Clearly, the president’s plan to make people think I wasted her time has been successful.
While I know the papers are not part of a real assignment, I choose to organize them anyway. If nothing else, having something tangible to focus on keeps me from worrying about the president’s meeting with Symon. I assign areas of the table and nearby floor to the city and each of the colonies. Then I pick up the first stack of papers and get to work. Not surprisingly, since Tosu City was the only established concentration of people for the first twenty years after the United Commonwealth was founded, most University graduates have come from the city. Although, looking at the paperwork, I can see that there were fewer students at the start than there are now. Probably because more people were needed then for the physical labor involved in restoring the city.
As the first colony, Shawnee has the next largest concentration, immediately followed in number by Omaha, Amarillo, and Ames. Not surprisingly, the space I reserved for my own colony sits empty for a long time before I find the first student from eighteen years ago. Seven years after Five Lakes was created.
Dreu Owens.
Magistrate Owens’s son? My father once said she had a child but that he was no longer with us. I assumed he meant that the child had died. Instead, he was selected for The Testing and survived to attend the University. According to this file, he studied Biological Engineering and was assigned an internship with a research team working on techniques designed to reverse mutations in plants and animals. Putting the paper in the section I designated for Five Lakes, I wonder what job he was assigned after he graduated and if he is still in Tosu.
The stack of unsorted papers grows smaller as I continue my work. I am starting on the last stack when President Collindar walks in holding a gray folder. Gone is the muted sense of concern I saw when she left to meet with Symon. In its place are strength and confidence.
I scramble to my feet as she says, “I apologize for the delay. Symon had a number of thoughts on this week’s activities. Letting him talk gave me time to come up with a plan.” She crosses the room to the table where I sit, looks directly at me, and says, “I cannot cancel the Debate Chamber vote. Not without raising Jedidiah’s and Symon’s suspicions. But tomorrow morning a member of my staff will be reported as missing. No one will question a postponement while my team dedicates all its resources to finding him. I believe Symon will outwardly applaud the decision, all the while sowing dissention among the rebel factions and pushing them to schedule an attack. I can convince them to hold off while we search for Michal. If I am lucky, I might be able to postpone their actions for a week. I only hope it will be long enough.”
“For what?” I ask.
“I thought that would be obvious,” she says. “There is no choice. We must carry out the rebels’ plan to end The Testing.”
For a moment I am speechless as her meaning hits home. “The rebels were going to start a war.”
“That has never been the intention,” she says. “The plan is for the rebels to coordinate the elimination of specific targets. The loss of life will be limited to those threats marked for termination. Of course, when violence is employed as a tool, there is always a chance of unexpected casualties. But those involved in creating this plan worked to design a blueprint that would limit losses as much as possible.”
Strategic targets. Termination. Tools. Blueprint. Clean words for the bloodletting they imply.
She opens the folder she is carrying, pulls out a piece of paper, and hands it to me. On it are eleven names. The first is Dr. Jedidiah Barnes. Professor Verna Holt is also on the list, as are Professor Douglas Lee and a man named Rychard Jeffries—whom I am almost certain is Raffe’s father. Just holding the sheet of paper makes my pulse race and my palms start to sweat.
President Collindar doesn’t appear to notice my discomfort as she explains, “The direction of The Testing and the University is headed by a select group led by Dr. Barnes. They are members of the University, officials in key government positions, and research scientists whose work has been used by Dr. Barnes to benefit The Testing. All of the people listed have enough influence and authority to retain control of the University and Testing programs even if Jedidiah is removed from the equation. Symon helped create this document, so there is a chance it is flawed, but I believe the plan is still valid.”
“You want to murder Dr. Barnes and his top administrators?”
“No.”
I let out a sigh of relief as President Collindar reaches over, takes the paper from me, and slides it back into the gray folder. “I’m not going to kill Dr. Barnes and his followers.” She places the folder in my hand. “You are.”
Chapter 3