Vending Machine Lunch (6 page)

"It doesn't
matter about me, just get yourself out of here. As fast as you
can," said Jessica, she then moved her lips close to Jack's ear,
"Do it for me. I've not nothing to lose."

"I was warned
never to dip my pen in company ink," Jack whispered back, hugging
her close.

Jessica
chuckled sadly. And with that, she pushed Jack away, and yelled
through the noise of everyone else, "Go!"

Jack turned and
joined the painful looking bottle neck at the exit. Jessica slowly
looked around at the scene. In the blink of an eye, things had
turned from potential chaos to actual chaos. It was heart-breaking
for her to see her land slowly tear itself apart. A sudden wave of
nausea hit her, she had to get to the convenience cubicles.

She turned and
made her way to the cubicles, which were positioned in a small
room, accessed behind the centre of the Speaker benches. Sitting
down in a cubicle, she quietly wept for some time. Until she heard
a male voice in the cubicle next to her.

"Jessica?" It
was Jordan's voice.

"Jordan?" she
replied, trying to snuffle down her sobs.

"We need to
sort this out you know," he said, his voice reverberating off the
cubicle walls.

"We do?"

"Yeah. Listen,
yourself or myself could attempt to quash this alone, however, I
doubt either one of us would succeed. We need to utilise our
resources, we need to team up. We need to, work together for once,"
he said.

"You just want
to stop the press from getting hold of this don't you?" said
Jessica, wiping her red and puffy eyes.

"Correct. And
unless I'm mistaken, you wish to stop this J guy for good don't
you?"

"Don't
you?"

"Naturally. And
I of course wish to ensure that he does not blow up Ares Flood
Defences. We need to work together with this one. We need to roll
with some punches Jessica. We need to start now," persuaded Jordan,
“Not to mention we may have another Mahusay Na Mundo on our
hands...”

"After
everything you've done to me," Jessica started sobbing again,
"After everything you've put me through, after the many lies you've
blatantly told; you just want me to forget all that and team up
with you?"

"Yes. Because
we are better than that loon. Do you seriously want this 'J' guy to
succeed and get power?"

"Maybe it's for
the best," sobbed Jessica, "Things were hardly changing with our
current leader.

"Seriously? You
think J is going to somehow improve everything?" asked Jordan, "My
dear Jess, please don't say you really think that."

"Of course I
don't," snapped Jessica, through tears, "I just feel that something
has to change. This isn't it though."

"Jess, we've
disagreed on a lot of things, and will probably continue to do so.
But we both agree that this J guy cannot succeed, either way.
Neither the Ares Flood Defences can blow up and neither can he be
leader. We both have the minerals to stop him. Do we have an
accord?"

"Okay then,
yes," muttered Jessica, "But two things. Don't ever call me Jess
again and I think your nose is massive."

"I think I can
take that for the sake of our land," Jordan grinned, leaving his
cubicle. Jessica followed, they both left the convenience cubicle
room.

The house of
speakers was now mostly empty. There was a disgruntled looking
cleaner picking up a load of discarded papers off the floor.

"Have you got a
plan in mind then?" asked Jessica, as they headed towards the
exit.

"Well, the
first port of call is to swear everyone who was present in this
room to secrecy. The press cannot know about this," said
Jordan.

"How will you
do that?"

"I'll page the
leader. He can page every Speaker to tell them everyone will remain
silent and no evacuation will be taking place."

"You have the
leader on your pager?" said Jessica in total awe, "God, our land's
leadership corruption is worse than I thought. Moving off that
however, a full search of the Ares defences must be conducted by
Enforcers and an explosives disposal team if we have such a
thing."

"Our Enforcers
are more than capable of disabling explosives," said Jordan,
pushing past the unhappy cleaner, and pulling out his pager from a
pocket, "Mean time, you and myself can go interrogate our 'J'
friend down at the Enforcer station."

"Which one is
he being held at?"

"Highfields."

"Shouldn't the
Enforcers really be questioning him?"

"Unless our
meetings minutes guy was really efficient," said Jordan, tapping on
his pager, "Which I seriously doubt, our Enforcers will have no
clue what went on apart from them who were surveilling the meeting.
Our expertise is needed there. Trust me."

"Trusting you
is the last thing I wish to do," smiled Jessica, as they left the
building.

Outside, the
world was cold. The icy air slapped them like an angry woman.
Jessica thought back to when the disappointing Deimosgate speech
took place. It had been warm and sunny. The weather was now cold
and harsh, a surprising change in such a small space of time. The
press and creation scientists thought it was something to do with
'profanation of the local environment'. Jessica had no idea what
that meant or entailed, all she knew was that if it was a more
serious issue, the government would simply deny its existence.

Across the
street was the central Enforcer station, the main one in the land.
It was the heart of the entire Enforcer unit, and despite this,
rather small. It was a small building with at most five offices and
a couple of holding cells. No doubt that a cell was already being
cleared for J.

"How long until
six?" asked Jessica as they crossed the busy street, ignoring pleas
for money from a beggar.

"Ten," replied
Jordan, putting away his pager, "All the speakers will be requested
to go to Landis House. They will be held there until this is all
over. I trust you've told your personal aid just to go home."

"Naturally,"
replied Jessica, hoping that Jack was getting him and his family
out of the area, "God, I never thought I'd be trying to cover up
something like this."

"Sides
reshuffle when a new opponent is introduced," smiled Jordan,
opening Highfield's door, "After you."

"Always a
gentleman," Jessica smiled and entered the building.

Jessica was
about to ask some weedy looking loser at the reception where J was,
but Jordan just pushed right through the spinning barrier. Jessica
followed, looking pitifully at the receptionist who looked
authoritative-less and confused.

Jordan burst
into the first office. Inside a group of three Enforcers were stood
around a few cluttered desks and appeared to be arguing.

"Right, we have
ten until the Ares Defences supposedly go up in smoke, so what have
you guys got?" barked Jordan, the Enforcers looking stunned and
confused.

"If you are on
about this apparent story that some of my on duty Enforcers told
about the neo-terrorist codenamed J, the very guy that you guys
wanted to claim was fictional, but somehow now in my custody,
walking into your little circle jerks and threatening to blow up
the Ares Defences unless he comes the new leader; very little,"
said a bold and bald guy with big lips, wearing his Enforcer
uniform with pride, "In fact, we are very sceptical about the
entire thing, as we have found no detonation device on his
person."

"He said it,"
said Jessica, staring the bald Enforcer in the eye, "He said his...
thing."

"His thing?"
asked the bald Enforcer, "And I'm sorry, but you are?"

"This is Miss
Jessica, a fellow Speaker, who very rarely agrees with what I've
got to say in our little- 'circle jerks'," sneered Jordan.

"And his thing
is?"

A shift looking
Enforcer with a moustache and wearing square spectacles spoke up,
"Ahem, if I may chief Enforcer Jared?"

"Go ahead
Enforcer Jonathan."

"J's 'thing' is
to say the words, 'I don't think you want to be doing that,'" said
Jonathan, "According to rumour and well known sources, when he says
that the following threat off his is always a reality. I've
interrogated criminals in these cells that have previously fallen
foul of them words. Naturally, I've always questioned his
existence... until now."

Chief Enforcer
Jared scratched his chin, "And he said that?" he asked, looking up
at Jessica.

"Words to them
effect, yes," she replied.

"Words to them
effect? Care to tell us all what in the land that means?"

"He changed the
phrase to suit the present tense," said Jessica, feeling slightly
foolish and looking down, "That's all."

"Times a
ticking gentlemen, we need to do something," said Jordan, clearly
frustrated, a beady eye on the clock on the wall.

"Okay," said
Jared, breathing deep, "Since giving him power is clearly out of
the question, we need to prepare for emergency evacuation of the
areas at risk to floodi-"

"I can't let
you do that," growled Jordan, "This needs to stay away from the
press. No-one can know."

"Hey. Just you
listen to me," Jared growled back, "I'm chief Enforcer of this
land. Now, you guys can influence, very slightly, what goes on
politically, but my boys and my resources are under my control.
Believe it or not, despite the red tape and all the sucking up we
have to do to you guys, we are still here to protect the public. He
refused us access to Deimos from the start, and I doubt we'll be
getting access to Phobos or the new facilities whatever they're
called any time soon. But this I do have access to, and my job is
to do my damn best to protect the public. So we will be evacuating
the areas at risk."

Jordan smacked
his hands on the desk in front of him and leant on it, "If you do
that, you will make this land more politically unstable than it has
ever been."

"Tell me
something new Speaker Jordan," said Jared, "This land is already
going down the pan politically, but that is not my problem. My
problem, is that some nut job may just blow up some flood defences
and kill a hell of a lot of people. And it's probably thanks to our
damn leader and you guys that this 'J' guy is doing this."

"Listen to me,"
argued Jessica, "Evacuating people would be this land's suicide.
People will no longer respect the leader as the most powerful
person in the land, not that they did much in the first place. What
people will see is that anyone can make a difference, and take it
even more into their own hands. Evacuating people will ensure the
safety of people, but inspire them that anyone can make a
difference. The public protests and riots will simply escalate.
More people will end up getting hurt in the long run, and any
chance to solve this land's current crisis will be annihilated. The
public will eventually be reduced to cannibals. Hope will be lost
which is the only thing the public have at the moment. I urge you,
to instead, pump your resources into keeping this quiet and
actually preventing the explosives from blowing, which I'm
assuming, are on the Ares Defences somewhere."

Jared started
at Jessica for a while. You could see that cogs were whirring in
his head.

"You know
what," he began, after a moment, "It's rather odd seeing a Speaker
actually acknowledge that this land has a greater problem and that
the public are unhappy," he turned to Jordan, "You should listen to
her more you know. And I can also see why you are both working
together with this for once."

He breathed
heavily, deep in thought.

"You know what.
Okay then," he said," But on your head be it. If the flame hits the
dynamite, I'm going to point my finger at you guys. If you guys
think you can hush this all up, then I wish you the best of luck.
Jake," he turned to the last Enforcer in the room who had yet to
speak, "Get a disposal unit ready and sweep the entire defence
area. I want every microbe on the structure inspected. You
understand?"

Jake
nodded.

"And you do not
stop. And I want updated every one, understand?"

Jake nodded and
left the room. Jared glanced at the clock. Another eight until
six.

"I hope you're
right," Jared glared at Jessica, "And you'd best be too. Enforcer
Jonathan, I'd like you to go an interrogate our power hungry
guest."

"Yes chief
Enforcer Jared," said Jonathan, he made for the door.

"We'll come
with you," said Jordan, "I want to make that nutter squirm."

Jonathan paused
and glanced at Jared. Jared gave the nod of approval.

"Come on then,
I'll show you to his holding cell," muttered Jonathan.

They marched
out of the office, and down several small corridors. Jessica was
struck on how much a small affair this vastly important building
was. She'd expected it to somehow contain more than what it
advertised on the outside, maybe several underground floors or
something similar. But Highfields, the main artery of the Enforcer
unit, really was just like any other Enforcer station. A few
offices, a few holding cells. She had somehow expected more of such
a highly spoken of building.

The corridor
twisted left and they were suddenly faced with a small hall of four
holding cells. The large bunker-like doors of the cells gave a
nuclear-war-zone-fallout feel to the place, and the air was
suddenly cold again, as the heaters of the offices had reached
their limit.

Jonathan pulled
out a ring of clunky metal keys and stopped in front of a cell
door. Jessica noticed it had the number '99' etched onto the top of
the door, just above the small window.

"You have
five," said Jonathan, turning around to face Jordan and
Jessica.

"I think you'll
find that we have eight," said Jordan, smiling slightly.