Democracy is Dead

Chapter Twenty Three

"What just happened?" Athena asked Dyo, pulling him to a stop in a street some distance from the theatre, gasping to catch her breath. Her heart was still pounding heavily against her rib cage. She really needed to exercise more regularly; especially if she was getting involved with a guy who seemed to spend so much time running away from things. They were in the shopping district and store adverts bombarded her screen. She rejected an offer for a year's green tea subscription from Freedom Taste while Dyo replied.

"Security services were storming the theatre," he told her, matter-of-factly.

"Why? We weren't doing anything wrong. Were we?" Athena finally cleared her screen enough to see Dyo clearly again. Had the adverts always been this annoying, or had they increased recently?

"Well, technically, we're not actually supposed to be in there. The theatre has been disused for years and strictly speaking it's private property." Dyo spoke with his hands in his pockets.

"Who does it belong to?" Athena asked. Dyo shrugged, but there was something forced about the movement and Athena got the feeling once again that he knew more than he was willing to share.

"So it's private property, I get that. But why not walk in through the front door and kick us out? Why all the subterfuge?"

"They must think that we are using the theatre for something we shouldn't be and were hoping to catch us in the act."

"And they were sent by whoever owns the place?" Athena suggested. Dyo nodded. "Which would make sense if whoever owned the theatre had a vested interest in that sort of group not existing... and were keen to intimidate them into laying low," Athena continued, following a hunch. "Which would make a lot of sense if the theatre was owned by someone like Jason Leighton."

"It would make a lot of sense, indeed," Dyo replied, his voice grave.

Athena's stomach plummeted. Castor had been surprisingly good natured about her decision to stop keeping tabs on the group for him. Was he now following her instead? Athena knew she should tell Dyo the truth about her initial involvement with the group, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. "So what do we do now?" she asked instead, trying to change the topic and distract herself from the gnawing concern that was seeping through her veins. "What did Bree mean outside the theatre?"

Dyo looked at her, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "It's time to pay the Freedom Institute a visit."

Athena may have been concerned that Dyo had hit his head during the escape from the theatre, but she followed him through the streets of New London none the less.

The Freedom Institute was based in a huge glass skyscraper to the east of the city. Despite her earlier protests, Athena allowed Dyo to lead her down into the closest underground station; it was too cold to walk all the way to the Institute and Athena wasn't in a rush to reach it anyway. The wait on the underground platform might give Dyo enough time to change his mind about the whole idea. They could go for a hot chocolate instead, maybe look out across the city from one of those top floor cafes. They could kiss again. Kissing was definitely preferable to breaking and entering. Then again, most things were preferable to breaking and entering, and very few things were better than kissing. All in all, Athena felt like it was the obvious choice. But Dyo wasn't to be deterred.

He squeezed her hand in his and pressed his forehead to hers. "You don't have to come if you're not ready. I understand."

But he was going either way and it would be easier to not let him go alone; if she did, Athena would spend the entire evening panicking about what might be happening to him. Being involved seemed the lesser of the two evils, so she found herself shaking her head at his words. "I'm in."