Minder: Secrets of Mind

Chapter 17

Most nights in Humanitas were filled with political games disguised as parties and deals done in residencies across the city, but none could hold a candle to the few times a year where the Grand Opera at the city's center came to life—surrounded by trees and white flames on posts illuminating walkways, roads, and the few transport pads among the fields of green. The Grand Opera house was built from the rubble of the city that once dominated the land of Humanitas, taking from that city a neutral concrete and stone jungle of corridors. Its massive side wings are filled with offices, storage units, and archives of a world that once was, kept closed and only accessed with the approval of the Church.

The large glass dome atop the central chamber of the Opera House was meant to reflect the entire view of the world outside, ensuring no one could see out or in. If someone could place someone on the roof and insert a listening device through the thick gothic-styled glass, then the advantages such a thing would provide them would be utter chaos for the other families. None would be safe, but such a move would turn all the families on that specific one. Creating a chaotic chain reaction and shift of power that had happened a couple of times before, but for different reasons. And most families preferred to avoid starting an entire uproar because such moves were a good way to last in success for only a little while before being destroyed themselves.

The night was calm and breezy, indicating that another cold winter was coming since it was only August. But that cold didn't stop the many families from coming to the night's event; missing an Opera show was not an option. Especially when it was being funded by one of the UHR's prominent one-hundred families, and even more important when the backer was a member of that family who was on the way to one day rising to the position of First Human. Senator Abigail Merkel. Once a member of a family with little authority and status, often struggling just to remain in the Lower House consistently, Senator Merkle and her mother had made many moves to see the family's ascension in the past 40 years. While most attributed the rise to her mother, Abigail was the one who secured the family's movement to the Higher House only one election cycle before, when she was only twenty years old.

Such boldness was essential and her most significant asset; she was in touch with the pulse of the greater UHR world. She had some effective support from those who lived out in the Republics and, therefore, a decent support base in the Lower House of families that preferred to have popular support rather than actual power. But her boldness was misplaced; she intended to be the lightning rod that established her family alongside the pinnacle names of families that had such sway over the UHR that their word could become law. Names like Okeke, Howling, Morgans, Macrons, Alberts, and Hamilton. Sure, she had good reason to think she could place her family among those names, for the person she aspired to be had done the same thing. First Human Gregory Phoenix had made his family's word law, but with a big difference.

Gregory was the sole survivor of a purge that came upon the family in a way that practically almost guaranteed the family would only be in that position so long as Gregory held his position. She'd been warned before announcing this Opera that it was too big a move; it would bring too much attention from her mentor down on her. And with her rising star, she needed to wait simply, and power would come to her. She'd likely already been in his eye, but now, after tonight, despite her holding the Opera in Gregory's name, she was going to be placed under his thumb. The different branches and problems she was about to give life to cause this event were going to be a mess to clean up over the coming months.

But for now, she was all smiles as she conversed before the show's start with her primary supporters in the lower seating. The main chamber was three-tiered, with no seats for those whose families could not afford a booth. On the floor just before the stage was circular booth after booth of varying dark colors, each owned by the head of the Lower Family houses. Each had a transparent containment wall to separate them during the show if they wished, and the booths also had their own air conditioning system. And a waiter attached to them, with an underground tube system that could deliver drinks to each table without disruption. While they were still luxurious, they were out in the open, a sign that no deal could go done or whispered across booths without someone noticing.