Chapter 46
Over the next few days, Monty and Jones worked hard to crack the codes used to isolate the restricted sections. It turned out that the last President was paranoid, so he password protected even the instruction manuals for the command systems and especially the secret comm system. They pulled in Raven to help them, even then it took three days to figure it out. Once the systems instructions were laid out before them, they delved straight into figuring out the audio aspect of the comm system.
In between searching for it, Jones would pull up images from the mountain and make a screengrab of several people and added their names to give to the Trikru. It would help them recognise who were the true evil people, those who deliberately killed grounders or those who would target the grounders to be taken into the mountain.
Adara was called down when they had figured out the audio and implemented it. They could now hear parts of the mountain. It turned out that the cameras also had a hidden microphone inside them. A small hole was all that was seen of it. Adara walked in to hear Cage talking to Dr. Tsing in Cage's office.
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"We need to find those Ark people, Cage. We need their bone marrow!" said Tsing.
"I know that! I've had patrols roaming all over the last area they were seen!" retorted Cage.
"Well, it seems to me that if you can't find them there, they've moved on."
"We don't know if they have. The cameras around that savage village near there haven't shown anyone entering or leaving who haven't already been identified. We know they were there, we've seen the footage of them arriving, and the footage of them leaving. We know the savages helped them, but even they've been looking for them and can't find them."
"That only proves that they are no longer in the area, Cage. Come on, search where they could be instead of wasting time searching where you know that they aren't," beseeched Tsing. Cage looked at her and pulled up a map on his computer screen.
"Look, this is where they were last seen," he said, pointing to Washington Station. "And this is their projected course," he then pointed toward the south.
"Why wouldn't they move east away from us?"
"Because they can't go much further before they come to the coast. Look," he said, zooming out so Dr. Tsing could see the entire area to the east of the village was very close to the coast and that there were a lot of inlets around that area. The only way they could have gone was south. Tsing used a finger to follow a path.
"North would take them back past the village," she said.
"Yes, and the cameras we have there would have picked them up. Going west would put them on our cameras too. The only way they could have gone is south."
"Can we send our people south?" Tsing said, frowning.
"A little way, but they'd run out of air very soon. The area they've been searching is just about at their limit."
"Shit! We need those kids, Cage."
"I know, we'll find them. They'll turn up sooner or later. Did you know they were sending down kids?" asked Cage.
"No. I only talked to Jaha once. He only said he was sending down prisoners," Tsing said with a sigh. "I didn't think he was that ruthless."
"He'd fit right in here."
"Yes. So where are you looking next?"
"I'll send them south and check around there. I'm not sure where to look next if we can't find them there."
"So now we got that out of the way," said Tsing, taking off the medical coat and reaching up to Cage's tie. "What say you and I have a more physical meeting?"
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"Okay. That's enough. Knock the sound and image off for Cage's office please. I don't want to see a live porn show," said Adara, shuddering at the thought of those two together.
Monty shut off the monitor and shuddered himself, but with him it was different. He was remembering her death. Seeing her alive again was not a nice sight. She was evil through and through.
"So, if Cage orders that their people look elsewhere for us, we still need to be careful until we can disable the cameras around Tondc. If they see us, they'll know we're still around here," Adara told them. Monty was taking screenshots of Dr. Tsing and Cage from the archives they had delved into.
"These photos are ready for Tondc, there's about a dozen main characters that we know of including Dante and Cage Wallace."
"Good. I'll take these to Tondc myself. I need to talk to the Commander about all this. Murphy can find a couple of other guys to help you. I want round the clock surveillance on Mount Weather. I want any orders they give, written down by us. I want to know if anyone of them comes out of the mountain - no matter which direction they take or their orders." Monty and Jones nodded.
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The next morning, Harper led Adara through the passageway all the way to Tondc. She had the photos in her backpack along with several transcriptions of conversations they had overheard throughout the night. Adara had looked through them quickly and one thing jumped out at her. She knew it was something that the Trikru needed to know. It would change how they saw the civilians in the mountain.
It took two and a half hours to get there and Adara was wondering how to speed it up. She wondered if they could use some kind of electric vehicle - if they could find one. They came out onto the platform at Tondc and started up the stairs. The door at the top opened before they got to the top, though. Indra looked down at them climbing up and stepped aside to let them pass.
"You are not quiet coming through the passage. I could hear you coming," Indra said in rebuke.
"I'll send Octavia next time," said Adara. "She quiet enough for you?"
"You are impudent."
"I am a leader," Adara reminded Indra. Indra just turned on her heels and led the way out. She led them through the shadows to the Commander's tent.
"Thank you, Indra," said Adara, in an almost sing-song voice. Lexa looked sharply at Indra who wouldn't meet her gaze. Indra took her position at her Commander's side.
"Welcome," said Lexa. "I'm pleased to see you, Adara."
"Thank you, Commander," Adara said with a bow. Harper and the two others bowed too.
"What is the reason for your visit?"
"We can now listen to the mountain. We've been listening to them since yesterday evening when Monty, Raven and Jones finally cracked the encryption. We have transcripts of what was said and some of the orders to their soldiers." Lexa and Indra were surprised by that.
"You can really hear what they say?" asked Lexa.
"Yes. We've got the upper hand now, Commander. With this technology, we can see and hear them. We will know their orders as soon as they are issued. But that's not all, Commander. We've discovered something." Adara put her pack down and took out some papers. "I know you cannot read yet, so I will read some of the things we've heard. Bear in mind, they do not know that we can see and hear them. These are from the civilians part of the mountain. We've found that they do not know what the military are doing to your people."
"How can they not know!" demanded Indra, outraged at the thought.
"Em pleni!" shouted Lexa at Indra. Indra pulled her anger back and stood to attention at her side.
"What do you mean by that?" Lexa asked.
"The civilians aren't allowed near the military hospital. There is another hospital for the civilians. They've been told that your people volunteer their blood so that their people can live. They believe that your people come to the mountain once a month, give their blood voluntarily and then go back to their village. They do this every month. Each day, about a hundred outsiders - their word - go to the mountain to donate blood. They've been told that the Trikru - I'm using your clan name because I refuse to call you savages as those in charge of the mountain call you - didn't want their people to die out, so they decided to donate. The people in the mountain say prayers to your people for the gift of life you give them."
"Jok!" Indra couldn't help the expletive coming out. Lexa just nodded her agreement.
"They have no idea of the truth of how the clanspeople are treated. They don't know that your people are captured, drained of blood and killed. There is evidence that the people give gifts to the soldiers to give to the clanspeople who gave their blood to them. They have no idea that the soldiers just open the gifts and use those gifts themselves, all the while laughing at the stupidity and gullibility of the civilians." Lexa could no longer keep quiet.
"Are they serious? Do they think we are stupid enough to believe that they don't know?"
"Not everyone remembers, Commander," Adara cautioned.
"Out! Everyone except Adara, get out! Indra, keep them hidden and safe." When everyone else had left, the Commander continued.
"Are you positive about this, because it could be a slaughter, no matter what the clans were told?"
"We're sure. I have some of the transcripts of what was said. After the meeting, I'll read some of it to you, if you like." Lexa nodded.
"Were there any orders or communications for the military?" she asked.
"Yes, we listened to Cage and Tsing - the head healer - and they were discussing us, the Skaikru. Tsing said that Cage should stop focusing on this area because we had apparently moved on. With no trace of us, Cage agreed and they checked maps and decided to move the search to the south. Any movement north or west would put us on their cameras. East and we run into the coastline so they think we've moved south."
"That's good. You can move more freely then."
"Well, no, not really. They still have cameras in the area. Once we know where the cameras are and their range, we can move around a bit. Monty's looking into that right now."
"We really need a way for you to move about above ground. It's quicker overland than underground." said Lexa.
"True, but the only way I can do that is if I look like Trikru. Skaikru clothing sticks out."
"I can get you some clothing, but that's only part of it. To truly look like one of us, you really need long hair and at least one visible tattoo. Let the maunon see those."
"How big a tattoo and where? Is there a special tattoo of a leader?"
"Yes, there is, but it is a big and very visible one. Either on your shoulder like Anya for a village chieftan, one you only see if your shirt is off or on your hand. It's not only for the leaders, but also denotes which clan you belong to. Where that goes is up to you, but it needs to be visible to most people. It's usually put on the face or hands." Adara winced. It would be permanent.
"If I put it on my forehead and curl it around my eye, would that be okay?" Adara said pointing to the left side of her forehead and eye. Lexa looked at her thoughtfully.
"Yes, you can have a design similar to Indra's but one that denotes a leader of a clan without the lines and a little thicker."
"Okay, when?" asked Adara. She didn't want to chicken out so she decided to do it immediately if she could before she changed her mind.
"Now." Adara nodded and they both stood up.
"Follow me," said Lexa.
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The tattoo took several hours and hurt like a son of a bitch. Adara hadn't realised that tattooing over bone was more painful. She endured it though, only wincing a few times. When it was done, the tattooist gave her instructions on how to care for it. Adara thanked her and turned to see Anya there, smirking. She held out her hand to Adara and gave her some Trikru clothing.
"Here, a gift from Heda," Anya said.
"Mochof, Onya," said Adara, taking the clothes from her. Anya smiled at hearing Adara speak like a Trikru clansman.
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Adara emerged from the tent and went into the one that had been set up for the Skaikru to use when they were there.
"Shit, Adara!" exclaimed Harper, "you look like a Trikru clansman!"
"Wouldn't that be a clanswoman?" asked one of the boys. Adara looked at him and explained.
"The word man used to mean an adult person, your gender was irrelevant. So everyone in this tent is technically a man. The way they differentiated was a male was called a 'wereman', - which is where the term werewolf comes from. The females were called 'wifferman' - that's where we get the word wife from. The meaning of the word man was changed in the middle ages, I think."
"Why?" asked Harper.
"Don't really know, that bit wasn't explained enough, but I think it was around the time of the invention of the printing press."
"And that's important, how?"
"Because the first book printed was the Christian bible. There are bits in there that refer to 'man having dominion'. Basically it means that the monks, clerics - whatever they were called - didn't want women to be considered equal to men, so they deliberately changed the meaning. Now it means that adult males are considered better than women. Don't forget that in those times, women were not really people then. They were more like property. Women couldn't have a job, land, money, vote nor have the right to refuse her husband if he wanted sex. The men had the right to beat their wives if they wanted to and nothing would be done about it - it was his right. And a woman was owned by a man - her father, husband, brother, cousin, son. As long as it was a male relative, she was owned."
"Fuck! They really did that?" said the boy.
"Yeah, glad I don't live in those times. I'd hate it." Harper said.
"Me, too," said Adara.
"Okay," said the other boy, "but if the word man meant adult males, what did they call adult females?"
"Oh, they decided to use an old word that meant 'of' and that was 'wo' so they put that together as wo-man. The bible says that the first woman, Eve, was made by God out of one of Adam's ribs. So she is 'of man' - woman."
"That is twisted, man." The boy realised what he had said. "No pun intended."
"Yeah." said Adara before moving on to other things. "You will be given Trikru clothing and Harper and Seth will get their hair braided in Trikru fashion."
"I have to have braids?!" asked Seth.
"Yes, your hair is long enough. Haven't you seen the men here with long hair? They have it braided. Don't worry, all the braids have different meanings. I'm sure that you two will get braids signifying you are scouts. Blake, as your hair is as short as mine, I'm afraid to make you look like a Trikru, you need to get your head shaved."
"What! No way!" said Blake, putting his hands on his head.
"Blake, we need to look like them so we can move above ground easier. The mountain men see us as Trikru, they'll leave us alone. They are not looking for clansmen, they are looking for Arker children."
"But-" Blake started.
"Hey, moron!" said Harper, raising her voice. "Adara got a tattoo to blend in with them. That's permanent. Yours will grow back! Suck it up!" Blake looked at Harper and then at Adara, seeing the tattoo for what it was. A sacrifice to make sure that her people would live free. He didn't know if she had wanted one, but she got one for the good of her people. He realised that he could do no less that get his head shaved. As Harper pointed out, it'd grow back. He nodded his head.
"Good. Someone will be along to sort it out."
"Do you need to shave your head?"
"Not exactly. While it is unusual for women to have short hair, there are some that do, like Indra. I will have to get it cut a bit, though, this style is a bit distinctive, I need to get the top cut down." Adara explained, not liking the fact that she would have to get her hair cut. Social mores on the Ark were basically people had hair. Only those who had gone bald through hair loss were bald. It wasn't the done thing to deliberately cut it all off. Blake would be the first in a long time to deliberately shave it off.
A woman came into the tent and started with Harper, braiding her hair. When it was explained to the woman that they were exploratory scouts of the Skaikru, she gave them their scout braids. After she was done with Harper, she moved on to Seth and then to Blake. After some hesitation on his part, he sat down and closed his eyes while the woman shaved his head. Blake was lucky, his skin tone on his head was almost the same as his body. Good job they hadn't been here long enough to get tanned, otherwise the difference would have been obvious!
Adara was next and explained that she needed her hair on the top of her head, cut to about half its length.
Once done, the others got dressed in the clothes that the woman had brought in. Their Skaikru clothing was packed into their backpacks and left in the tent while they went outside.
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AN: The original meaning of 'man' is true, the meaning of 'woman' is true, the bit in the middle, however, is debatable. Some people think it's true while others have different reasons for the change of meaning.