The Few

Staying the night

"Twin thing." They both said in unison.

"Yes, I am illegal." Red said closing her small black book and crossing her leg over the top of the other. "Have you got a problem with that?" She said scowling at them both. 

"God no!" Jet said quickly looking over at her. "Not at all!" She seemed to tense up even though Jet had said they were not bothered by her being in the country illegally. "Is that why you use the American accent when you're out of...wherever here is?" She nodded once and opened the book and started to write. 

"You are in the headquarters of the Underground sect Beta. One of 4 Underground headquarters in this state." Red said not moving her head up from the book. "Any more questions or can we carry on?"

"How long have you been here?" Abi asked.

"In the Underground or America?" Red asked.

"Well both I guess." Red sighed heavily.

"I moved to the States when I was 14, I was here for a year before I was vouched for and brought into the Underground. I have been here for 8 years." She replied.

"You were vouched? Isn't that like really unusual?" Jet asked. Blue nodded and put his pen down. "And Blue how long have you been here?"

"I was in another Underground before I was here. I was brought into the Underground at 19 much like you, similar circumstances in fact. I was in Omega for a year then we were raided, and I got out and got picked up by the Beta sect. I have been here ever since. 6 years." He said smiling. "Best thing I did."

"How did you get here if you were 19? You'd have been active by, then right?" Abi asked. 

"For six months. I spent the whole time trying to trick it to deactivate, I could only get it to deactivate for a small amount of time at a go and then I was inactive for long enough to over the span of a few days, write a program that I would help if I ever found a way out then I could easily set the program off. It took six months, it was hell, literal hell." Blue stood up, "enough about me let’s get you to bed yeah? Its 3am and you two will be exhausted, you two have to get used to working at night more now." He smirked. 

Red stood next to him and picked up the folder and started to walk out the room as they were walking Red passed the folder to a man behind a desk and carried on walking. They got back to the end of the corridor and she called the elevator. She stood with her hands in her pockets and he stood with his arms folded. "Red, Blue?" A young man said running up to them. "Do you want your cover gear sent up to the 18th floor?" 

"Please," Red replied not looking at him but smiling. He ran away quickly towards where they had all come with this the elevator arrived. "After you." She gestured to the open door. The four of them walked into the elevator, "Boss said 10." Red said as Blue pushed the button and the elevator rose. "The first 6 floors are underground literally. After that floors 7 and upward go the other way. so technically floor 7 is the first floor."

"Why?" Abi asked. They both shrugged and looked at each other. The door got to the tenth floor and the doors opened and they were met by a woman. She had long deadlocked white blonde hair and a silver stud running through the bridge of her nose. 

"Ah, Schultz, Jones!" Red quickly grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the back wall of the elevator. “I’m joking!”

“Jokes are funny, you’re not.” Red said, “So do us all a favour Rai and f**k off.” She let her go.

“Getting strong, not bad for only a front-line Techie.” The lady known as Rai said.

“Front-line Techie still higher in the pecking order than a second-grade footman.” Red added quickly.

“Spoken like a true Techie,” The lady called Rai said walking into the corner of the elevator, “If you don’t mind, I am needed on the 21st floor. Oh, and Blue, if you want a change of scenery you know where my room is.” She said as the doors shut.

“She makes me feel genuinely sick,” Blue said almost shivering. “What did Lance see in her?”

“I don’t know total downgrade from the lady he was with before if you ask me.” Red replied.

“Shrink your head Red.” He said pushing her playfully. “Can’t all have been sleeping with the head of foot-man now.” He added.

“No. I think you’ll find I slept with and dumped the head of footmen… 6 years ago…” She said pushing him back. “Cranked the heating in here.” She said rolling her sleeves up to show her lower arms, arms that were completely covered in tattoo’s.

“Lance?” Jet asked, “that’s 5 letters.”

“Yeah, you don’t think our real names are Red and Blue right? We’re all coded.” Red said.

“You did just say Rai’s name, her real name.” Blue said.

“She’s a cunt she doesn’t matter.” He sniggered as she spoke. “We all have code names you’ll get them too.”

“So, what’s your real names?” Abi asked.

“Oh no you’ve not earned that yet.” Blue said laughing. “Hey Bleek? Spare room for new intake?”

“31.” A man with his head in a cupboard said. Blue and Red headed to the room and opened the door.

“So here is your room for the time being. Bathroom is next door, if you need anything ask Bleek out there if you need one of us, he will be in touch. Get some sleep, he will bring you food shortly if your want something to read he will get you near enough anything you want. We will be back in to take you to see the Boss at…” He looked at his watch, “lunch time, ease them into it?”

“Yeah, hope the Boss doesn’t put us on a job tomorrow evening.” She smirked. “First rule you need to know, you will not be told anyone’s real name until you have been given your wings.”

“Wings?” They both said. Both Blue and Red showed their neck tattoo’s. “Oh.”

“When you get them, you can learn about who we are all really.” Blue added running his finger over his.

“I am ready now.” Jet said.

“Your scar needs to fully heal first kid,” Red said, “trust me it hurts enough on the neck over scar tissue let alone if it’s a wound like that.” She added. “It won’t be long though two weeks maybe. Soon after that you will find out where you’re going to fit in here.”

“Fit in?” Abi asked.

“You have skill’s we need to fit you to how you can help the cause the best.” Red continued.

“When do we meet the Prophet?” Jet asked. Red and Blue looked at each other and laughed. “What?”

“Dude I have been working here for nearly 10 years and I have seen him once from a far. Blue has never seen him.” They both looked shocked. The Prophet, the leader of the Few. The one who everyone who works within the Underground movement looks up to almost like he was a God, was hard to meet? “Look he comes into town now and again, but he doesn’t stay long. People like us do not get to meet him; the Boss sure but not us. We may get to see him if we are really lucky but that’s only when he’s on stage.” The Prophet, real name unknown, spread his message via song. A musician that the Underground Radio played a lot, his message was that of individualism and rebellion. Conformists had called him ‘the spark of the fire that will bring the world to its knees.’ The spark that will start a fire within the Few, all the Few needed was the time to set the fire.

“Look we will be back tomorrow, best thing I can suggest is make a list there’s going to be hundreds of questions you’re actually gonna want us to answer, we will or if we can’t the Boss can. Just make a list. We will see you later okay? And Happy Birthday.” Blue said.  

"Oh and Jet," Red threw a packet of cigarettes. "They were in your bag, you must be dying for one now." She said with a shy smirk. The two of them turned and walked towards the elevator together. 

 In the room was two single beds and a nightstand between the two with a touch lamp on top. There was a tablet with access to the internet but would not allow them to gain entrance to any social media, understandably. There was a small trunk with two sets of PJs’ in every size. There was a knock on the door, “Anything to eat or drink?” The voice of Bleek came from behind the door.

“Some water would be great.” Abi responded tentatively.

“Sure.” He replied and the sound of his footsteps walked away. Jet turned to Abi and placed both his hands on his head.

“We did it, Abs.” He said. “We f*****g did it!” He grabbed her and hugged her tight, “we’re out, the chips are gone, and we can be us!” He added.

“How the hell did we manage that?” She was almost in disbelief when she realised that everything, they had planned had come off and they were here, in the headquarters of the Few, where they always wanted to be. It had happened. So much had happened and it was a lot to take in but at the same time it was all so fast it was almost too much to process. “I don’t know if we can trust them though, not yet.”

“Oh god no! I don’t trust Red at all, she’s hot as hell but there is something I don’t trust.” He said laying down on the bed closest to him.

“Oh, she’s your type huh?”

“Oh, come on! You can’t say she’s not smoking hot?” He added smirking.

“Pretty hot yeah.” Abi said, “Did you see the way she went off on Rai?”

“Oh, absolute psychopath but a clear 10.” He said placing his hands around the back of his head. “Blue seems cool though.”

“I don’t know, there’s something he’s hiding. He’s deflecting something and I can’t put my finger on it.” Abi said sitting on the end of the other bed picking up the tablet. “Do you remember what he wrote on our file?”

“God knows what he wrote.”

“Do you think you could spell it?” He fake laughed at what she said, “really very helpful J.”

“I don’t even know what language it was in.”

“I thought it maybe a code.” She said, “but yeah it maybe another language. But what other language would an English woman and an American boy speak in?”

“You’re right, she knew what he put!” Jet said sitting up, “he’s southern a lot of those states still speak French, right?” She nodded and started typing in the tablet.

“England’s unofficial second language is French.” She said, “but I don’t know a person with three letters in their name, knowing another language?”

“We don’t know that she is a three letter, Red isn’t her real name.”

“Come on Jet there is no way in hell she is a four-letter name. Look at her!” She says hurtfully. “Schultz!” Abi said typing, “Rai called one of them Schultz.” She went silent. “German,” she finally said, “Schultz is German.”

“And Jones?”

“English…Do you think?”

“Blue is German? But that would mean…” Jet trailed off.

“He’s illegal too.”