Chapter 28
We don't have many floors to go down yet the descent in the lift seems to take hours. Once the doors had closed I diverted my gaze to the electronic device implanted in one of the lifts walls watching the numbers count down as we descend floor after floor. Halfway through I am vaguely aware that Peeta takes my hand in his yet I do not take my eyes off of the device in the wall.
The lift comes to a steady halt and the doors open on a long hallway "follow me please" Plutarch says with a bleak emotion before striding out of the lift and down the hall. Peeta and I follow suit, our fingers still locked firmly together.
We reach the end of the hallway and come face-to-face with a large metal door. Plutarch walks over to the left side of the door and only then do I realise that there is a small electronic device complete with a keypad of numbers on the left hand wall. Looking over Plutarch's shoulder I notice that every time he pushes a number only an X appears on the screen, moments later 'CODE ACCEPTED' appears and the door clicks open slightly.
Both Peeta and I walk through the door after Plutarch and after we are a fair distance away from the door I glance back over my shoulder to see it click firmly shut. Turning back around I notice we are in a metallic looking room as all the walls are silver painted with rows upon rows of equipment and weapons hung on them. Looking around a muffled "wow" escapes from my lips and I hear Peeta chuckle beside me, turning to face him he gives me a warm smile which I happily return.
"BEETEE!" Plutarch's loud voice rings suddenly in my ear, making me flinch "Beetee!" he calls again. Turning my head towards the sound of oncoming footsteps I see a small man with dark skin appear from behind one of the walls "you called sir?" he asks formally, his eyes focused on Plutarch, not even glancing in the direction of Peeta and I once. "I have with me Miss Everdeen and Mister Mellark" he says while gesturing towards us with his arm extended, at this point Beetee turns towards us with a warm smile "nice to meet you" he says, we nod and he directs his attention back onto Plutarch.
"They're here to get there trackers fitted, see to it that they do" he explains towards Beetee, Beetee only nods and Plutarch turns towards me and Peeta "I will leave you with Beetee now and remember straight back to floor 3" his eyes are locked on mine for the last part and they stay there for a good second or more after he has finished talking, once he finally looks away I swallow. "Beetee" he says while nodding, Beetee nods in return. Finally he walks back out of the door we just came through.
"Well..." Beetee says while clapping his hands together "You are both here for your trackers, right?" his voice has turned from formal to friendly, we nod. Looking directly at me he says "Do you mind if I call you both by your first names?, rather than Miss this and Mister that as I find that a bit to formal for my liking" he says "and beside Plutarch is gone so it can be our little secret" he whispers making me laugh "I don't mind" I say before turning to Peeta "do you?" I ask, Peeta shakes his head "not at all" he replies.
"Well that's settled then" Beetee exclaims "Katniss, if you would like to follow me we will get you fitted with your tracker first and Peeta we will get you fitted second so if you would like to stay here and...Look around I suppose" he says extending his hand to show me the direction he wants me to walk and I begin to move but Peeta grabs my wrist.
"Wait!" he says making both me and Beetee turn to face him, his eyes flick over both of our faces "Wherever Katniss goes I go" he says sternly while looking at Beetee. Peeta hand moves down my arm to my hand where he locks our fingers together, Beetee's eyes follow the movement of his hand before looking back up at us, he raises his eyebrows "I see how it is" he says while winking at me, I blush and look at the floor "come on then, I suppose it would be easier to explain everything to both of you together rather than each of you in turn anyway" he tell us before turning around and saying "follow me please".
We walk close behind him, our hand still entwined and occasionally sneaking glances at each other. Every so often Peeta with squeeze my hand I will squeeze his back as we walk down various hallways which all come off that one metallic room I would be so easy to get lost in a place like this I think to myself.
We finally walk through a door and enter a fairly large room with a long metal table in the middle, much like the one I sat at last time I was here, Beetee tells us to sit in here "If you two would like to make yourselves comfy, I am going to get you trackers and then I will be back" he says before disappearing out of the door.
We sit down on two of the many chairs around this table, taking in its appearance I would presume it is the sort of room in which meetings are held. Peeta turns to me and pulls me in for a hug "Beetee seems nice" he says and I wrap my arms around his neck "yeah he does" I reply "Too bad Plutarch doesn't" I say making both of us chuckle. I pull out of Peeta hold and he does the same "are you okay?" he asks "yeah fine, are you?" I ask back and he sighs "Katniss, you know that is not what I meant" he tell me "I meant, are you okay with being here?" he asks again and I nod, offering Peeta a smile to prove I am okay, he returns the smile "I'm glad" he says.
The door opens once more and Beetee re-appears through it carrying too small metal rings in one hand and two small remote's in the other. He sets both the metal rings and the remotess in front of me and Peeta before pulls up a chair of his own next to me and sitting down on it.
"Okay" he starts while grabbing one of the metal rings "these are you trackers, I designed them myself" he smiles down proudly at the tracker, which he is fiddling with, in his hands "I designed then to be comfortable against your skin and to have a middle-range tracking sensor, meaning we can track your whereabouts as far as the District 12 boarders but after that the tracking sensor will become out of range and we will not be able to find you if he were to find you" he explains, stressing out the word 'he'.
"For this exact reason, we will presume that if you do go out of range it will be because he has somehow managed to capture you and you have not been able to press your remote in time, I will explain how that works in a moment, therefore if there is any reason you are going to go out of District 12" he pauses and looks at Peeta "maybe with you family" he says and then he looks at me "or with your uncle, we strongly suggest you contact us to tell us this" I nod and I sense Peeta does to.
"Right now Katniss" his attention is directly on me now "you have a choice, would you like this device attached to you arm or ankle? I would recommend your ankle as it is easier to hide and will not get in the way as much but it is purely your decision" he says and I think for a moment taking in what he has just said "Err...ankle please" I reply and he smiles "Okay, lift you leg then" he says and I lift up my right leg which Beetee then takes and rests on his lap, using both of his hand he unlatches the device and puts it around my ankle before snapping it shut again.
He takes my leg off of his lap and puts it back on the floor "how does that feel? Too tight, too lose?" he asks and I wiggle my ankle around a bit "no, it's fine" I say and he smiles and scoots his chair over so he is beside Peeta "okay your turn Peeta" he says and Peeta smiles "arm of ankle?" he asks and Peeta wastes no time in answering with "ankle" once Peeta's tracker is secure like mine Beetee reaches for the remotes and give then to both of us.
Holding mine in the palm of my right hand I notice it only consists of one large red button "now" Beetee says making both mine and Peeta's attention turn back to him "as for you remote it is rather simple" he states "if you do find yourself in a situation where you have come into contact with him and it his is trying to, in essence kill you" he says bluntly "all you have to do is click this button and a signal will be sent here-" here pauses while getting up and going over to one of the computers which is in the room.
While he is typing he waves us over with one hand, both me and Peeta get up and stand behind him, looking inquisitively at the computer screen. A map appears on the screen showing the whole of district twelve in quite remarkable detail "Katniss, if I may have your remote please" he says while extending his hand over his shoulder, I place my remote in the palm of his hand and his finger wrap around it "You see if this button is pressed-" he pauses once more to press the button and immediately after it is pressed a large red flashing dot appears in one area of District 12 and a few seconds after an alarm sounds in the room we are standing in "this alarm will sound all over this floor" Beetee shouts over the sound of the incredibly loud alarm "and this is your location" he shouts pointing to the red flashing dot.
Beetee types a few buttons of the keyboard and the alarm stop, however the red dot is still on the screen "we have staff working here all throughout the day and night therefore whatever time of day it is don't worry about having to press that button" he tells us and we nod. He continues "also if you, Katniss, would now look at your tracker you will see a small red light has been lit" looking down at my ankle I can clearly see the red light "I can see it" I tell Beetee and he continues "this is an indication to you that you have successfully pressed the button and someone here has received the signal".
"After we have received the signal a group of half a dozen peacekeeper will be sent straight to your location, in fact they would probably be in this room with us now if I hadn't told then this was just a test practice" he jokes making us laugh.
Beetee swivels around to face us "well, that's about it, any questions?" he asks and I shake my head but Peeta speaks up "Erm, how do we take the tracker off, you know for showers and stuff?" he asks an important question which hadn't even crossed my mind "Oh yes" Beetee says as if remembering something "your trackers and completely water resistance, you could drop them in the sea and they would still register your location" we laugh again "so there will be no need to take them off for a shower, or if you do swimming etcetera" he says and Peeta nods.
"Anything else?" Beetee asks and this time we both shake our heads "well then you are free you go and I will escort you back to the lift" he says while getting up out of his chair. He extends his hand for us to shake and we both do "I was nice meeting you both and if you have any trouble with your trackers or you think of any questions feel free to call the main reception and ask for me, I almost always here anyway" he tell us and we smile and nod "thank you" I say and he smiles at me "it's no problem" he says.
Soon enough we are back at the lift door and telling Beetee our goodbyes before the doors close in front of us.
A/N - Hello:-)! Right first off, for the small description of Beetee's appearence I couldn't find a description of him in the book -trust me I looked for ages, haha! So I went via the actor playing him, I hope you don't mind! Anyway, I also am going to extend my updating time to 1-2weeks, once again I hope you don't mind! But yay long chapter!
As always please REVIEW it means a lot:-)! Thank you!
-WordsOfWonder.
