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Chapter 3
Gale's POV
I hate being in the capitol. It reminds me of President Snow. Even though it has been a few years since the war ended, I still can't get over the feeling of pure hatred whenever I enter the city. I have to remind myself that it is part of my job as Head Peacekeeper to have monthly trips to the Capitol. The peacekeepers have a new logo now, to separate them from the prewar peacekeepers. Instead of the traditional Capitol seal, a golden mockingjay now stands over my heart. Katniss is the reason that we are free today. I know she doesn't really see that, but she is. I know that she has horrible memories about the games, so I think it is good that she is going to see Annie and Finn. I saw her note yesterday morning after I woke up. It is so like her to leave without saying goodbye. I wish that she would talk to me about what's on her mind. I want her to look at me the way that she looked at him. I mean it has been 3 years and we are living together, yet she still doesn't see me the way I want her to.
I step off the platform at the train station and make my way through the crowds of people. I look at the time on my communicuff; I have to hurry if I want to make it to the justice building on time for my 10:00 am meeting. I run up the steps to the tall, glass and marble building before me. The Capitol seal on the front of the building has also been replaced by a golden mockingjay and I smile when I see it.
I rush through the doors and quickly scan my communicuff and wave to security, before running to the elevators. Once inside, I have to scan my communicuff again, proving that I have the clearance necessary to go to sub-level 2. The red light by the scanner turns green and the elevator begins to sink below the building. The doors slide open and I am met by the noise of people walking and talking in a hurry. Voices are giving commands and people are analyzing many holographic video feeds. I step out of the elevator, turn the corner, and walk to the conference room, saying hello to a few people I know along the way. Thank goodness I made it here in time. I take a seat at the long oval table next to Thom - another member of my squadron - just as President Paylor makes her way to the head of the table.
The meeting goes by quickly with the normal updates about every district. My ears perk up when I hear about District 12, but nothing else is new, aside from the continuation of the rebuilding process. Paylor closes the meeting with a curt nod and we are dismissed until next month. Before I leave, I want to go to the surveillance room so that I can see District 12. Now that I am a peacekeeper, I rarely travel to District 12 and I hardly ever see my family. I still get a call once a week from mom, but I miss the woods there. The ones in District 2 aren't the same. Mom told me last time that Rory wants to be a peacekeeper when he is old enough and he will be next year.
I walk out of the room and turn down the hall, away from the direction I had come. Where is that room? It's down here somewhere. I've only been there twice before, but I haven't been in a long time. I make a right down another hall, then a left at the end of it. I keep walk, hoping that I will stumble upon it eventually. I'm definitely not in the right place. I am about to turn back when I hear voices coming from the end of the hall. Maybe I'm in the right place after all. I see two peacekeepers come around the corner at the end of the hall and make their way towards me. They seem to be around my age as far as I can tell, one slightly taller than the other.
My communicuff begins to vibrate, alerting me that I have an incoming message. It's from the president, this can't be good, we just met with her. I stop in the hall and bring my wrist to my ear. I listen as the two peacekeepers walk by. Something about the taller of the two's voice reminds me of someone, but I can't place who.
Wait... did I hear that correctly, a code 323? No, it can't be. That hasn't happened since the war. A 323 is a security breach at the Presidential Palace. I am about to press the button that replays the message, when my ears tune in to the sound of one of the peacekeepers receding footsteps. I would recognize the uneven sound anywhere. It is distinctly... Peeta. I turn around quickly, only to see an empty corridor. Geez, I must be going crazy. It must just be my hunting senses running in overdrive. He's dead, I remind myself. There's no way.
I shake my head and refocus on the task at hand. Quickly, I make my way back to the main room. I don't see the two peacekeepers on my way. People are scrambling about, trying to figure out what happened and resolve it as fast as possible. Betee, the head of the peacekeepers, orders Squadron 1 and 2 to go to the palace and report back anything they find. I am the head of Squadron 2, so I gather my group and we head to the palace about five minutes away.
We arrive at the palace and my stomach drops. All I can think about is sweet, little Prim's face. Her face still haunts my dreams. Katniss still hasn't completely forgiven me for what happened to her, but she has accepted it. I think. I've learned that it is better not to talk about it.
There is a group of people standing at the entrance to the palace. They must be people who work there. I walk up to the man that seems to be in charge. He introduces himself as Sterling and shakes my hand.
"Commander Hawthorne." I reply, then ask, "What happened? We need all of the information that you have on the situation so that we can proceed accordingly."
Sterling nods
"I am the head of security here at the Palace. This is part of my security team, the rest are inside." He gestures to the group of men and women around him. "Follow me to the security and surveillance room."
He begins to walk through the gates towards the palace and I follow him, signaling for the rest of the peacekeepers to follow suit. The peacekeepers and workers follow us close behind. Thankfully it seems that everyone has been able to keep this under the radar. No civilians are crowding around the property. As we make our way inside the building, I take note of everyone and everything around me, looking for anything suspicious.
I see two peacekeepers, Ben and Toby, standing at the front desk. They look just as thrilled to be here as I am. They were in the same training group as me in the Academy back in District 2. I nod my head in their direction and they nod back. No words. That's our way of saying hello without drawing attention to ourselves.
Sterling and I make our way through the maze of hallways, security scans, and doors, to the security room. Finally, at the door to the security and surveillance center, Sterling and I both scan our communicuffs. I watch the red light turn green, just like it does at the Justice Building. There is a faint grinding noise as the heavy metal door slides open. The rest of Sterling's staff is rushing about the room, looking at holo-projectors and surveillance screens. Sterling leads me to the center of the room where the controls to the larger screens are located.
"I'm going to pull up the footage from the time of the breach so that we can analyze it." says Sterling. "It was weird though, no one remembers any suspicious activity."
I realize that I still don't know what exactly happened in the breach. What was the breach of? Was something taken?
"Sterling, what exactly happened in the breach?" I ask.
He turns his head from the controls to look up at me. "That's the thing, we don't know. There was an alert that showed up on our security screen that said someone scanned in twice within five minutes without ever scanning out." He sighs, "Normally we wouldn't alert the president, but we went into the data bases and all scans within the ten minutes before and after were completely erased. We think that there must be an inside man. This has to stay quiet." He gives me a pointed look.
"So we have basically nothing to work off of except the video feeds?" I ask and Sterling just nods. "Great."
The large screen in front of me suddenly comes to life. It is a video feed from the main entrance. People walk in and walk out, the same as any other day. No one seems out of the ordinary and Sterling claims that they are all people that work there; no one out of the ordinary. It just doesn't make sense. How can the only thing unusual be that someone scanned in twice.
Sterling excuses himself from the room for a moment to listen to an incoming message on his communicuff. I replay the video over and over again, but nothing stands out. This is so frustrating.
"Commander Hawthorne!" Sterling yells my name and I immediately respond by standing at attention. He pushes through the crowd of people towards me. "Move!" He gets to me and he is completely frazzled. He leans in close to me so that only I can hear, "We need to talk."
"Okay."
He pulls me aside and speaks to me in a low tone, "I just received word from the Justice Building; they have had a similar occurrence with their security. There was a breach, the exact same as ours, that took place around the time of the peacekeeper meeting earlier today. An ID was scanned in twice with no departure recorded."
"So we have two unidentified people inside both buildings, that haven't left, and are posing as someone else. But we don't know who that someone is because the data was erased." I say with exasperation.
"Precisely. Do you remember seeing anything or anyone unusual when you were at your meeting?"
"No...Well, yes. There were two peacekeepers that I had never seen before, but they get new ones every now and then. I bet-"
"I am alerted as soon as there are new peacekeepers on the force. I haven't received one since last month and I was told that that would be the last one for a while."
"Shit."
I rush back to the controls. My fingers fly over the panels as I pull up the video feed from the Justice Building. I search for the hallway that I was in and back it up to around the time that I was there. Sterling leans over my shoulder as we watch the screen intently. I see myself turn the corner as I enter the hallway. The two peacekeepers show up on the other end, then I stop walking to listen to my communicuff. The two peacekeepers walk past me, getting closer to the camera. I freeze the screen when they are right in front of it. Their faces are looking down; away from the camera so we can't see who they are.
Sterling makes an aggravated grunt noise,"This is useless!"
I keep staring at the screen, hoping for something to become clear. Then it does. I zoom in on their uniforms and I notice something that I haven't seen in a long time. Right where the mockingjay symbol is supposed to be is the old Capitol seal. What the fuck does that mean?
"Do you have any other angle of this hallway?" I ask Sterling.
"Uh... Yeah, let me just find it for you. We don't use it much." Sterling replies as he steps in front of the controls. I begin to pace behind him. Thoughts are running through my head at a million miles a minute.
"Oh Shit." I hear Sterling mutter under his breath.
I look up from the ground and focus on the screen. We can see their face clearly now.
"No fucking way." I mutter in shock.
Author's Note: I am going to try to post a new chapter once a week, most likely on Wednesdays because it will be easiest. I can't wait to hear what you think! Also, sorry for any grammar mistakes or spelling!