corners of his mouth tightened in a snarl. It was good to express what he really felt, for once. He was the only one in this lift, and he’d ensured the footage from the little camera in the corner was on a loop.
A loop of a very empty lift going nowhere.
