Previously on PHOENIX… Regina was given a mission by Ahmed Karib to retrieve information from her father’s computer. Now, she must go back to work at Phoenix as if nothing has changed…
Regina had her eyes open when the sun began to rise behind the Dome. She hadn’t really woken up since she hadn’t gone to sleep at all. Every time she closed her eyes, she would replay moments from her conversation with Ahmed. How could it be, after all this time, that her mom, whom she remembered as a brilliant socialite, was in fact a rebel sympathizer?
And her father? Did he know about any of this? She didn’t know which was worse—him knowing and not telling, or him being completely in the dark. Did he know about his wife’s secret life, trying to keep his daughter from rebellious tendencies?
Their world in the Settlement was so far removed from the world she’d visited just the last night. She had the funniest sensation that she wanted to tell Sam all she’d seen, all she’d learned. But of course, that was out of the question. Sometimes she felt like they were all just unfamiliar roommates, cautiously coexisting in the same space, hesitant to intrude on the other’s world. That wasn’t how a family should be.
The idea of asking her father for advice was almost laughable. He would have Ahmed traced and arrested almost instantaneously. She was sure of that. But for some reason, Regina couldn’t seem to bear the idea that Ahmed and his friend would come into harm’s way. They’d done her a great service, telling her the stories of her mother, and they had barely even forced her to give anything in return. She was again struck by the great risk on their part. How did they know she wouldn’t tell her father immediately? She noted, with a sharp realization, that it indicated, more than anything, the dire situation of her mother.
This was her best option, but not her only option. The previous night she’d discovered a message waiting from her mysterious benefactor from long ago.
I will make contact when I can. —F
For the first time in their correspondence, a sliver of identifying information, but nothing that she could act upon. She had to be content to wait for contact and whatever that would entail. In the meantime, she needed to fulfill Ahmed’s request. She needed to wait for the right time. An evening was best when her father was absent, and Sam was usually occupied, and she could sneak around how she liked. Then, at least, she would be in the right room, but what she would do next was up in the air. If she was able to find her mom on the computers, learn how to code when she hadn’t even known how to turn one on, then she could do this. Wherever her mom was, she would find her.
Regina just didn’t know how. She also wasn’t sure if Ahmed knew. He was so cryptic, revealing his story in small doses, so controlled that Regina wondered what he had left out. She had no corroborating evidence for any of his statements except a general sense of truthfulness and the foggy memories of her dreams. It would be so much easier if she could just ask anything about her mother and receive an answer. The previous night, Regina had briefly entertained the idea of asking her grandfather, who surely remembered his daughter-in-law, but the idea was abruptly set aside. If her father was a closed-off figure, he was the opposite, but that made him no more approachable. In fact, Regina found him more intimidating. She knew what her father would respond—he only had twelve three-word phrases that he repeated. Her grandfather was an enigma, for he would refer to something related but entirely distant from the conversation at several points. He was also generally unnerving, with almost clear-blue eyes that had not been passed down to any of his children or grandchildren. Maybe it was because he was the chancellor of the Settlement, and Regina was merely starstruck. She never saw him in a familial sense. She couldn’t remember if he’d ever even visited the Manor. They only visited him in the most formal of senses, whenever her grandfather decided he wanted to be a family. They would take one photo for the press before embarking on the most silent of dinners, even more awkward than bumping into her father on the way to eat alone in the dining room at home.
Regina gazed from her bedroom window down at the many workers milling about their front lawn. The holidays were approaching, all centered around the Settlement’s founding some number of years ago. The parade would be soon, along with all of the pageantry that came along with it. She was not looking forward to the parade—all of the eyes of the crowd on them. It would be different this year, more crowded, since her grandfather had remarried in the spring. Regina was especially not looking forward to sharing a float with her new step-grandmother, whom she had only met a handful of times, but who Regina was convinced was the most vapid person in the whole Settlement. She cared for nothing more than her prize dog, a rarity in the Dome, and demanded the highest quality treatment for the most awful creature. Regina swore she could still see the scratch he’d inflicted upon her at the wedding reception. He had some banal, stupid name like Marshmallow, which Mary Anne didn’t even know the meaning of. It was some sort of dessert popular before the War rationing, but it didn’t exist anymore. Regina thought he deserved a name that more accurately described his personality, like Demon.
Regardless, the workers inside and outside were trying to make the Manor more festive, which Regina thought was an impossible task. Nothing they could do—no amount of decorations could fill the lonely halls. It was strange that with so many people milling about, Regina still felt lonely. She was supposed to be feeling festive. Happy. Relieved. She’d just learned that her mom wasn’t dead. But what she mostly felt was a sinking dread and a deep desire to stay in her room and never leave.
The only thing that cut through the fog in her mind was her conversation with Ahmed, which eventually drove her downstairs to face her fate. She had to appear at Phoenix headquarters eventually, since she knew that Rosalind would track her down if she didn’t. And it seemed like a douchey thing to do, not showing up. That would be exactly what everyone expected her to do. They already thought she was under-qualified and unfairly promoted—both accurate assessments, and Regina didn’t want to give her coworkers another valid reason to hate her.
As she ate her breakfast alone in the informal dining room, she fiddled with her fork and pushed around the eggs.
She imagined another day at Phoenix and was filled with somewhat of a sinking dread. She still wasn’t sure what Rosalind wanted her to do, or why she even wanted her at Phoenix to begin with. Her aunt, more than anyone, should know that Regina wasn’t quite talented at much of anything. She was acceptable; she passed her preliminary education, but she wasn’t the type of student whom her professors would wholeheartedly encourage to pursue further education, utterly convinced by her skills. Of course, all of her professors had said exactly that, except Regina knew they were blinded by her last name rather than her unique talent.
In the car, she stared at Ahmed’s spy, waiting to see if he would talk to her. He didn’t. She still couldn’t get over the fact that he looked so young. Her father preferred to have older drivers, as they tended to be more cautious. This man certainly was not, since he had managed to get involved in Ahmed’s scheme.
When she had gotten home the previous night, Regina had attempted to look up Ahmed Karib within the Settlement news networks. There wasn’t much to find, which she suspected, other than the fact that he was the leader of a worker organization in the Banks, but it was the type of throwaway mention without any real details. She supposed his schemes—and she was sure his schemes went beyond just her mom—were either unknown to the Settlement or very deliberately concealed. Either way, she was sure he was more than just a low-level union leader. He had many people surrounding him the day before in the Banks, and she could tell that he had the air of an important man. He didn’t seem at all deferential to who she was, which was an uncommon occurrence for her.
At Phoenix, Regina tried to walk the hallways like she had some semblance of belonging, hoping that her demeanor only seemed off to her.
She’d returned, a small flicker of hope in her chest, to the lab of the previous day, hoping to find the cheerful Dr. Holban. Instead, she’d found the less-enthusiastic Dr. Mackety, who pretended as though they had never met and told Regina she had no use for her assistance. She’d told Regina to ask around for a job. Everyone in the building was so busy, so important, and she felt like she was constantly wedging herself into a place where she wasn’t needed. When she entered rooms, people looked at her blankly before assigning her a menial task, as if she couldn’t be trusted with real work.
Which was true.
Regina knew she could not do what she should be able to. The only thing she thought she could do better than the average person was use the decrepit computer in the hidden closet in her room, but how was she to explain that?
Carrying papers from room to room, Regina felt a deep discomfort, but she knew she would have the same feeling in her chest if they had given her a real task. What really confused her more than anything was what Rosalind saw in her. She knew Regina’s education. She surely knew that any of her employees were significantly more qualified than Regina.
After a while of shuffling between rooms, the people Regina reported to gradually ran out of tasks for her, avoiding eye contact when she asked for a new assignment. She decided to find her aunt. Hopefully, she would have something for her to do instead of sitting around waiting for the day to end.
She stood outside Rosalind’s door, waiting for the signal to enter. The light at the top of the door was red, indicating that someone was already inside. Regina leaned against the wall, her head cooled by the surface. Phoenix always seemed cold—it was one of those things she’d noticed amidst the immense amount of free time she’d found herself with
Minutes later, a man whose name Regina didn’t know but who had a familiar face walked through the door. He looked shaken, as if he had seen or heard something that nauseated him. In the brief time Regina had been at Phoenix—all of a day and a half—she had seen a taste of Rosalind’s leadership style. What she could surmise from her investigations was that her aunt preferred to lead with fear. It was an effective strategy; the people at Phoenix hustled along as if they would be punished if they didn’t operate at maximum speed. And from what Regina had seen, that wasn’t far from the truth.
Just like the day before, Regina waited, increasingly impatient, outside the door even after she’d knocked. She supposed she shouldn’t take the delay personally. It was clear that Rosalind had much to do—many more responsibilities than Regina, that was for sure. The door was open, but Rosalind was so engrossed in her computer that Regina wondered if she could even see her. And the screen was so large, she probably couldn’t. Sometimes, Regina wondered if it was a family trait that made it easy for her relatives to ignore her. She felt like her father’s eyes glazed over every time that she walked by, like she just blended into the walls. Maybe it was something genetic that made her invisible. She was barely interesting to the people of the Settlement. Her father’s advisors glorified the truth, saying that she was close to being an icon, but never quite there. People were interested in her life, but never enough to truly care. She was just something that happened.
Rosalind finally appeared at the door with a sigh. “Oh, Regina. Thank you for your patience. You are so quiet!”
She gestured for Regina to come in.
“Now that you are all settled in,” Rosalind said, her eyes even now still glancing around the room, ever captured by something more important, “I want to give you a small assignment. We brought on a new employee just today,” she said, placing a photo of a girl around Regina’s age on the table.
“Her name is Myra Laghani, and I want you to keep an eye on her. She is from the Banks, but her exam scores were so excellent that I knew I had to bring her on. She doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to cause trouble, but you never know with those people. She has some relations to troublesome people in the Banks—union leaders, you know, but I met her this morning, and I believe that she will be fine.
“So what should I do?” Regina asked.
“Well, I’ve switched your specialty, so you will be with her all day.” Regina felt her stomach sink. Exactly what she needed. Another person who would most likely hate her, but who she had to follow all day.
“You will be in the weather room still.” Regina prayed that Dr. Holban would return and provide an upside to this otherwise dismal assignment.
Regina stared at the girl and her piercing eyes. She seemed like she could understand someone without even a second look. She was somewhat terrifying, though maybe it was just Regina and her nature to be terrified by almost anything. That was something she really needed to work on, especially since she was currently being recruited by two separate people to do secret missions. Why did everyone think that she could accomplish all these goals?
Part of her was surprised that Rosalind would even trust her with something of this nature. This seemed like something she would entrust to one of the many employees who fawned at her feet. Maybe it was a test. When Rosalind had mentioned the union boss, Regina had tried with all her might to keep her face from changing. There was no possible way that Rosalind could know about all that had transpired in the Banks yesterday, unless she was also keeping tabs on Regina. Maybe this wasn’t just a test for that girl, Myra. Or maybe Regina was just too paranoid.
It was probably the latter.
She was about to agree when there was a knock at the door. Rosalind sighed loudly. “Sorry, Regina, we’ll continue this discussion.” She shouted, “Come in!”
The door opened to reveal the person Regina least expected—Sam.
Rosalind looked up at him, surprised, which she never usually did. Her face was usually devoid of any movement whatsoever. Her lips were pinched at the ends—Regina knew she hated to be interrupted. And Regina also knew that, for some reason, she hated Sam.
Regina didn’t know exactly why. She never knew anything precisely when it came to her family, but there was always a discomfort there that she couldn’t unpack. She sometimes was afraid of her aunt, but there was nowhere near as much animosity between them as there was between Sam and Rosalind.
Since Sam was older than Regina, he’d started working earlier. She knew Regina had offered him a job at Phoenix, and he’d declined in favor of working for her father and becoming his heir. Surely that was too petty to be the reason, since it seemed almost inevitable that Sam would work for the man who had saved his life.
Ever since then, Sam always seemed to dread Rosalind’s visits, and she seemed determined to ignore him in turn, except for a variety of snide comments that Regina’s father was never attuned to and Regina was unwilling to address.
She had tried to ask Sam about it one time, but he’d brushed it off. “There’s nothing to it,” he said, “She has her favorites, and I’m not one of them.”
Sam entered the room hesitantly, glancing around like there were security cameras capturing his every move. Which, there probably were. In fact, Rosalind had alluded to the building’s security when Regina first arrived. She would be surprised if the room wasn’t completely decked out from floor to ceiling.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said to Rosalind, in a way that made it seem as if he wasn’t very sorry at all, “but I need to have a word with Regina in the hallway.”
“Is it necessary?” Rosalind replied, matching his tone.
He narrowed his eyes, glancing over at Regina for the first time. “Yes.”
Rosalind gave a little roll of her eyes. “If you must.”
Regina tried to investigate his expression for some indication of what he was doing here. It was very strange for him to be at Phoenix, and for him to go out of his way to find her. Her heart started to race. What could have happened?
Regina glanced at Rosalind as she sat up. “I’ll be right back.” Rosalind nodded, for the first time meeting her eyes instead of glancing elsewhere in the room.
As soon as they left the office, Sam slid the door closed behind them. He gestured for Regina to move down the hallway.
“Where are we going?” She asked.”
“Just out of earshot.”
“It’s no use. She has cameras everywhere.”
Sam shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Your father had another incident.” He emphasized the word, so Regina understood exactly what he meant. The incident was not unique. In fact, she tried to forget that the incidents were now almost regular.
They never could figure out what caused it. Maybe it was loneliness or seasonal depression or anxiety, but sometimes her father would lock himself in his room and drink himself into a state that would last hours or days. It wasn’t the volume of alcohol—he was a constant drinker—but the aftermath, when his room was demolished, and he would lie on the ground, and no one could wake him up for hours.
Sam’s secrecy was purposeful. No one knew of her father’s incidents except for herself, Sam, and her father’s closest advisor, Gerard. This was partially the reason why his incidents remained undiagnosed and continued to occur, because Sam was insistent that they keep this as hidden as possible. Despite her grandfather running the Settlement, her father had many enemies within the Council. Especially Governor Maverick Levin, whose family was close friends with Royce Richards. The Levins were among the original families who had followed Royce Richards on his journey to the Dome, and they made sure everyone knew it.
Maverick had always been jealous of her father, or so Regina had heard, and dreamed that he could be Royce’s heir instead. With his perfect wife and four kids, as well as endless photo ops, he already maintained a much better image than Russell. It was only the familial connection that kept Regina’s father in his position. If it were made public that he had fits of drunkenness where he destroyed his rooms, his career would be ruined, Sam’s career would be ruined, and even Royce’s prestige would be dented.
Regina turned towards Sam at the end of the hallway. “Give me one moment, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“What are you going to tell her?” He asked.
“We’ll see.” As Regina turned around to head back to Rosalind’s office, she shook her hair with her hands until it was slightly ruffled at the top. She reached for Sam’s water and splashed some of it on the top of her shirt.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, slightly concerned at her erratic behavior.
She chose not to respond, instead knocking on the door of Rosalind’s office.
He moved down the hallway, understanding her plan. “I’ll meet you in the car.”
“Aunt Rosalind,” she said, placing a hand close to her mouth, “I don’t feel very well, so Sam is going to take me home. I think it was something that I ate.”
Rosalind narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t seem otherwise suspicious. The rest of her face seemed perfectly surprised, just as Regina had suspected she would be when she arrived disheveled and perhaps nauseous.
Regina added a small gag, just for good measure. The look of displeasure on Rosalind’s face made her sure she’d sealed the deal. No one wanted vomit in their office, least of all Rosalind Richards.
She raced down the hallway towards the parking garage, almost running into a girl going the opposite direction. Regina was running so fast she couldn’t stop and apologize, even when she saw the girl’s face, hardening with annoyance. She had more important things to do.
Only when she reached the car did she recall the girl and her face.
The same face as the girl in Rosalind’s photo.
Myra Laghani.
Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoyed this latest installment. If you did, leave a like or a comment! If you want more from Writing by Raya, check out my page for short fiction, book reviews, and more. New chapters of PHOENIX drop every Wednesday!