Thrive - Remastered

Chapters 16 and 17

Chapter 16

       The Director walked back and forth in his office. Tonight would be a night to remember. He had to prepare himself for the questions that were sure to arise. Questions, he knew for the sake of the society, he could not answer.

       They would be taken off guard at being called to a last minute meeting but that is what he intended. Better to have them come with no expectations and questions than know about the meeting days in advance and speculate as to why a meeting was being called at night.

       The expansive office provided for the Director was located on the top floor of a housing unit. The office as well as his personal living space took up the entire top floor. He walked to the window overlooking his city.

       Lights spread out before him until they were stopped by the empty space between the city and the Wall. The Director took off his glasses and cleaned them on his white coat.

       Without the spectacles on, everything blurred out of focus. Everything was unclear, just like the city’s past and the city’s future. It was his duty to keep things on track.

       Director Patterson slid the soft cloth of his jacket back and forth over the lenses of his glasses. He ran over in his mind what he expected the department head’s reactions would be. Most would be eager to agree. A few, like Holly, would nod along but question this course of action. Still others, like Jordan Shepherd, were question marks.

       Director Patterson returned his glasses to their normal place on the bridge of his nose, squinting into the darkness beyond the city. He couldn’t see the Wall but he knew it was there. It was out there, massive and large. It was a symbol of both protection and fear.

       That’s what he had to instill in his department heads tonight. He had to make sure they felt safe and at the same time cautious. The Director thought back to his own meeting with the former head of the Physical Education Department and shook his head. He now knew what not to say.

       Robert had been a trial run. He had given the Director an opportunity to practice the same speech he would give tonight. The Director learned what words to avoid and how to phrase other words. It had cost Robert his job and life within the city however, it had been needed. It had been necessary.

       The Director felt the slightest twinge of guilt, the smallest hint of regret that was soon dismissed. Things were done for the good of the city and everyone in the city. Along the way there would be sacrifices made but only for the benefit of the society as a whole.

       Besides he was only a piece being used in a much larger game. He wasn’t so vain to think that he was the ruler of the city. He was only the middleman relaying information that had been given to him by his superiors.

       They had decided that the next chapter in the city’s history would start now. Who was he to deviate from a plan that had been set in motion for generations?

       He pulled his eyes from the view and crossed his lavishly decorated office to a large black bookcase that stood filled with volumes of books. Each series of books was complete and all matching. Just like his city, his books were orderly and neat.

       The Director reached forward and slid a volume out halfway. The book was on the third of six shelves. The Director’s hand quickly traveled to all six shelves pulling out one book from each section, careful to only allow the book to slide out halfway.

       Although he had repeated the same process countless times over the years, he was still no closer to finding a pattern for which books had to be pulled. On the top shelf, where he had to stand on his tip toes to reach, he pulled out a book almost all the way to the right of the row. The next shelf the book that he targeted was toward but not exactly in the middle, the next row’s book was the last on the left and so on.