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Chapter 11
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“Prior to the inception of the Radical Government, double agents were virtually unheard of; most Radials preferred the comfort of anonymity. A select few among us stepped up and did their duty, and perhaps saved some of our best and brightest in the process.” Radical Archive – excerpt from the Executive Operatives Origins Though the stares of alarmed train passengers focused squarely on Veronica for the first few moments after her successful train launch survival attempt, everyone seemed to go back to their own musings when she walked into the bathroom to towel herself off. Veronica looked at the dripping red mop sitting on top of her head and winced. “I should’ve jumped for the sake of their eyes alone,” she said to no one in particular. Three minutes into her drying, a knock from the other side of the door startled Veronica. “Hello?” a male voice said. “Occupied,” Veronica responded. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You didn’t look so well-off when you stepped into the car,” he responded. Since she’d done just about as much appearance maintenance as she could, Veronica decided to face her bathroom intruder. She opened the door and came face to face with a man in his mid-thirties. He had a five o’clock shadow with a few gray splotches – the same design his salt and pepper black hair seemed to have. Standing over a head taller than Veronica, the man seemed to stretch into infinity. As she scanned her eyes up to meet his, Veronica couldn’t help but to notice the expensive tailored suit draped effortlessly from his body, “I’m… fine,” she said after a nearly awkward pause. “I’m Todd. And you must be the trouble maker that nearly delayed the train and my meeting in New Chicago,” he said. A sly grin crept across his face. Veronica involuntarily sucked air in through her teeth, reeling at his brazen call-out. “I…I…” She knew she was busted. “I’m Veronica,” she said. What else could she say at this point? “Why don’t you come share the seat next to me Veronica,” he said calmly. He turned and walked to the other end of the car and took a seat next to the window. His locked computer tablet and a pair of reading glasses lay in the empty seat next to him. He picked them up, extended his left hand toward the empty seat, and invited Veronica to take a seat. Veronica quietly sat down and looked around the car at the other passengers. They all seemed to be oblivious to her anxiety. “Why haven’t you alerted the train security yet?” she asked. “I’m obviously crazy for being outside during launch.” Todd smiled again and suppressed a chuckle. “You’re young, so I’ll forgive the attitude this time,” he said. “It’d be wise of you to be more appreciative of the guy who’s going to save your hide from those security guards.” Veronica lowered her head and said softly, “I’m sorry.” “There’s no need to apologize. Just be more cautious of your words. Our kind has to be societal chameleons.” A light finally went on in Veronica’s head. “Oh!” She blushed. “I should’ve guessed.” “You had more pressing matters it seems,” he said. “So tell me, how exactly did you land yourself a front row seat to watch the train launch?” Veronica explained the story as briefly as possible in case those around them were listening in, ready to report them at any moment. Toward the end of her story Todd interrupted. “Wait, did you say you lived in Sid’s cell?” Todd asked. Veronica nodded. “Why?” “He mentioned an annoying young red head with ambition that aimed to change the world single-handedly.” He chuckled. “So he did have contact with other cells after all!” she said triumphantly. “He always told me that was forbidden and that it would only lead to chaos.” “Well he’s entitled to his opinion. He and I are old friends, so I imagine the contact is less formal and more social,” Todd said. “So you’re the woman who shut down the Seattle project then…” Veronica nodded. “Perhaps you could be of use to us then,” he said, drifting into his own thoughts briefly. “Where are you heading once you arrive in New Chicago?” Veronica went blank. She’d saved the contact information down in her tablet, but never looked at or thought about it enough to commit it to memory. And now that her tablet was in a thousand pieces on the Seattle Tube dock, she really had no destination. “I suppose your safe house since I’m a little put out at the moment after that skirmish.” “Excellent,” he said. “We can put you to work right away.” “May I ask a favor?” she said. “Once we reach your cell, could you check if someone was captured in Seattle?” Todd nodded. “Sure, who am I looking for?” “Alex is his name. He’s the reason I made it on the train in the first place.” Veronica went on to explain the remainder of the escape, her connection to Alex, and why she was leaving Seattle. By mid-journey, she realized she’d nearly told her entire life story to a man she just met. “Fascinating,” he said after listening patiently and commenting at the appropriate times. “If we could pause a moment, I need to use the facilities. Once we’re off the train it’ll be a while until we arrive at our destination, so I’d advise the same for you as well.” Veronica nodded politely and stood to let him out into the aisle. She watched as he casually strolled down the center walkway toward the bathroom she’d been in not so long ago. He walked with a certain confidence she recognized from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place. It seemed like a mix of bravado and knowing ego. She waited until he was fully in the bathroom and then a few seconds after that before she dared move. Ever the skeptic, Veronica needed to know this man was who he said he was. Beside her, in Todd’s vacant cloth seat, Veronica found Todd’s locked computer tablet he left ripe for the picking. He either severely underestimated her talent to hack a locked tablet, or left it behind specifically for her to read. Either way, she’d be reading the contents of his tablet in mere moments. The first thing she noticed right away was the tablet itself; rather than owning a private run-of-the-mill computer tablet you can buy at any retailer, Todd owned a government-issued tablet typically only issued to those working for the Central Government or one of it’s outreach agencies (such as the Central Archive and Journalism Guilds). Though the encryption on government-issued tablets tended to veer toward the more difficult to crack, Veronica accessed the contents in under ninety seconds nonetheless. With a repeated glance up at the bathroom door every few moments, Veronica dove into the tablet’s contents and began looking at as many files and directories as she could find. Everything seemed in order on first inspection. All of his everyday citizen files appeared on the visible folders and files, and underneath that in buried file structures his Radical information appeared to be woven and networked into a series of folders most people would overlook. The tablet had everything she was supposed to find, and somehow – in Veronica’s inquisitive mind – it almost felt like a letdown. It was that feeling that made Veronica check one additional thing. Any clever tablet user – mainly, one that would need to hide something from virtually anyone, including hackers – could utilize one additional layer of protection. It would take a moment to reach the access point, but Veronica had to know. She began sorting through the tablet’s root files – the system files holding the entire operating system together. Only there would she be able to see if a porthole even existed. When she finally dug far enough into the tablet’s guts and found the folders and files she’d been seeking, a victorious smile swept across her face. In front of her, Victoria stared at enough files and folders to comprise two entire tablets. This could only mean one thing: the tablet she’d poured her attention over… the files and even the hidden Radical files… were all just cover fodder. The real information she needed existed on a shadow login. An entirely separate profile and possibly an entirely separate hard drive existed outside of the one she was viewing now, and the only evidence of that lay in the bowels of the surface system. Somewhere in the tablet existed a porthole to the other side – a rabbit hole of sorts that would take her to the shadow drive beneath. She didn’t have time now to find the porthole though. It could be buried literally anywhere on his tablet, and she probably had thirty seconds or less to deactivate Todd’s tablet and get it back into his seat. She ran her right index finger furiously across the touch screen closing folders and files, preparing to shut the tablet down. Before she made it all the way to the last folder, she heard the bathroom door on the other side of the car unlatch. She was out of time. Veronica laid the tablet on her lap now and used both hands to shut the rest of the running applications down, keeping a vigilant eye on the door. She closed the last one as the door opened and Todd emerged. She pushed one last command – the shut down command – right as she slid the tablet back into its original resting position in his chair. She crossed her fingers that the shut down sequence sped along and completed before he made it to her side of the car. With the same confident swagger, Todd walked slowly down the aisle toward her, making eye contact the entire time. Veronica smiled back and when he was close enough, asked, “You were in there a while… everything okay?” “Just freshening up. A splash of water on the face will do wonders,” he replied. With the corner of her right eye straining to see the tablet to her right, Veronica reluctantly stood to let Todd back into the seat. “I see. I think I’ll do the same then since you mentioned it’ll be a while before we make it back to your building.” Veronica watched as he moved the darkened tablet to the side of the seat without even so much as a glance. Somewhere inside her head, a thousand little weights and anxieties disappeared. It wouldn’t be until she was locked away in the bathroom a moment later that these same anxieties would reappear. “What does he have hidden in that shadow drive?” she asked the image of herself in bathroom mirror. She ran a hand through her dried, tangled hair and wished for her now-discarded black shoulder bag. It had taken years to find a brush that would work for her impossible hair, and now it was left abandoned on the cement dock of Seattle so many miles back (along with all of her other possessions she suddenly missed fiercely). Veronica felt around in all of her pockets until she finally found an elastic hair band. She could at least pull it back to contain some of the horror. As she tried to mollify her atrocious appearance, Veronica thought about what the shadow drive meant and how she should proceed. She had no attachment or debt to this man, so why should she worry so much? On the other hand, he’d mentioned being able to assist her once the train stopped in New Chicago, and that seemed like a plus. Perhaps the shadow drive contained the top secret information about his cell that couldn’t simply be buried on the surface drive. For now it seemed like she needed Todd more so than she didn’t, so Veronica decided to push her luck. She finished up and headed back out to sit down. Time passed quickly from there forward as Veronica spent the remainder of the trip engaged in small talk with Todd about everything from Central Government politics to Associated Journalism Guild news articles about the dangers of scaling the eastern border wall at the Mississippi River. The most recent story Veronica remembered reading revolved around a couple of government conspiracy nuts who claimed the land east of the wall wasn’t contaminated from the Great War. They made a big deal of mentioning how they intended to cross somewhere near St. Louis around a month ago, and then haven’t been heard from since. “What do you think?” Todd asked. “I think there’s usually more to a story than what you read in the news downloads,” Veronica responded. “Even if the land east of the border wall was inhabitable now, the government wouldn’t want us going there. The more spread out we are as a nation, the less control they have over our movement and whereabouts.” Todd nodded. “But wouldn’t it be in their best interest to tell the truth though? What if it was habitable, and people began going in droves? That’d be a public relations nightmare.” Veronica shook her head. “It’ll never happen. The moment they think people will start doing that, travel restrictions will go through the roof. You’ll see another set of arrests bigger than the reclamation era.” “Perhaps,” he said. “I think you give them too much credit though.” “I was there at the riots. I saw exactly what they’re capable of, and rarely underestimate them now. If they see us as a serious threat – even for a moment – you can kiss the remainder of the Radical population goodbye,” Veronica said coldly. “Such a grim world view for such a young mind,” Todd said with a hint of sadness. “What’s to stop them from doing that now though?” Veronica finally realized what Todd was doing, and decided to play along. “They are doing it now though, don’t you see?” Todd motioned for her to continue with an explanation. “The travel restrictions, increased technology at borders…everything the Central Government does now has one ultimate goal: control. They want to find us and lock us away somewhere.” Todd smiled. “So it begs the question then, why think as you do?” Veronica cocked her head sideways. “What do you mean?” “If their primary goal is finding and arresting us, why centralize and work together? Doesn’t that just create a larger and easier target for them?” “That’s backward thinking Todd, and you of all people should realize that,” Veronica said. “The smaller our groups, the less chance we have of disseminating knowledge and updates on the Central Government mainframe. The more we work together, the faster we can catch up and eventually outpace their growth,” she said. “But you already know this.” Todd nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were talking about before I let you start indoctrinating random Radicals in New Chicago.” “Speaking of which, what exactly did you have in mind for me there?” she asked. “Well at first I want to be sure you know your way around, so I’ll probably rotate you through different roles,” Todd said. “Ultimately though, I want you on the tech-side monitoring the Central Government’s new initiatives. How does that sound?” “Sounds nice,” Veronica said. “Can I ask where exactly we’re going?” “You’ll see once we get there,” he said. For the remainder of the trip, their conversation waned as Veronica slipped in and out of a light sleep. Dreams of Alex seemed to slip in through the crevices between conscious and unconscious thought, clawing their way through her exhausted mind. When the internal notification came online moments before arriving in New Chicago, Veronica bolted up in her seat after a particularly vivid dream. “Everything okay?” Todd asked. “Bad dream,” Veronica said. She ran each index finder slowly around her eyes to wipe away any lingering sleep, and looked around the car. “How are we getting out exactly? They’ll be waiting out there to escort me to some holding cell.” “Trust me, everything will be okay,” Todd said confidently. “How can I trust you? I barely know you,” Veronica said. “You know enough about me after rifling through my tablet I’d say,” he said calmly. Veronica blushed. “You knew?” “I left it here for you to open,” he said. “And now, after you’ve had a peek at my innermost workings, do you have doubts?” Veronica’s head screamed yes. It warned her about the shadow drive, his casual take on everything, and the familiar saunter she just couldn’t place. She didn’t really have any other viable options now though since mere minutes were the only thing separating her and a troop of CJ Guild soldiers at the New Chicago Tube dock. She turned to Todd, looked him in the eyes, and searched for any sign of deception. Seeing none, she felt even more afraid, yet responded the way she had to. “I don’t. I apologize for doubting you.” “No problem Veronica. You were raised to distrust people, and wisely so,” he said. “Just remember that I’m only here to look out for your well being.” “What does that mean?” Veronica asked. Before he had a chance to answer though, the train came to a stop and passengers began standing and walking toward the exit doors. Veronica turned her attention to the window and saw exactly what she expected: small groups of soldiers waiting at each entry point for her arrival. She swallowed hard and looked back over to Todd, who was packing his belongings into a small briefcase. “Ready?” he asked. “Ready for what?” Veronica said. Todd stood and assisted Veronica in standing by gripping her elbow. Once standing he didn’t release the now iron-clad grip. Veronica began to panic. “What’s going on Todd?” Veronica asked. “Please, it’s Officer Leigh,” he said coldly. Veronica’s eyes widened and goose bumps sprung up across her arms. She looked around for help but realized she was trapped and had to do whatever Todd said. Moments seemed to be flying by at light speed as the train car emptied, leaving just the two of them. When the soldiers began boarding their car, Todd immediately took control. “Stand down men,” he said commandingly. He pulled out his wallet and flashed identification documents. “Officer Todd Leigh, New Chicago PD. I have the suspect in custody already.” The commanding officer among the four soldiers addressed Todd. “This is a CJ Guild matter sir,” he said. “I assure you the CJ Guild can have her as soon as she’s booked at my precinct. She is currently in my custody under my jurisdiction though, and I’m taking her.” Todd’s glare didn’t waver. The solder relented and began calling off his legions of men. Todd led Veronica off the train car and walked toward a nearby police car. “Take her downtown,” he said to a uniformed officer sitting in the front seat of the vehicle. The officer nodded and released the magnetic locks on the rear cab of the vehicle so Todd could place her in the car. Veronica’s anxiety bubbled over and began flooding out her eyes in a salty deluge of tears. She finally recognized the saunter – it was the same one she’d seen so many years prior at the riots. The police working with the CJ Guild soldiers walked down the streets taking down protestors by the dozens, all while walking calmly and casually like they were all taking a nice summer stroll. Her stomach turned and twisted as Todd shoved her into the rear of the vehicle. He didn’t so much as look at her as he closed the door and turned to talk to the soldiers demanding to see his credentials again. Before she could begin screaming, the car’s riot shields began to rise, enclosing Veronica inside a metal box sitting on plastic-molded seats that didn’t seem to fit the contour of her body. What had she done? The shadow drive, the suspicions she harbored… all of the cautions her gut screamed at her were coming to fruition. She heard the car start and then fell back against the black plastic seat as the car began moving. She looked around, waiting on her eyes to adjust to the nearly total darkness of the metal box. She had little recourse now other than cooperation - and that wasn’t one of her strengths. With nothing better to do with her time, Veronica sat back in the uncomfortable plastic seat and waited. |
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The Radical Chronicles is Copyright © 2009 by Tim Peacock.
