The Underground (28 page)

“Who the fuck do you think you are, you piece of shit,” she yelled at Simon. There was a venom in her voice that even surprised him, as his heartbeat quickened. She was tougher than he thought. “Shayla, get over here and untie me. Now!” she screamed.

Simon’s instinct was to put that tape right back over her mouth. That’s what he would have done with a back-talking Grounder, but this was the Queen. He looked to Shayla for direction, but first noticed Nathaniel had taken residence on the couch in the corner. Simon considered doing the same, but thought better of it. He had to keep the upper hand, and that meant remaining in a close physical proximity to the uppity subject.

“I need you to do something for me, first, mother,” Shayla said, slowly approaching her mother from across the room. Simon watched her take each step, tentatively at first, but then there was a purpose in her stride until she stopped in the middle of the room, dead straight in front of her mother and crossed her arms. Good. Shayla was displaying strength, confidence, and control.
 

“I will do nothing for you until you untie me!” the Queen yelled.

“Keep your voice down or the tape goes back on,” Simon said evenly. He didn’t want to step on Shayla’s toes, but keeping order was vital.

“What the hell is going on here?” the Queen asked. “Untie me, this instant,” she said, her voice quieter, but her message no weaker.

——–

“We’re not going to simply untie you until you agree to our conditions,” Shayla said flatly.
 

“You’ll be sorry, my darling daughter,” the Queen said, with contempt.

Shayla hated seeing her mother this way. The long front wrap of her beautiful new sari was torn, her hair slumped to one side, and her face looked like a new crop of wrinkles had erupted since the previous evening when the party ended.

“Are you going to keep yelling or are you ready to hear what we need you to do?”

“Who is the we?” the Queen asked. Even when her mother was tied up, she didn’t give in.

“Do you know what the Underground is?”

“Of course I know! It’s a lame group of men who think they can take over the world. Don’t tell me my own daughter is a member,” the Queen said with contemptuous laugh.

“You will do want we ask,” Shayla commanded. Nobody else dared speak to her mother that way, but it felt necessary.
 

“Tell me what you
need
,” the Queen said sarcastically, looking away.

“You must release all the prisoners from the protests,” Shayla said. “We need you to record a speech saying that they are free to go. That’s for starters.”

“I’ll tell you what I need. You better let me out of here before people come looking for me. You think the Queen just disappears and nobody notices? There are people who will come looking for me very soon. Gerald doesn’t let me out of his sight for five minutes,” she said, looking unconcerned.

“Who do you think Gerald works for,” Simon chimed in, folding his arms in a satisfied stance.

“What have you done with Gerald?! Did you torture that wonderful man?” the Queen asked, exasperated.

“It’s not what we have done with Gerald, but it is what Gerald has done for us, for years, decades, your majesty,” Simon said, annunciating her title with his own sarcasm. Shayla shot him a look that shut him up.

“What are you talking about? He’ll be here any minute,” the Queen said, but Shayla saw her mother’s nerves begin to unravel. She was about to start to cave, at least that’s what Shayla hoped.

“Mother, he’s part of the Underground.”

“You are bluffing. Gerald is the most loyal man on the earth…”

“Loyal to the Underground, just like your husband,” Simon said.

“How dare you talk about my husband in the same breath as that disgusting organization,” she growled.

 
“Grandfather was a founder of the Underground and my father – your husband – played a very big role in that,” Shayla said, and her mother’s face turned the color of rage itself.
 

“I don’t believe you. If Gerald is a member, why isn’t he here telling me himself, and as far as your father is concerned, I’m disgusted with you for making up lies about him. He’s not here to defend himself. You may be my daughter, but you are pathetic!” the Queen said.

Shayla ran to the corner and grabbed her purse off the couch and pulled out the velvet bag.
Reminder of Truth
tumbled out and Nathaniel picked it up as though it was the most precious artifact, but that is not what Shayla was trying to find. She pulled out her father’s letter and carefully opened it and marched over to her mother and held it squarely in front of her face, turning the letter as her mother tried to avert her gaze from the words as though it was acid in her eyes, but she finally looked. Shayla knew her mother recognized the unmistakable handwriting so she couldn’t deny Shayla’s declaration when she finally read the letter.

“It’s the truth. Face it!
 
Now, I need you to agree to make a video statement to release all of the prisoners and denounce the Tasers’ behavior during the protests. Those men are rotting and starving because they dared to express themselves,” Shayla spat, realizing she needed to be more composed, as she felt Nathaniel’s hand on her shoulder. She reached back to give his hand a quick squeeze as she glared at her mother. “That’s for starters. If you agree to that, we’ll untie you, let you get yourself together and put on makeup. We’ll film your speech right here.”

“You have allowed these people to brainwash you! Your boyfriend is in on this, too?”

“That’s Nathaniel DeLuca, mother. My boyfriend from the Cambridge Public Works. He’s part of the Underground too,” Shayla said, feeling proud.

“I knew it. I knew that there was something off. He doesn’t have any Kansas City accent.”

“You will do as we say,” Shayla said with a deep anger lacing her words.

“What if I don’t?” her mother said, the look of pain transforming to a kind of resigned glaze that wouldn’t allow anything to penetrate.

“We’ll kill you,” Simon said evenly.

“I am the Queen and when I get out of here I’m going to kill
you
,” she said, with a fiery vengeance.

“Mother, I am demanding you make this statement,” Shayla said.

“Or you’re going to kill me?” the Queen said in a mocking tone, as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

“I won’t stand in anyone’s way.”

“You little… you don’t have the strength… you’re weak… too much of your father’s blood made you a crybaby when you were young and too soft-hearted now. You won’t let it happen, even if you don’t like the laws I uphold,” the Queen said to Shayla.

Shayla took all her energy to keep the pain from her face. She felt like her mother was inside her belly with a knife slicing everything that held her body together from the inside out.

“This isn’t a joke, mother. It’s time for things to change. Daddy used to try and tell you this and I’ve been trying to tell you too, for a long time,” Shayla said calmly.

“Is this from your little boyfriend over there in the corner who has brainwashed you into allowing your mother to be murdered?” the Queen asked, trying to crane her neck to see him.

Shayla looked at Nathaniel who gave her a loving look, but said nothing.

“This is from me and all the men in this country. They are entitled to be heard and to make decisions about their own bodies. Mandatory castration is wrong. You can either make a statement to release the prisoners who speak up about it and begin the proceedings of getting rid of mandatory castration, and stay as the Queen or you will be killed. If you do stay as Queen, all your meetings and decisions will be controlled by us. You have 12 hours to decide. It’s your choice. In that one way, you are still in control, but this is your final chance. That’s a promise,” Shayla said, feeling weak, even as her words pierced the air.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Queen yelled as her speech turned into a curdling scream.

Simon ran over with a new piece of duct tape and placed it tightly over the Queen’s mouth as she squirmed. Shayla couldn’t bear to look at her mother anymore.

“You tried your best. Now you should leave,” Simon said in a gentle voice to Shayla. Without looking up at him, she nodded and headed toward the door, along with Nathaniel.

As they stepped out of her suite into the hallway, one of the servants walked by.

“Hello, Miss Shayla!” she said, smiling, like it was any other day.

“Good to see you,” Shayla said, before turning the other way. As she felt Nathaniel’s arm around her, helping her stand, she felt more grateful than ever to have him close.

Chapter 36

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said to Gerald before breaking down on the couch in her mother’s living room. Shayla had spent countless hours on this couch witnessing her mother upholding mandatory castration laws. Now, the tables were turned. Shayla was in control and the Queen was locked up as a hostage in Shayla’s childhood suite.
 

“Shayla, you don’t have to do this,” Gerald said, which he knew was only partially true. With or without Shayla, the Underground would do what it wanted from now on. With Shayla willingly on board, it was going to be a heck of a lot easier.

“I don’t want my mother to die, but I don’t think she’s going to give in. You should’ve seen her. You know how she is,” Shayla said through a blur of tears. Gerald saw the little girl he had helped and comforted countless times, but he also thought about his mission with the Underground.

“I want you to remember why we gave her this ultimatum. Remember what I went through,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion that he tried to banish long ago. He rarely thought about those days of physical and mental anguish. Shayla looked at him and he took a
 
deep breath, composing himself. “I can tell you what it was like, if you want,” he said, unable to hold back. No matter his mission, he did care deeply for Shayla and he knew she cared for him. He didn’t want to have to choose between Shayla and the Underground.

She shook her head no. “I don’t need to hear the details. I know it is wrong. Between my two parents, one taught me what is right and the other what is wrong,” she said, nearly in a whisper as the tears slowed. “I know the difference and that I’m doing the right thing,” she said.

“You’re a good person, a courageous person,” he said.

“Thank you, Gerald,” she said before leaning to hug him. He didn’t know who was comforting whom. A knock at the door pulled them apart.

“It’s probably Nathaniel. What are we going to do? I can’t go home. I need to be here.”

“You two can stay in here,” Gerald said as he opened the door to let Nathaniel in. He rushed over to Shayla.

“Are you alright?” he asked, but she just shrugged.

“I can’t sleep in my mother’s bed,” Shayla said to Gerald.

“Of course not. There is the small guest suite off the dining room. Why don’t you two stay there? I’m going to my quarters,” Gerald said, “but I’ll have my phone. Call if you need to talk later tonight. Otherwise I’ll see you in the morning.”

“We’ll be alright,” she said, squeezing Nathaniel’s hand and smiling at him a little.

Gerald looked at the two of them for a moment and felt a pang of envy. He wanted to love someone and have children, but the government had stolen those choices from him.

As he stepped outside and closed the door, he felt sadness. He recovered from the castration surgery 25 years earlier, but emotional recovery for Spots was close to impossible.

——–

 
“I’ll take that tape off, but no screaming and no funny stuff,” Simon said as she rolled her eyes at him. He knew it had to hurt when he took the tape off, but she didn’t complain about it, stoic that she was.

“I have to go to the bathroom badly,” she said.
 

“Just a minute,” he said before heading toward the bathroom and removing anything she might think of using against him: nail scissors or products she might try to spray into his eyes. “What are you doing?” the Queen asked impatiently.

“Making it safe for you. I left you some toilet paper, but other than that, the place is clean. Don’t dilly dally. I’ve got a knife and guns,” he said, quickly picking up his shirt so she could see the holster and know that he wasn’t messing around. “So do your business fast,” Simon said.

“Are you going to untie me so I can have a little privacy?” she asked.
 

“I’ll untie your hands in the bathroom,” he said, as he put his hands around her wrists – which felt delicate, but strong beneath his grip. She winced quietly but didn’t complain.

Simon respected strong women, and had to admit that the Queen was the toughest he had seen, maybe ever. It surprised him. As he walked her into the bathroom, hands behind her back, her perfume got into his nose and he was glad she couldn’t see him close his eyes as he felt himself weaken. Despite everything, he admitted to himself she was a beautiful woman, on the outside.

Chapter 37

“I won’t do it. I’d rather die. That would make me a martyr and you nothing more than a murderer,” she said the next morning once Nathaniel, Shayla and Simon were all present.