Hannah looked around the office and yawned loudly. The bins were empty, the desks were polished and the windows gleamed. This was her second day cleaning at the Council head office. It was a good job and the pay was slightly higher than normal. She even got a hot meal before she began work too. She had been surprised to get it, but apparently the head of Maintenance had asked for her. She thought it strange and had no idea why, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She looked at her watch and realised she was running late. Shane was meeting her outside and she needed to hurry. She put the cleaning supplies away in the cupboard, gathered up her things. It was still cold out, so she put on her coat, hat and gloves and went to the lift and pressed the button. The office was eerily silent. All of the workers were long gone, only the Flawed worked at this time of night.

She entered the lift and pressed for the ground floor. She was looking forward to seeing Shane. He had been working overtime the last couple of days and they had barely seen each other. Things were progressing nicely. She had stopped worrying about their friendship and the effect a relationship might have on it. Hannah had never had a boyfriend before and Shane had been her first kiss. She knew he wanted to take it further, he hadn't actually said anything but from the response his body made when they made out she knew he wouldn't say no! She smiled to herself. Was she ready? Could she take the next step with him?

Hannah's thoughts were interrupted by the lift stopping on the 16th floor. As the door opened, she lowered her face to floor hoping to avoid eye contact. The Perfect made her nervous. Luckily, they rarely acknowledged a Flawed, as if being in their company would cause them to become contaminated. The doors opened and a man wearing utilitarian black boots and loose, black trousers. Hannah didn't dare look higher.

The doors closed and they started to descend. Hannah began counting down the floors, eager to get out. 15, 14, 13... The lift stopped mid floor. Hannah felt a surge of anxiety. She wasn't keen on enclosed spaces.

"Hello Hannah," said the man standing to her left.

Hannah froze. Ordinarily, no one spoke to her much, let alone somebody here. She kept her eyes trained downwards.

"Look at me, Hannah," the well-spoken voice commanded. There was no hint of the Flawed dialect she was so used to hearing.

"Please, Hannah, I'm not going to hurt you." The man was trying to sound reassuring. It wasn't working.

Hannah took one last look at the scuff on her old shoes, then reluctantly raised her eyes towards him. He was tall, well-built man, she guessed to be in his early 40s. His dark brown hair was cropped short and everything about him screamed Top-10, except though for his clothes which were old and grubby. She looked down at his hands; they always gave away a person's background. She was right. These were not the hands of a Flawed. Trim, clean nails, palms free of dirt and stains, and most importantly, not a sign of the scars and calluses of manual labour. This man's clothes were merely a costume.

"Hi, I'm Zeke," he said, smiling broadly at her.

Hannah said nothing.and shuffled back a step.

"You don't know me but I know you, Hannah," he continued.

The hairs of the back of her neck were up and her palms began to feel clammy. She mentally reviewed her belongings trying to remember if she had any sharp objects on her that she could use as a weapon. She didn't.

"Hannah, I have something very important to tell you. Something that you cannot repeat to anyone, but something which will come to mean a great deal to you in the coming weeks, months and years."

Hannah realised she had been holding her breath and gasped for air. She sucked in sharply; the sudden feeling of relief in her lungs helped her find her voice.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" she asked, terrified.

"Actually the pertinent question should be, who are you Hannah and what do they want from you?"

The man was talking in riddles. Just my luck she thought, I'm stuck in an empty office block with a madman.

"You are Hannah Green, aged 17, adopted child of Lynne and Daniel Green. You were born with an SPR of 72, however neither you nor your family have any idea what your flaws are? You are unusually attractive when compared to your peers, you are supremely more intelligent, although you have spent the last 11 years at school pretending not to be. You are strong, healthy, have perfect sight and hearing. Your fertility levels are optimum, you are clear of all genetic abnormalities and life limiting diseases. You have excellent hand/eye co-ordination and are physically strong and fast. You are also compassionate, loyal, a hard worker. Although having lived as a Flawed all your life you have never felt completely at home or accepted and have come to see that as your flaw. To put it bluntly Miss Green, you are an all-round good egg."

Hannah became aware that her mouth was hanging wide open. This stranger had just acutely summed up her life in less than a minute. He knew everything about her and what was more scary he sounded like he had been there, seen her develop, knew her insecurities, many of which she had barely admitted to herself.

"Who the hell are you?" Hannah shouted, now angry. The fear was still there, but now she felt violated and wanted answers.

"Hannah, I want you to try and see me as a friend. Trust me young lady, you're gonna need one soon."

"Stop talking in riddles. What do you want?"

"On the day you were born the consultant, Eastman, who oversaw your birth gave you a false SPR. He lied to your parents and falsified your official data. Your SPR score wasn't 72, Hannah, it was 100."

Hannah laughed out hysterically. He was mad, she was right.

"He deliberately downgraded you and nineteen other babies over the period of a few weeks. Your birth parents unaware of your real score, gave you up for adoption as they didn't want to risk being downgraded. For many years now, I have been following you all, looking out for you when I could. To be honest you have been one of the luckiest. Several of the others died young and a couple of them were not placed in families quite as nice as yours. They had a very different upbringing and are now languishing in prison. With you, however Eastman chose well".

Hannah heard everything this man had said, yet she couldn't comprehend a thing and she didn't believe a word of it.

"You are probably wondering why Eastman did this."

Hannah hadn't even got to that thought yet. She was wondering when someone was gonna jump out and tell her it was all a cruel joke. She looked up at him and really studied his face. Something about him felt familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Why are you saying all of this?" Hannah asked, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"Eastman was a member of a group that has been planning to, shall we say, try to alter our current status quo. There is an increasing belief in certain areas that the oppression of the Flawed is to say the least, unsatisfactory. This resistance has been going on for many years and countless lives have been lost in the process. You obviously don't know anything of this because it's all covered up, painted over and made to look pretty. Do you remember the explosion at the mines several years ago? Well that was actually a peaceful protest, put down with brute force and then dressed up as an Industrial accident."

Hannah's legs gave way and fell back against the wall of the lift and slid down to the floor. He was talking about the accident which killed Bob, Mary's husband. She remembered back to that day. The alarm sounding, hundreds of people rushing to the mine to try to help, the heavy army presence she thought had just arrived to help. She also remembered the hushed conversations, the anger of her father, and the tension in her neighbourhood. Surely this couldn't be true, but even so, what on earth did it have to do with her?

"Hannah, you were chosen by Mr Eastman as a perfect candidate to lead the Flawed uprising".

"Are you kidding me?" She scoffed. "I am seventeen-year old office cleaner who likes reading books when I can find them and living a quiet life. Even if I did believe you and I don't, what on earth makes you think that I could start a bloody revolution?"

"Because Eastman's plan is quite simple really. With the help of others he found twenty perfect candidates. All of you had scores in excess of 99.5. He demoted you based on false SPR data, removing you from all of the trappings of the perfect life. Hannah, you have spent the last seventeen years with the Flawed. You and your family have struggled to feed yourselves, to keep a roof over your head and you have had little access to health care. You have seen death, despair and injustice first hand."

"So, I'll ask you again. What on earth do you think I can do about it?" she shouted.

Zeke sat down opposite Hannah. She noticed he kept checking his watch. Which incidentally was too good to be worn by a Flawed.

"Eastman recently killed himself, kicking off the next stage of the plan. The Council now know about you and the other nine candidates currently living in the Flawed quarters. The Council has no idea of the plan behind it, but they already consider it a security risk if you continue to live with the Flawed. Very shortly, they are going to approach you and force you to move back to the Top-5 and live with your birth parents. And this is what Eastman was hoping for all along, to bring about the uprising."

Hannah stared at the deluded person in front of her. Did he have any idea of what he was saying? Uprisings, moving to be with her birth parents....

"Okay, I've heard enough. You are going to start up this lift again and you are going to stay away from me. I am going to go see my boyfriend and pretend this never happened. I want none of this nonsense do you hear me? None of it!"

"Hannah, I have just a few minutes left. So, you don't believe me now, but trust me my dear, this is going to happen and I will be here when you need me. This is my card. Take it, keep it safe and above all say nothing to anyone. You are currently being followed 24/7. Your home is bugged, every conversation you have with anyone is being recorded. Even here at these offices, but thanks to the design and construction of this very lift we are standing in, we are temporarily in their blind spot. I know this sounds like a really shit deal you have been dealt, but please listen to me, Hannah. You were picked for a reason, the Flawed need you."

Zeke looked at the defeated frightened look on the young girl's face and realised he wasn't going to get any further today.

"I am going to restart the lift Hannah. When we reach below floor 5 they will be able to hear anything that is said. For both our sakes and that of your family you must not say anything to me. As you leave the lift you will not glance behind you or draw attention to yourself. I will be leaving by a different exit. For the time being you must carry on with your life as normally as possible. Soon they will contact you, and Hannah if you care for your parents, your friends, Shane... you will do exactly as they say. They will not hesitate to kill you all if they thought for second you might know or have second thoughts."

Hannah was too drained to cry now. Part of her thought he was mad, but a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that every word he said was the truth.

Zeke pressed a small grey box against the switchboard of the lift. He tapped it twice and they began to descend. He offered Hannah his hand to help her get up, but she shunned it, dragging herself up and leaning against the cool mirrored wall. She now refused to look at him, turning her attention to her own image in the mirror. She looked pale, haunted. She smoothed down her clothes, picked up her bags and moved to the door. The red numbers on the screen above her head slowly counted down. 9, 8...

"Mary and the kids say hi, Hannah. We have them, they are safe I promise you" Zeke whispered into her left ear.

Hannah wanted to demand to hear what he knew about them, but before she could say anything he hurriedly put his hand over her mouth and pointed to the fact that they were now below floor 5. Hannah's eyes were wide and wild. Zeke removed his hand and as the doors opened he gave her a small shove.

Hannah stopped on the glossy marbled floor. She was desperate to turn around and go back into the lift but at the same time she was desperate to run away home. A security guard walked in through the double glass doors ahead of her.

"You're out late love, everything ok, anything wrong?" he asked.

"No, no, I'm fine, I couldn't remember if I turned a tap off upstairs, but thinking about it I did so everything is great thanks," Hannah stumbled over her words. "Best be off my boyfriend is waiting outside". On wobbly legs, she forced herself to walk out of the building into the cool dark air trying to look as calm as possible.

As she exited the doors she quickly glanced back at the guard who was on the phone. She smiled at him, gave him a wave and then walked away as fast as she could.

"Hey babe," Shane called out. He was leaning against a low wall, at the edge of the car park. Hannah rushed over to him and was enveloped in his strong arms. She took a deep breath and inhaled. He smelt of peppermint and fresh air. She held him tightly as her body shivered.

"Hannah, what's wrong?" he asked.

Hannah took a deep breath and prepared to tell him about everything that had happened. Outside, in the fresh air, it somehow didn't feel real. She opened her mouth to begin her tale but as she looked over his shoulder she happened to see a man in a car sitting about two hundred metres from where they were and she was sure he had just taken a picture of them. Furtively she glanced back over to the office and cast her gaze up. There on the third floor stood the security guard staring down at her through the glass window.

"I'm fine Shane, just cold. Come on take me home". She kissed him, not just to reassure Shane, but to reassure anyone else that might be watching. She grabbed his hand and walked away, aware that everything in her life was about to be messed up. She had never felt more hopeless, more Flawed in all her life!