The Black Swan Event by Mikael Carlson

Author:Mikael Carlson [Carlson, Mikael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Warrington Publishing
Published: 2022-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

America (AME): 334.25 ▼0.25 West Africa (WAF): 30.91 ▼0.14 … News: Mid-month reports due at ICXNY open … United Kingdom (UKM): 223.00 ▼1.06 Intercorpex Global Index (IGI): 8508.17 ▼7.50 Germany (GER): 233.62 ▲1.92 South Africa (SAF): 23.99 …

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

REGISTRANT RYKOS

Abandoned Subway Station

Somewhere in the Manhattan Underground

New York City Municipal Corporation

I climb down the standpipe and brush off my hands. The brackets securing it to the wall make convenient footholds to reach a brick near the top of the wall that I thought might be loose. It wasn’t, and with that went my last hope to find an escape. I’ve searched every square inch of this dimly lit room for a way out that isn’t through the door. There isn’t one.

The steel door swings open with a loud creak, and Quarren enters. He studies me for a long moment without saying a word. A smile eventually creeps across his lips.

“There’s no way out of this room, Rykos, or this station for that matter. Please, have a seat.”

I sit on the cot that I have spent countless hours in as he sets up the folding chair leaning against the wall.

“Where’s Michele?” I ask, trying to fill the uneasy silence.

“She’s attending to some business.”

“Haven and Scivix must be busy, too. They haven’t hit me in the head for a while.”

“I apologize for your treatment,” Quarren says with a sigh. “Haven does a difficult job for us. He often releases that stress in the wrong way.”

“A job doing what?”

“Keeping us safe, for starters, but enough about all that. I brought you something.”

Quarren hands me a hefty tome that was tucked under his arm. I glance down and read the title: Discovering America. I look at him in surprise after realizing what he just handed to me.

“This is one of the old books. I thought these were all destroyed or locked up.”

“Most of them were. You’d be amazed what you can find down here if you know where to look.”

“It’s forbidden to read this, let alone possess it.”

“We don’t concern ourselves with such things. Besides, it’s only forbidden for employees; it’s required reading for many high-level executives.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I was one. I was a senior program manager.”

His answer floors me. He must be lying. Executives don’t end up living beneath the streets of Manhattan as urches. It just doesn’t happen.

“Program managers aren’t executives,” I argue.

“They were during the early days of the rebuilding. Much has changed since then. It was a long time ago.”

“Then how did you end up down here?”

“That’s a story for another time,” he deflects, leaning back in his folding chair.

“Yeah, right. Why would I believe anything you say?”

“You wouldn’t. There is no reason to trust me, Rykos, but that’s not the problem. You don’t trust or believe what anyone says.”

I fidget as a tingling sensation rolls up and down my spine. He thinks he knows me just because I went to a rave. He doesn’t.

“I don’t want to talk to you, and I don’t want to read this book,” I say, tossing it on the floor at my feet.

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