The Listener

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 “Listener! I need the Listener over here!” The gruff, angry voice of Vincent Burch shouted, interrupting the silence of The United Empire’s Voice Protection Office. I looked up from my monitor, startled, as did so many others in the echoing open space of the modern room.

After reluctantly removing my large, black headphones, I made my way over to one of my least favorite coworkers in the office. He was a short, squat man with dark red hair that was starting to thin on top. A permanent scowl was etched on his unpleasant face and a muscle in his wide jaw twitched with irritation each time my heels clacked against the smooth marble floors, but there was nothing that I could do to help the sound. “Would you hurry up? An unidentified voice just entered The Empire Bank!” he barked.

I frowned, but not because of his obnoxious tone or the fact that he referred to whomever was in question as a voice rather than a person. No, it was because if the voice was unidentified, the person shouldn’t have been able to gain access to the building.

I wondered again at this so-called Voice Program that the Empire insisted was single-handedly saving our country from chaos and ultimate destruction. As far as I could tell the program did next to nothing and I did everything in its place.

How lucky it is that they found me.

“Did you notify the Empire Police Force and put them on standby?” I checked as I picked up his headphones, pleased with my professional tone.

“Yes.” Burch replied in a grating voice, grinding his teeth, as though I were the annoyance. I just barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes as I put on his markedly less comfortable headphones and listened to the mystery voice.

Moments later, I had my answer and told him, “Call off the police. It’s Knox Tanner. He was in another barroom brawl, only this time he got one of his front teeth knocked out, earning himself a lisp.”

“You got all that from a few words?” Burch blinked doubtfully at me, stunned. I nodded, but didn’t understand why he was acting so surprised. He had seen me do near this exact same thing before. He seemed to shrug off his momentary state of awe quickly though. “How can you be so sure that he isn’t there to rob the place? What if he was doing the lisp on purpose?” he asks pointedly, portraying his unwavering need to attempt to undermine me.

From his perspective, I can understand the desire. He’s a full-grown man, probably in his late thirties now, whom, I’m sure, does not appreciate taking orders from a snide teenager with very little in the way of official qualifications. But all I can see is an angry man who’s life goal is to make my job that much harder.

“Knox Tanner goes to the same bank at the same time every week to cash his paycheck so he can drink at the same bar at the same time every night. He’s not going to rob the bank.” I state it bluntly, making it clear that this is not up for discussion, that I’m bored by the very prospect of it, and then turn to go back to my desk with Burch glaring daggers at my back the whole way.

Being a ward of The United Empire has very little in the way of rewards, but my apartment is among the few.

After leaving the miserable office for the night, I step out onto the pristine concrete sidewalk to make short trip back to my penthouse on the next block over, walking through the city’s maze of towering buildings. These streets used to be plastered with bright lights and posters, advertisements filled with everything the city had to offer. Now the once diverse and exciting area has been dismantled and covered in black, white, and red. The colors of Empire propaganda. Their posters line the streets, shouting their good graces to the heavens.

“WE FIGHT FOR A BETTER TOMORROW AND TO ERASE THE MISTAKES OF YESTERDAY!”

I think it’s more likely that hell heard them.