Just as Meara had said, when Luther dragged himself back to the Archives, he announced that my apprenticeship was over and immediately gave me his passcode to unlock the most secret documents of Cineres.

I tried to protest, but he only tucked my fingers tighter around the tiny slip of paper.

"You have to do it tonight," he whispered.  "I have no idea what she told you, but I would advise that you look at what she told you to."

A rebellious look must have flashed across my face because Luther squeezed my closed fist tighter and said, "You must do it, Ilania.  Don't worry about getting me in more trouble because Enforcement is already going to haul me in.  Might as well go out with a bang by getting into their records."

Throughout the rest of the day, I weakly accepted the other Archivists' congratulations, all the while thinking about what it would mean as soon as I opened those files.

Soon enough, night fell and the Archives cleared out.  Luther vanished somewhere into the maze of artifacts, telling me that he wanted to dig out some useful files before it was too late for him.

Alone, I made my way to the door I hadn't been allowed to breathe on, much less open and view its contents.

I carefully pecked out the numbers on the scrap of paper that laid trembling in my palm.  When the door clicked open and I shoved the paper into my mouth, I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

The taste of forbidden knowledge lingering in my mouth, I tugged nervously at my gloves before opening the first cabinet.  I scanned the documents and quickly moved on once I realized that the Cicada Experiment wasn't among them.

It was in the fifth cabinet I tried: a thick binder labeled with the name of the contents.  As I lifted it out, I could have sworn it weighed far more than all the other files with it.

Gently, I placed it on the small table in the middle of the room and flipped it open.  The more I read about the Cicada Experiment, the more worried I became for the success of the Igniters.

Despite my best attempts, I was only about a quarter of the way through the binder when Luther appeared in the doorway.

"You need to go," he muttered, shutting the files and shoving them into my satchel.  "If you don't get home soon, Enforcement is going to suspect something is going on with you.  While I'm prepared to die, you have plenty of work left before you can even consider that route."

I protested.  "What about when they discover that the binder's missing?  They won't find it among your possessions, and then they'll suspect someone else."

Luther thrust the satchel at me.  "Let me worry about that.  I've already have a plan to throw them off, but the less you know, the safer you'll be if they discover you had any hand in it.  Now, get home, eat dinner, and then sneak out to meet those friends of yours."

I would love to say that I argued even more before convincing Luther that he absolutely had to go home.  Rather, I hightailed it out of there just like he said, satchel laying heavy against my side.

My hands itched to continue reading the binder as I ate a quick dinner, but I shoved the bag between my headboard and mattress, promising myself that I would retrieve it before the meeting.

My father appeared in the door of the kitchen as I crammed the last of the sandwich into my mouth, and I snatched my glass of milk to wash down the suddenly dry lump.

"I heard you're finally an Archivist.  Is that true?" He asked.

Now, I was nearly choking on the milk I just swallowed along with a healthy dose of air.  That was not at all what I was expecting to come out of the mouth of my father who didn't even remember my age.

All I managed was a nod, and my father's eyes took on a gleam I didn't quite understand.

"Very good," he said.  "Now, I would prefer that you stay away from your former mentor.  I hear that he's a bit of trouble, and I'd hate for my daughter to be caught up in his family's problems."

"Are you talking about Luke?" I whispered, hands fisted in my lap beneath the table.

He only gave me a long look that told me all that I needed to know and allowed some of the pieces in my mind to click together.

With a restraint that I didn't realize I had, I stood up and walked to my room, calmly going through the routine of someone preparing for bed.

"I still think you're all idiots, and the only reason I'm here is because of the supposedly useful information Ilania got from Meara," Andie huffed, crossing her arms grumpily and eyeing the binder I had set on the table.

I sighed slightly and flipped the binder open.  "Meara mentioned something about the Cicada Experiment and insisted that I find the documents on it."

"What does that mean?" Diane asked.  "What is a ci...cice...whatever it is?"

"They are also known as the seventeen-year locust, rather than a cicada," Matthew explained.  "They mature underground for up to seventeen years and at the end of that, they come above ground.  Somehow, I don't think that the name was unintentional."

I bit my lip and shifted a few more pages to the left.  "Matthew is correct.  The name was chosen because it has taken seventeen years to develop this entire project."

"Just spit it out already," Andie snarled.  "What is this experiment, and why do we care?"

"We all know that the vaccines have been failing more and more frequently.  Well, essentially, at its core, the Cicada Experiment appears to be another vaccine development project, a perfectly innocent pursuit.

"However, the further into the documentation you get, the more you discover that this vaccine isn't like what we are used to.  They have created something that will allow Enforcement to ferret out exactly who is inciting rebellion.  No one will be able to hide because the formula attaches itself to the very thoughts of the host, allowing third-parties to view the person's motives."

When I looked up to gauge the others' reactions, I found Matthew staring at the wall blankly, Diane looking a mite panicked, and Andie studying me with a calculating look.

"How long," she asked in the most civilized tone I had heard from her since Luke's death, "do we have until this vaccine is required for everyone?"

"Roughly a year," I whispered.  "We have that amount of time to collect enough information to convince the majority of Cineres to join us, or we have that much time to hunt down the vaccine and destroy it."

"It won't stop with the vaccine if we take that route," Matthew said, fixing his gaze on the binder.  "The vaccine, the notes, the formula, and everyone who has had a hand in it will have to be destroyed.  It'll get messy, but I fear we may not have enough time to convince the masses to take out Enforcement."

Diane took a deep breath.  "You're forgetting one piece, Matthew.  Even if we destroy every trace of this vaccine's existence, we will still have to contend with Enforcement.  If we could take out their leader, we may be able to discourage the remainder from fighting against us."

"The problem with that is that no one knows who the leader of Enforcement is!" Her cousin argued, pounding her fist into the wood of the table.  "They always wear a mask and cloak when they are seen in public, and no one has heard them speak!  How are we supposed to take out someone that we have no intel on?"

"I'll take care of that," I answered.  "Everyone makes a mistake eventually despite their hopes to the contrary, and I think I know exactly how to trap the Lead Enforcer in his own webs.

"Andie, Diane, you two have access to buildings that Matthew and I could never touch.  I would like the two of you to carefully pry information from those you associate with if it's okay with you."

Andie rolled her eyes towards the ceiling but, after a moment, nodded her head.  Diane quickly echoed her cousin's gesture before the two of them rose and vanished from the room.

"I'll keep the binder somewhere safe," Matthew said once they had left.  "Ilania, I would suggest that you arrange for Meara to meet with me soon, but I want to see you before she arrives for that meeting."

"That would likely be best," I agreed.  "That way, we can talk about what our plan is if Meara decides to betray us."

"Ilania," he started, and something in his voice told me that he didn't want to discuss escape plans at all, "I don't want to discuss that with you.  There's something else I need to tell you, and I find myself unprepared at the present time to deal with the consequences of such a revelation."

I shut the binder, swallowed hard as I struggled not to look at the Igniters' leader, and pushed back my chair.  "Very well.  I'll be there."

As I slid through the shadows on my way back home, I rolled over his wording, and dread clogged in my throat the more I thought about it.

If my feelings about what this discussion would be were correct, it may become very hard to ever look Matthew in the eye again, much less respect him as the Igniters' leader.

It might shatter what remained of us apart, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with another blow.