18: Plans

Seneca POV

I glance down at my arm. The purple ink with my timetable from this morning covers it. Meetings, eating time, weapon training and research. I'm lucky I came from outside the District and have contacts. Otherwise I would be with all the other soldiers- either training all day or doing boring office jobs.

But seeing as I have a lot of Capitol contacts, President Coin- the leader of this place- put me into strategy and all of her war meetings. Ha. If only she knew that I was a spy. I can't believe how easy it was to infiltrate this place. Snow was right about everything; they believe that I joined them for revenge, that I would never serve the Capitol, that I knew about them through my contacts.

"Seneca here has contacts among the game-makers," President Coin says to the others. "And he has completed training on arena technology. As Plutarch is under too much surveillance to help us, he is our best hope to get the mockingjay out of the arena. We've placed Beetee in to break the force field. Do you know if he can do it on his own?"

"Beetee helped to design that force field," I reply. "And by using the electricity from the lightning, he could break it alone by interrupting the current. But it will be dangerous. He could be electrocuted, it's likely that he will be. It could also cause a large explosion, which would make it difficult for our hovercrafts to find them."

"Do you have anyone you could contact to help them? Turn off the electricity from the outside maybe," another District Thirteen war commander asks me.

"Among the game-makers, yes. There's one called Amari Santiago that has rebellion sympathies. But turning off the force field requires more than one gamemaker. I know some people in the electric companies that supply it- a power cut could be arranged- but not in all of them. There are back-up generators as well. It's too complicated."

"Fine. Is there anything you can do to help them inside?"

"Amari is in charge of arena design. She can burn away the trees once you decide on where they will escape from, giving you a clear landing place and rescue of Katniss. I can also keep the mutts away for that time. Possibly even other tributes. But they'll need to take out the trackers themselves."

"What about Gale and the mentors? They are as important to us as Katniss and the Quell tributes."

"The mentor room is guarded. Victors have never been trusted. There are also the victors loyal to the Capitol to consider as they make their escape. Guns are forbidden in the Capitol unless you have a license, but I know someone who can supply them without it seeming too suspicious. There's a storage room next to the mentor room- no CCTV cameras and the only person who goes in there is the cleaner. I can have the cleaner smuggle in the guns from my dealer."

"Do you know of this man is loyal? We can't have our plans falling into the hands of President Snow or our cause will be severely harmed. We need at least one of them, preferably both for this rebellion to gain the support it needs."

"The weapons dealer is loyal, I know that he dislikes the Capitol. The cleaner is poor, and I still have a lot of money in an account which can easily be transferred to his. He'll do as we say, he has three children and a wife he has to feed."

"Good."

Coin starts talking to her air force commanders about arrangements for Katniss and Gale to be brought back to Thirteen. She doesn't know that the phone that Snow gave me is recording all of this. I'll need to send it as soon as possible. Snow has at least kept his word. My family are safe and living comfortably.

She plans to send a small hovercraft with a decent amount of firepower to collect the Quell tributes. She's only expecting around five of them to still be alive when she comes. The priority is to get Katniss out, and if possible Finnick and Beetee. Any others will be a bonus, but she doesn't care about them. Wouldn't want to be a rebel foot soldier is victors who've been with them for years are so easily discarded.

I glance towards the clock. This has always been my least favourite part of any job. Listening to people discussing the little issues with every plan, the exact location. I know that it's necessary, but I also know that for District Thirteen at least, it's unnecessary for me to be here. Just fifteen minutes and then I have a break.

This'll be a good day to report back to Snow. Before now the vague plans of interrupting the Games were just that- vague plans. But now they have transportation, weapons and a method outlined. It's still under development of course- District Thirteen take weeks to perfect a plan- but it's a solid plan now, definitely going to happen.

Now she's discussing what the Capitol will do to Katniss or Gale if they are captured. Her advisors are suggesting torture to find out info about the rebellion- nothing of course, it's done on a need-know basis and so far they don't need to know. Some are suggesting that they'll just kill her. I know what they'll do, but I don't open my mouth.

A few years ago I was involved in muttation research when we were experimenting with the properties of tracker-jacker venom. How the madness works, and if what they see can be stored as long-term memory if the images are shown enough times. It was discovered in experiments on avoxes that memories can be altered and twisted. We have enough footage of both Katniss and Gale to turn one of them completely against the rebellion.

And think of what the cause will be then.. One of their figureheads switching sides, spouting what they've seen of the evil of the rebellion to the common people. District Thirteen seems to forget that propaganda can work both ways and can more easily turn people against the rebellion than against the Capitol.

After all, it's the rebellion that's starting a war that will kill hundreds of thousands. The average citizen will be more content to work hard for little pay and see a few children die every year than to go to war for people they didn't know existed until recently. And that's without any Capitol propaganda.

Finally, my watch gives a small buzz and President Coin dismisses us. I decide that my room will be the best place to make the call; it's unlikely that anyone will come in. I have to go down quite a few flights of stairs to get to my room. The more important you are to Thirteen, the lower your room is- less chance of getting bombed.

The room is plain, almost exactly the same as all of the other rooms. I have a few pictures of Jasper and Lucy on the table, but that's all that makes the room personal. I glance at the photos for a second. I wonder how they are. Maybe if I ask nicely President Snow will send me some videos of them. After all, I'll be sending him videos of war councils, it's the least he can do.

I press the call button. It goes directly to Snow's phone. Seeing as I'm the only spy he has in District Thirteen, he doesn't want to risk my existence getting out to others. It's a lot easier to get spies into the Capitol than it is in such a structured and closed environment as District Thirteen.

"Hello Seneca."

"Hello President. I have information on their plans and videos of their war council."

"Very good. Tell me."

"They plan to interrupt the Hunger Games from the inside, using Beetee to break the force field. Their hovercrafts will then pick up Katniss and any others they can. Their trackers will be ripped out. Gale and the other victors will also escape the Capitol and be brought to Thirteen."

"There are guards around the mentor room. I can increase the number. Will the mentors have weapons?"

"I told them that I would take care of it, I know a few people who can bring them guns. Should I do it?"

There is silence for a second, then I hear coughing. There's a slight gurgling sound and he comes back. "Make arrangements. That way you'll seem loyal. I'll need there to be no suspicion of you in the coming years of war. I can have them taken out in the skies above the Capitol."

"And Katniss?"

"Let them break the force field. Do whatever you promised. I'll take care of the rest. Send me the videos."

I send them over. Recordings of the war council plus some pictures I managed to take in my lab in research and development of weapons.

"Have you received the videos?" I ask him.

"Yes. These will be useful. You've done well Seneca."

"Can I see my family now?" I ask him. "Please."

"If you want," Snow says. "You really don't trust me to keep to the deal."

The phone buzzes as a video comes up. Jasper and Lucy are sitting at the table at my old house, eating dinner with their mother. They start arguing over a deal about doing each other's homework in different subjects. I smile. I was there when that deal was made. Lucy flicks a sprout at Jasper's face. Jasper responds by throwing a handful of peas at Lucy. Another smile forces it's way onto my face. They seem happy.

Their mother soon intervenes. "Stop fighting," she says. "Do your own homework or stick to the deal. If only your father could see you now." That comment makes me laugh slightly. If only she knew. A large part of me wants to send her a text message now, telling her that I'm still alive. But that would involve her in all of this and Snow is probably monitoring them. I can't do that.

"Thank you."

"I keep to my deals Seneca."

"I hope you find the information useful. Goodbye."

"Report back when you have new information. Goodbye Seneca."

xXx-X-xXx

President Snow POV

A plan to interrupt the Games? That's daring, even for the rebels. To snatch the mockingjay out from under my very nose. It won't happen of course. I'll need to be careful about who I command to keep watch over the arena. There are probably a lot of spies in the Capitol and if they find out that I know their plan, Seneca will be the only suspect as my spy. I'll need him in there for the coming war.

It would be easier to plan for if I actually knew when they were planning on doing this, but unfortunately I think it'll be whenever Beetee decides to break the force field with his wire. I wonder for a minute if there is any way to modify the force field and spoil District Thirteen's plans that way, but unfortunately I think that that amount of electricity will break any force field that my physicists can design.

I can order Plutarch not to do the lightning then. That would spoil the rebel plans, but they would probably find a way to break the force field from the outside if they noticed that the lightning isn't in the Games anymore. And I'm unsure of Plutarch's loyalties. He's always had sympathy with the Districts and hated the opulent mansions and parties here, but on the other hand I don't think that he's brave enough to risk his life for the rebellion.

And then there's the plan to take out the mentors as well. Capitol hovercraft are already common in our skies, so it shouldn't be too hard to intercept the rebels before they arrive at District Thirteen. They can't use a large hovercraft with a lot of firepower after all, it would draw far too much attention to them. But a smaller hovercraft also means that it will be harder to distinguish from all of the other small hovercraft taking Capitol citizens from one place to another.

It's only Gale that I need out of those mentors, and perhaps Annie would be useful as well to scare Finnick into submission to the Capitol. He won't risk his girlfriend's life- he's too emotional for that. I turn my computer screen to the recording of the jabber jays. Annie screaming and Finnick running around madly until Johanna jumps on him. I laugh. This will be too easy. The only difficult thing is making it seem like I didn't have a tip off from Seneca.

I bring up an image of the arena design. There are twelve places where the lightning will strike the tree, so only twelve places near the edge that they will escape from. Arming the body-carrying hovercrafts that already float above the arena shouldn't be too difficult, especially if I put the families of those in the know in danger if District Thirteen finds out about the plan.

Family is such a big weakness. Everybody seems to care about their family more than they care about themselves. When I threatened the mockingjay's family, she starting begging me for orders. Seneca went to District Thirteen without complaint when I told him his family's lives were in danger. I wonder what I would do if somebody threatened my family. Kill them probably, but if I couldn't? Probably let them die.

It would be sad, of course, but I wouldn't put the lives of three people above the war effort no matter how much I love those people. I would have the people in my army shot if they betrayed the Capitol for the lives of their families. Besides, it will probably be worse for them if District Thirteen wins.

Under my ruling, every Capitolite has at least a decent standard of living. They all have jobs. They all have water and food. There are very few homeless. But if they want everyone to have an equal standard of living, that will make things far worse for the Capitolites. People from Districts will come here for jobs. There will be unemployment and homelessness and starvation, like in most of the Districts. Better for some to live like that than all.

I send an email to my army commander, Remus Horton, to send military hovercraft over the arena in the twelve places near the tallest trees. He'll email back with the names of his people in charge. The only people with phones on the hovercrafts will be the captains, so I'll know who to blame and who's family to kill if something goes wrong. I mention that Remus should tell them that.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken more control of the army. If Remus decides to take over himself, he'll have the entire trained army behind him, whereas all I will have is the peacekeepers, who only really need enough training to beat unarmed and malnourished District citizens. But Remus has an excellent life in the Capitol under me, if District Thirteen take over he will have much less power.

Seneca hasn't yet been able to tell me the exact numbers of soldiers that District Thirteen has, but I'm almost sure that it's more than we have. Apparently every person in District Thirteen has to go on a two year army training course between the ages of eighteen and twenty and many of the people go on to become soldiers- District Thirteen isn't big on luxuries or private companies. Either they join the army or get an administration job or have something specialised like being a medic or cook or scientist.

Considering the size of District Thirteen when it went underground and assuming a fairly stable population, that would mean that there are around five million at least semi-trained soldiers in their army. And they have nuclear weapons, though their weapon development seems to be behind the Capitol research. Small blessings.

We only have one million soldiers, although that didn't count the badly trained peacekeepers. But war isn't all about the numbers, I remind myself. Technology and strategy will dictate more than the numbers will. And they'll need the support of the Districts if they want to gain anything. But that is happening fast. It will happen faster if they get hold of Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne.

If I can stir the Districts up to go against Thirteen, the Capitol will stay on top. But to do that I need to convince them that the rebellion will treat them worse than I will. Which is true for some Districts. Districts One, Two and Four all have good standards of living. Districts Three and Five have a lot of room for career advancement if one is intelligent enough. The other Districts, not so good. But how much could say, District Ten, offer the rebellion?

District Two supplies most of our peacekeepers, and their District is easy to defend. District One is less useful, but they are rich and can fund part of the war for us. Districts Three and Five can produce our weapons, it'll be a blow if we lose them. But not the end of the world. District Six would be useful to have on our side for transportation, but unfortunately we have done nothing in the past to make them like us. And would I really want to rely on a broken community of morphling addicts?

I doubt that the decent Districts will want to rise up in a rebellion, especially the career Districts. All I'll need is the mockingjay and her lover to make sure. It shouldn't be too difficult to convince them to go against the rebellion- they are very young after all and easy to emotionally manipulate. And with the psychology knowledge and our ability to 'hi-jack' a person, as the research teams named the technique of using tracker jacker venom to change memories, they'll almost certainly be on our side.

And if they see the mockingjay herself speaking out against the rebellion.. Well, the Districts will flock to our side.

xXx-X-xXx

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. -MoonOfPluto