The Nexus

Chapter 11

Emma towel dried her hair in a bedroom that Sophia had led her to. She couldn't believe the set up of this place. The reality of the hideout sunk in to her mind as she dressed in the clean clothes that were given to her. The dark green t-shirt and jeans fit her well and were more comfortable for her than the pantsuit that she had been wearing when she had been tricked into meeting Thomas. The pantsuit went into a gray bag marked laundry that was hanging on a hook on the wall. She then placed her small 9mm gun in the waistband of her jeans. She stuffed her motorcycle jacket wrapped around the other gun under the small bed.

The little gray room was just big enough for a single person to sleep in and move around a little. She blow-dried her hair while sitting on the bed and there was no mirror to speak of in the room.

It was irritating to her that a place like this even existed in the U.S. Like there was a whole underground world within a country that was considered the homeland of liberty and freedom. These people acted like a guerrilla, rebel force and, again, she wondered if this was the sort of thing that could end up on T.V. in some sort of "Who drank the Kool-aid?" scenario.

Of course, The Agency had been a lot like that; a hidden world within a world nestled in multiple countries. It was the grown-up version of Russian nesting dolls.

There was a knock on the door to the room. "Yes?" said Emma.

"Would you like something to eat before you meet with Miles?" Emma recognized Sophia's voice. Sophia had calmed down considerably. Since first meeting her in the hallway, Emma had made rude comments about how ugly this hideout was, about the ridiculousness of the blindfold, and had been generally provoking. Sophia had put together her composer to the point that Emma couldn't seem to get a rise out of her.

"Okay," responded Emma, she decided to set aside trying to mess with Sophia and opened the door to follow this slight, but tough woman in silent observation.

The women walked through another maze of hallways. If anyone else but Emma was seeing them for the first time, they might have been completely lost, but Emma knew exactly where she was and was almost finished with a mental map of the places that she had seen so far. If she had to escape for any reason, she knew she could at least lead herself back to the point where she had been blindfolded and could make it out to the surface based on the memory created by her other senses.

Sophia led her to a room that was even bigger than the previous lounging room from earlier. This was a dinning hall and was quite large for what Emma imagined this rough underground lair could hold. There were round and rectangular tables throughout the room, with people dining and having various conversations.

The two of them grabbed a couple of trays and Emma could tell that a lot of people were stealing glances at her. When Sophia led her to the buffet area she noticed that the food looked delicious but she could not find any meat.

"Is there any chicken?" she asked Sophia.

"We don't prepare meat here in the dining hall," Sophia replied.

Emma thought back to the car ride with Thomas and how he had always ordered a salad, "Oh," she said.

She served herself a delicious looking salad, a dish that looked like it was made with sweet potatoes, and some kind of black bean mixture. Even without meat, the smell made her mouth water with anticipation.

After they sat at a round table and started eating, Emma decided that the silence between them was irritating her so she asked, "Why doesn't anyone here eat meat?"