The Amber Project by J.N. Chaney

Author:J.N. Chaney [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2024-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

January 1, 2347

The Maternity District

“This is insane,” said Mara. “What’s he thinking, sending those children to the surface? Is he out of his damned mind?”

“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” said Ross. “I tried to talk him out of it, but I can only say so much without bringing attention to myself.”

“I know, Ross. Don’t worry. You have to look like you’re on his side.”

Ross frowned. “It drives me insane.”

Mara and Ross sat in Ava’s apartment, once again meeting to discuss their plans. Ava was listening from the other side of the table, wrapping one of her baskets. It had become a weekly tradition to hold the meetings here, always limited to the three of them. No one could know that Ross was the leak, not even the other mothers. It had become a closely guarded secret, and Mara intended to keep it that way.

“And you say they’ve been given weapons to defend themselves with?”

“Right,” said Ross. “Their mission is to retrieve two other students, who ran away. They were given two days.”

“So the schedule’s been moved forward,” said Ava, not looking up. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Schedule?” asked Mara. “When were they originally planning to do this?”

“Next year,” Ava remarked. She clipped a piece of wrapping tape and tied it in a bow around the top of the basket. “It sounds like the timeline was expedited. I didn’t get the full report, but I knew the bullet points.”

Ross nodded. “Yes, ma’am. There were a few objections, but Archer assured the colonel they held no merit.”

“Someone besides you objected?” asked Mara.

“Henry Nuber, the children’s teacher.”

“Seriously?” Mara asked. The notion of Nuber objecting didn’t exactly surprise her. What she found disconcerting was the fact that Bishop ignored his concerns. “Why would he ignore their teacher’s advice when Nuber spends more time with them than anyone?”

“He tried to say Nuber’s vision was clouded by sentiment, how he wasn’t being impartial enough.”

“Of course he did.”

“Relax,” said Ava. She finished tying the bow, examined it briefly, undid it and tried again. “There’s no use getting worked up over what’s already happened. We all knew they’d do this eventually.”

“Yes, but we didn’t know when,” said Mara. “We’ve only just started protesting.”

Ava finished the bow again. She tilted her head at it, then smiled and set it aside, moving onto the next basket. “My point is there’s nothing we can do about it now. Leave the worrying and the outrage to the others. It’s our job to focus on the plan. Instead of getting emotional, you must ask yourself how you can use this to your advantage.”

“My advantage? You make it sound so exploitive.”

Ava grinned. “Exploiting situations to gain public favor is politics in a nutshell, darling.”

“It’s filthy,” Mara said.

“But necessary. Now, what are you going to do?”

Mara considered her question, despite her own objections to the idea. “Can you get us some proof of what’s happening on the surface?” she asked Ross.

“Of course,” said the captain.

“Do it, then, and we’ll leak it to the public. We already have the ear of the mothers and several of the farmers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.