The Underground Part 11

"Hot pink walls and frilly canopy beds aren't exactly appropriate for a grown woman's living quarters," the Queen said before Shayla interrupted her.

"I am not coming to live at the Palace."

"But..."

"I'll get my own apartment. Besides, I like my suite the way it is," Shayla said, annoyed with her mother's a.s.sumptions. She was always so pushy. Shayla hated that.

"If you insist, but if you ever change your mind."

"I appreciate it, Mother, really I do, but..."

"Okay, I hear you," she said, but Shayla could see her mother was holding her tongue. Shayla knew her mother was pleased to have her moving back to town, especially given the stress of the last few weeks. Rumors of a renegade political group were dying down, but there were still murmurs on the Webavision.

She could tell her mother didn't want to talk about it, but Shayla saw the hints of stress in the deepening creases on her mother's face.

"It'll take me a few days to pack up my place in Cambridge, and then I'll be back."

"Back where you belong," the Queen said.

Shayla bristled. She said nothing as she left, but her emotions caught up with her on the flight back to Cambridge. It was good to be at the Palace, but it was good to leave, too. Then again, she didn't really want to go back to Cambridge either. No place felt quite right.

When she walked into her apartment, she didn't want to pack. Didn't she just move in? She sat on her couch and dug out the velvet bag that held Reminder of Truth. Reading it was her bridge to the two men she loved. Her father who gave her this book was gone forever, and now Nathaniel might be too. It was difficult to accept.

"Where are you, Nathaniel?" she cried as she held the book and remembered the time they had read it together. She wished he would reappear as quickly as he vanished.

The next morning, Shayla reluctantly went back to the Cambridge Public Works to clean out her desk. As she walked toward her office, she couldn't help but look where Nathaniel used to leave the bag each morning.

"Hey there, good luck in your new position, wherever it is you're going," she heard.

She turned and felt stunned as Nathaniel's best friend Brigg stood before her, piercing her with a look of disrespect she was not accustomed to.

"I'm going back to Was.h.i.+ngton," she said, uncomfortably. She knew this was Nathaniel's best friend, but she had no idea whether Nathaniel had told Brigg about her.

Maybe Brigg knew where Nathaniel was or at least had heard from him. She was desperate to know anything at all. She tried to gather the courage to ask.

"I'm sure you'll will do well. Unfortunately, we'll still be here, at the mercy of someone new," he said and then turned and walked away without looking back.

Chapter 21.

"Your name is Joe Merino, and you just turned 21. Read your new file. We sent it to your electronic tablet. It has your birthday, your family situation and everything else you need to know. Memorize every detail."

Nathaniel grabbed his electronic tablet and found the recently downloaded file. He thought of the last eight months of his life. It seemed so unreal.

"I'm really leaving?" he asked, thinking of Shayla. How he wanted to see her, even though he knew it was forbidden.

"First, you must become your new ident.i.ty and then we'll quiz you until you answer each question correctly. When you pa.s.s, you may leave. Go study, young man!" Crosby said with joy. "Oh, and one more thing. The Boston accent must go," Crosby said.

"What accent?"

"Trust me," Crosby said, rolling his eyes. "You'll be meeting with our linguistics coach. We didn't know where you'd be going or we would have worked on it earlier. The Master Instructors hope it won't take long, but as with everything, you will be kept here until it is perfect. It is vital that you fit in," Crosby said, with as serious a look as Nathaniel had ever seen from him.

"Joe Merino, huh?" he said to himself as much as to Crosby, while he looked over the opening page of his file.

"That's who you are now," Crosby said, and left the room.

"Nationality?"

"Irish and Italian. Catholic, but not religious."

"Family?"

"Only child, parents a Delores and Anthony a died when I was 18 in a car crash." Nathaniel couldn't help but think of his own parents. He'd never been close with them, left their house when he was 17 to live on his own, but he missed them now. He hoped they were still alive, but he had no idea.

"General background?"

"Grew up in Kansas City and have a strong secretarial background. You've been going at this for two hours and I have not answered a single thing wrong," Nathaniel said, feeling antsy.

"I guess you are ready," Crosby said teasingly.

"When can I leave?" Nathaniel asked.

"Soon."

"You always say that." Nathaniel looked skeptically at Crosby.

"Really. This time I mean it," Crosby said, laughing before he left for the evening.

Nathaniel tried to go to sleep, but thoughts of his friends.h.i.+p with Brigg flooded his mind, along with memories of intimate encounters he shared with Shayla. The physical barrier of the Underground and all its' forced controls made contacting them impossible, but Nathaniel wasn't sure he had the willpower necessary to maintain distance on his own in the outside world.

"Ready?" Simon asked when he entered Nathaniel's room with Crosby the next morning.

"Yes, sir!" Nathaniel declared with vast enthusiasm. Simon's demeanor was entirely different than their last encounter. He no longer looked at Nathaniel with disdain.

"Follow me." With that, Nathaniel took one last look at his cell and walked behind Simon through the maze of hallways that were silent except for the echo of their footsteps and the buzzing of fluorescent lights above their heads. It seemed like they were walking in circles as the hallways had so many twists and turns, but finally they reached the entrance that he hadn't seen since the day he arrived, eight months earlier.

Keep Your Laws Off my Body. Equal Rights and Justice for all Men. Nathaniel looked at the same words that greeted him when he entered the Underground. They were tattooed in his memory, as he had said them aloud each morning along with the other Grounders.

He remembered first reading them in Reminder of Truth. That seemed like a lifetime ago. He wanted to remember this mantra as it appeared, painted boldly behind the guard's desk at the Underground's entrance. He stared at it, thinking about what it meant, and how it represented the cause that he believed in, now more than ever.

Crosby said, "Oh Nathaniel. I'm gonna miss you! You go out there and show those women you can take care of them and make them happy. Make us proud! We'll be thinking of you," Crosby said before he threw his arms tightly around Nathaniel.

Nathaniel hugged back, truly sad to be parting ways with Crosby. "Thanks for everything," Nathaniel said.

"Time to get a move on. We have a schedule to meet," Simon said abruptly.

"Cheerio, good man!" Crosby said, choking back tears. Nathaniel waved, and they walked down the corridor. Nathaniel could tell there would be no chains and no rough talk this time. He was leaving in style, and he felt the world was waiting for Joe Merino. And yet he also thought of how his real name, as Crosby just uttered it, might never be spoken again.

As Nathaniel strapped himself into the back of the van, he was grateful there were no guards to subdue him.

"Can we pull up the shades for the drive?" Nathaniel asked, more comfortable talking to Simon than before. He couldn't wait to be out of this dungeon-like garage to see the sky.

"Gotta keep 'em down for at least a few hours. Security reasons," Simon said. His tone was cordial, like speaking to a comrade who well understood what his pa.s.senger went through to earn a ticket out.

"h.e.l.lo, Joe," said a man who hopped in the back of the van next to him, just before they left. Nathaniel was trying to get used to his new name, but it still felt like he was wearing someone else's snug clothing.

"I'm Drew," said the man with the smoothly sheared head that contrasted thick dark eyebrows. His eyes were dark, but friendly, and his voice was too, unlike many of the Underground staff Nathaniel encountered. "I've heard a lot about you. In fact I know more about you, right now, than you do." Drew smiled and strapped himself into the seat alongside Nathaniel. "Don't worry. I'll fill you in on more of the details," he said.

As the van hummed down the street, nervous excitement pulsed through Nathaniel's body. Not a day went by when he didn't envision leaving the Underground. Now that day had come and it felt strange, along with everything else.

"I know you've got the basics down, but there's still a lot we need to go over," Drew said, glancing at his electronic tablet. "Now, let's see... you're going to be living in Kansas City, and you'll be working at a placed called Kelly Boys Temporary Placement Agency."

"I know the name from reading my new ident.i.ty file, but not much else."

"They place people for temporary office work. You could be working in all kinds of companies around the country. They're based in KC, but travel is likely. You'll be working with top executives. Sometimes it can get a little stressful, but your records indicate you can handle women at this level.

"I guess so," he said trying to hide his apprehension. Taking cla.s.ses about office work in the Underground was one thing, but actually working in a corporate office would be new. There wouldn't be any instructors to tell him if he did the wrong thing. No do-overs. His real-world work experience was limited to hard-hats, sewer systems, and tarred roads. He trusted his capabilities, but he had never lived outside of East Cambridge, and had reservations about how he would fit into this corporate Midwestern life.

"You're going to do great. We only put people where they fit well. Here's a picture of your 'friend' who supposedly 'interviewed' and hired you," Drew said, handing Nathaniel a headshot of a slightly plump man with a toothy grin and a mustache that attempted to offset his receding hairline. "Garrett Jones" was printed below the picture.

"A former Grounder?" Nathaniel asked, thinking his physique was atypical for the Underground where one had to be in tip-top shape.

"He got out 12 years ago, and now he's married with two kids. He works part-time at Kelly Boys, and is the primary caretaker of the children, of course. A few nights a week, when his family is asleep, he does work for us. Very dedicated man."

Oh, that explained it. Twelve years out maybe Nathaniel would be fat too. The description of Garrett Jones intimidated Nathaniel. What if he couldn't live up to all that a luring a wife and managing a family and this secret work?

"Is there some sort of bigger plan for me after Kelly Boys?"

"Joe," he said smiling and pausing as he addressed Nathaniel with his new name, "Maybe you'll get as lucky as Garrett? You are starting out doing what he did as an Administrative a.s.sistant, but we told them you're good at multi-tasking and organizing and that you're an excellent meeting scribe. They were excited about your skills. You may find yourself working on special projects. It's likely you'll eventually snag a permanent position, if you excel, which we hope. Kelly Boys pays pretty well too, which is good because former Grounders t.i.the. Of course, we encourage you to give more than that, if at all possible. Ten percent is great, but the Underground always needs more money, and after all, how can you put a price on the gifts they have given you," Drew said, and Nathaniel heard the message loud and clear.

"Okay," Nathaniel said. It was just starting to sink in. His life would forever be enmeshed and indebted to the Underground. Payback was just beginning.

Nathaniel drifted off to sleep during the long ride, and when he woke, the shades of the van were up. A warm, natural light bathed his face for the first time since he had entered the Underground. He looked outside and wished to fly alongside the birds in the distance, free to go anywhere the breeze went.

The emerald suburban lawns slowly gave way to the city sidewalks and dwellings that sat stacked up and crowded. He'd missed the cold winter, which he usually disliked. He preferred to miss it on his own terms, instead of the forced circ.u.mstances. He still felt strange about his Underground experience. Kidnapped at first, but now he was part of it, and there was no way to leave. "We'll keep in touch..." He heard Chester's voice a a reminder in his head.

Before he knew it, the van pulled in a round driveway of an apartment building, and Simon cut the engine. "We're near The Plaza, the heart of downtown Kansas City culture. It's a great neighborhood, perfect for a single man. The last Grounder who had this apartment just got married so it's open. First month of rent is covered until you get paid. It's a studio that we've had for years," Drew said, handing him a backpack that was heavy. Nathaniel had no idea what was in it, but knew that at least it had a tablet computer of some sort.

"This is it," Simon said, jingling the apartment keys in front of him. "You ready?"

Nathaniel answered with a grin, even though he was feeling less sure than ever before. Was he really prepared for this? Nathaniel didn't know if he could pretend to be a new man who had just turned 21. Would they notice the laugh lines forming around his eyes and know he was lying about his age and about everything else too?

He hid his fears and shook Simon's hand.

"Apartment 8-C. Take good care." Simon said as he clicked the van locks open so Nathaniel could get out.

Nathaniel started to open the door, but Drew put his arm on Nathaniel's, and he stopped.

"One more thing. You may hear rumors about the Underground. Unfavorable things. Unless you speak with someone who you know is a legitimate contact, ignore everything. There are a lot of crazy people out there," Drew said, without any hint of a smile or lightness. His eyes were dark. Nathaniel heard a chill in his voice.

"How will I know who is real and who?"

"You'll know," Drew said, interrupting him before moving out of the way so Nathaniel could get out of the van.

Nathaniel walked across the driveway, feeling shaken by Drew's last words until the warm July breeze enveloped him. He felt like a kid on the first day of school.

The air conditioned lobby felt nice, but he longed to go back outside, to feel the natural air, even if it was hot. He turned back to look out the front door, but the van was gone.

He entered his new home. The lobby looked like an old hotel, badly in need of at least a paint job. Walking to the elevator, he stopped in front of the mailboxes to see one with his new name. It fit in with all the others, printed in the same block style. It was as though he had been living there for a while. That's me, he thought: Joe Merino.

The big, old-fas.h.i.+oned elevator had a wire gate he had to close before pus.h.i.+ng the b.u.t.ton to his floor. The slow creak made him wonder if he should have taken the stairs, but it slowly made its creaky way up to the eighth floor. Nathaniel tried to look nonchalant while the other person in the elevator a a woman - flipped through her mail. In theory, he knew how to survey women's behaviors and signals. This training taught him to offer the perfect tailored greeting, but he was too scared. The Master Instructors would chastise him if they knew he had wasted this opportunity. Other than the s.e.xperts in the Underground, he hadn't stood next to a woman since he left. When the elevator stopped at the sixth floor and the woman got off, Nathaniel breathed a little easier. It would take some time to acclimate to the new environment so he could apply all of his new knowledge.

Inside his apartment, there was a galley kitchen with white metal cabinets, tan Formica countertops and a white vinyl tile floor. The bathroom was small, with a shower stall but no tub. The apartment was furnished with a futon bed, and a tiny table with two chairs.

At least it was clean. Compared with his Underground cell, it felt like the Taj Mahal. The hodge-podge decoration was the result of an unnamed trail of Grounders who each left an imprint of some sort in the small efficiency. There was a wooden coffee table that caught his eye first, with inlaid mother-of-pearl elephants. It was beautiful, but it looked funny next to the puffy blue velvet couch that had seen better days, and the plastic cat clock on the wall that had eyes that moved back and forth as each second pa.s.sed. It was kind of creepy.

He opened his backpack. Sure enough, an electronic tablet was on top. He turned it on and looked at his new files from the Underground. This included Joe Merino's resume, which he would use at the state-sponsored Parties Of Availability. He would attend them until he was engaged. Next, his curiosity got hold of him and he Googled his real name, but there was nothing. It was as if he had never existed at all. He tried not to think about how strange that felt, knowing that he needed to move forward.

He logged onto his new email account and composed a message: Dearest Shayla, I missed you more than you'll ever know. I'm sorry I disappeared. I'll explain it to you and make it up to you, if you give me the opportunity. I completely understand if you've moved on or never want to see me again, but I hope that isn't the case.

I love you Shayla Smith with all my heart and soul.

No matter what happens, I want you to know that.

-Nathaniel He didn't bother typing her email address in the "To" field, but quickly hit the Cancel b.u.t.ton. The forced barrier of the Underground was gone. He hoped his willpower would be able to keep him away so he didn't cause trouble for everyone who put their lives on the line so he could have a second chance.

As he prepared to leave his apartment to buy a few things, he reminded himself that there was n.o.body telling him what to do or where to go. Were cameras embedded in the walls of the apartment? Was every entry of his tablet being recorded too?

Chapter 22.