Huck must have stood there with his eyes closed for minutes.
It was the sirens that jolted him back to reality.
CHAPTER ONE
Scott King nodded to the guard on Floor E and ran his finger across the scanner to enter Pod 4. He smoothed down his blue button-down shirt and tried to walk with confidence toward the boardroom. He didn’t know why Huck Truman, leader of the System and the new world, was calling the powerful and elusive Elektos Board together, but the air underground was tense, and the prolonged time without natural sun or freedom was wearing on the System’s inhabitants. Even Scott felt antsy, his armpits wet, his stomach churning as if he were on the brink of gastrointestinal distress.
He wiped his forehead, and a droplet of sweat gathered on his index finger. He did not feel like facing the Board today. He did not know why Huck had asked him to bring three vials of his new virus or what he intended to do with them, but he knew that their appearance at this meeting wasn’t arbitrary. Or optional.
Since their arrival in The System, Huck had called together the Elektos Board on two other occasions: the week they arrived to their new underground home and the day before Lucy and Grant appeared among the survivors. The first meeting, the entire Board was there in person. The master tech had not yet been able to secure remote communication. Huck had assembled his fleet of pilots and airplanes and shipped in each of his most trusted followers.
The Elektos Board had fourteen members: two representatives from every Elektos Underground System, Gordy as vice-president and Huck as president. Huck’s daughter Blair was not a member of the Board, but had imposed herself as the meeting secretary. She sat in the corner of the room—away from the view of the other members—and kept elaborate notes that Scott was certain no one ever read or looked at again.
At the second meeting, the only members there in the flesh were Scott, Huck, Gordy, and Claude Salvant (architect of the Systems); everyone else communicated via video chat from their distant locations across the earth. That meeting had been lively and jovial—with reports of their successes documented and inarguable.
Huck had accomplished the first two steps of his plan without resistance.
Step one: annihilate the earth. Step two: relocate survivors to their temporary underground homes in the Elektos Underground Systems scattered across the globe. Each System contained a cell of people dedicated to the cause. For decades, Huck had built a secret army of bright and incomparable minds. As the date closed in for their attack, he sought out others invaluable to the cause.
Doctors, nurses, computer scientists, physicists, chemists; the best electricians and pilots, craftsmen and construction workers. Trade skills and academic minds were of equal value in Huck’s mind. He had recruited the best and the brightest and left the rest to suffer the fate of the Release.
Scott, engineer of the virus that killed the world’s population, wasn’t sure how he landed such a coveted role at Huck’s table—there had been more deserving men among the saved—but he took pride in his role as one of the elite. For this meeting, though, his fear outweighed pride. It wasn’t a secret that Huck was uncomfortable with the new arrivals—Lucy and Grant, then Ethan and Teddy—and Scott knew he was responsible. Interactions became tense, and Huck had seemed withdrawn, distrusting.
Scott put his hand on the boardroom door, but he paused when heard the hallway pod slide open. Claude entered and smiled, walking toward Scott with purpose and confidence, his head held high.
“A beautiful day for a meeting, don’t you believe?” Claude asked. His thick Haitian accent gave Scott pause for a second. While he had become more accustomed to Salvant’s dialect, sometimes he needed an extra moment to process. Claude’s daughter Cass had a smooth drawl, a silky mesmerizing way of speaking; Claude seemed more clipped and perfunctory.
“Is there any possible way to tell if it’s a beautiful day?” Scott replied with a weary smile. Claude blinked. And Scott looked to the ground. “Because, you know. We don’t have windows.” He raised his eyebrows and assessed Claude’s stoic expression. “Unless, of course, you know something I don’t? Secret periscope?”
“It’s an expression, not a declaration,” Claude said matter-of-factly. “No periscope. No, this meeting is no doubt about the Islands. At least I can assume, since I was asked to bring our latest plans.”
“How are they coming?” Scott asked, his hand still on the door.
Claude smiled. “They’re beautiful.” He opened his mouth to say more, but the boardroom door opened wide, with Gordy on the other side.
“I thought I heard you two,” Gordy said. “Ready?” He motioned them inside, and they settled in at their places at the boardroom table. Scott watched as Blair entered the room and set up shop in the corner without a word. She arranged her yellow legal pad on her lap and kept a collection of colorful gel pens just within reach. Although the meeting hadn’t started, she was already jotting down various tidbits in multicolored glory.
Huck sat with his back to the men, his eyes trained on the six screens set up along the conference table. As Claude, Gordy, and Scott took their seats, the other Elektos members began popping up before them. Within minutes every member was present, and the room filled with greetings and smiles. Scott watched Huck spin—his mouth taut, his eyes narrowed as he examined each face in turn—and he knew that the cheery Board members could not sense Huck’s ever-souring mood. The vials in Scott’s pocket felt heavy, weighted with questions and worry.
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Let’s begin,” Huck announced, and the voices settled. Everyone turned to his or her camera and watched their fearless leader float before them.
While Scott had only met the other members once in person, he knew them well enough by face and reputation. He waved to his computer’s built-in camera and watched as his broadcasted image lifted his hand to the screen, too. Except his image was delayed by a full second.
Victor Barbosa waved back to Scott from the corner of his screen. A contingent from the EUS One in Brazil, Victor was broad shouldered and frog-like, with a mouth full of tiny, even teeth. In his former life, he had been a local politician—independently wealthy, without a family, and touting a liberal platform that kept him aligned with the left. His transition to leader of the EUS One and Elektos Board member was seamless: from one area of power to another. He relished his role and it was evident in his eagerness.
Victor spoke first.
“If I may, Mr. Truman, begin with a request. My people here are restless,” he said in English with only a hint of a Portuguese accent. “Explain to me, again, why we cannot arrange trips above ground? I see no harm in allowing—”
“We discussed this last time,” another voice interrupted. Scott’s eyes moved to the center of his screen where Roman, from the Australian EUS, lifted his finger and launched at Victor. “If your System jeopardizes the safety of all the Systems—”
“That is ridiculous,” Victor said, raising his voice. “We confirmed a lack of life. There are not people barging...” he looked to the side for confirmation that he had used the right word and then nodded, “yes, barging, down our doors. It has been long enough. Let my people breathe.”
“Are your filtering and air purifications systems unsatisfactory?” Claude asked.
Blair scribbled on her notepad. Huck looked at her with a sidelong stare, but either she didn’t notice or didn’t care.