We stalked the streets, the glossy sheen of white coated buildings illuminated by the street lamps fading with every step as the buildings got smaller, and houses started showing their brickwork.

  Men laughed outside casinos while smoking cigars, jazz played from nightclubs where the occasional couple would stumble out, making their way home through the dark streets or hailing a hov to take them wherever they wanted to go next.

  It seemed alien to me. Back at the institution you were in your bed by nine o’clock, or else you’d be taken away, but here people were allowed to go out at night and enjoy themselves, even at this late hour, and dressed up for the occasion too.

  Women wore long dresses with fur coats despite it being summer although admittedly tonight the air was thick with cold humidity, causing me to shiver, and in the distance I could see stars getting swallowed by dark looming clouds, barely visible against the midnight sky.

  A storm was coming.

  But we kept moving in the shadows before the sky could unleash its next curse, and eventually Daniella stopped outside a building.

  It was an unassuming brick house, the faded red of the brick showing its age, and the windows were so small they probably blocked more light than they let in. If the place ever saw light at all.

  A sign partially covered by yellow, wilting ivy warned us to keep out due the building’s instability but I couldn’t imagine many people would have a problem with staying away. It was a dead building. Forgotten. Which was probably why the Lion Legion chose it in the first place.

  Daniella knocked a special rhythm, a secret code, on the battered wooden door, and it took some time for anyone to answer.

  Eventually it opened a crack, and she wasted no time slipping inside. I followed suit, the door closing swiftly behind me, before being submerged in darkness.

  “Sorry about the lighting, rebellion has a very tight budget,” a male voice whispered in front of me. Briar.

  “This way. And stay quiet,” Daniella commanded, taking my hand. I wasn’t sure whether she was talking to me or him.

  With expert ease, she led me downstairs, turning around several dark corners until she deemed it safe enough to strike a match.

  It sparked to life with a satisfying hiss, and washed the room with light, exposing Briar’s face and wide-spread grin.

  “Knew you’d come. Good to see you.”

  He turned to Daniella.

  “Niva’s helped us make progress on the maps of the Estate but the negotiation wasn’t easy. Seriously, why can’t people offer up crucial information out of the goodness of their hearts? It’s always ‘Rescue this person’ or ‘Kill that person’ first. At the very least they could ask for something more sensible.”

  “When I met you, you demanded a first class hov and a fake license in exchange for Estate information.” She gave him a pointed look with her arms crossed in disapproval.

  “Exactly my point. Sensible.”

  “It cost 500 000 Sterlings.”

  “And I was worth every penny.” He winked, earning an eye-roll from Daniella. She pulled an ornament at the far end of the room, causing the whole wall to lift up, revealing a dark, damp tunnel.

  “These tunnels are hundreds of years old. They pop up at almost every major spot in Langlia.”

  I could feel it. The city I saw was shiny and new but this radiated a different energy, a darker energy. One that hid secrets and wanted to be hidden in turn. Ancient secrets buried beneath years of disuse.

  The second we entered, the wall returned to its original position, sealing us into the primitive tunnels.

  “And I had the brilliant idea to use them,” Briar bragged.

  “Don’t listen to him, he’d try to convince you he invented laser technology if he could.”

  “I might have.”

  “I swear Bri, if you don’t control that ego, a laser gun will be the last thing you need to worry about.”

  “Understood.” He straightened up, suddenly turning professional, but still with a glint in his eye.

  As we went further down the tunnels, I found more and more evidence of people living here scattered around. Torches lined the paths once we got far enough and the rustling of people in sleeping bags ran the whole way along the corridor. Further down, I swore I caught the smell of meat cooking on a fire, only to be proven right when the glow of embers lit up a familiar face.

  “Niva! Guess who came to tea.” Briar placed his hands on his hips.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Niva stood up from the nook she was lying in, a knowing smile on her lips.

  “Glad you decided to join us.”

  “Isn’t it great?” he asked. “Another teenaged revolutionary. It’s not like they’re a dime a dozen these days or anything.”

  “Get the team,” Daniella instructed Niva who left with a nod. She then turned to me. “You have a request.”

  It sounded like an accusation, but I had no clue what she meant.

  “I do?”

  “Look, little butterfly, you didn’t come here for nothing. You were hoping to get something out of this so cut to the chase.”

  I thought about it. I wasn’t sure what I wanted but she was right, I wanted something. And the more I thought about it the more I realised what that something was.

  “I need you to smuggle Niles Levin out of Vocafeum when you smuggle out Niva’s mother.”

  “She told you? That little minx! Glad to see our integrity hasn’t been compromised.” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, we are trying to break her mother out of Vocafeum, but she’s one of our best assets. What would you give us in return for rescuing a nobody?”

  “He’s not nobody, he’s one of the best men you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting. I’d give anything to save him.”

  Daniella tapped her chin slowly, pondering what she wanted to ask for, knowing she’d get it, since I’d told her as much. It might’ve been a mistake to lay all my cards on the table, definitely not a good way to negotiate, but what I said was true. I would do anything to get him out of the institution’s clutches.

  “Pledge allegiance to the Lion Legion,” she finally settled on, “And give us the scrolls you found at Alexandria. Some of them have the location of buried treasures and I won’t lie to you, we could do with the money.”

  “Oh Alexandria,” sighed Briar, entering the room once again, followed by Niva and a group of half a dozen people looking ready for a fight. “Such happy memories, do you remember Dani?”

  She didn’t answer, but a faint smile indicated that they were indeed happy memories. A part of me wondered if the fire that burnt down the library wasn’t started by her.

  “Deal,” I declared, holding out my hand which Daniella shook firmly once.

  “Now to business.” She gathered the group around her. “We intercepted communications between the Estate and certain doctors from various institutions, most worryingly to Doctor Galton who we know has run many unethical experiments on institution residents. We fear the Relegate Project may just be the start of a nationwide campaign to convert all Relegates into robots.”

  The gasps that followed could have removed all the room’s oxygen.

  Meanwhile I wrestled some unsavoury memories back into their place. Galton couldn’t control me, I couldn’t let him. But deep down I knew he already did. The man haunted my every nightmare, his iron grip cemented long ago. It would take a miracle to overcome that, and now there was a risk many more people would become haunted by what he was capable of, become trapped in that same iron grip.

  A risk I would die to eliminate.

  “How do we stop it?”

  The only question that mattered.

  Daniella sighed.

  “It won’t be easy. The best option we have is to destroy the first experiments and the Estate’s resources, and get rid of the data so they can’t go ahead with a nationwide campaign.”

  “You’re talking about destroying the Estate’s primary labs?” Niva asked.

  “No,” Daniella replied, “I’m talking about destroying everything.”

  Briar made a fist.

  “Yes! I thought we’d never get here. Let’s leave the Chancellor begging for our mercy.”

  “Wait,” I said, looking each of them in the eye, “That includes the people who’ve already been converted, doesn’t it? When you say destroying the data… You really mean destroying them.”

  Daniella sighed again, and with her the Lion Legion, who just a moment ago looked ready to march on the Estate, now looked as if the world was on their shoulders.

  “We don’t have a choice. The Estate doesn’t play fair and neither can we. If the already converted Relegates live, scientists can experiment on them and improve the conversion technology to a high enough standard that the Triumvirate gives the go ahead for it to be used on all Relegates. I’m not out of line to say I’d sacrifice less than fifty robot hybrids to protect thousands of real people.”

  “None of us have seen them after they’ve been converted. What if we break into the primary labs, ready to shut down robots, and find they’ve still got some humanity left? Could we really kill them?”

  No one could answer. Except Niva.

  “What if we get all the Relegates out of the institutions before the Estate has a chance to convert them? Then we don’t have to kill any innocents.”

  Daniella furrowed her brow.

  “Where would they go?”

  Briar perked up.

  “You know… if you combined all the rebel bases, our capacity easily reaches in the thousands…”

  “You want us to take them in? But we’d have to rescue thousands of people in one night from the most highly guarded buildings in the country. It’s impossible.”

  “Well,” said Briar, “Impossible is just a word for something that hasn’t been done yet. Come on, you know you love the challenge.”

  Daniella battled the smile rising to her face.

  “Alright,” she barked, “I’m going to need all the extraction teams to start planning immediately. As always, make the plans airtight, we can’t afford a single mistake. I’ll need another team to organise rations, we’re feeding the five thousand here so prepare as best you can. Briar, you’ll lead the Estate mission, and Niva, I need to talk to you about your hacker contact.”

  Briar gave a cheeky grin.

  “Permission to go in with guns blazing, Captain?”

  Daniella looked at him with a matching, dangerous expression.

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  She clapped her hands and the Lion Legion burst into action.

  I made my way to follow the rest of the dispersing team, but Daniella put a hand on my shoulder.

  “No, little butterfly, I’ve got a different job for you. Your position is a valuable one. I need you to report anything you can on the device we gave you.”

  “Ok, I’m on it.”

  “That’s what I like to hear. You know, there might be a place for you on my council when we take over.”

  She pushed a lion pin into my hands.

  “What do you mean when you take over?”

  “You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” She put an arm around my shoulder like a comrade in arms. “The world is changing, the Chancellor’s had his day, and the Lion Legion is ready to take his place to create a better, fairer world. That’s all you need to know.”

  There was something in her voice I didn’t trust. Because if the Lion Legion was planning to remove the Chancellor, who would replace him? And how would anything be better than before?

  “I never asked, why did you join the Lion Legion?”

  Daniella just smiled.

  “Why does anyone join a revolution?”

  I waited for more but that seemed to be all she was willing to give as she busied herself with planning, leaving me to find my own way back to the Estate.

  I returned with more questions than answers, and the lion pin now hidden on the inside of my shirt would take some getting used to, but I knew one thing for sure. I was going to rescue the eliminated participants no matter what condition I found them in and make sure no Relegate would ever go through what they did.