Page 6 of Bait
“Chairman what an honor to have you visit us.” I made an effort to sound sincere, despite the fact that the man only visited when he came up with even more books to keep from the hands of people in the bunkers. I was glad I’d left the cart down in the kitchen—less to explain.
Becker was facing away from me, actually. Both he and Danika seemed to be huddled over something on the table. My heart started pounding as I approached them, very aware the guards who had been outside were now at my back.
“Alma,” Becker greeted me with that benevolent smile that as a kid I’d thought of as fatherly but lately couldn’t help but see as a little calculated. Right now, it chilled my blood. He was a tall man, with a face that had been handsome in his youth but grew sterner with age. The grooved line between his eyes was more like a furrow these days. He was still imposing and very fit for his close to sixty years. Becker was the kind of man who could never quite conceal the fact that he thought himself better than others, and in that moment, as he took me in, he was having a very hard time hiding his disdain. “We were waiting for you.”
He moved away from the circulation desk, and I caught a glimpse of my box on top of it. Not in the place where I kept it, and it was open. I also saw that Danika had the notebook where I kept notes of who I’d given the suppressant to in her hands, as if she’d been showing it to him. I wrote the names in a code. It would take work for him to figure out exactly who each person was. But this was not good, fucking Danika. When I stared at her, she cast her eyes down, almost as if she was spooked. And that’s when I knew I was screwed beyond measure.
“How can I serve you, Chairman?” I croaked out, trying very hard to keep my voice from shaking. My head started to swim, and my limbs felt weak, but I needed to keep my wits. I knew there wasn’t a huge amount in there. There was not much in there at all. I never stored everything in one spot. The list would not allow me to claim it was just mine, and they would want to know who and what I was using these herbs for.
Becker watched me for a moment, his eyes hard, angry. Even as that smile stayed fixed on his face. He was wearing his usual blue coveralls, the same ones his father wore. I assumed he’d inherited them from the old man, since he’d worn the tunic and pants like everyone else until the man died. He took a step toward me, and I instinctively retreated, but the guards didn’t let me get away.
The slap, when it came, was so surprising, I cried out. The pain was intense, so searing, my teeth throbbed.
“Shut up,” he snarled, his face distorted into an ugly sneer. “You think you can bypass the rules like your mother and your traitor of a brother? The only reason you’re not dead is because I had at least some respect for your father.”
I was so stunned I couldn’t even defend myself. I just stared at him numbly with my palm to my cheek.
Despite my activities, I was not a rule breaker by nature. I really did try to obey, do my job and stay out of the way. But I did not like the way the council controlled everything. How we were given less and less information and were expected to offer up our bodies, our lives to increase the population of this bunker. We couldn’t choose our mates. We couldn’t take contraception. It was inhumane, and I could do something about it, so I did. I knew it would catch up with me eventually.
“How many have you given this to?” he asked me as one of the guards wrenched my arms back hard enough to make me cry out. I could feel the tears stinging my eyes. Becker was furious, he looked like he wanted to kill me. He probably could, and who would care? Who would ask for me if I went missing? My mind whirled as I thought of the past few years, all the dwellers who had been put in the “hold.” Torch had been taken there after he tried to kidnap me. My friend Valeria Candelario and her dad were taken after she and I were caught kissing and my father turned her into the council. Because intimate contact between dwellers was only allowed for the purpose of revitalizing the population of the bunker.
What had really happened to my brother?
“I’ve only used it for myself,” I lied, my voice shaking. I couldn’t help it.
This time he backhanded me, and the impact of it made me stumble back. I crashed into the desk. I bit my tongue and could taste the blood in my mouth. Behind Becker, I saw Danika gasp. She actually looked surprised, like she didn’t think turning me in would end up like this.
“Tell me who you gave it to, and we’ll forget all about it. I know you meant well.” His voice was conciliatory. Like he knew I was just a misguided kid. In my gut I knew that no matter what I said, I was going to wherever everyone else that went against the rules of the council ended up. I was starting to think “hold” was code for something quite unpleasant.
But I was damned if I’d make anyone else bear the brunt of this for me.
“Fuck you,” I spat out, then turned to Danika. “And fuck you too, you snitch.” She had the gall to look contrite, like she hadn’t fucked me over.
“They’re going to help my mom get better.” Her eyes were brimming with tears and despite what she’d done, I pitied her. The clinics barely had any medicines left and what they did have they reserved for the upper levels. We still had good doctors and nurses, but things were bad down here.
“They won’t help her, Danika,” I snarled, unkindly and instantly felt ashamed. Her face crumbled like the truth of my words were more than she could handle.
“Tie her up,” Becker ordered the guards, ignoring Danika’s pleas for reassurance that her mother would get what she was promised. On his orders, the guards dragged me out of the library like a criminal. I held my head up as we reached the hallway. I wanted people to see me, for the upper-levelers to face what had they’d all sunken to. But they put a hood over my head. Probably to cover the bruise and the split lip. My face pulsed like a beating heart, and I was worried they’d cracked one of my teeth. But if they thought I was going to go quietly, they had another thing coming.
“Let me go, you assholes,” I struggled, kicking and biting whatever I could grab.
“If you don’t comply, it will be much worse.” Becker was seething, his voice full of menace as he spoke into my ear.
“Hel—” I opened my mouth but was yanked hard by the hair, pulling the hood off.
“I will make an example out of you.” I could feel his acrid, hot breath on the side of my face, and I had to swallow down the urge to cry. Becker called over a guard who was standing in the corner cowering. “Bring me the comm.” The comm was the announcement system for the bunker. It was how they kept residents informed of everything they needed to know. He was going to speak to the whole bunker.
“Dwellers of Habrian,” Becker shouted into the thing as his voice carried through the small speakers placed all over the bunker. “This is your chairman. I am saddened to announce that we have another traitor in our mix. Someone who is actively plotting against our bunker’s survival.” He didn’t take his eyes off me as he spoke. “I will share the name of the traitor at the assembly hall. Please make your way there now. Everyone is required to attend.”
“Do you think people haven’t noticed that suddenly everyone is a traitor?” I said loudly, hoping they could hear me over the comm, but he shut it off. “Do you think they won’t see that you want to control every aspect of our lives?”
Even in the gloomy light, I could see the hate in his eyes. The resentment at being challenged. Becker had been born a prince, the son of the richest man in the world. The heir to a fortune and in large part responsible for what blew up the world in the first place. In the bunker, he’d been that too. My brother and my mother had seen through him, and ultimately, I think it was what brough about their end. My father could never see that the Beckers had used him. That they were not the benevolent saviors he told himself they were. It was true they’d saved the few in this bunker, but it was at a cost.
Everyone who came in a servant lived and died as one, so those who came in as kings could remain so. My father had been so grateful to have someone listen to his warnings about the volcanic eruptions that ultimately brought about the destruction of most of the planet, he had not acknowledged he’d been in business with monsters.
“Take her to the hold,” he ordered in a low, implacable voice.
“They’re not going to buy your lies forever.”
