"I'll get it." Beetee said firmly even as Wiress opened her mouth. "Wiress, I'll get it." Taking deep even breaths, he opened the door. "Mr. Beetee Tesla, how may I help you, sir?"
"You will be taken to the train station. Immediately." The Peacekeeper announced harshly. "Your entire family."
"I'll get our coats." Wiress said from the couch.
"Mom - we're -" Estelle looked at her pajamas.
"Might we change?" Wiress asked knowing everyone was still in their night clothes.
"You will be provided with clothes on the train. Shoes and coats only." With trembling hands, Beetee locked the door behind his family. All four held hands as they walked to the train station. The Peacekeeper motioned to the back car of a cargo train. The car looked like an ordinary boxcar except for small windows at the top. "In." Nodding, the Teslas entered the car. This car was for the technicians who were summoned to the Capitol so they could train store owners about the new technology.
"Will we get to talk to the techs?" Noah asked Beetee. In response, the Peacekeeper slammed the door closed. They were alone. Sitting on the padded wooden benches along the side of the car, the Teslas exchanged worried glances. Their car consisted of the two benches along the side of the car, a table with wooden benches attached to one wall, and a lavatory in one corner. Silence filled the car as the train began moving toward the Capitol. The Teslas knew better than to talk in case they were being watched. After a while, Wiress began humming various lullabies she sang to her children after nightmares when they were small. Allowing Estelle to curl up against her, she hummed as she stroke her daughter's hair. Beetee rested with his son's head in his lap and his arm on his shoulder.
Both Victors tensed as they felt the train ascending the underground track leading to the Capitol. A second after the train came to a halt, a Peacekeeper flung the door open. "Out!" He commanded. Beetee and Wiress had a moment's glance at five other officers before the Peacekeepers entered the train.
"No one resist!" Beetee commanded before his hands were cuffed behind his back and a blindfold wrapped around his head. He winced feeling the bridge of his glasses digging into his nose. The absence of shouts indicated his wife and children were being cuffed and blindfolded without resistance. He was marched off the train and lifted into a vehicle of some sort. Wiress was pressed into the seat next to him. He heard the Peacekeepers placing his children in seats behind him before the vehicle began moving.
After what seemed like an hour of driving, the vehicle stopped. Beetee, Wiress, and their children were heaved to their feet. From the ground, Beetee could sense they were on one the cobblestoned streets of the Capitol. "Lead them inside." The Peacekeeper who had ordered them off the train commanded his fellow officers. A door opened and Beetee felt his footsteps echoing off a tile floor. He was pulled to the left and eight other pairs of footsteps followed.
"Take their bindings off, Officer James." A voice that made Beetee's blood run cold ordered.
"Yes, Mr. President." The head peacekeeper replied. In unison, the Peacekeepers undid the Teslas' handcuffs and blindfolds. Beetee, Wiress, and their children looked around a whitewashed room with a metal table in the middle where the President sat. They were in a standard interrogation room in the basement of a Peacekeeper station near the City Center of the Capitol.
"Well, here we are. The most famous inventing family in Panem." President Snow began staring coldly into four pairs of fearful eyes. He noticed both children had inherited Wiress' large eyes. Like their mother, fear closely mingled with determination shone from their eyes. "Good afternoon, Estelle Tesla, Noah Tesla."
"Good afternoon, Mr. President." Estelle said politely shaking the leader of Panem's hand. Noah followed suit. "Do you have any idea why I requested you and your parents' presence in the Capitol?"
"No, sir." Estelle answered.
"You learn about machines in the Engineering Academy, correct?" President Snow asked.
"Yes, sir." The children answered. Wiress' heart filled with fear but swelled with pride as she watched her children address the feared dictator of their country.
"If a gear decides to spin in a way the manufacturer does not desire, what happens to the machine?"
"The machine is less efficient, sir." Estelle answered.
"And it doesn't work." Noah added. President Snow nodded and smiled at the young teens. However, it wasn't a warm smile they received from teachers in praise of their work. It was more like a leering smile of someone waiting to pounce on their prey.
"And what would the manufacturer do with said gear?"
"He or she would fix it, sir." Noah and Estelle answered in unison.
"Yes. Or toss it in a pile. To burn." The President finished. "Your parents have backed a resistance in your district. Your district is the faulty gear in Panem that must be fixed. Or burnt. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir." The teens answered in unison.
"Beetee and Wiress Tesla," President Snow addressed the two Victors. "You have both snubbed the Capitol's mercy. You both escaped the arenas in your Games. Beetee Tesla, you were free to return to your inventing after your murdered a Capitol citizen. Wiress Tesla, you chose district life over the Capitol life even after you lived six months with a prominent Capitol citizen - your first husband. You both have acted as if my lack of punishment for these things is a license for you to begin a rebellion." President Snow paused as Beetee and Wiress exchanged glances with each other. He leered into their children's eyes as they stared back resolutely. "My mercy has come to an end for you, Beetee and Wiress Tesla." The President continued severely. "Under my orders, your punishment will be carried out on both of you and your two children when you return to District Three." Snapping his fingers, he rose and left the room as the Peacekeepers led the Teslas out of the interrogation room and back into a vehicle that would take them to the train station. As Beetee and Wiress held their children's hands, they said nothing, but savored this time being close to each other, knowing that soon, they may never see each other again.