She stood staring at the bleak world outside. She had a strange feeling she’d been out there before. A sense of nostalgia swelled and collided with a sudden swirl of memories.
Daddy, what are these called?
They’re called watermelon seeds, honey.
She closed her eyes. That voice. The depth and resonance of it.
Her skin prickled at another memory. Heat. Fire. Wind and dust. Another voice. This one hit her like a fist to her chest. The ache it caused felt like fingers curling around her lungs, squeezing life’s breath from her.
What if—
She stretched out a hand toward the screen as though she could pull the memory from the outside, through the screen. Her fingertips touched the cool glass and jerked her back to reality. It was windy outside. The short grass was bent nearly to the ground, and pockets of dust and dirt swirled around, hitting the camera every so often and obscuring her view. She pressed her lips together, sealing in a thousand thoughts that threatened to tumble out. She was turning to go when she saw it. A square about the size of her hand at the bottom of the screen where the picture was stuck. She moved her hand to it, wiggling her fingers in the cluster of frozen pixels that projected on the back of her hand.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
Who are you?
She whirled around to see who had spoken. She swallowed hard and squinted in the semidarkness.
“Who’s there?” Her own voice sounded tinny as it bounced back to her. There was no one there. Just ghostly whispers and her own fragmented thoughts.
Sweat trickled between her breasts. Feeling woozy, she ran out of the Observatory and back to her own quad.
CHAPTER 8
Jake
He barely had time to scramble behind a storage cupboard when a girl came in breathless and sweaty. Her long, dark red hair hung nearly to her waist and she kept pushing it behind her ear. He hadn’t seen her face yet, the room was too dark, but even from the back he knew that gesture. It twisted his gut. The way she looked from side to side when she walked, like she didn’t trust anyone, was so familiar.
He watched her stand for a long time staring at the huge screen on the furthest wall in the room. When she moved a little, he caught a glimpse of the picture she was looking at. He squinted through his swollen eyes.
Everything he could see was covered in a dull layer of ash. Twisted black trees, split rocks. He turned his face away at the sight. Why did she look at it? Why would she want to? Seeing the girl standing there staring at such a horrible scene tore through him like a knife in the abdomen.
Then, she reached out and touched the screen. The bottom right corner. She brushed it with her fingertips; a soft sigh escaped her.
Who are you? The question pulsed from him. It was just a thought, followed by a flush of heat that radiated from his chest. She turned around slowly and his heart stopped. No, it wasn’t possible. She couldn’t have heard his thought. He held his breath and counted. One. Two. Three.
“Who’s there?” Her voice was soft. Fearful. He breathed out slowly. His chest burned like he’d been punched in the heart. If only he could touch her. Talk to her. He had to know who she was.
She turned and ran, and his body turned to water in her absence.
CHAPTER 9
Miya
Her hair stuck to her sweaty neck, and her wrist had begun to itch uncontrollably by the time she made it back to the lab in the third quad. She held her implant up to the scanner and waited for ID confirmation with her heart in her throat.
The little light in the black box flashed green, and the metal door to the lab slid open with a sssshhhhh.
Raine’s stool was pushed away from her workstation, and her palmpad was lying face up with the screen turned off. Miya hoped that meant her friend had finished earlier than expected, and not that she’d gone looking for Miya.
The room was eerily quiet. The big wall screen had been turned off and stared back at her with its single, empty eye.
She must’ve been gone longer than she realized. Raine had finished her work and left. Maybe to look for her. She’d have to apologize when she saw Raine.
“Miss Thorne!” A deep, staccato voice startled her. She jumped and clutched her throat.
The senior engineer walked towards her; his strides were purposeful and long.
Her heart skipped.
Oren.
Cold, unapproachable and calculatingly evil. Yet shamefully easy to look at.
“Sir, I never…I mean…I…” Moisture collected in Miya’s armpits.
Oren Roc stepped in front of her, the sleeve of his lab coat brushed hers, and she instinctively took a step back.
She watched him tap his silver stylus against his chin. He tipped his head one way, then the other, and his blond hair fell across one eye. Her eyes fell to a small circular tattoo below his right ear. The mark of Leadership. It meant his brain was hardwired to the other eleven members of Leadership.
“Miss Thorne, your cheeks are flushed. Are you feeling all right?”
Oren suddenly grabbed her arm and turned her wrist face up. Was it just her, or did his fingers tremble slightly?
“Having trouble with your implant?” Red streaks spotted with blood extended from her left wrist to her elbow.
“It’s been a bit itchy, but it’s fine.” She pulled her wrist from him. Her heart still hadn’t recovered from the adrenaline rush.
Oren’s eyes remained on hers, which usually intimidated her, but she was distracted by a thin metal device peeking out of the pocket of his lab coat. His portable biofeed scanner. If she could somehow get it, she could see for herself if she was really offline.
“Come see me at the inspection. I’ll have a look at it then.” Oren’s voice knocked her out of her stream of thought.
She nodded and swallowed hard.
Oren stepped around her to get to his workstation. “What’s this?”
“Um, excuse me?”
“What is this?” Oren turned around, holding his palmpad out to her. His dark eyes flashed.
Miya flushed and rubbed her damp palms on her lab coat again. “Sir?”
“Miss Thorne, I’ve told you a thousand times to make sure my palmpad gets put back where it belongs so it doesn’t get lost.” Oren turned his back on her and placed his palmpad carefully in its proper place. He adjusted the palmpad so the edge of the device was perfectly aligned with the stack of plastic storage disks next to it.
Miya expelled her pent-up breath. “Sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”
Oren grunted.
Miya sank onto her workstation chair and watched Oren go around straightening things. She sat with her hands shoved deep into her pockets, her fists clenched until the sharpness of her nails in her palms made her flinch. Her whole body itched to leave the room, but she wanted to get her hands on that scanner.
“Hey, Mi,” Nathan called as he entered the lab. “So, are you ready for the inspection?”
“I…I guess so.” She squeezed her hands together in her lap and took a steadying breath.
Nathan looked at her with his dark eyebrows raised like he was saying are you okay?
Miya gave him a small smile and shrugged her shoulders.
“Miss Thorne, I suggest you enter the new air quality data that just came in, before you leave for the day.” The coldness of Oren’s voice made her shiver.
“Yes, sir. But, uh, sir…um…” She took a few steps towards him, mind racing for a way to get his scanner without him noticing.
Oren lifted his head and looked in her direction. His right eye twitched. The muscles in his jaw flexed. “Get. To. Work.” His mouth barely moved as he spoke through clenched teeth.
Nathan saluted her—cocky and teasing—and exited the lab, leaving her to find a way to get Oren’s scanner.
CHAPTER 10
Miya
“Excuse me, Mr. Roc. Might I have a word with you?”
An attra
ctive young woman with long, dark, wavy hair had entered the lab and the door slid shut with a whisper behind her. She walked the three short steps it took to reach Oren, who stood unmoving, and touched a spot behind her ear.
Miya sucked in a breath. Great. More Leadership.
“Call me Oren. What can I do for you?”
The woman smiled. “Oren.” She said his name like she was rolling it around on her tongue, tasting it.
Miya couldn’t tear her eyes away. Oren’s back was to her, but the straight line of his shoulders and the rigid way he held his arms at his sides suggested a deep discomfort with their unexpected visitor.
The woman placed her right palm on Oren’s cheek. Miya sucked in a breath at the gesture that was as intimate as it was intimidating. Were Leadership allowed to touch each other?
Oren flinched when the woman touched him, and Miya watched with horrible fascination as the woman threaded her fingers through the fine hairs at the back of Oren’s neck and drew him toward her.
“Incredible. Absolutely stunning.” Oren stood several inches taller than her, with his arms stiff at his sides.
“Sorry?” Oren’s voice was husky.
“Oh, don’t be sorry. I was just admiring your perfection. I’d read about it, but…”
“You read about me?” Oren’s voice caught.
“It’s nothing. Forget about it.” She waved her hand, and Miya caught a glimpse of a crescent-shaped scar on the inside of her wrist. Why wouldn’t she get that fixed with the Grafter?
Oren shifted his weight a little. Left foot, right foot, back to left before clearing his throat. “Who are you? Where are you from?”
The woman laughed. “I’m Avarice from Sector Three. You can call me Ava.”
Miya wiggled on her stool. If this young woman was also Leadership, why didn’t Oren recognize her?
“It’s not often I have the pleasure of meeting another member of Leadership. Our connection doesn’t require face-to-face communication.”
Oh. Of course. They’re mind-melded.
“Require? No. But I decided to come to your sector myself to ask for your assistance.”
Oren nodded. “Of course. I’m at your service.”
Miya looked around the room while the two members of Leadership carried on a conversation as though they’d both forgotten she was there.
She shouldn’t have bothered trying to get Oren’s scanner, now she was stuck here until the two of them left.
“—so, you see he’s dangerous. I apologize for the inconvenience. Especially when it should’ve already been taken care of, but now that we have proof he escaped and is in your area…you can see how important it is that he’s captured.”
“Yes, of course.”
Miya shivered. Whatever they were talking about definitely wasn’t meant for her ears. She cleared her throat. Oren turned around, his dark eyes flashing. Ava stepped around Oren to stand directly under the bright overhead light. It captured the green of Ava’s irises and the bronze tone of her skin. A Leadership that visited the Sun Room. How interesting.
Ava narrowed her eyes at Miya.
“Hello, there. You should be running along to the inspection now, shouldn’t you?”
Something churned inside Miya. Dark and daunting. She’d seen this woman somewhere before.
CHAPTER 11
Miya
The intense odor of disinfectant burned Miya’s nose as she stood in the implant inspection line. Insiders of all ages stood nervously tapping their feet or chewing their nails, waiting for their turn. Mothers bobbled their babies on their hips to soothe their impatient cries while fathers stood by either holding a screaming toddler by the wrist or talking in hushed tones to their neighbors.
Miya scratched the angry red skin surrounding her implant and looked around at the people in line ahead of her. Her stomach cramped with knots. She tasted blood. The inside of her cheek felt raw from chewing on it. She rubbed the inside of her wrist against her thigh to keep her fingernails away from it.
“Stop scratching. You’ll have it infected and it won’t be readable. Then you’ll just be a class A reject.”
Miya turned around at the sound of the teasing voice and managed a smile. “How come you’re here, Nathan? I thought you would’ve been here earlier.”
Nathan rolled his amber-colored eyes. “I wish. I got delayed.”
Miya nodded. “Yeah, I was supposed to meet someone here, but…” She glanced around the room again for any sign of Raine.
“Got stood up, huh?” Nathan flashed her a quick grin.
“It looks that way.” She smiled a little, then sighed and shifted her feet. “Why are they taking so long this week?”
“I heard the Leadership’s making a list of people requiring a full-body scan,” Nathan said in a low voice.
Miya’s throat squeezed. “Serious?” She spun around again, digging her fingernails into her implant. “But why?”
Nathan bent his tall frame over her shoulder to whisper in her ear, “Apparently there’s been a murder. They’re making a list of anyone with a suspicious implant. The Leadership believes the suspect may have visited the Grafter and reprogrammed his implant with a new identity.” He made a creepy, silly face at her, which turned her face red for the billionth time that day. He tugged on a strand of her hair like he was trying to ease her embarrassment.
Miya suppressed a shiver. “Who is he?”
“Who are you asking about? The victim or the killer?”
“Both.”
Nathan shrugged. “Leadership is being pretty secretive on that. But I have my suspicions.”
Miya didn’t want to know who Nathan suspected. She didn’t even want to think that a murder could happen in the Camp. The Leadership prided themselves on security.
She rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn’t seen Raine since…no, that was stupid. Her roommate was too smart to get herself killed.
Focus, Miya.
“I hope I get scanned.” Nathan’s words snapped Miya back to the present. “It would be something out of the ordinary. Maybe even give me the chance to go to another level where I can check out the medtechs there.”
Miya blinked at him. He didn’t mean it the way it sounded. He couldn’t have. His implant was wired like everyone else’s. There was no need for what the Leadership deemed excessive emotional output such as attraction. Procreation was done in the genetic laboratory. No fuss. No mess.
“You’d rather work in a medical lab than our biotech lab? But we need you, Nathan. You know how many air-quality reports came back bad today? Seventy-five percent of the entire Camp. I’m surprised everyone isn’t testing positive for air-sickness.”
“If you ask me, all of this is just another Leadership scare tactic. Murder? I mean, c’mon. That’s never happened before because everyone’s connected to the system. We’re all monitored.”
Except for Invalidates. And me.
For the next several minutes neither Miya nor Nathan spoke. The lineup slowly snaked around another corner until finally they could see the long metal table where several biotechs sat in a row holding implant scanners. All the techs wore white lab coats, white pants and white soft-soled shoes. Even their hands were gloved in white. The insignia on their lapels seemed flashy with their brightly colored initials embroidered with shiny thread. The scanners in the biotechs’ hands flashed under the room’s bright, artificial light.
A young, dark-haired girl stood in line in front of Miya. She was dressed in plain white pants and a white long-sleeved shirt, similar to everyone else’s, but her shoes caught Miya’s attention. They were bright pink. Miya rolled her eyes. Leave it to Paige to silently rebel against the system. Not that there was an official rule against wearing colored shoes, but no one did.
Paige rolled up her sleeve, then held out her left arm when it was her turn. Miya heard the girl’s quick intake of breath as she received her weekly injection of vitamins. Miya caught a glimpse, over Paige’s shoulder, o
f her implant threaded through with golden transmitters, which gave it a shimmery appearance under the artificial lighting. She strained to hear the results of her inspection.
“Miss Thorne.”
Miya jerked her eyes back to the table in front of her. “Oh. Mr. Roc, sir.” She flushed as she realized Oren was staring at her. She hadn’t noticed she was next in line.
Oren pointed his biofeed scanner at her. “Your arm, please.” His dark eyes made her knees weak. Miya extended her wrist to him and bit her lip as he probed her implant with his gloved fingers.
What if he tells me I’m invalidated? Not that she really qualified as an Invalidate. They were people who had faulty implants due to imperfect genes. Invalidates were removed from the system as a way to keep the community pure. They didn’t qualify to have their DNA used for biobabies, and they held no position in the community. Their only job was to clean up the trash by managing the incinerator in the lowest level of the Camp. The underground. But nothing had changed. Raine had told her she’d never been in the system, yet somehow week after week she’d always passed inspection. Why would today be any different?
Unless they discover my mark. That would immediately make me an Invalidate.
She swallowed the thought as she felt the trembling in Oren’s fingers, unmistakable this time. Something wasn’t right with him. Oren was never off his game.
“Miss Thorne, just as I thought, it’s inflamed. Go see the medtech at the far end of the table, and she’ll give you an antibiotic injection today instead of vitamins. It’s probably a good idea to take a few extra injectors with you. An infected implant makes it very difficult to get a proper reading. It will be hard for us to monitor your general health with a faulty implant.”
Miya’s breath caught. “Does that mean I’m invalidated?” Why would Leadership choose today to expose her non-status?
She shivered. Because they’re hunting a killer.
Miya’s stomach sank to her knees.
Oren’s eyes bored into hers as he dropped his voice to a near whisper. “No, your status hasn’t changed. It’s an infection, which isn’t a reason to invalidate someone, Miss Thorne. But, if your implant doesn’t heal in three days, you’ll have to surrender to a full-body scan. I’m putting you on the list.”