Evenfall (9 page)

David stood, absently flipping the tonfa back toward his forearm as he looked over at the doorway. A young man with ginger colored hair, wearing a guard uniform was standing on the outer side of the mat. His name tag said Officer Luke Gerant.

"Oh, you're here," David said calmly. He jerked his chin toward Boyd, who was just pushing himself to a stand. "He's ready unless you want to give him a chance to change."

Luke glanced at his watch and shrugged. "If he's fast, I don't care."

Boyd took the opportunity to change out of his sweaty workout clothes. He didn't take long and on his way out he told David he'd be back to pick up his bag with his dirty clothes in it. He didn't see the need to drag it around with him when he didn't even know where he was going. He fell in step behind Luke, trying to get a gauge on their destination based on the direction. He was not very successful.

"Where are we going?"

"To the Fourth," Luke said as they started walking. "I'm not sure what they have planned for you but I figure it has something to do with Agent Vega."

"What's the Fourth?" Boyd asked. He had vague understandings of a place that a person didn't want to go but he didn't know much about it.

Luke glanced at him and up close, he appeared not as young as Boyd had initially thought. He looked to be at least in his mid-twenties and had a more open face than most of the other people Boyd had come in contact with so far.

"It's officially called the Fourth Floor Detainment Center. Very high security, can't really get there on your own..." He shrugged as they left the training facility and went into the outer courtyard of the compound. "There's different wings for different classes of people. Everyone from detainees to staff who are being punished temporarily or indefinitely."

Boyd considered that a moment. "Is that where Sin Vega is kept?"

Luke's mouth turned down slightly as he nodded. "Yeah. He used to be kept on maximum but now he's just kept in a holding cell until they decide what's going to happen with him."

The situation seemed a little excessive to Boyd. Then again, based on the impression he'd gotten from others, Sin was apparently a very dangerous and volatile individual so maybe it was necessary.

"If he is as dangerous as I have been led to believe, why are they releasing him?"

The question was met with a shrug as they began making their way across the compound. There weren't very many people around although the people he saw all seemed to be headed to or away from the Tower, the same as he'd noticed the first time he'd set foot on the compound. It seemed that the place was the hub of activity on the property with the exception of the group of residential buildings. Everything else seemed still and damp as the cold wind whipped through the barren trees that surrounded the gates.

"I don't know, really," Luke said. He sounded so genuinely thoughtful that Boyd glanced at him again. The guard looked as puzzled by the question as Boyd was and his ginger eyebrows had drawn together over his warm brown eyes. "He's a scary guy. The first time I met him he-- well, I guess I shouldn't talk about that... But I guess he must be a really good field agent and I'm not sure if everything they all say is true exactly how they say it."

Boyd studied Luke as they walked. Luke was the first person who hadn't seemed to immediately dismiss Sin, although David also hadn't seemed that interested in perpetuating any rumors. Any time information had come up about Sin that had seemed alarming, David had watched Boyd with an unreadable frown, given a noncommittal answer, and had typically changed the subject. The only exception had been his emphasis of how important it was that he knew how to fight because being Sin's partner was liable to be very dangerous.

It left questions in Boyd's mind, some of which he didn't care enough to ask. Others surfaced again and again, in variations of the same theme, and by the repetition made him wonder the answer. This was the first time the idea that not everything was as it seemed had been raised in so many words, and it made him wonder what caused it.

"You have seen something that leads you to believe the rumors aren't all true?"

"No," was the honest reply. "I've seen him kill before and I think he's too dangerous and unstable to be put back on active duty. But then again, I don't know everything the big dogs know so that's just my personal opinion. A lot of the actual rumors though don't entirely make sense. I basically only believe what I see for myself. He can be dangerous but he can also be pretty calm and semi-normal acting from the way he's been on the Fourth lately. I guess it's all about circumstance which is still pretty dangerous with the type of work you guys do."

There was a pause and Luke glanced at him, frowning slightly. "I shouldn't be talking about this with you, by the way. Well, I don't think so. But being a probie and all, it doesn't seem fair that you don't get told anything. "

"Is there an unspoken rule against giving that sort of information?" Boyd asked, mildly perplexed. "I have noticed that it's difficult to get straight answers. I don't know how much of it is due to the inherent secrecy of this place and how much is because of the position I'm nominated for."

A gust of cold wind shot past them, pulling at Boyd's hair and cutting straight through his clothing. He briefly regretted not having stopped by his room to pick up his coat, but he hadn't expected to be leaving the training complex. It was the first time he'd been out of the building since he'd first arrived, and he found himself glancing around at the changes.

The leaves were gone and the grass was tinged brown. Although he was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt, most people were wearing coats. He wondered if the guards got cold, having to wear their uniforms even in this chill. Even as he thought that, he noticed that a few of them had coats that matched their uniforms. He guessed that probably the ones who weren't wearing coats were the ones who were usually stationed inside a building and were simply on an errand at the moment, like Luke.

"I think it's due to the position. Most people are pretty biased against Vega because of all the rumors. Maybe they like you being a blank slate."

Boyd nodded thoughtfully but didn't have a response. In some ways they seemed determined to keep him a blank slate by giving him little factual evidence. Yet at the same time that left him with only the rumors and the interview for the position, which had included questions which could, to an extent, taint him on their own. Given the choice, he would have much preferred unbiased facts which allowed him to draw his own conclusions.

Luke didn't say anything and the two of them ended up finishing the walk to the Tower in silence. They stopped in the elevator area but they went to a smaller elevator around the back corner of the main elevator bank. It had a red sign above it that said in large block letters 'Restricted.' There was a small device to the side for swiping cards that was similar to what Boyd had seen Amos use the first day he'd been on compound.

Luke swiped his ID through the device and a green light flashed to the side, allowing him to press the up arrow button. The doors slid open.
The inside of the elevator was stark but there was a design built into the back wall of the elevator. It took Boyd a long moment to realize it was hiding a tiny camera at about eye level, which he suspected was an extra precaution for this restricted elevator. It made sense to have a camera at eye level so a full face shot could be caught of anyone entering the elevator if the cameras in the corners of the ceiling could not get a clear shot.

The only button said '4' and as soon as Luke pressed it and swiped his card again on a similar device inside, the doors shut and the elevator started to rise.

"The floor is heavily restricted," Boyd observed, wondering if that was what Luke had referred to when he'd said Boyd couldn't really get there on his own. "Is this separate elevator the only way to access it?"

"From an elevator, yeah. The main ones don't even have an option for the Fourth. Even the main stairwells don't have access-- the entrances have been completely blocked off and the only one with access is separate and requires specifically coded access on your key card."

The light flashed across '2' above the doorway, showing what floor they were passing.

Boyd considered that. "If the clientele is so dangerous why is it in the main building instead of a separate one?"

Luke shrugged. "No clue. But it's not like they can escape so it doesn't matter."

The light flashed past 3 and ended on 4. The doors slid open with a quiet whoosh.

"Who all has access to the floor?" Boyd asked. He followed Luke as he walked out onto a stark white, tiled floor. Two other guards entered just as they left and Luke grimaced, not bothering to greet either of the two muscular men. He didn't answer until the door had slid shut and the other guards had gone.

"Officers, doctors, special ops staff who work up here..." Luke tapped his own keycard. "And the guards assigned to this floor. There aren't a lot of us. Those two guys, Harry Truman and Dennis McNichols, have been here the longest. They don't let a lot of people up here, usually. They just rotate the same people."

Boyd nodded. That made sense given the security. He wondered briefly about the location of the floor; why it wasn't in another building or why, being in the Tower, it wasn't on a higher floor.

As he thought about it further he determined that perhaps the reason was because of the location of the Tower. It was near the center of the compound. If a prisoner got away from this floor and headed downstairs, they still had a long trek in any direction to escape.
Whereas if the facility was placed higher in the Tower, it would take them longer to get out but it would also place them that much closer to the seventeenth floor, which housed the administration. This floor had probably been chosen to maximize the buffer in both regards, in keeping prisoners from escaping from the compound or taking control of the organization by taking the administrators hostage.

Not to mention, he mused, the amount of security was quite high in order to enter the first hallway; even more so than what he'd seen when visiting his mother. Chances of escape were probably fairly low.

The fluorescent lights glaring down across the white floors and walls made the place feel sterile, like a hospital. The thought made Boyd unconsciously cross his arms across his stomach, feeling uncomfortable.

"Keep up," Luke said, glancing over at Boyd. "It's easy to get turned around up here. Everything looks the same from the outside in every wing."

The way they wound through the place would probably be confusing for most but Boyd had a talent for remembering directions. He often imagined the blueprint of a place around him based on the directions they took.

They stopped outside a room that looked just like every other room they'd passed. Luke slid his keycard through the door and opened it. When Boyd entered, he saw that it was a relatively small room. Several chairs faced a wall with a large window looking into a brilliantly white room beyond. A blond man Boyd had never seen before was sitting in one of the chairs.

Boyd glanced at Luke, who was nodding respectfully to the man. Something unspoken must have passed between them because Luke glanced at Boyd with a reassuring smile as if to wish him luck and immediately exited the room.

When the door was firmly shut, Boyd hesitated and turned his attention to the man.

He looked to be in his
mid-thirties
although there was a quality about his face that made it difficult to discern his actual age. His wheat colored hair and blue eyes added to his boyish features. Boyd didn't know who the man was and wondered briefly whether he was another possible partner for Sin.

"Hello Boyd," the man said calmly.

Boyd remained standing, watching the man and not knowing what to do. He wondered why the man knew his name and, because he was sitting in the back of the room, whether he was an officiator of some sort rather than a participant.

"Hello."
The older man stood and walked closer to Boyd. "I'm General Carhart. You could say that I am the one closely overseeing this endeavor. I would have introduced myself to you sooner but your training is more vigorous than most and so I didn't think it wise to interrupt your regime."

"Oh," Boyd said blankly, then thought to add a polite, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Carhart observed him for a moment, his intelligent gaze raking over Boyd thoughtfully. "Agent Blake will be here shortly. It's down between the two of you now."

That bit of information was of mild interest to Boyd because he hadn't thought he would be a serious candidate with such little background. "Did many people apply?"

"It wasn't a matter of applying so much as a matter of being invited to the trial," Carhart replied. "Since it has come down to you and Agent Blake, whoever successfully completes the trial will serve as Sin's partner and the other will serve as back-up in case the original choice dies," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

The thought didn't bother Boyd; he was more focused on details of the trial he was in the midst of but knew little about. "What are the requirements of successful completion? Will there be a test?"

"No." Carhart looked towards the two way mirror that spanned the wall of the room. There was nobody in the room on the other side; just a
Spartan
looking space that resembled an interrogation room.