When All Else Fails (A Push of a Button Novella)

Chapter Two

"McGayen Inc does work for the government." She sighed. "It's top secret though, so don't tell anyone that. Supposedly, we can't talk about it because it could reveal trade secrets and destroy the confidentiality of important information."

"Sure." He stared at the quiet, contented children on the playground a few yards away. "But why would he use it to help me track down my attacker?"

She cleared her throat. "He wouldn't. But if he thinks the guy's stalking me? He'd do anything to help."

"You're going to lie to him?"

"Not lie, per se. But imply the wrong things, I guess?"

"You don't see anything wrong with that?"

She shifted on the bench. "I do, yeah. But they're as brainwashed as the next person. Maybe more because the Supremacy has given them far more than most." She scuffed a shoe along the concrete under their feet. "So I have to hide what I really know to avoid being reprogrammed or discarded."

He grimaced. "Still, lying to them?"

She shifted and cleared her throat. "It feels wrong every time, but if I don't, everything's over. My status as their daughter won't save me if the Supremacy finds out what I think, what I know."

He glanced over at her. "You disagree that strongly?"

She nodded and stood. "Come on. I want to show you something, but I can't show you here."

He frowned. What could she be into that couldn't be shown in public? Plenty of things would probably fall under that category. Books unapproved by the Supremacy. History books that were older than the last hundred years or so. Documents that were classified. A rebellious idea that the Supremacy wasn't all it seemed. It could be dangerous. Or it might not. His curiosity built, and he stood too with a shrug, but inside, he was anything but nonchalant.

THE TWO OF THEM stopped in her bedroom, but they didn't stay there. She'd never show this to him anywhere inside or near the public. Showing him at all was a risk. What if he told on her? He'd never been the sort to tell on someone for disagreeing with the system, but who knew? Everyone had their limits, and the Supremacy rewarded snitches handsomely by not sending the involved snitch to reprogramming and, in some cases, providing them with a fat check for the mental distress they'd endured. As if anything that didn't meet government standards was somehow distressing. She swallowed back the fear and recovered a sheaf of papers from behind her bed's headboard.

Seb watched her with a tiny frown furrowing his brow. The familiar gleam of curiosity sparked in his gaze. She smiled and clutched the sheaf of papers to her chest. He wouldn't tell. He might run the other way, but he wasn't going to run to the Supremacy. "Want to go to the park?"

His frown deepened. "The park?"

She pursed her lips. "The park. It's such a nice day out, after all."

Finally, he nodded. "The park sounds nice. Maybe we can pick up some ice cream while we're out. It's nice enough for it."

"Sounds like a great plan." She shoved her papers into a bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Let me just tell Mom and Dad that I won't be home for dinner."

That frown deepened even further. He obviously knew something was up, but he knew better than to say anything. Good thing. If he said anything around the cameras or the taps, both of them would end up in so much trouble. She grabbed his arm and dragged him down the stairs, shouting to her mother that they wouldn't be home before barreling out the front door.

Outside, she sucked in a deep breath and let it back out. "Whew. That was close. I thought you were going to ask questions in there."

He crossed his arms. "I've got a lot of them. But you looked like you might murder me if I asked them, so I decided I should wait."

"Good instinct." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Anything you said would've been recorded and sent over to the government."

His eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. "They monitor you?"

"They monitor everything, remember? But yes. They monitor my family. More than most, I guess, because we're involved with the government directly. But they probably have wires in the main living spaces of your house too. They don't have to ask permission or tell you they installed them. They just do it when you have someone in for repairs or when the house is first built. Same with the apartments. It's all done under the guise of routine inspections and checking in to make sure everything looks fine. Then they tell you your living space looks like it conforms well with Supremacy regulations and leave with you none the wiser."

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "That's awful."

She nodded and leaned in closer. "But wait until you see what they've been hiding," she murmured. "You're going to question everything you ever knew."

He stared at her, a hint of fear glinting in his gaze. "Viv, are you sure we should..."

"Trust me? You need to know this, Seb."

He sighed. "Alright. Where to? I know it's not the park."

She glanced at the house just in time to catch her mother peeping through the drapes. The living room drapes dropped back into position immediately, and she shook her head with a grimace. "The fields on your mother's property, if that's not a problem."

"Best place I can think of. It shouldn't be a problem, and no one will overhear whatever you have to say."

She grabbed his hand and hit her button to teleport them there. She didn't want to spend another minute on the streets with these papers. The cops and Supremacy Regulators were everywhere. The information she was about to share with him could get them all killed, and she wasn't ready to die. Not until the Supremacy and all of its lies were reduced to dust. For now, though, she'd settle for convincing Seb that he needed to be careful and keep his eyes open if he wanted to live.