March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 24: Rale's Revelation

"Lira."

Lira turned around, her clear eyes falling on Ari and Fris.

"You're troubled." No pleasantries; straight to the point. "Mina?"

"How do you know?" Ari said, surprised.

"Not many things get the impartial Transformer so despondent. If things go to plan, we'll set off to Deneve next week and have the cure made on our return."

"I... need to talk to you about that."

"Oh? So you've come to seek me out here?"

"Well, no. We're here to see Rale, but I need to talk to you about Deneve."

Lira studied Ari with unblinking eyes, making Ari fidget, and then flicked briefly above them.

"We'll speak to Rale first. Together. Then we can have our discussion."

Lira rapped on the door. Several seconds later, Rale's face appeared behind the glass and the door slid open. The room was stacked high with unlit screens and computer bodies with colourful wires dangling from ceilings. Two computer stations sat at the far left, their virtual screens switched off, leaving only darkened projection devices. The only evidence of their ongoing use was the messy pile of papers and pens at the desk.

"Welcome to my new headquarters," said Rale, sweeping his arm around. "The technological advances at the forefront of Candra! Where I do groundbreaking file restorations and decipher instruction manuals on how to operate window washers and distillation cycles."

"That sort of stuff sounds beneath you—" Ari was cut off by Rale holding up a hand. He sauntered over to his desk and swept a casual hand over his keyboard. His virtual screen threw up a new window with a series of codes. His blue eyes scanned the multiple video streams that popped up; Ari could see through the reflections of his specs. He tapped a few buttons and then stood up, triumphant.

"Right. And now, we can talk freely."

"We—!" It dawned on Ari. "We were being monitored — still?"

"Your death sentence looks a bit tight, Transformer. Let me fix that for you." Rale fiddled with Ari's explosive necklace. It didn't feel any less tight when he was done. "After March City, is this constant surveillance a surprise you still, Transformer?"

Ari bit her lip. "Well, no, not really. But to think..."

"Hope you've not been talking about anything bad."

"No, but..."

"She doesn't know anything untoward to speak about, which was just as well," said Lira. She perched on one of the nearby chairs. Ari stood in the middle, feeling like a fool for missing the grand scheme again.

"As far as the closed-circuit monitors are concerned, this room shows just me sitting here at my desk. Lira is still pacing in her room and Ari and Fris are still outside the Infirmary. As long as nobody specifically combs through the time stamps, nobody will twig. But there's more."

"What about the others that work here? Won't they walk in on us?"

"Today's their day of break. Turns out they get like two days off every week. Lazy bastards."

"What have you found?"

Rale spoke about the initiation for March City he'd uncovered in the records. The more Ari heard, the closer her jaw fell to the floor. It was like reliving Kena's truths all over again, but the scale was grander than anything she could have imagined. It came as no surprise; the citizens and leaders of Candra treated them like weapons, exactly the purpose for which they were engineered. Students weren't citizens. They had no rights. Their sole purpose was to protect people, with the world already fallen to the infected outside.