"So talk," Mike said as they entered the staircase. "What do you know, and how do you know it?"
"Okay. First of all, I was genetically tweaked to have a super memory. I literally remember everything, every detail of every second of my life, and there's no way to delete those memories. Sounds cool, right? It's really not, but that's another story. The important memories are from when I was a baby."
Bernon frowned. "You remember being a baby? Do you remember….being born, then?"
She gave him a crooked smile over her shoulder. "Ah, that's just it. I remember all right, but it wasn't what you're thinking. I'll take you to the secret levels and you'll understand then."
“How many people know about these levels?” Tanrial asked, slightly curious about what they had to do with everything
"As few people as possible. There's Dad, Eric, Jackie, me, my partner in crime, and the specially screened staff that work down there. And of course the people that never leave those levels, poor souls."
"You like being mysterious, don't you?" Mike grumbled.
"Yep, sorry about that. It's a failing of mine."
(brb, eating supper & doing some other stuff)
“People don’t leave from down there? Damn….” Her curiosity grew stronger the closer they came.
(Okay)
(I have like 10 minutes and then I may or may not be back on tonight)
"I know, right? But don't jump to conclusions. You might not find at least one of the levels unethical at all. It depends on your ideas of right and wrong."
She stopped on the landing between floors and glanced around. "Okay, buddy, you can come out. Don't worry, it's safe."
A patch of wall in the corner suddenly shifted and changed color, revealing itself to be a young boy with shaggy black hair and freckles covering his face like stars. He stared at them all with wide, nervous eyes, saying nothing.
"Guys," Wren said, "Meet our resident stealth expert and current missing child, Casper."
“Wait- what?! But Eric said…” She shook her head, “He’s been here the whole time, hasn’t he?”
"Yup. We faked his escape so that nobody would look for him inside. He's been doing a lot of espionage for me, including following Ryker around and reporting on his movements. Also….the reason he's in on the secret now is he accidentally found his way into the lower levels a while ago and saw some stuff that he shouldn't have. I'm worried that if Ryker found out, he'd be in big trouble, so I'm hiding him in my room for now."
Casper suddenly darted forward and grabbed Wren's arm, clinging to it while staring at the others nervously. Wren sighed and patted his shoulder. "He's not gonna get used to you very quick, so go easy around him."
(okay, gotta go, see you when I see you ^^)
Tanrial nodded, “Understandable.” She said, giving the boy a gentle smile.
(See you, I might be on later tonight btw ^^)
(Sweet! I probably won't get here on time, but yay)
"Well, let's keep moving. There's no live guards between levels at this hour, but we'll have to bypass the electronic security measures and that takes a lot of care. Lucky for you guys I do this a lot."
(Guess who’s back, back again)
“Yeah, lucky.” Tanrial murmured, following Wren as she led them further down the stair case, the lights slowly getting dimmer and dimmer as they walked
(Aw yeah XD)
They descended for a long time in silence. Eventually the staircase ended, quite abruptly, at a metal door with the words "Staff only" printed on them.
Wren gently nudged Casper forward. "Okay, bro, help me out here."
Casper nodded and went to the side of the door, where there was a small camera. Camouflaging himself to match the wall, he put his hands over the camera's eye to blind it. Wren went up to the door and pulled a keycard from a hidden pocket, sliding it deftly into the slot beneath the doorknob. There was a click and a beep, and the door unlocked.
Wren pulled it open. "Inside, while Casper's covering the camera. I'll switch on the lights once the door's closed behind us."
Tanrial slipped through the door as quickly as possible before Mike and Bernon followed her, then Wren and Casper. The door clicked shut quiet behind the group.
"Okay," Came Wren's quiet voice. "The two secret levels are actually beside each other, not stacked like the others. We're at the back entrance of the 'containment level', the one Casper stumbled into recently. Casper, you don't have to follow us too far in. Just meet us at the other level and jimmy the lock for us, okay? Thanks." She switched the light on.
They were in a long, harshly lit concrete hallway lined with doors. Faint sounds of movement came from behind the doors as the lights came on.
"Welcome to the Containment Ward," Wren said. "Or, in more classic language, the dungeon level."
“Does Ryker keep people down here? And what for?” Tanrial aked, walking a little way down the corridor.
"He keeps lots of people down here," Wren said. "Anyone he considers a threat. He'll tell you that these people are dangerous criminals or cruel monsters, and that he's keeping us safe by locking them down here." She went up to a door and flipped open a small window so they could see in. "But does this kid look like a danger to you?"
Inside the cell was a teenage boy with dark hair and painfully pale skin. He sat curled up against the wall with his head resting against his crossed arms, not even looking up when the window opened.
Bernon stared at him, his jaw tightening. "This is wrong. We need to get them out of here."
Wren dropped the window back down and turned away. "Good luck with that. You know how many alarms would be triggered if we so much as opened one cell door? At this point we wouldn't even make it out of this level."
“Well, why don’t you talk to Ryker? Why the hell would he keep a poor boy down here?” Tanrial walked up and looked through the window at the boy, feeing sorry for him and mad at Ryker for keeping him there. She clentched her fists at her sides.
"I won't tell him for several reasons. One, I'm sick of listening to his sweet, sad excuses about the greater good and sacrifice. Two, I don't know what he'd do to me if he found out what I know. He might have a machine that wipes memories, and until I know for sure, I'm going to play it safe. Three, he has no idea that my memories extend back so far. He thinks they start at three, when I was "adopted." Therefore, I have the upper hand on him right now, and blackmail is one of the only weapons I could use on him that might actually work. So in short, I'm biding my time. Acting now will only end in failure, and that wouldn't help any of these prisoners."
“Well, you see we haven’t exactly been honest with Ryker, or you…” Tanrial explained, stepping back from the door to face Wren.
"Oh?" Wren glanced at them with sharp eyes. "How so?"
“We weren’t exactly going to give Ryker the peice straight away. We had someone from my city make a replica, we were going to give Ryker that fake, in case he wasn’t using it for good.” She explained, rubbing the back of her neck.
She frowned, nodding slowly. "I see. So, it's like the real data drive, but with no data?"
"Yeah, I think so," Bernon replied. "We aren't actually sure how it works."
"Well…no offense, but, I'm not too sure that would work. If he can't access the data, he can't use it at all, for good or bad. He's not some storybook villain who's going to explain every detail of his plan before he does it."
"Do you have a better idea?" Mike asked.
Wren stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. "No….not yet. Let's go see the other level before you make any decisions."
Tanrial nodded, “Okay, sure.” She glanced at the door for a moment before following Wren.
They reached the end of the hall and went through a door into an anteroom with cautionary signs on the walls. Apparrently the way ahead contained hazardous or toxic materials, and a coat and gloves were advised. Wren opened a cabinet and supplied them all with labcoats. "It's a little chilly in this next area and the lights are always on. You don't need gloves as long as you don't touch anything, but you should still wash your hands when you leave." She tapped on the next door, and it opened, Casper's pale face peeking around the edge. "Ready?"
Tanrial gave a strained smile, “Ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” She took a shaky breath.
"Right then. Welcome to the level of Research and Development."
Their first impression of the hall was its brightness. The second impression was of its cleanliness. The pure white corridor stretched away in a similar manner as the prison hall, with door on either side as far as they could see. Wren walked up to one of the doors and unlocked it with the key card. "Let's start here. This is the room I was born in."
(I gotta go take our kitten to the vet now, seeya later ^^)
“You were born down here?” Tanrial said, walking into a room and running her hand over the white sheet the covered the surgical bed in the middle of the room.
"Well, not exactly." Wren went over to the far wall and pulled back a curtain. Behind it was a large tank, filled with a blue, oily liquid. "Born, no. Grown, yes."
Bernon's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"You thought Ryker found mutant freaks like us just lying around in the woods?" Wren's voice was brutally careless. "You think he just zapped us or something to give us these powers? No. He made us, out of scraps of DNA and stem cells. And because he has a god complex, he thinks he's our dad and wants to replace Humanity Point One, aka people like Mike, with Humanity Point Two, aka us."
“Well, you’re not a freak for a start, there’s nothing wrong with being what you are but there is something wrong with trying to replace all humans with them. You can’t just stop being human.”
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