Duplus

Chapter 27

Amaani's POV:

I stared in awe as the wooden floor opened up and a table of some kind shot out of the ground along with big TV screens and an electronic board with a few pictures pasted on it. The lights in the room slowly dimmed out and the bright white light of the large screen in the middle was enough to lit up the whole room. Enough for us to see each other's faces at least.

"Wow," was the only thing I could say. Lx26 walked up to the big screen and moved his finger over it, dragging an icon from one place to the other and zooming into it. A picture of Megmel popped up and I recognized the building I was held captive in. The small dots looked like they represented the houses of the inhabitants.

"What's this place?" I asked, standing up from my chair and putting my index finger on a large building drawn a bit farther away from the disco ball-building AKA the restricted department. Lx18 leaned on the wall with her hands folded over her chest and 45 standing in the corner not too far from Lx26 who looked like an excited 8-year-old.

"This is the factory. Where all the double digits duplus provide their services for most of the day and then retire to their homes in the evening. Everyone has to go there or else they can be detected through their bracelets and be heavily punished." he replied. I nodded slowly, trying to understand.

"What do you guys do here?"

At that, I received a shrug from all three of them. "We just follow the same routine every day. Much like labor work. Some burn the steamer, some regulate the circuits to provide a high voltage and some inspect the others. Those duplus are high ranked compared to the others. They're still commoners though. Only the single digits are the ones who are given special treatment." Lx18 explained from the dark corner she was leaning on.

I nodded slowly again.

"Is it to make something? I mean why do you do all this work? To earn money or what?" I questioned. Lx26 frowned. "What's money?"

Before I could answer his question, I was cut off by Lx18. "We have no idea why we do all this. That's why we got suspicious and the four of us—Lx16 included, started working in secret to collect information," she answered. "And it was going pretty well when 16, being her clumsy self, lost her bracelet in the restricted department." she rolled her eyes, playfully and I grinned a little knowing how much I could relate to that.

"That's how she was driven out of Megmel and no one knows where she is right now." Lx18 finished, still leaning on the wall and acting casual. I looked back at Lx45 who spoke up as well. "Where did you meet her, Amaani?" he questioned me with a little suspicious tone.

I fell silent at that, wondering whether it would be a good idea to tell them about how I betrayed her and gave her up to Jaber. I quickly shook the thought away.

"Jaber Suleman, Lx2's host, sent me to find her as she met him and give him some kind of message written in code language." I decided to trust them as they were trusting me. I couldn't bring myself to be a backstabber to those who saved my life and helped me out in a really bad time.

"Lx2's Host? You know him personally?" Lx26 asked me in a way that was so different from Sufiyaan. His question made me fall in thought. I shook my head slightly, being confused myself. "Kinda. He... He's like my boss..." I replied hesitantly which didn't convince anyone in the room. Because of that, a question hit me.

What was Jaber to me? Did I know him personally? Or what was my relationship with him?

"Go on, Amaani." Lx45's voice made me snap out of it and I turned back to the middle-aged man with long shiny curly hair and narrow, honey brown eyes. "Oh sorry. I got lost for a minute." I rubbed the back of my head and let out a nervous chuckle.