Drowning in Deception (21 page)

 He slowly brought his eyes to hers, and
by the way he was looking at her, she knew. All the others carried a gun. He
was the only one who carried a knife.

“My dad? My dad did this to you!”

He answered with a very slight nod.

She couldn't help it. Angry tears began
to spill out of her eyes. To know that her father had knowingly and
purposefully cut Rye like that was just too much.

She sniffed and then froze when a
crunching sound came from outside the bushes. Her eyes flew to Rye, terrified,
as she swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand.

“It's okay,” he soothed. “It's a
surprise for you.”

He poked his head out and she could hear
him greeting someone. He held the bushes apart as Arma and Abilee squeezed into
the enclosure. There was room for all four of them, although it was cozy.

Clover was happy to see that Abilee now
looked like a perfectly healthy little girl. She was still a scrawny little
thing, but her face looked more rounded and full, with the rosiness of the
winter day flushing her cheeks. Her long brown hair was tied back into a braid
down her back, and she was dressed in clothing similar to Arma's, except her
skirt was slightly shorter. Both were wrapped up tight in snow-dusted, thick,
woolen shawls.

“Abilee, you look wonderful.”

The little girl looked at her shyly, but
didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around her in a big hug, which warmed Clover's
heart. She sat down and looked at her. “Thank you for the milk, and for
teaching Uncle Rye the stories.”

“You're welcome,” She reached into her
bag and pulled out her workbook, which she handed to Abilee. “It's yours now.
There are even some empty pages at the back for you to fill with whatever you like.
Hopefully it can help you feel better if you ever get sick like that again.”

“Thanks, Clove,” she said, pulling the
book into her chest. “But I won't ever be sick like that again. Mama says my
body is all adjusted now and I'm a Carnegie.”

Rye and Arma laughed adoringly. Arma
corrected, “Carnae.”

Clover shook her head, confused.

“It’s okay,” Rye told Arma. “She knows
the truth. And she comes here of her own free will.”

Arma nodded at him and turned to Clover
to explain. “It usually happens a couple of years before puberty. We call it
the surge. It's the necessary change in our bodies to become Carnae. Basically
at that time, our bodies learn how to change based on the crazy emotions that
are running wild through us. But for some, it happens earlier, too early, when
the body is too small and weak to handle the transformation. It's hard enough
on the body at puberty, but the few who go through the surge at Abilee's age rarely
survive.”

Clover smiled warmly at Abilee. “Well,
I'm very glad to know that you're going to be okay. And once I've finished
teaching your Uncle Rye, here, to read, maybe he can teach you.”

Rye took Clover's hand in both of his
and nodded at Abilee.

Arma's eyes watched their hands, her
smile faded and her eyes swept back and forth between the two of them. “You two
have become very close.” Her eyes rested on Rye’s face accusingly, but he only
stared back at her with a neutral expression.

Arma and Abilee visited for a while
longer, and when they left it was time to get down to business.

Clover told Rye about the group that she
was now a part of, and how they were trying to figure out how they could change
things; how they wanted to find a way to get the drugging of the milk to stop
and how they wanted to put an end to the horrors that took place against his
people.

He had a hard time understanding the
whole milk issue, and why they couldn’t simply tell people that they were being
drugged. It was hard for her to explain to him just what it was like to be
under the influence of the drug. That because of that influence, simply telling
people would do nothing but get their group into trouble. It was difficult to
find the words to explain how foggy life looked through milk-drugged eyes. Now
that she knew better, she realized just what a zombie she had been, thinking
everything was just peachy-keen, how perfect the world was. And she knew that
if someone had told her about the milk while she was in that state, she would
have reacted in one of two ways. She would have either giggled and told them
they were silly, or she would have smiled with satisfaction and said, “Well, if
that’s what makes me feel so content, then bring on the milk.”

Rye wondered, if what she was saying was
true, then how had she been convinced to stop drinking it? She tried to
remember. Sera had been insulting her for being a milk drinker and making fun
of her contentedness. But that hadn’t done it, because she was so content that
Sera’s words would have melted right off her. Sera had dared her to stop, and it
had been the thought that Zander was starting to like Sera better than Clover. Clover
thought that was due to the fact that she drank milk and Sera didn’t. She
wanted to please Zander, and that was why she had stopped. This explanation
made Rye’s nostrils flare a bit.

“But don’t you see?” she asked him. “We
owe Sera a favor for being so nasty. Once I was off the drugs, I no longer saw
Zander in the same light. My attraction to him was gone. It was as if the drugs
made me see him as someone he wasn’t. So, don’t worry, Rye. The last thing I’m
concerned about now is pleasing Zander.”

This earned her a grateful hug and a
long kiss.

She found herself wishing that Rye could
take part in the meetings with the others. The two of them brainstorming had
made a lot more progress than she’d had with the other five that morning.

They concluded that there were only two
options for dealing with the drug problem. They either had to find a way to
forcibly stop it, and that didn’t seem likely, or they had to get into the
Watch Tower and somehow destroy the drugs or keep them from being added to the
milk. This option seemed more doable, but still wouldn’t be easy.

Rye told her that he would try to gather
some people together to get discussions going on his side of the Wall. It
wasn’t going to be easy, because the helichoppers came at random. The gods
would do unscheduled searches of homes and factories to make sure they weren’t
conspiring in any way. A large gathering of the Carnae would raise suspicion.

He said he knew of a number of people who
were strongly opposed to the gods, many of whom believed that waging a war was
the answer to their problems. While both Clover and Rye agreed that they didn’t
want it come to war, they knew it was a very real possibility.

He knew Turk and Delila very well. Rye’s
main job was to push a large cart to gather food and other items to take to the
helichopper platform, and Turk’s vegetable farm was one of his regular stops.
He backed Smith’s opinion of them, that they were very kind people who would
offer help in any way they could.

She told him about their plan to get her
and Gart into the secret areas of the Watch Tower with the goal to eventually
confiscate their weapons.

It was decided that for the time being,
each group on either side of the Wall would meet independently and brainstorm
ideas on how best to proceed, with Clover and Rye meeting to share what had
been discussed. She loved the idea of planning to see Rye every night, and they
agreed that part of their time together would be dedicated to going over plans,
while the other part would be for actually teaching him to read, which they had
yet to start.

For the first time in her life, Clover
felt important, like she was a part of something bigger than being a girl who looked
pretty and wrote stories. Not that she’d ever before aspired to be anything
more than she was. The question was, could she and her small group of companions
actually make a difference in the world?

As planned, Clover met Gart just inside
the front Watch Tower doors at ten o’clock. She was impressed to see he had cut
his hair. No longer was it a black mop on top of his head, but it was neat and
tidy and very respectable-looking. He was also dressed to match his new look,
in tidy pants and a crisp white shirt. She was glad to see he was taking this
so seriously, but was forced to assess her own choice of outfit, which didn’t
look nearly as businesslike.

A man dressed in a suit and tie, similar
to the one her father wore for work, approached only moments after they met up
with each other. They barely had time to exchange words of nervousness.

Anders was a tall man, with long, skinny
legs. His upper body didn’t match his lower body in that it was very broad.
Even in his suit jacket, it was obvious that he had an extremely muscular
chest, back and arms. His hair was buzzed close to his head, much like Clover’s
father kept his hair, and she wondered if the whole look was standard protocol
for Watch Tower men.

He introduced himself with a friendly,
easy-sounding voice before leading them to a side door, which he unlocked with
a key. They followed a long corridor down to the end of the building, where
they stopped so that he could unlock another door. This led to a stairwell,
where they climbed up two levels to yet another locked door. This time they
paused long enough for Clover to have a good look at Ander’s key ring. It was a
large oblong metal thing that held at least twenty-five keys, all of which
looked identical to one another. She wondered how he could possibly remember
which key opened which door.  

They didn’t climb any more stairs.
Apparently the third floor was as far as they would be going. He led them down
yet another long corridor, identical the one on the main floor. Half way down
they went through another door. This one wasn’t locked.

Inside was a plain, windowless room,
furnished with four tables and two chairs at each, and a single desk at the
front. It looked like a small classroom.

“Please take a seat.”

Clover and Gart followed instructions,
both sitting at the table closest to them.

Anders stood at the front of the room,
leaning against the desk. “Working at the Watch Tower is a very honorable goal.
This building is the hub of our entire society. Everything that is important
and essential to Eadin takes place right here. We are the reason why this is a
perfect city. The desire to work here is very commendable because those who
contribute their time to this place are also contributing directly to the
overall contentment of our society.”

Clover resisted the urge to roll her
eyes.

He gave them each a serious look before
continuing. “Just because one has the desire to work here does not necessarily
mean that they will. It is imperative that the people chosen to do so be of a
certain calibre. The fact that the two of you already have a family member
working here is helpful, but it isn’t a guarantee.”

Gart turned to glance at Clover briefly,
but she kept her eyes glued to Anders. She was trying to concentrate on looking
seriously interested instead of seriously sick, which was how she was actually
feeling.

“You will be tested, with both written
and oral exams. The results of these tests will determine your aptitudes as
well as your convictions. This will help decide which department and which floor
you would be best placed on, if any at all.”

He stopped talking and looked at them
for a long time.

So much for doing whatever makes you
happy, thought Clover. The rules inside these walls were very different from
the ones outside. Yet another thing to add to the ever-growing list of things
she had not been aware of. But, she supposed, had she still been on the drugs,
this whole process wouldn’t have seemed so harrowing. She would have been here
taking these tests and grinning stupidly because it made her content. This line
of thought reminded her to plant a stupid smile back on her face.

“If there are no questions, then we’ll
begin.”

He walked around the desk and pulled
some papers from a drawer, handed them to each of them along with a pen. It was
large booklet of papers stapled together. She tried to smile sweetly to mask
the heavy sigh she really wanted to let out. From the corner of her eye, she
watched Gart pick up his pen and get right to work, his expression neutral.
Well, if he can do it, so can I, she thought.

Anders sat in the chair at the desk and
stared straight ahead at them. This time she did sigh. The first question at
the top of page one was, ‘How much milk do you drink daily?’ She stifled the urge
to sigh again. Apparently this quiz was going to involve a heavy amount of
lying.

The two of them finished only minutes
apart approximately an hour and a half later. They were given a brief washroom
break and were then separated for the oral testing, or as Clover discovered,
the interrogation. Gart was taken somewhere by Anders while she remained in the
same room and was joined by a woman who called herself Florentina. She was a
sporty looking woman with large blue eyes and masses of brown curls bouncing
around her face.

She wasted no time in getting right down
to business. “Please, Clover, tell me why you wish to work at the Watch Tower?”