Tap Sapiens, page 18
part #1 of Reign of Sapiens' Evil Series
“Brandi! Wait!” Danny’s voice came from the other side of the hallway.
Oh no, Brandi thought, and almost let the words slip out of her open mouth. She suddenly felt exhausted, but it was undeniable that the sound of Danny’s voice could really pull at her heartstrings. She had no idea he was at the fort, no one had told her.
Without a word, she walked into her room, but purposely let the door open as an invitation.
“Hello, I … uh, I heard you were sick, and since I’m still around here … I just have to pass by and check on you.”
He was nervous, that much was clear. She couldn’t blame him, based on their last encounter. She gave him a reassuring smile that seemed to appease his nerves slightly.
“I’m a little sick, I won’t lie to you. I feel terrible, but you know … these things happen.”
She was downplaying her situation while he was standing nervously in the middle of the room. He was afraid of sitting beside her and breaking protocol, he was terrified of sitting on her roommate’s bed, and he would have felt utterly ridiculous sitting on the floor. Instead, Brandi mercifully directed him with a hand gesture towards the empty chair in front of her desk. Still, Danny couldn’t find any words to bridge the gap between both of them. Before long, Brandi beat him to it.
“So, I didn’t know you would be here today.”
“Yeah, I actually arrived this morning. I’ll be here for a few days this time.”
Despite herself, Brandi smiled genuinely. “Really?”
“Yes.” he reciprocated her smile, but he was soon fazed by a frown. “I just wish it would be for a better reason.” he said.
“What did you mean?”
“We aren’t doing very well, Brandi. The army’s taken a hit these past few days, weeks even. It’s the strangest streak of bad luck I’ve ever seen.”
Brandi gulped nervously, but the action made her cough as she had been the whole day. Danny jumped to her side, passed her the water bottle that was on her night table and watched anxiously for the moment to pass. When it did, their conversation could have changed, it should have switched to another topic naturally, but Brandi didn’t allow that to happen. She simply had to know, she just needed to.
“What – what did you mean? How bad is it?”
“Bad.” he sighed. “I mean, I’m coming back to the fort to see what I can do. I’m sure I can fix it, whatever it’s going on around here. But, God! You should go outside. It’s crazy out there seriously. I’m not sure what had happened but I must say, people are losing their minds.”
“How so?” Brandi questioned him again, beginning to worry he’d suspect something was amiss. She silently begged herself to refrain from asking anything else.
But Danny was clueless, and yet he openly talked to her without any hesitation.
“I don’t know … our soldiers are … acting strange lately. We haven’t had Privates escaping from the fort in years, I think. But now, they’re leaving almost daily. Everyone wants to go home, everyone is asking odd questions. I don’t understand at all … and outside beyond our fort, people have changed as well. These small-town folks who were severely marginalized before, now they’re joining forces, blocking our roads, burning down factories … it’s downright senseless!”
“Is it?”
The query slipped from her lips before she could have thought of anything about it. Her worry was then so intense that it seemed her own body was trying to stop her from digging her own grave. Again, she was shaken by a coughing fit. This was much worse than the first one. But there was not much they could have done further. Danny patted her back and stared at her with unrestrained, overflowing concern. She was angry at her own body and even after the coughing stopped, she continued to shake her head in frustration.
One thing about Danny that Brandi hadn’t learned yet, was how concerned he was about health, how terrified he was of illness. It was a consequence of the time during his childhood when his father had gotten sick and Danny didn’t understand it at all as to why there was nothing he could do. As a result of his stress, he got to his feet, right in front of Brandi.
“I hope you will get well soon, Brandi. If there’s anything I can do, just …”
“I still think it’s best if we keep our distance, Danny … you know that.” Brandi interrupted him, a hand was holding her head, pointlessly trying to ease her headache or relieve her fever.
“Why?” he asked. “You’ve never even given me a good reason.”
“It’s useless, Danny.”
“Why? We are simply awesome together.” he insisted.
“Danny, you’re the son of the Supremo, of all people! And I’m … I’m …”
Brandi’s voice wavered with a hint of uncertainty between “just a plain Lieutenant” and “cunningly planning a revolution against your father”.
“You don’t have to lie to me anymore.” Danny said in a dejected tone. His words made Brandi’s heart skip a beat. “I remember you.”
“What?” she wondered curiously.
Brandi’s heart begged for a rest, a break from all the emotions, the ups and downs she had been putting it through. But how could she not be terrified. If Danny even had the slightest idea …
“I remember you, a little girl with dark hair, showing too much enthusiasm in her, guiding me through unknown streets during one of the scariest times of my childhood.” Despite the fear he so clearly recalled, still he smiled kindly at her. “I can guess where you came from, Brandi. I know it’s not true the Confederacy had almost eradicated poverty and it bothers you so much but …”
“No, no … you just don’t understand.” Brandi whispered. “And it’s better that you don’t.”
“Brandi, please.”
“Maybe someday?” she asked him.
Then, for the first time, he saw the last of her walls coming down. In those gorgeous hazel eyes, Danny watched the utmost vulnerability in Brandi, the real emotions she felt for him. Her question was sincere, she was asking him for a chance, she was asking him to wait for her. He didn’t understand then, why the need to wait, what for. But he would respect her wish, nonetheless.
“Can you answer me one question?” Danny replied with a question of his own.
His soft voice reached her and very nearly tore her heart out of her chest.
“Anything.” she answered.
“You don’t have to tell me how you feel. Just let me know if it’s the same way I do. Then, I’ll know.”
His request was so unique, so especial. Something Brandi would carry in her heart forever. She couldn’t decide if it was beautiful or heartbreaking, so she settled with both adjectives and the indisputable answer.
“Yes, Danny … I feel the exact same way.”
“Alright.” he gave her a respectful nod and the ghost of a smile. “Then, you know I’m yours. I will wait for you, for as long as it takes.”
“I’m yours, too.” Brandi promised, in a trembling voice that was sure to bring tears at any instant.
With a sad smile, Danny leaned in and picked up her hand. Delicately, he placed a tender kiss on Brandi’s hand and before he left, he promised once again.
“Someday.”
♠ ♥ ♣ ♦
“What do you know about Sapiens Corp. involvement in the army and the Confederacy?”
Brandi wrote that night on a piece of paper, bearing a secret symbol she came to know very well. Twenty four hours later, she was standing in her place on the rooftop, surrounded by her friends while reading the answers she had received that morning.
“Complicated. The Supremo may be a puppet of SC. We don’t have proof yet. Do you?”
“And I have proof.” Brandi declared.
“What?” Abby questioned her impulsively and spoke for the rest.
“I have proof. Tonight, the last paper I left them few hours ago had this exact time and place. If they want proof, if we can help each other, they’ll be coming here any minute now.”
The group remained silent, staring at the floor in concentration or staring at Brandi in bewilderment. Mary, whose gaze was lost in the distance, mouth slightly agape and fingers drumming her thighs, was feeling her mind moving faster than ever.
“What’s going on, Brandi? Have you completely lost your mind?” Cate asked, finally.
That morning, Brandi freaked out silently over the response she had received. Throughout the day, most of her aches lessened by the minute. Her cold and remnants of fever remained, though. Those irksome symptoms were the one main reason why her four friends had been fighting so much to keep her from going to the rooftop alone at midnight. But Brandi was unstoppable. There was no turning back.
When they first arrived at their spot, Brandi and Sara quickly explained the mystery of the secret messages, the questions and answers delivered by some invisible hands. Brandi elucidated the first couple of answers she had received, but then she felt compelled to clarify how she had come up with the idea for her last question.
“Mary, why don’t you tell the rest what was in the folder you had given me the other day?” Brandi suggested, enjoying the suspense a little too much.
“I, uh … I thought it was just some incriminating details about Rodriguez. It was just data concerning the funding of the fort, all the incomes and expenses. It showed that several high-ranking officers have been acquiring, for no reason at all, a big portion of the fort’s incomes. Particularly, since the arrival of Rodriguez, he’s been taking way too much of our money.”
With that, the rest of the girls were already impressed, but Brandi simply wasn’t done there. She turned around to pick up the folder in haste. She then opened and started explaining her discoveries.
“The thing is, you were focusing only on where the money was going. But I was desperate, angry and had nothing better to do that night. I read between the lines, on every page, where was the money coming from?”
“Sapiens Corp.” Mary answered confidently.
“Sapiens Corp.!” Brandi repeated. “It’s everywhere in there!”
She passed the folder and the group flipped through it. Although it contained a lot of information, knowing what they were looking for, it was a straightforward process after all. On every page there were, albeit in the smallest of fonts, the words Sapiens Corporation.
“So, Sapiens Corp. is financing the fort? But that answer you received …” Sara spoke confusedly.
Brandi was pleased to see her eyes glinting in such a way that filled her mind with all sorts of elaborate possibilities of what they could uncover further.
“Sapiens Corp. is financing the entire Confederacy.” Brandi stated openly. “This is not the Supremo’s world. We’re living in the world of Sapiens Corporation, ladies.”
Sara, Cate, Abby and Mary all exchanged incredulous, even somewhat worried looks, considering Brandi might still have a fever, and yet the ecstatic brilliance in her eyes was too close to the fine line of madness. She looked even crazier as she rushed to pick up all the objects, the group had been keeping, scattered around the rooftop.
“Cate. Your lighter says here ‘Made by Sapiens Corp.’ but aren’t they supposed to manufacture only food? The water bottle, made by Sapiens Corp. The magazine, distributed by Sapiens Corp. Even the goddamned history books they’ve been shoving down our throats are all printed by Sapiens Corp.!”
It was undoubtedly impressive, but Brandi could easily sense she still had yet to convince the women in front of her.
“You may think I’m beyond crazy right now, but it’s going to get a lot worse.” she laughed. “Please, look at the note I had received. They wrote ‘a puppet of SC’, maybe they didn’t want to write the whole thing yet … maybe it’s more than that.”
Brandi took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and appear as credible as ever, she would need it.
“The history books, they say ‘Printed by Sapiens Corp.’ but they also mention ‘Approved by SC’. All this time, we’ve assumed that means ‘Supremo of the Confederacy’, but what if it isn’t at all? All these products, they say ‘Made by SC.’, ‘Produced by SC.’, ‘Distributed by SC.’ or ‘An SC product.’ …”
“Fuck!” Abby exclaimed and astounded everyone around her. “ASC! Are we the Army of Sapiens Corp.?!”
If the group hadn’t been speechless before, then surely they were now. The idea of not having a clue of who they had been working for, was utterly terrifying. If that was how the world worked, well, they no longer knew what world they were living in. Brandi continued talking in a much more reserved tone.
“It is convenient to believe we are given everything by the Supremo, but is it even possible?” Brandi made a pause, she was nervous but her sense of duty impelled her to deliver one last crushing blow to her small audience. “Here’s the final proof. It reveals itself …”
With one hand, Brandi showed a can of soup she had taken from the very first sabotaged mission. The label clearly said “Made by Sapiens Corp.” while her other hand was pointing at a fine print at the bottom of the label. “An SC product, exclusively ordered for the Supremo of the Confederacy.”
“A Sapiens Corp. product …” Mary whispered.
“Made for the Supremo …” Sara continued.
“Two separate beings.” Cate stated.
“One intrinsic evil.” Abby completed.
Brandi finally let out the breath she had been holding. She wasn’t crazy, there was the proof and consequently, she effectively convinced them four other humans. There was no denying then that everything around them, everything they had been consuming was created by the hands of Sapiens Corporation and delivered under the façade of the benevolent Supremo of the Confederacy. It was all a big, fat lie.
“And that’s not even the worst part.”
That was a masculine voice.
The girls were all stunned for a moment, dropped whatever they had been holding and hurriedly turned around.
He had been in the darkness, leaning against the frame of the broken door. He began walking towards them before long with his hands raised in submission.
“Brandi Perry, are you really prepared to give battle for your ideals?” asked Colonel Louis Evans.
CHAPTER
15
“It’s like a hypersonic railgun, propelling us into the future we have ever dreamed of. Just what you’ve always wanted.”
B RANDI’S SICKNESS was alleviated considerably. The fever stopped, the cough disappeared and she didn’t feel the need to throw up again. She only carried the slight remnants of a cold. She was exhausted, drained physically and emotionally. That was the reason she was sleeping so soundly that night. Truly making the most of the rest hours she was entitled to. After waking up, she would amusedly imagine future conversations when her friends would complain that she, out of them all, was the only one who had a decent amount of sleep that night.
Her slumber was interrupted by Sara.
“Brandi … come on, wake up. Brandi … seriously, now.” Sara whispered.
Much to Brandi’s dismay, it seemed inhumane that anyone would expect her to wake up, she felt weighed down like a rock falling into the water of sweet unconsciousness. But Sara wouldn’t yield. She started lightly shaking Brandi’s body while waving a small piece of paper in front of her face until she could fully open her eyes.
“Babe, it’s time to make your getaway.” Sara said with a smile and her eyes full of emotions. “You have to hide, Brandi.”
That could surely wake anybody up, couldn’t it? Brandi sat up hastily and looked at the paper. On one side, there was this Louis’ characteristic symbol while on the other, there were these red words that seemed to scream through her head, “They’ll be coming after you! Meet me here …” along with the specific directions as planned.
♠ ♥ ♣ ♦
Early that day, their plan began dead on time. Brandi dejectedly made her way to the infirmary – a place where she could raise no suspicions at all. She was kindly guided by Sara – playing the role of an attentive roommate and nothing else. Cate, Abby and Mary spent their day in separate activities, unassuming duties and discreet tasks. No military operations were left at Fort SC1902 that day. But if the soldiers were to gather in the middle of the assembly ground, it would be so obvious, almost perceptible by all their senses, the tension of the monumental series of missions that were set to develop that night.
That evident dread in the air became even clearer as the hours passed by. A few handfuls of soldiers showed up nearby a room where they would receive their mail as usual after patiently waiting the whole morning while some of them even skipped breakfast, but the doors just wouldn’t open. Some random Sergeant was sent there to convey a message that the fort didn’t receive any mail at all that morning. But their eyes roamed over his face in disbelief. When a Lieutenant attempted the same chore, he was physically manhandled. A group of Privates arrived to shout at the top of their lungs after having seen the truck that delivered the correspondence, parked in one of the designated spots for officers. Soldiers of all ranks started an uproar, demanding answers and threatening to kick down the doors that separated them from their uncensored letters. Brandi was innocently taking a nap.
A little after noon, the fort was startled by the arrival of three army jeeps, coming from the South at full speed. They were received worriedly. The jeeps carried a platoon of disoriented soldiers that had escaped from the nearest fort. It was the first time, a military fort had been ambushed since the Confederacy was founded. It was true what Danny had said. Resilient townsmen were defying death and joining forces against the greater evil. Soon, it was just a matter of time until the people realized who exactly that was.
