The theatre hummed with the hushed rumble of fifteen voices muttering words like "vote", "choice" and, quietest of all, "explosion".
Dyo leant back against the stage, taking it all in. Students and adults, shunning pink in favour of blacks, blues, greens and reds, were standing in small groups, heads together and hands animated as they discussed the events of the past few days. Bree, with her blue hair and lilac dress, was holding court in one of the larger groups, her head bend towards her neighbour's as they debated. Under the chatter, Orpheus, the group's resident musician, sat on stage strumming on his guitar.
Despite Bree's message, there were no new faces, although half a dozen members were conspicuous in their absence.
Dyo didn't feel like joining any of the groups himself. A single image had consumed him for the past few days, occupying his thoughts even now, in the place that was usually his safe haven. Try as he might, there was a pair of grey eyes Dyo couldn't get out of his mind. Had she been caught in the blast? He should have warned her; if she'd been injured it would be his fault.
"I didn't see you in my lecture yesterday," Ajax admonished Dyo as he walked towards him, breaking him out of his daydream. The pink sweater was gone, replaced by a burgundy hoodie and jeans.
"Really?" Dyo asked, his voice carrying a tone of surprise. "How did you miss me? I was the one in the front - in the pink shirt?" His face remained deadly straight.
Ajax cocked an eyebrow. "Ah yes, and the ridiculous canvas shoes that offer no protection against the winter weather?"
"Of course. Although, you may not have spotted me among the flock of girls thronging round me."
"True - I would have expected to find you with Sephy and her new friend, the pretty brunette." Dyo's face twitched ever so slightly with interest, granting Ajax victory. He winked at Dyo before adding, "I'll see you front and centre next week," before moving on.
The noise level increased three-fold as Sephy entered the meeting. "Good evening all! Jeez, it's cold out there!" she announced, stamping snow off of her boots and hugging her dark military-style coat to her chest. Orion came in behind her in his grungy leather jacket, a ridiculous pink bobble hat perched on his head that looked luminous against his dark skin. Behind them was another girl with bobbed brown hair - the brunette Ajax had mentioned? Maybe Dyo wasn't going to have to venture out to next week's lecture to meet her after all.
Unfortunately, it didn't look as though she would have been worth the effort anyway: she was wearing a fuchsia pink ski-jacket and a soft, rose-pink hat and gloves. Even her white snow boots had pink pipping on them. Dyo was about to turn away in disappointment, when he noticed her glance around the room then remove her hat and gloves, shoving them into the pockets of her coat, which she took off despite the chill in the air. Beneath, she was dressed in a worn out pair of grey jeans and a purple vest top. Emblazoned on the top was a golden owl; not exactly the height of pop fashion. The girl shivered, but kept her coat in her arms.
Then she turned to face him, revealing dove-grey eyes. They were mesmerising: intelligent, vulnerable and familiar. Dyo had come inches away from those eyes before and they'd been haunting him ever since. She had survived.
She hadn't seen him yet and he had no idea whether she would recognise him when she did. He wasn't sure that he was ready to find out, so he watched from a distance as Sephy led her around, carrying out introductions.
It didn't surprise Dyo that Sephy had been the only person brazen enough to invite a new member. While everyone else was pretending they had nothing to do with the anti-establishment group being whispered about on the feeds, Sephy went on a recruiting drive.
Bree stepped forward to welcome the new arrival, her smile warm but her eyes wary. Despite it being her suggestion, Bree was always sceptical about newcomers. Bree's shadow, Don, was showing the reluctance Bree was trying to keep hidden, although that wasn't the least bit surprising. Whatever Bree felt, Don made sure he felt it too. Don had once confided in Dyo when he was drunk that he was certain this was the key to Bree's heart. Given enough acquiescence, he was sure she would see how compatible they were, how perfect they would be together. If anything, however, this course of action would have the opposite effect. Bree was as likely to notice Don as she was the colour of the walls. Don eyed the new girl with such distaste that Dyo was surprised she didn't leave immediately.
Instead, she let Sephy steer her on to the next group. Dyo tried to picture the scene from the girl's perspective: a blur of faces and names on her feed glasses; influence levels and ages that ranged far more widely than an average campaign group, from the first years like Sephy, to Nestor Vereen (IR: 250), an ancient, law lecturer who was the group's oldest member by decades; people dressed in every colour under the sun, even pink. She was doing well to remain so calm. So far, she was faring much better than their last new member, Ino Kroll (IR: 33), who had kept glancing at the door looking like she was on the verge of a nervous collapse.
All too soon, Sephy steered the girl towards Dyo. She looked confused; probably because her glasses would be showing neither a last name nor an influence rating above Dyo's head. He hacked them away long ago.
"You!" Well, that answered the question of whether she would recognise him. Her expression changed from confusion to anger; her grey eyes narrowed and her nose wrinkled. The effect was a lot cuter than she was probably aiming for. She looked like a cross pixie.
"Oh dear, what did you do to this one, Dyo?" Orion asked in his thick Boston accent, a slight frown on his face.
Dyo shrugged nonchalantly, determined to keep his cool. He paused for a moment, leaning back against the stage once more and running a hand through his hair, as though trying to wrack his brains. Finally, he brought his gaze back to Orion and sighed. "I can't remember; she's going to have to remind me."
Sephy lowered her face to her hands in despair, making Dyo grin.
"Where was it that we met?" He avoided meeting her eyes, which swirled like smoke after a fire.
"At the healthcare vote announcement. You knocked me to the floor then ran away." Dyo let his eyes widen, feigning surprise.
"Well that wasn't the answer I was expecting. Sorry, Honey, but I think you've got me confused with someone else. I would never abandon a damsel in distress."
"It was definitely you," Athena said, although there was a slight waver in her voice, a chink in her resolution. Dyo picked up on it at once and it guaranteed his victory.
"Why are you so sure it was me?"
"Because I recognise you..." She trailed off before continuing, her voice softer, "Your eyes - they're so familiar."
Confidence flooded through him; she was making this too easy. "Oh if I got a pound every time I heard that one. Look, I'm flattered, really, but I'm not interested."
Her cheeks coloured a fierce fuchsia and Dyo experienced a momentary stab of guilt, but he continued regardless. "Really, Sephy, where do you find them?" He pushed off from the stage and past the girl, making his way over to Bree. "Come on Bree, everyone's here. Why don't we make a start?"
Coming tonight had been a terrible idea. So much for being brave and giving it a try. Athena hadn't even lasted five minutes before making a fool out of herself. But she'd been so sure that it had been him. The eyes, the hair; he looked like he'd stepped straight out of Ancient Greece, swapping his toga for a hoodie. It was all so familiar. The moment was still vivid in her mind: the weight of him on top of her; the rush of heat before the snow began to seep into her clothes... Was she going crazy?
Sephy gave her a sympathetic rub on the arm. "Ignore Dyo; he's like that with everyone."
This knowledge didn't make Athena feel any better, but she was saved from having to reply by the blue haired girl climbing onto the stage. Athena turned on her iSpy app, so that the girl's name hovered above her head again: Briseis Adesola, Influence Rating: 78. Her dark skin shimmered beneath the stark stage lighting and she blinked a few times as she looked out into the crowd. Once her eyes had adjusted, she began.
"I have reliable intelligence that a new national vote is coming up," she told the crowd, her voice low and melodic.
"Cut straight to the chase, why don't you, Bree? What's wrong with 'welcome back, I hope you had a nice Christmas'?"
Bree glared at Dyo, but he merely grinned back. Sephy rolled her eyes in a way that said: See, I told you it was just him.
"The security budget is up for renewal," Bree continued, turning herself away from Dyo. "Some big players are already moving into action - Jason Leighton has a team working around the clock on his angle."
"Already?" an auburn haired girl asked, frowning. Athena's glasses reminded her that this was Ismene McCarthy (IR: 102). Sephy had introduced her as their 'tech goddess'.
"This is a big one for Leighton. Security in New London is run almost exclusively by Freedom Security, and they are responsible for 'protecting' nearly half of the rest of New Britain. Freedom Security is one of the FI's biggest subsidiaries and it makes him the largest profit. He stands to win or lose big depending on how the vote goes. He's not going to leave this to chance or public opinion; he is going to be getting as many pop voters on side as possible before the vote is even announced. The explosion plays straight into his hands - he will use it to convince voters that they need a strong military force to protect them."
"But that's ridiculous!" Sephy said, which prompted some angry muttering from the crowd.
Athena looked across, curious to see Dyo's reaction, but he'd vanished. She glanced around the rest of the room, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Looking for someone?" came a voice to her left, causing her to jump.
"No," she replied in a whisper as she turned to face Dyo. Bree and the group were still discussing security and the thought of too many heads turning in her direction made her pulse race. "Don't flatter yourself. What are you doing over here anyway?"
"I need to steal Ori away for a moment, that's all." He leant past Athena and tapped Orion on the shoulder tipping his head in the direction of a door to their left.
Orion kissed Sephy on the cheek, whispering something in her ear and the two boys left.
Sephy fixed her attention back on the stage and Athena tried to follow suit. Bree was explaining why the country shouldn't need such a large security budget.
"There hasn't been war in a direct democracy for over sixty years. We haven't used our military for anything in over two decades now and, if we were about to use them, we would need to vote on it first, at which point we could also agree on a suitable budget for the mission. Why should we be spending public money on troops and weapons we are probably never going to use?"
"Maybe the Freedom Institute has a use for them?" a boy sitting on the theatre floor suggested. Orpheus Moreau (IR: 167), Athena declined the automatic link to his music profile while muttering broke out among the group.
So far, the meeting felt like a darker version of a campaign meeting. When Athena was following a campaign with Cress, though, there was never any mention of individuals. They discussed what would benefit the most people. This group seemed to have got their facts skewed somehow. Direct Democracy was about the many, not the few. And why were they discussing a national vote that hadn't been announced yet? National votes weren't pre-planned like this, with strategies and game plans before they were announced to the general population. That would defeat the point.
"I don't understand what's going on," Athena whispered to Sephy.
Sephy's eyes widened as she turned to face her. "Sorry! I guess I've thrown you in at the deep end. How about we go for a walk and I'll try to fill you in." Sephy gestured towards the exit Dyo and Orion had left through, which led back into the vast lobby they'd started the evening in.
"So, what do you need explaining?" Sephy asked, leaning against one of the white walls.
"All of it! What is this group even for? You discuss campaigns like pop voters, but you don't sound like them. Who are you?"
"The disillusioned," Sephy replied, her eyes bright. "Everyone thinks that they get to choose, that they are in control of what happens."
"That's because we do!" Athena replied with conviction.
"Are you sure?" a male voice replied behind her. She spun round to see Dyo and Orion coming back towards them. "Are you absolutely certain that when you cast a vote, the choice is yours and yours alone?" Dyo paused in front of her, his arms crossed, an eyebrow arched in challenge.
"Yes," Athena replied, her voice softer now, but still certain.
"So, you're not swayed by what they say in all of those campaign meetings you go to?"
It crossed her mind to ask him why he was certain she went to camp meetings, why he presumed to know anything about her, but she didn't. "Those meetings are there to help voters to choose; to give us all of the information we need to make a considered decision. Without them, we would be voting without knowing the details; we wouldn't be making informed choices."
"And these meetings give you an unbiased view of both sides? They tell you the positives and negatives of each?"
"Yes," Athena replied immediately.
"No." Dyo smiled. He was enjoying this. "Think about it. How many smokers did you speak to before the healthcare vote? How many industry professionals did you hear speak about how much money would be lost implementing the new scheme - almost twice what the pro-campaigners believed we would save, incidentally? What about the choice of the smokers? Or the healthcare experts who believe that it will be virtually impossible to determine whether an illness is directly related to smoking or not? Besides, if this world of ours is so pro 'the choice of the people', why are we not allowed to choose to smoke when and where we like? Why should the state decide?"
"The people are deciding," Athena replied, her hands moving through the air as she spoke. "If the majority wanted to be able to smoke and to pay the health bills that follow it, they would vote against the motion. That's the whole point of the system."
Dyo folded his arms across his chest. "The system is in place to manipulate your choice."
Athena took a step away from him. "You're wrong."
"You're naive," he replied, closing the gap between them again. His amber eyes were blazing like pools of lava. "You're letting them choose for you. You go along with whatever your pink wearing friends have been told is the best option."
"Dyo, cool it," Sephy said, putting a restraining hand on his arm.
"You know nothing about me," Athena snapped.
Dyo laughed. "There's nothing to know. You are generic - one of the thousands of vacant, vote-casting masses. You're all interchangeable."
"Hey! That's out of line, Dyo!" Sephy called, shoving him backwards. "You need to get over yourself and learn some manners. Come on, Athena. This isn't what I invited you here to listen to."
She put her arm around Athena's shoulder and guided her further back through the lobby. With a small shake of his head in Dyo's direction, Orion followed. "I'm assuming you've had enough of the meeting for one night," Sephy said, leading her back towards the main door. "So how about we go home?" On the other side of the door there was nothing but snow. Shivering, Athena put her coat and hat back on.
"I think we've picked a good time to leave!" Orion said, zipping his own black jacket and readjusting his hat.
"I didn't think it could snow any more," Sephy agreed, stepping out onto the white powder. She immediately sunk half way down her calves. "Whoa!" she said, laughing as she turned to face them both.
Orion laughed too and stepped forward, but Athena wasn't feeling jovial. "Come on, Thena. Don't let him get to you - he isn't worth it, trust me," Sephy told her, taking her hand and pulling her into the snow.
"He isn't always that bad," Orion continued. "He was in a particularly bad mood tonight. It's probably the security vote - he gets quite impassioned about that sort of thing."
"I still don't understand," Athena replied, watching the snowflakes that drifted through the air. "How can you know about a national vote before it has been announced?"
"We have our sources," Ori said, not giving much away.
Sephy shot him a dark look before elaborating: "We're a big group. Everyone works in different areas within the city and, well, you get to hear things. Hermes is our main source though; he's a Masters student and is in the middle of a work placement in the voting centre's tech department."
"But why not wait until the vote is announced?" Athena was still confused.
"To get ahead of the corporations," Sephy replied. "They have a head start, so why shouldn't we?"
"The corporations?"
"Like Jason Leighton and his Freedom Institute." Sephy pulled a face at the name. "They're the people with money who drive the votes."
Athena laughed. "No one drives the votes."
Sephy sighed, exchanging a look with Orion that Athena couldn't decipher. "Unfortunately, they do," he told her. "All of those campaigns take money: the adverts, the posters, the updates to your glasses; who do you think pays for those?"
"I... I don't know," Athena said, feeling her confidence wavering for the first time that evening. "But it doesn't make a difference anyway; a campaign could have announcements appearing on my glasses every five minutes, but that wouldn't make me vote for it."
"Experience would tend to disagree with you," Orion continued. He and Sephy walked hand in hand through the snow. "The side with the biggest ad campaign nearly always wins and that's not to mention all of those pop meetings you go to - all of the experts who speak at them will have been paid by someone with a financial stake in the outcome."
Athena was quiet, struggling to take it all in. It sounded less like an attack when Sephy and Orion said it, but that didn't mean that she felt any more convinced. Athena spent days contemplating her position before casting her vote. She'd never had the impression that anyone else was pulling the strings.
"You're not convinced, are you?" Sephy asked. She didn't sound surprised.
"It's a lot to consider," Athena replied, biting back the arguments still running through her head.
Sephy nodded. "I was shocked too, at first, but keep it in mind at your next camp meeting."
"And in the meantime, you're always welcome back to another of our meetings - if Dyo hasn't completely put you off," Ori added. "We're a really nice group, honestly!" He smiled and Athena couldn't help but smile back. She did like Sephy and Orion, and everyone else Sephy had introduced her to had been welcoming.
"I'll think about it," she told them. Sephy grinned.
{Thanks for reading! Please vote/comment if you enjoyed this chapter. Who do you agree with: Athena, or Dyo?}