Chapter 44
“Alert, alert. Our target has been spotted traveling along Domier toward Genetronetics. All enforcement officers report topside with artillery in hand.” A nasally voice rang through speakers hidden somewhere along the ceiling. Speakers Esmie hadn’t noticed before.
“I hate when they make those alerts so loud down here,” the woman’s voice said. Cracking wood from the crates followed by a clunk, rasps, and clink sounds. “Might as well take them since they’re here. Come on, hurry up and load. We need to be topside within the minute.”
More loading gun sounds as the man must have been loading his weapon.
A moment later, footsteps carried into the distance with a final creak of a door before the tunnel became quiet again.
Esmie wasn’t sure what tipped the Capitol Enforcement officers off that she was above ground, but she thanked Elohim for her change in luck.
Not wanting to wait around for anyone else to show up, Esmie ran through the area, slowing down only to check the map.
When she felt she was far enough away from the Capitol building, she slowed her pace to catch her breath.
Everything in her wanted to glance above ground, but she couldn’t chance it.
Not with the enforcement officers searching for her.
The backpack weighed heavily on her from the run.
The backpack! She’d forgotten Mamá had packed food for her.
Esmie dropped a knee to the ground, shrugging it off onto the ground.
Searching, she found Mamá’s famous pork empanadas wrapped in tin foil and four water bottles.
Smiling, Esmie bit into one of the empanadas, closing her eyes enjoying the familiar spices dancing along her tongue.
Although lukewarm, and the shell not as flaky as when they were made fresh, it was still a delicious reminder of home.
Feeling energized, Esmie briskly walked while she ate two empanadas and drank a full water bottle.
She wanted to eat more but saved the rest for later.
The rest of the way toward Genetronetics was uneventful.
Esmie checked the map and found herself at the edge of The Plaza.
She would arrive at Genetronetics within the minute.
Pulling out her phone, she texted her parents, awaiting their signal.
The message delivered. She leaned against a wall, waiting for a reply.
After several minutes, she texted again. No read receipt. Odd.
Esmie coughed. Then coughed again. She snagged another water bottle from her backpack, taking a sip, but the itchy feeling at the back of her throat wouldn’t go away. Glancing at her phone again, she clicked it off, looking around at the now hazy tunnel.
Hazy?
The tunnel wasn’t this cloudy before. Fits of coughs racked her body.
Smoke swirled thick in the tunnel in front of her.
Smoke? She needed to get out now! Doubling back the way she came, she searched for an exit.
A block away, she found another manhole.
The smoke clogged her throat, blinding her eyes.
Esmie grabbed the rusty ladder, climbing up, skipping rungs as she hurried.
Pushing the manhole, she peeked out checking for cars, then pulled herself out, sputtering the whole way.
Shoving the manhole back in place, she raced to a nearby alley, gasping for air and wiping tears from her eyes.
The streets and sidewalks were slick with recent rainfall.
Fog clung to the air, leaving everything misty around her, similar to the tunnel, but this time Esmie could breathe.
She pulled out a water bottle, chugged it, and used the rest to wash out her eyes.
Once the coughing subsided, she glanced around unsure of what happened.
She checked her phone again, but her parents still hadn’t answered her.
The air cooled her face, drying the remaining tears.
Why was the tunnel filled with smoke? Esmie walked in the direction of The Plaza.
Something happened to derail their plans.
She needed to figure out what. It was pertinent before she could enter Genetronetics.
Traveling through the tunnel wasn’t an option anymore.
She also couldn’t just walk down one of the paths in The Plaza like she did for the Masquerade Party last night.
Was it only last night she danced the night away with Samson?
Ugh, she couldn’t think about him right now.
Esmie paused as something shifted in the fog ahead of her.
Her mouth turned down. Maneuvering around a dumpster, she peered into the fog seeing a dull red object sitting in the middle of the street.
The red object entranced her, and she moved closer to get a better look.
The fog parted for a moment. When it did, she saw a red chair sitting at the end of the alley.
What was a red chair doing in the middle of the alley?
Esmie jogged toward it, the hairs along her arms and neck stood up, as an uneasy feeling settled over her at the familiar object, but she couldn’t stop herself from being drawn in.
When she approached, the fog thinned and a dark figure in a suit sat inside, one leg crossed over the other.
She skidded to a stop. A man glared at her.
“Hello Esmie.”
“How do you know my name,” she stammered out, ineffectively trying to hide her growing fear.
His right index finger lay at his temple, his thumb under his chin. “Your family and I go way back. Back to even before you were born.”
The fog completely cleared the area, and the man’s face came into focus. Straight slicked back black hair speckled with gray. His lined features were clean shaven and finished with cold, blue, unforgiving eyes. He didn’t appear much older than her parents.
“Mr. Mayor,” Esmie breathed.
A sadistic grin stretched across what must have once been good-looking features.
“It’s been a long time, Esmie. I was hoping your brother would have been more appreciative of the opportunity I gave him, especially after your parents shut down their business and left me in a lurch.
He turned out just like them I suppose.” The grin vanished.
“It is hard to find reliable people these days.”
“You led me here, didn’t you? Made the tunnels impassible to Genetronetics so I could pop out here.” Esmie clenched her fists at her sides, her body on high alert.
“I found the tunnels not long after your parents escaped, then started monitoring them. As soon as you entered those tunnels, I knew I needed to lead you to me. With the commissioner so eager to find you, creating a false alarm saying you were topside was easy, clearing the way to bring you straight here. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.
I’ve known your family for such a long time.
Watched you go through school from a distance, hoping you would come my way to the Capitol to work for us.
Your brilliance is only rivaled by your brother.
Having both Morales kids under my thumb?
It was a dream you unfortunately ripped from my hands.
” The mayor’s voice was low. Calculating.
“You mean a dream to help you hurt the people of Andloor? To hide secrets from them by creating a lethal drug and introducing it into their world? I nor my brother would ever help you do that.”
The mayor opened his hands, palms toward the sky.
The red chair looked like it would cave at any minute under his weight.
“I have a job to do. A job to protect and serve the people. No matter the cost. The problem with people is they don’t know what’s good for them.
What’s needed to be done to protect them.
The sacrifices that need to happen. They only think selfishly about themselves and what they want, even at the expense of the greater population and city. ”
“And making super soldiers to keep them in line is the way to protect them?” Esmie could barely open her mouth; her teeth gritted together in anger.
“Tsk, tsk Esmie. You are still young. You don’t understand the hardships of leadership.
Of running a world.” He abruptly stood. Esmie backed up.
The mayor stepped to the side of the chair.
It appeared forlorn without his bulk inside.
He gestured to it. “For instance, your parents. They were good, hard-working people, helping me immensely, until they decided they no longer wanted to work for me. I will admit, when they took their secrets far from downtown Andloor, I was angry. If I’d have known where they were, I would’ve dragged them back.
But alas. I didn’t have the technology I do now.
Eventually I forgot about them. Until you and your brother showed up on my radar.
The brilliance you exhibited in school I knew would help my cause.
I needed to harness your intelligence. More secrets your parents tried to hide but couldn’t. ”
Esmie gasped upon realizing why the chair looked familiar. “That’s my mother’s chair! Where is she? Where’s Papi?” she shouted at him, her anger flaring, the mist around them swirled.
The mayor’s eyebrows rose as he watched her exhibit her powers. “I haven’t seen this amount of power from any of the other test subjects. It will be exciting to tear you apart and see how you work.”
“Where are they?” Esmie demanded, lifting her mother’s red chair, which zoomed away from him and settled next to her.
“With your brother, of course. And if you don’t cooperate, they’ll be the next test subjects to be injected and die.”