I began to shift myself over the side of the hole and placed my feet as far down the rope ladder as I could reach.

Dante called up to me, his grip holding the ladder steady.
"Do you still think it's the best option for you to be coming down to me, and not me getting back up there to you?"

I'd already seen in my mind where the door was placed in the room below, but I thought it would be more entertaining to watch Dante's reaction when I got down with him and opened it.

"Trust me, this is the better choice."

I spoke with the same amount of care that I took to seek out the next rung, the skin of my feet scratching on the rough rope.

The muttered response he gave became lost in the creaking of the rope as I moved all of my body weight onto it.

"Care to explain how you happen to know everything all of a sudden?" A tinge of disbelief tainted these more audible words of his.

I moved slowly, feeling for each rung of the wobbly ladder with tentative bare feet, biting my bottom lip in concentration. The last thing I wanted to do was end up in a heap beside him.

"Steady, steady, almost there." His tone had altered, now full of concern.

Smiling to myself, I made it to the bottom and was rewarded with the grasp of his strong hands as he helped me off the last rung.

"There you go. So, now you can tell me."

"It's not a simple story."

He sighed and let go of me. His eyebrows raised in mock surprise.
"Of course it isn't, Tyke. That would be too easy, and that's a word I would never associate with you."

"Very amusing."

I slung the ladder away behind me, the rails clanked with the movement. It brought back to me the fresh recollection of the time I'd spent in this room before. Alone.

"They must have injected me with a substance that's managed to remove my memory block from my repatriation to colony seven. Either that, or the nightmares I had in the barn have sparked my visions."

I glanced down to see Dante stroke his stubble growth, his eyes searched mine in the dull light.
"Great. So, where are we? What is this place? All I can remember is watching you get installed into the medical chamber, the blue light and then I found myself alone in the dark. Are we even in the same Committee facility as before? Because I don't recognise any of this."

"No."

Standing this close to him, I could see the drain of fatigue on his face. Dark contours appeared under his watery eyes. The orange tinge of light from the wall to the right of him cast a sickly shadow on his skin. Dark patches of sweat spread under his arms on his loose, grey clothing also appearing in lines slashed across his middle. A more dubious dark stain graced the area of his groin.

"We are in the Headquarters."

Disbelief passed over his expression.
"That's not possible. It's over a week's travel by sea. I would have known."

I no longer wished to disturb him anymore than he already was. The information in my brain had been automatically supplied, leaving me no time to be curious about the source. It arrived with no effort on my part. I talked softly to him.
"They transported us in Suspension Units. A standard World Union secret operation, I should think."

"I'm telling you, it's not possible. You must be hallucinating after the drugs." He shivered, his broad shoulders rippling the thin cotton top. The V-neck cut of it allowed me to see the strong form of his collarbone and chest, the goosebumps raised over his skin. He leaned in closer to me, his breath sour as he continued in a whisper. "Marco would have found a way to keep me out of transportation, or at least warn me about it."

Intrigued, I ignored the urge to pull back from his odour and whispered back.
"Why do you continue to put your faith in that man? I wouldn't trust him with my shoes."

Dante snorted. "You haven't got a clue. That man saved me from starvation when he found me. I'd spent four days crossing the mountains between colonies, risking discovery and my life. He fixed me into the spy network, working for the science section of the Committee. All I have to do in return is get the proof of nature rebooting and we can convince the World Union to release their control on the world's food production."

I fidgeted, anxious to get free from his breath which now made me nauseous, although I didn't wish to embarrass him. So I took the path of my usual mode of speech to throw him off the track.

"Let me stop you there, if this is going to be a long lecture, could I at least be sitting down for it?"

Unexpectedly, he grinned and swept his hand out with a bow.

"Please, make yourself at home. It's not as if we're going anywhere."

I didn't want to rain on his parade so quickly. Letting him take his time would make the revelation of our way out that much more enjoyable for me. Besides, this really had begun to bother me. What exactly was going on out there? The experience I'd had up the tree during the dawn with him had set off a stream of bad dreams, strange meetings and somehow opened my eyes to this world which surrounded me. Before this I'd only concerned myself with my own survival, now it came as a surprise to admit that I could be part of a bigger picture. This being the case, what did my role entail exactly?

Pushing aside these questions for now, I settled as comfortably as possible on the cold dark floor. I crossed my legs, drawing the hospital-type gown over my knees, tucking it around the curve of my thighs to soften the chill from the tiles. I looked up to catch Dante watching me. He appeared to be lost in thought, staring right through me. It unnerved me.

"Ahem!"

He shook his head, black hair freely waving.
"Sorry, for a moment I - never mind."

He sat down on the floor beside me, choosing to rest on bended knees. He rubbed his hands up and down his thighs, an action I construed to be either to warm himself or, as was more likely in my opinion, to settle his emotions. It took him a moment to ease into his next words. He kept his eyes fixed on mine throughout.

"The problem at the heart of things is the reluctance for the World Union to give up their position of power. As you saw with your own eyes, the Committee is not fully intent on getting things done. They are meant to be the focal point in every colony to research and collect these results, but as far as some people say, and one of these is Marco, they are doing nothing but delaying and throwing obstacles in the way of our possible self-sufficiency. You see, Tyke, if the World Union can no longer control the food supply, they no longer control the World."