The Significant (75 page)

      
There was something terrifying about the
behavior.

      
For two days, Isa heard nothing from
Colonel Amori. Rather than ease her mind, it frightened her more.

      
She left work on day, exhausted and
shaking. She knew that she was weak from not sleeping or eating, but her
stomach was constantly twisting inside her and her mind refused to be silent at
night to allow her rest. She tried not to notice how pale her face had become,
or how dark the circles around her eyes were, or the way her body would fire
painful signals randomly in muscle spasms strong enough to knock the breath out
of her, but she could feel her body falling apart slowly.

      
The most she could do was to try and hide
it from the Syndicate. She was worried that, if they found out, Colonel Amori,
who was watching her constantly, would press the button on his remote and activate
the microbionic cells. She knew the threat was not idle—Rayal was getting worse
by the day, and she knew it was from the microbionic cells.

      
She closed her eyes as she sat in the
car, feeling the gentle hum of the vehicle as it sped along the highway to its
programmed destination.

      
Isa heard a noise behind her and whirled
around in time to see the Colonel’s face before a cloth pressed tightly over
her nose and mouth and the world fell into black.

      
When her eyes opened, she spent several
minutes staring at the dark grey, metal wall, trying to recall what happened.
Her confusion was only enhanced by the drugs still running through her system.

      
She had to prepare herself to turn over,
her body twinging in pain from lying on the cold stone floor. Her eyes scanned
the ceiling where the dull lights nearly blinded her tired eyes. With a careful
breath, she turned once more and scrutinized the walls. There were no windows
on the walls. It appeared to be a solitary confinement cell, with a metal door
one yellowed window.

      
In the window of the door was the face of
Colonel Amori, twisted in a sick smile.

      
The screeching of the door opening almost
made Isa’s head explode in pain. She cringed away, trying to lift her hands to
her head, but the sharp tug of restraints on her wrists, waist, neck, and
ankles made her realize she was confined like a prisoner in maximum security
confinement. She stared at the thick, twisted cables between the cuffs on
disbelief.

      
“As I expected,” Colonel Amori chuckled.
“You are awake several hours before a normal human. The bio-engineering in
Elites is quite remarkable. It’s too bad you’re all so mindless and stupid. You
would be incredibly interesting to study.”

      
“The Syndicate will notice if I’m gone.”

      
“Eventually, yes,” Colonel Amori agreed,
crouching in front of her. Isa, in her peripheral vision, saw that he had left
the door open. She needed only to get her feet under her, stun Colonel Amori
briefly, and then lock him in the room. From there, she knew she could find out
where she was and get help. However, she did not dare look at the door, not
wanting to tip off the Gihoric leader.

      
“But they won’t notice that you’re
missing for another three hours, when you don’t show up for work.
Unfortunately, poor Rayal has become so much worse, he didn’t notice that you
weren’t home last night,” he said. “And it’s such a shame that those blood
samples went missing.” He wagged a disapproving finger at her with a smile.
“Your people clearly aren’t as happy as you claim,” he stated. “It was so easy
to bribe a nurse to
misplace
the
blood samples.”

      
“You fucking bastard,” Isa growled.

      
“Name calling is hardly going to help.”

      
“You realize that you’ve
kidnapped
the leader of Tiao and the
Crescent Alliance,” Isa snapped. “You are now committing acts of terrorism. You
will be killed and your planet will be either destroyed or conquered.”

      
“It’s adorable how powerful you think you
are,” Colonel Amori chided. He stood, walking around her. “You even thought
that your little message to Venus would help? Granted, it was brilliant of you
to put it in that strange encryption code. I must work on translating that, but
I knew it was a warning. It was too short to be anything else. But I guess I
didn’t give you much time to send something more detailed, since I’m always
watching you.”

      
Isa listened to the Colonel’s boots as
they slowly walked around her, stopping at her back. She kept her eyes forward,
on the open door, preparing to fight and escape.

      
“I was looking into the Elite Academy,”
Colonel Amori said. “I was trying to figure out why
you
are so different from the others.”

      
“Even the doctors can’t understand it, so
I doubt you can.”

      
“I’ve read their reports,” he said. “And
even with all the trauma you’ve been through, you seem not to exhibit any
traits of mental problems. You saw a classmate killed, your lover was tortured
for days, you were beaten probably every other day the entire time you were in
school, but still, you march along as though you are
so
powerful.”

      
Isa remained silent, rallying her strength.

      
“You spent the first seventeen years of
your life being beaten and ordered around by
humans
, and you then turn around and think that you can rule them?
Does that make sense?”

      
Still, the Golden Elite was quiet.

      
Suddenly, Colonel Amori lifted his foot
and violently kicked Isa in the back. She let out a surprised cry and her body
was forced forward, rolling twice until it came to rest near the door. As she
tried to force her lungs to work once more, she pulled her legs under her and
tried to get out of the cell.

      
Colonel Amori’s fingers wrapped in her
hair and his other hand shoved the door shut as he yanked her backward.

      
She managed to stumble within her
restraints but remain standing. She twisted her body, swinging her restrained
hands together to connect with Colonel Amori’s face. He quickly regained his
balance and grabbed Isa’s shoulders, violently kneeing her in the stomach.

      
She collapsed to the ground, groaning and
gasping in pain.

      
Colonel Amori smiled, licking the blood
from his lips.

      
“I want to remind you of exactly what you
are,” he said. He kicked her in the stomach as she started to straighten and
she let out a cry of pain, falling to her side. “This is how powerful you are.
You are meant to obey, and to
always obey
.
Humans, teachers, Venus, it doesn’t matter, you are the lowest of the low.” He
kicked her once more. “And now, you obey
me
.”

      
Isa tried to remain still as the Colonel
kicked her. She figured eventually he would get bored and stop. She tried to
formulate a plan for what to do when he did stop the beating.

      
“Don’t worry,” he chuckled, yanking her
up by her hair and smiling sickly. “I’m following the rules of the Academy.”

      
He shoved her back down to the ground and
kneeled on her stomach and chest.

      
“Never hit the face or neck, right?” he
asked. “Only the places that are covered by the uniform. That way, you can keep
up
appearances
.”

      
Isa struggled to breathe under his
weight, her head going light.

      
Colonel Amori stood only to kick her
three more times and then left the cell, not allowing her time to recover
before the door screeched shut and the clank of the lock caused even more pain
to settle into Isa’s chest.

      
Without windows, there was no concept of
time. When the pain in her body became tolerable, Isa stood and clumsily
shuffled around the room, looking at every wall, every corner, the hinges on
the metal door, and glancing out the window to the empty hallway beyond. The
ceiling was solid apart from the lights, and Isa had no way to reach them.

      
She was trapped.

      
She pressed her face against the wall,
rubbing her cheek back and forth across the surface in an attempt to activate
her phone and call for help. When she managed to hear the automatic voice ask
who she wanted to call, she said the Syndicate. The automatic voice came back,
saying that her location and identity could not be verified, and therefore the
call could not connect.

      
Isa barked at the phone to operate on
emergency mode, but as it began connecting to emergency operators, the sound
warped and eventually turned into a high, painful whine. Isa tried to get away
from the noise, but with the implanted earpiece, the sound penetrated into her
brain.

      
She finally conceded to sit in a corner,
turning over every possibility of escape.

      
The Golden Elite did not have much time
to think, however. Colonel Amori returned, this time with a tablet and the
black handle with the green button.

      
“You must be feeling alright, trying to
put out an emergency call like that,” he said with a smile. He closed the door
behind him and walked forward, crouching in front of Isa and holding up the
tablet. “You seem to need a little more convincing, which is why I brought you
here. You will obey me. I have big plans for Tiao, so I would rather
not
destroy everything in the process of
conquering it. The faster you cooperate, the less lives will be lost.”

      
He tapped the top of the tablet twice and
it flickered to life, showing a live video feed from Remus’ office at the
Syndicate.

      
“What are you doing?” Isa hissed.

      
“Showing you that I am not joking about
controlling Remus and the others.” His other hand lifted the device and he
smiled, placing his finger over the trigger. “Just for added assurance that
this footage has not been altered or recorded previously, I’m going to have you
tell me when to push the button.”

      
“You think that I’ll cooperate if you
kill them?”

      
“No, your Elites will survive.” He turned
his hand to show her how the trigger worked. “If I push this up, it activates
the cells. If it’s down, however, they return to hibernation.”

      
“I won’t do it.”

      
“I didn’t give you the option to refuse.”

      
“You said Rayal was worse, I believe you.
If you press that button, you might kill him.”

      
Colonel Amori chuckled. “You’re more
worried about the caretaker than your lover?”

      
“I don’t need to be convinced,” Isa said.
“You’ve kidnapped me and beaten me. You have made it abundantly clear that your
threats are not idle.”

      
Colonel Amori narrowed his eyes, smiling
dangerously.

      
“All the same—”

      
He clicked the switch and Isa started
forward.

      
“No, don’t!” she cried. “I told you I
believed you!”

      
“Let’s solidify that.”

      
Isa’s eyes turned back to the monitor and
she saw Remus leave his office, the camera switching, locked onto his
signature, to him running down the hallway, up the staircase and to her office.
Chronus was already there, angrily shoving the door open.

      
Remus ran into Isa’s office and to the
NCB chair. He pushed on the machine, his altered strength causing it to snap
off the base. Isa watched in horror as three other Bronze Elites stormed into
her office, overturning her desk and looking for her. Their faces were frantic
and confused, but their actions terrified Isa.

      
“Stop,” she said. When Colonel Amori did
not flip the switch down, she turned away from the screen. “I said
stop
!” she barked. “I understand! I’m
listening to you!”

      
He laughed and flicked the switch.

      
“Finally, some progress,” he said. He
kept the tablet facing her and she watched as, one by one, the Elites slowed
and stopped, breathing hard, turning to one another in confusion.

      
Before Colonel Amori turned off the
tablet, Isa glanced at the clock, seeing that she had already been gone for
almost an entire day.

      
“Now,” Colonel Amori started, grabbing
the cord between Isa’s restraints and hauling her to her feet, “I need to test
your obedience.”