City of Refuge

Siren and Fletcher stood outside her old house. It had been months since she was dragged out by Reapers and taken to General Grant’s research compound.

Coming home had a very strange ring to it. It felt like putting on an old pair of pants that didn’t fit anymore.

Although they had changed immensely, the Meridian Capitol had stayed the same.

Siren looked around and took a deep breath. The glass and titanium dome around their city shielded them from the ocean’s pressure and predators. Schools of fish swam by, leaving shadows on the ocean floor.

Of course the damage to Atlantis itself was immense. She and her cousin had been sent back to be ambassadors on behalf of Hebron, the refuge city they had fled to in order to find sanctuary from the Meridian dictator General Morgan Grant. Now it was their job to see the city restored.

“Ready?” Fletcher asked her in a quiet voice.

She shook her head. “You?”

“Nope.”He dug the toe of his shoe in the dirt. “But we have to move forward anyways.”

Siren pressed her hand to the middle of the door. It scanned her prints and slid out of the way.

Stale air hit her nose as she stepped into the airlock system. It was useless tech, but she loved it for aesthetic reasons.

The next door opened just like the last.

Her home was dark, dusty. Her plants had died and dishes were left in the sink which surprisingly sprouted a little algae farm. It was the only thing living in the house.

Siren began to cry. She looked at her cousin who also had tears in his eyes.

“Cora used to study right there,” she pointed to the kitchen table. “I keep thinking I’m going to hear her running through the house or that she’s going to walk through the front door.”

Fletcher’s hands trembled. “I was looking forward to bantering with her and conspiring pranks. But I forgot...” his voice trailed off.

Anger bubbled inside her and she shoved a kitchen chair to the floor.

“Who shoots a thirteen year-old! Huh? How can you just decide if someone's life is expendable based on their test scores?”

“Siren,” Fletcher said, calmly.

“She was supposed to outlive all of us!”

She turned to grab a dish but Fletcher grabbed her arms. “Stop! We have to do better. That’s why we’re ambassadors now. We bore the brunt of injustice, but now we make the changes.”

Siren’s shoulders drooped. “We can change everything we want, but it won’t bring my sister back.”

Fletcher shook his head. “No, but we can make sure that another family doesn’t lose someone they love.”

Siren gave her cousin a hug. He was right.

After a few moments, she wiped her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Let’s start cleaning. Kade and Vega are going to get here tomorrow.”

Her heart leapt when she said his name. After everything she had put him through, Kade still wanted to be with her.

“I saw that smile by the way,” Fletcher teased as he found a broom.

Siren decided to ignore him and picked up the chair.

The two of them spent the entire day cleaning until everything was spotless. Being the perfectionist that she is, Siren triple checked the house for dust.

“You’re going again?” Fletcher huffed. “Well, I’m done for the night. It’s time to sit and chill.” He plopped down on the couch and a dust bunny scurried across the floor.

“This is why I’m checking again,” Siren said, showing him the massive ball of dust she had picked up, then turned towards the kitchen.

Fletcher propped up his feet and started checking his bank account on his tablet. Being arrested and sent to a concentration camp also meant having his account frozen. It needed to be restored now that he was back home.

“Can you bring me some water?” Fletcher called out to Siren.

“You have legs, you know.”

“Yeah, but you’re already there.”

Fletcher heard water filling a glass. A moment later, he was sipping ice cold water and catching up on all he missed while sitting on a comfy couch in a temperature controlled environment. What a luxury! He hadn’t been this comfortable in months!

And then it was gone.

Fletcher choked and spit water all over the floor.

“Seriously?” Siren whined, “We just cleaned this place.”

Fletcher’s eyes were wide as he hacked up the water in his throat.

Siren just stared at him unsure of what to do. She had run into battle, taken a couple of bullets, endured intense training and grieved her immediate family. Yet, she had no idea how to help her cousin.

She settled for roughly patting him on the back. “What happened?”

Fletcher gasped, “I almost died!”

“That’s a tad dramatic.”

He shoved his tablet into her hands. “Look!”

Siren just about died.

She shouted curses and jumped to her feet. “Twenty THOUSAND cowries? Where the heck have you been hiding this money, Fletcher?”

He shook his head, finally regaining control of his breaths. “It was just there! It was posted 3 hours ago.”

“What?” She felt as if a rock had dropped into her stomach.

“Yeah! See?” Fletcher came to where she stood and pointed at the deposit.

Sure enough, he was right. The name attached to the deposit was obscure, just a bunch of numbers and letters.

X5492RZ7H

“Is that an account number?” She asked him, her eyes glued to the screen.

“No idea,” his voice seemed far off.

Siren shook out of it. “This has to be a mistake. We’ve been gone for months. We haven’t done anything except trying to not die.”

She handed Fletcher back his tablet. She had to reach slightly up since there was such a big height difference between the two of them.

“Tomorrow before Kade and Vega get here, we’ll go to the bank and get it all sorted out. It should be open by now.” She bounced her leg anxiously.

Fletcher nodded his head. “Do you think that Grant’s regime is paying us back for all the stuff he put us through?”

“That’s very unlikely. We’ll find out soon, though.” Siren couldn’t bring herself to actually say her fears out loud. It couldn't be happening. There was no way. But deep down inside, she knew the reality.

They were being watched again.

The next afternoon, they set out to the bank.

Closed. Definitely closed.

The windows were smashed in and two by four planks littered the floor. The ceiling had caved in and a thick layer of dust coated everything. It looked as if it had been closed for a long time.

Fletcher smacked his lips. “I forgot that they were renovating. They started right before I was arrested.”

Siren stared at him. He didn’t talk much about what happened before she found him at that camp. She was scared it would eat him alive.

He caught her staring. “I signed off on it, you know.”

For a moment she thought he was talking about getting beaten and starved everyday.

“I translated the document for the owner of the bank, Mr. Fischer. The contractor he hired was from out of town. He spoke Japanese, so naturally the entire contract was in Japanese.”

Siren was confused. “When did you learn Japanese?”

“In school, way back then.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Always full of surprises, huh?”

Fletcher just gave her a smirk. “C’mon, Kade and Vega are probably already at the house.”

And, of course, he was right. They nervously stood outside the old and pointless airlock system.

Fletcher spread open his arms. “Welcome! Mi casa es su casa.”

“You know Spanish, too?” Siren asked.

“I learned a lot of languages when you lost your hearing, cousin. Now that you can hear again, you’re hearing all the languages I speak.”

The group of friends exchanged greetings but Kade and Siren’s hug lingered just a touch longer.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“Me too,” Kade replied and stared at her, taking her in.

His eyes were as blue as the water surrounding the city. Maybe that’s why she had been drawn to them; they reminded her of home.

Once inside, they settled into the living room. Vega took the armchair, Fletcher sat on the floor and Siren and Kade found spots on the couch. They made small talk but the air was thick.

“Spill it,” Vega finally said.

“Huh?” Siren asked.

“There’s something going on. Fletcher isn’t himself - cracking jokes and smiles. And you,” Vega pointed at Siren, “have hardly said a word to Kade even though he’s been next to you. So… spill it.”

Siren took a deep breath and exchanged a look with Fletcher. He wiped his palms on his pants.

“So…” Siren started.

“Twenty thousand cowries were mysteriously deposited to my account yesterday.” Fletcher blurred out in one breath.

Vega and Kade tensed and exchanged looks.

“What?” Siren asked with wide eyes.

“Twenty thousand?” Kade asked

She nodded.

Vega went to her back pack, pulled out a small black book and plopped it onto the coffee table.

“When I went to my cabin back in Hebron, I found this on my bed.”

“It’s not yours?” Siren asked her.

“No, it has Misty’s handwriting.”

Siren looked at her in shock.

“She didn’t log her research into the database all the other researchers used.” Vega explained. “She used this book.”

“She didn’t want Grant to know.” Siren guessed, “but know what?”

“I’m not sure. But she had twenty thousand cowries saved up for this project. She’s been bouncing it around from account to account, hiding it from Grant.”

“Show them the code.” Kade suggested.

Vega looked through the pages. “This code is riddled throughout the book. I think it’s the name of the project she was working on.”

When the book was extended to her, Siren took it. Her face went white.

“Fletcher, look.” Siren said.

Fletcher came to look down at the journal over her shoulder. His mouth dropped open. The page was titled X5492RZ7H.

The same code used to name the deposit in his account.

They told their friends what happened when they arrived home the night before.

“Something else was going on while we were all trying to get to Hebron.” Kade thought out loud, putting his hand in his chin.

“And Misty wants us to know about it.” Fletcher said. “But why deposit the money to my account? Why not Vega’s?”

Vega scoffed. “I don’t have a bank account. On the surface, those things are long gone.”

Siren cleared her throat. “She couldn't deposit it to mine because Grant was keeping his eye on me closely.”

“Cowries don’t transfer over to credits. She needed someone here in Atlantis.” Kade concluded. “Fletcher was the obvious choice.”

Fletcher nodded. “Now it’s just a question of what she was up to.”

All eyes turned to Vega.

“You think I know something you don’t?”

“You were best friends,” Siren mused. “Did she tell you about any of her research?”

Vega shook her head. “You were in her lab more than I was. Did you see anything?”

“I hated that place. I was only there as long as I had to be.” Siren said.

She had been subjected to endure scientific enhancements on a cellular level in order to spy on the Tellurians. Naturally, she had to look like them, speak like them, and fight like them in order to pass as one of them.

She sighed. “We need to check out her lab. We need to know what she was doing.”

Fletcher held up the book. “Let’s follow the trail of breadcrumbs.”

Kade stood up and stretched. “Tomorrow, okay? Today we prepare and rest. If we go down this trail, who knows where we’ll end up?”

They all agreed.

Siren looked around the house she just returned to. She had a feeling it would be a while before she came back home.