People muttered their approval. One by one the heads and attention turned forward, although a few people still stole glances in Lucy’s direction.
“Great change sometimes requires great sacrifice. Even innocent sacrifice; and don’t think that it isn’t hard for me to make those final decisions. Just know that every step forward we make toward our goal, we are fully realizing a future in paradise! You, my loyal and amazing friends, are at the beginning of history. We will rise from the ashes, we will build our Eden. We saw injustice and did not stay silent. Things in life were cruel and we met their cruelty with swift retaliation. With God on our side, we have taken back the world from the clutches of evil, corruption, and depravity,” Huck’s voice rose and shook. Gordy, standing next to his dad, put his hand on his father’s arm and Huck chuckled into the microphone. “Sometimes my emphatic speaking embarrasses my family,” he said, and a murmur of laughter rippled through the crowd.
Someone closer to the front called out words of encouragement and there was scattered applause.
“No, no,” Huck replied to the crowd. “No praise to me. Applaud yourselves. You are the cornerstone of this new world. The builders. The creators. Those who followed, even though you could not see the fruits of our labor in action. Celebrate faith!” Then the room erupted into cheers and clapping; Huck bowing gracefully down from the podium and walking through the crowd, the people parting like the Red Sea.
It was then Lucy realized he was walking straight toward her. People shifted and moved, turned and made an opening, and Huck landed right in front of her, his hands extended, his face lifted in a bright smile.
Lucy turned to her mother.
“Go on,” Maxine urged and gave Lucy a subtle push.
Lucy put her own hands out and Huck grabbed them in an exuberant handshake. Everyone watched them, and there was scattered applause, as if they were celebrating his humanity in saving her life.
“We meet again,” he said in hushed tones. Gordy, like a bodyguard, stood at his father’s elbow and appraised her with wariness. He had saved her life after Blair let her drown in the tank, but maybe he regretted allowing her into the System.
Lucy remained mute.
“I hope your time with your family has been wonderful and relaxing,” he continued and then before Lucy had time to reply, he leaned in and under the pretense of a hug, whispered in her ear, “Adjust your attitude and your company. You are now the face of acceptance and grace…I trust you will demonstrate your gratitude when given the chance.” As quickly as he arrived, he was gone, assisted away with the help of Gordy and a small collection of other guards. He exited the Center and the people began to disperse by pod.
“What did he say?” Galen asked. “What did he say to you?”
“You’re famous!” said Malcolm.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Cass nod toward the hall and she looked back to her family.
“Do you all just eat that up?” Lucy said, turning to her parents. Her mother bristled. She cracked her neck. “You buy that magnanimous, it’s all for you, bull-shit? You think he’s being honest with you?”
“You’re incorrigible,” her father said to her and he crossed his arms. “I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. If you don’t want to see the truth, then we can’t help you.”
“You want to know who gave really awesome speeches and made the people feel special? Hitler. I wonder if you put their speeches side by side if either of you would even be able to tell the difference.” Then Lucy spun and followed Cass’s braids back out into the fray, leaving her parents to contemplate the magnitude of their allegiances.
“The plan is fool-proof, I promise,” Lucy said and she looked to Cass for confirmation. Over the last hour, they had deliberated and plotted, schemed and assessed. Sitting in the middle of the Center, after the crowd had cleared and the recreation activities resumed, they huddled together, absent-mindedly playing a game, and talking in hushed tones. Occasionally someone would come up to Lucy and ask a question about the world outside. Huck’s announcement had launched her from rumor to quasi-celebrity.
“Did you hear anything about what happened to Chicago?” one lady asked.
“Was the virus quick? Did people suffer?” asked another.
One boy just wanted to know about the animals at the zoo.
Eventually the attention died down and Cass and Lucy would go back to planning. To any outside observer they were just two girls enjoying the rest of their afternoon, but the air around them was tinged with hushed excitement.
“So, we’ll need a mechanic.”
“Who can be bought.”
“Kip,” Cass replied. “A sweetheart. Won’t be able to resist.”
“How do we talk to him?”
Cass laughed and then pointed her arm straight out in front of her, the trajectory of her finger landing on a guy no more than twenty feet away. He was a bulky redhead playing a game of darts. With a wink, Cass hopped up and waltzed over, touching Kip on the arm and pointing to Lucy, where Lucy responded with a half-wave and a smile. She had no idea how Cass was luring him into their plans, but she trusted her new friend’s instincts.
Kip the mechanic willingly set down his darts and shuffled over, dragging his feet along the wood.
“The famous Lucy, huh?” he asked as a question as he extended his hand. “Cass says you have a question to ask me.”
Lucy peered around his large frame to look at Cass, who stood behind and nodded. It would ruin the whole plan if she pitched their idea and Kip was expecting a different proposition.
“It’s a task,” Lucy added to safeguard and couch her offer in transparency. Honesty was a rule of the System after all. “And it’s secret.”
The mechanic smiled. “Hey now…I don’t need to get myself into any trouble.”
Cass stepped forward. “It’s like this. In an hour or so, my dad will call the main elevator guards and tell them that he’s discovered something malfunctioning. And he’s sending you to fix it.”
They had thought of the plan early on—the only hiccup was getting Cass’s dad to call in the non-broken elevator. Lucy suggested Cass tell her dad the truth, she needed Frank; and after much deliberation it was decided—he would help. His agreement was born from the fear that without his help they would make a mess of the situation and land themselves in trouble.
“But there’s nothing wrong with the elevator. I’m following,” Kip said and he brought his hand up to the base of his neck and scratched his hairline, tilting his head and scrunching up his face as he did. “And then? What is it you’re after?”
Lucy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bag of jerky that she had stolen from her mother’s pantry. She handed it to him, placed it in his palm, and closed his freckled hands around it. “For Frank.”
And Kip nodded with recognition. “I wondered why I hadn’t seen that thing around here. Thought maybe people started to complain.” He sighed. “Okay, I head up, fix the elevator, come back down and say to the guards, hey look, I found Frank?”
Cass and Lucy nodded.
“We’ll be waiting to claim him. Don’t let the guards say they’ll take him back. Say you want to do it yourself,” Lucy added, afraid that their whole plan would fall apart if a guard looking for some extra kudos took Frank before they could.