Chapter 11
The drone of the normal office activity was a comfort to Amnon as he strode toward his new office. Keetha was already at her desk looking very productive. He wanted to catch her eye to see if his memory of the night before had been a wacky dream, though his mind didn’t register it with the oddly connected timeline of a dream. Amnon could remember the sequence of events with unsettling clarity.
Keetha didn’t look up. Amnon clenched his jaw and never broke his stride. He entered his office and began to get his mind around the details of the day: preparing the prisoner transfer between the prision complex and the courtroom, preparing the execution room, which reminded him he needed to get a meeting with Communications Director Fen to work out which aspects of Lillian’s last days would be sent to the citizens and which parts would be kept hidden from prying eyes.
Amnon braced himself on his desk, his elbows locked and his palms pressing his hands as flat as possible. You can’t do this, he told himself. You have to do this. You can do this. You can do this. Amnon took a long breath through his nose, stood up, and wiped his cheeks with his palms. He looked up and saw Keetha standing in the office doorway. She looked perfectly professional, pressed uniform, tidy hair, and clutching her reporting device. She looked at him without smiling.
“Good morning. You’re late for a meeting in Conference Room 3.”
Amnon looked at her quizzically before looking down at his schedule. There was no meeting listed. He looked up.
“It was added last minute,” Keetha said. When Amnon didn’t move she added, “You’ll want to take this one.” She turned on her heels and headed out the door and down the corridor. Amnon, confused and curious, couldn’t help but follow her unsure what new wrinkle this might develop on his brow. Keetha stood like a sentry outside Conference Room 3 and indicated Amnon should enter.
Inside the room, a scrubby-looking man stood up. His clothes were stained and grimy. His hair was thin with wild curls, which made him look both sloppy and aging. A government patch was on his sleeve, so he had to have been vetted through the normal security protocols, but the man was so out of character for the kind of person Amnon was used to meeting with that he wasn’t sure what sort of crazy Keetha was subjecting him to.
As for Keetha, she followed Amnon into the room, closed the door discretely and flipped a switch underneath the table. At the sound of the switch, Amnon glanced to her. Keetha tapped her ears. Why would listening devices need to be jammed for this meeting, Amnon wandered.
“Let me introduce you to Drex Torr,” Keetha began. “Drex Torr, Amnon Saxe.”
“Director Saxe,” Drex bowed his head slightly. Amnon returned the gesture and looked bak at Keetha for explanation.
“Drex is one of the maintenance workers on the Valdrin sewers. He specialty is electronics. More specifically, in survailence and sensors.”
Amnon’s eyes narrowed.
“He sets up cameras, vibration sensors, and the like throughout the sewer line to keep tabs on how things are flowing,” Keetha said.
Amnon turned back to Drex. “Thank your for your severice. I’m sure you do a fine job for us all.”
Keetha pointed to the chairs. “Shall we sit?”
Amnon began to sit and said, “Miss Katha, no offense mister Torr…”
“Have you heard of a political artist named Nova?” Keetha interupted.
“Yes,” Amnon said carefully.
“What is one of Nova’s trademarks?”
“Other than the reebelious and insidious content of his art, he is able to pull off his subversions without any record of the act.”
Keetha smiled and pointed to Drex. Amnon swung his head to the disheveled creature across the table from him.
“You’re Nova?” Amnon stood up abruptly. Miss Katha. A word.
Keetha took Amnon by the hand. “Have a seat. Everything is fine.” Amnon stayed standing. “Drex is not Nova. Drex is responsible for keeping Nova’s work a secret until it needs to become public.”
Amnon looked back at Drex.
“I can tell you it hasn’t been easy,” Drex began. “One thing that can be said about Merlain survailence is that it is tight and adapts to new information very quickly.” Drex reaised his eyebrows, “Almost given up everything a couple of times.”
“Are you turning yourself in, or…” Amnon couldn’t decide who to look at anymore.
“You remember our conversation last night?” Amnon wished now that he didn’t. “I mentioned that I knew of some people who could help us out, people who wanted the same things we want.” She again indicated her hand in Drex’s direction. “Drex is one of those people.”
Amnon gave a tight smile to Drex, “Excuse me,” and turned to Keetha, “Are you crazy? You brought him here? To meet with me? What reason would a man in his position need a meting with me for?”
“As it turns out, the sewer line that services this building needed an inspection today. Drex was sent over from the Sanitation Department to check on the sensors and whatnot. He’s here to give you his report before work begins.”
Amnon turned to Drex. “Is that true?”
“It’s true enough, yes,” Drex nodded.
Amnon sat back in his chair but was far from relaxed. “Go on.”
“Keetha said you need to access a fetterseal link without being detected by You-Know-Who,” Drex pointed to the ceiling.
“Let’s say that’s true,” Amnon said.
Drex reached in his pocket and pulled out a small device and slid it toward Amnon. The device was as crude looking as Drex. Amnon left it alone on the table.
“You press that putton there,” Drex pointed to a button on the side of the device, “and then you can link to the fetterseal with Saw Yatha’s signature.”
Amnon’s eyes got big. “Don’t worry,” Drex said, “the transmssion is undetectable. The reason to use Saw Yatha’s signature is that you said Lillian had used a version of it to embed this code. It would stand to reason —”
“Oaky,” Amnon reached out for the device uneasily, “We’re doing this now?”
Drex scoffed. “If you want to get us all killed. This building, what am I saying, any government building is going to be too sophisticated, too adaptive, for that little guy to work here. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll work just fine, but it needs less security resistence than this facility will allow. No, you’re place, Keetha’s place will work fine. Don’t use it in the open. We don’t need a survailence record of you using the device either.”
Amnon turned the device over and over in his hands.
“Amnon,” Keetha said, “you said you want to remove the Chieftan and restore a free Merlain. You said Lillian can offer this and has given us the means to pull it off. There is a code out there that will get the job done if we can get it here. If we don’t do this now, if we don’t take this opportunity that’s been dropped in our laps, we will likely never get another opportunity in our lifetime, or in several lifetimes. I know you’re nervous. We all are. We don’t know if we can trust Lillian either, but it’s the best chance we have. I don’t know what will happen but I would rather die fighting for my people than have had the opportunity and walk away. I think you want the same thing.”
“Why do you need me to do it? Here’s the device. What’s keeping you or you from taking this on?”
“She talked to you,” Keetha said. “She talked to you and you’re the only one of us who has the access to the prision, access to Saw, access to Dol. I don’t want to add to the pressure you must be feeling, but if not you, then who?”
Eventually, Amnon hid the device in the inner pocket of his tunic. “I want us all to be clear about one thing. What we have just done, what we have just agreed to, as likely signed our death warrants.” Amnon stood. Keetha and Drex followed suit.
“If I had but one breath left to breathe, I would give it happily to see my people free,” Keetha said.
Drex looked at Amnon with a stoney face. “It ain’t right what they’ve done to us, mister Saxe, I can’t sit idly by. I may have signed my death warrant, as you say, but if I don’t do something I’ll have signed something much worse.”
Amnon looked at his co-consiprators with reserved pride. “Okay then. Tonight, I’ll try to make contact and we will take whatever comes next.”
Keetha smiled at Amnon as she reached over to flip the switch back. “By sundown?” Keetha said with her effecient administrative tone. She tried to sound like she was ending her question.
“Pardon?” Drex said.
“The work. You’re saying your crew will be done by sundown?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Drex said. “Crew is the best of the best.”
Amnon quickly picked up on what was going on and said, “You have my every confidence. If you run into any delays, please keep Miss Katha briefed.
Drex nodded. Keetha opened the door. Drex left followed by Keetha. Neither of them acted as if treason had not just transpired in the small meeting room. Amnon took in a deep breath and followed Keetha. She stopped at her desk and Amnon continued past it into his office. He closed his door and got to work.
