A low buzzing droned in her ear and she swatted at the tickle near her temple. She opened her eyes and glanced in the direction of her roommate’s bed, where the sound of heavy breathing came from. She hadn’t heard Raine come in, so she must’ve drifted off to sleep at some point.
The buzzing resumed in her ear. She frowned, sat up and kicked the sheets to the end of the bed. She reached over and snapped on the nightlight embedded in the wall above her head. The buzzing faded, then grew louder again as something swooped and swirled around her head. She squinted. A tiny dark speck landed on the narrow table between her bed and her roommate’s. She stared at its miniature legs and folded wings.
What is that? She leaned forward to get a closer look.
“Miya? What are you doing?”
Miya jumped. Her best friend was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes.
“Sorry, Raine. I couldn’t sleep. Kept hearing a buzzing noise, so I turned on the light.”
“Go back to sleep, Mi!” Raine slumped back onto her pillow and pulled the sheet over her head.
“Okay, but come look at this first.”
Raine flipped back her sheets and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She mumbled a string of curse words, then bent over the table to look where Miya was pointing.
Raine’s dark eyes grew wide and she swore again. “A fly? You’ve got to be kidding me! This isn’t good.” She grabbed her crumpled white lab uniform from a pile on the floor then bent down to rummage underneath her bed. “My shoes! Where are my shoes?”
“Your shoes are on the floor behind you. What’s going on?”
“Miya, how many times have you seen a creature from the old earth inside the Camp?”
Miya chewed her lip and shrugged.
“Right, so how did that get in here?” Raine pointed to the insect on the wall, then sat on the floor to pull on her lab shoes.
“Maybe Nathan’s right. Maybe there is a way out of here and someone found it. Maybe he found it!”
Raine fumbled with her laces. “Stop talking like that unless you want to get caught.”
Miya frowned. “Maybe I do.” She wanted to tell Raine about the strange frozen section of the Observatory screen, but that would start an argument about rule keeping. She knew Raine went there too, but Raine hated it when Miya broke the rules. She was always afraid of Miya getting caught. Her secret being exposed.
Raine finished tying her shoes and stood. “You don’t mean that.”
Miya shrugged. “This…creature from the outside makes me think that the Leadership is lying to us. What if there is life outside? We’re being kept in here like prisoners.”
Raine’s eyes widened. “You’re dangerously close to getting yourself in trouble, Mi. I’ve spent my whole life protecting you.”
I didn’t ask you to. Miya swallowed the words she knew would hurt Raine.
“If the Leadership discovers the insect, they’ll have this place on lockdown before morning, thinking there’s been a breach somewhere.”
Miya’s throat constricted. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll only be a few minutes, Mi. I…I have to check on something in case we go on lockdown,” Raine said. She kept her voice soft and even, a tone she usually reserved to calm Miya and convince them both that everything would be all right.
Miya laughed lightly, forcing the sound through a tight throat. “Just hurry. You know I’ll go nuts in here by myself if there’s a lockdown.”
Raine smiled and nodded. “I know.” Her sandy-blond hair had come loose from its braid and stuck in damp ringlets around her face. Her forehead glistened with moisture, and her skin looked frighteningly pale in the dim nightlight. Miya glimpsed a dark shadow under Raine’s eyes that stood out in startling contrast against the paleness of her skin.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine. Leave the worrying to me.” Raine flashed her a grin.
Miya watched Raine fumble with her hair as she redid the braid. In the dim light it appeared that Raine’s fingers were shaking, but Miya couldn’t be sure. But it seemed Raine was taking extra care with how she looked before she left the room.
Miya chewed a ragged bit of nail from her thumb and spit it on the floor. The fly sat on the floor a few feet away from where the discarded piece of nail landed. The fly’s tiny body was a dark blemish on the pure white tile.
Miya squirmed under the weight of the silence and finally mumbled, “There are so many weird things going on right now, it seems stupid to worry about a fly.”
“Seriously, Mi, how can you say that? We’re in a sealed Camp. Sealed. Air-locked. Nothing goes out and nothing comes in. If this creature found a way in, then…then…Remember those stories about the boy whose parents were executed, and…and…dammit! Where’s my necklace?” Raine had begun to rip the sheets off her bed and throw her pillows on the floor.
“Almost everyone our age has parents who were executed, Raine. You know that when people get too old, the Leadership says they’re useless to society.” Miya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Just because it was the way things were didn’t mean she had to agree with it. But she didn’t want Raine to know how she felt. She absently scratched the inside of her wrist until it bled again.
“Yeah, but you know what boy I’m talking about, right?” Raine began pacing the tiny room while chewing on the ends of her hair. “Have you seen my necklace?”
“No, I haven’t.” Miya watched the fly rub its legs together before taking off to resume its exploration of the small steel room. “Which boy do you mean?”
Raine stopped pacing long enough to flick her eyes at the insect, then back at Miya. “Remember, he didn’t believe his parents were executed because of old age, but since they were still young, he looked into it. He hacked into the system and found out his parents were executed because they believed there was a way out of here. The Leadership executed them before they caused a rebellion.”
Miya’s heart skipped a beat as she scratched her wrist again. Her fingernails were caked with blood. “Then what happened?”
Raine flitted about the room, but she didn’t miss a beat when she answered, “I’m sure you’ve heard this story before, Miya. The Leadership had the boy executed a few months later too.”
Miya tried to still the trembling in her hands. “Are you saying you’re worried about Nathan? Because he’s been talking about escaping lately?”
“No. I’m worried about you.”
Miya snorted in an attempt to make light of Raine’s concern. She scratched her wrist again.
“Miya!” Raine was staring at her with huge eyes as Miya absently raked her fingers across her left arm. “What are you doing? What happened to your implant?”
“Oh, this? Oren already knows about it. I’m taking antibiotic injections.”
Raine held Miya’s wrist, her forehead wrinkled in a frown. “When? When did you see Oren about this?”
“Earlier today. During the inspection.” Miya desperately wanted to ask Raine where she’d been, but instead casually said, “It just started itching yesterday.”
Raine suddenly dropped Miya’s arm and walked to the door. “We can’t afford anything out of the ordinary that might alert Leadership. You have to be more careful.”
Miya fixed her eyes on the back of Raine’s wrinkled shirt. “I was careful, Raine. I’m being careful.”
Raine turned around and smiled, but her silver eyes didn’t crinkle in the corners. “I know you are. I’m sorry. I just…” She waved her wrist across the door scanner. Her voice softened. “Promise me you’ll be okay.”
“It’s just a little infection, Raine.” Miya looked at the floor. Promises were getting pretty cheap lately.
“Promise.” Raine’s urgency pricked Miya’s chest.
Miya nodded and forced a smile, hoping to erase the wrinkle between Raine’s eyes that had been making its home there.
“I’ll see you soon, Mi. If you find my neckla
ce, hold onto it for me, okay? I don’t know what I’d do if I lost it.” The steel door slid open into the wall. Raine’s thin shadow angled onto the steel wall of the corridor.
“Raine?” she called out before the door slid shut. “If I don’t have a biofeed, why hasn’t Leadership said anything about it during inspections?” Her eyes never left her roommate’s retreating back as she waited for her friend to turn around.
Raine turned slowly to look at Miya, with one hand clutching the steel door frame. Her knuckles glowed white in the half-light. “Who’s the one that’s been scanning your implant all these years?”
Oren. Miya’s eyes widened. “But why—”
“I’ll always look out for you, Mi-pie.”
Miya smiled her gratitude. It didn’t matter how Raine had convinced Oren to pass her during inspections, it just mattered that she had. Except for today. Raine hadn’t been there, and her implant was unreadable. She shook off the accusatory thought. Raine wasn’t responsible for her infection. That wasn’t anyone’s fault.
“I waited for you at the inspection today.”
Raine nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. Something important came up.”
Miya sighed. “Sure. Well, wherever you were, maybe that’s where you lost your necklace.”
“Maybe.” Raine touched her neck with a fluttering hand where the silver chain had been. She looked like she was about to leave, but hesitated. “Be safe, okay?”
“What about you? Nathan said something about there being a murder. Maybe you shouldn’t be out there alone.”
“Nathan’s mouth is going to cause trouble one day.” Raine stepped out the door and was gone.
CHAPTER 14
Jake
The gray-brown squishy stuff was palatable if you ate it without looking at it. Jake had a plate piled with it and was sitting on a cot he’d dragged into the small storage space he’d been using as his room. He eased his bare back against the cold metal wall and tried to enjoy his meal. Now that his face was fixed (what did Raine call it?—a body adjustment), he could move amongst people without raising suspicion. As long as nobody tried talking to him, they’d never know anything was wrong with him.
He’d just kicked off his shoes and torn off his shirt to relax and eat his meal in solitude when suddenly he heard something at his door. He barely had time to yank a sheet over his naked midsection when Raine entered the room, looking flushed.
“Jacob Hamilton!” She crossed the room in a flaming fury and shook him.
“Woah! Calm down, Raine. What’s wrong?” He pushed her away, irritation gravelling his voice.
“Who are you?”
Jake put down his plate and licked his fingers one by one. Calmly. Methodically. He wasn’t about to let this girl rattle him. “You tell me. You seem to know a hell of a lot more about me than I do.”
Raine paced back and forth in the tiny room, wringing her elegant hands. “Where’d you come from, then? You have to remember that! The Tribond should be working by now.”
“Dammit, Raine! I told you I don’t know!”
“There’s a fly in my room! A living creature from outside! Do you know what that means?”
He watched her while she paced and made crazy gestures. “I’ll tell you what it means! It came in here with you! You’re from out there!”
She jabbed a finger at his chest. “If Leadership finds out, this place will be on lockdown and you’ll be stuck in this room until they find you.” She put her hands on her hips.
He allowed a small smile to play across his lips. “I am Leadership.”
She frowned and looked down at him. “Maybe you are now, but before—” She pointed at him. “There…When you were getting dressed after your body adjustment, I saw it.”
“Saw what?” He looked down and saw a pale-colored scar just below his collarbone. “It’s a scar, Raine. You’ve never seen one before? You told me you’d done a lot of body adjust—”
“No. It’s not a scar. It’s a… birthmark or something. It’s part of you. The Grafter doesn’t change what’s already in your DNA.” She resumed pacing. Her eyes so wide, fear so tangible his own heart raced.
“I know who you are, and why you’re here,” she whispered. “And I won’t let you hurt her.”
“Hurt who?”
“I’m begging you. Whatever you’re being told to do, just please don’t hurt her.”
“Raine! I’m not going to hurt anyone.” He thought of the man whose spine he’d crushed when he first woke up in the medical lab. He looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers.
Fear gripped him momentarily. “Who do you think I’m on a mission to destroy, Raine?”
She pointed again to his chest. After a moment she said, “That mark tells me you already know the answer to that.” Panic etched her pretty face.
That was the last thing she said before leaving him with a knot in his gut. She was right. The mark on his chest was like some kind of homing beacon, leading him to his target. And it made him shudder to think part of him was excited to accomplish what he was programmed to do. He couldn’t help it. He was a Leadership soldier, after all.
CHAPTER 15
Miya
Miya sat on the edge of her bed, watching the daytime lights dim and the night lights come on in the room. She clenched her teeth at the sound of the dripping faucet in the bathroom and curled her fingers into the bedsheets.
She knew she’d have another sleepless night, so why bother going to bed? Uneasiness dried her mouth and made her palms sweat. For the first time since she could remember, Miya didn’t trust Raine. She didn’t believe anything Raine had told her in the past few days. If she was to discover the truth of what Raine had been doing, she’d have to find out herself.
She looked at the dried blood crusted around her implant, spat on its metal surface, then rubbed it with her bedsheet. The circuits shimmered slightly below the dull surface. She hoped there was still enough energy left in it to open the door.
She slipped off her nightclothes and pulled on the same pair of white pants she’d had on earlier. She pressed her wrist against the front of the implant scanner and bit her lip as pain pulsed through the infected implant. After six unsuccessful attempts, her stomach fluttered when she heard a soft click on the seventh try.
She wiped the dribble of pus that oozed from the implant on her pants as she stepped, whisper quiet, into the hall. Anxiety gurgled her stomach, and the back of her neck prickled. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. The corridor was empty. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear she could feel the Leadership’s eyes on her with every pulse of her implant.
Miya started to jog. The Camp was a giant square broken into four sections called quads. Every floor was identical, with corridors that connected the individual rooms on the outer edges, while the public rooms, like the Food Bar and Sun Room, were located in the center.
Within minutes she found herself breathless and sweaty at the entrance to Quad One for the second time that day.
Irritated, she wiped her damp palms on her pants before lifting her wrist to the scanner and praying it would work. Just then the door hissed open. Miya jumped back as Oren stepped from the Observatory into the dark corridor.
“Miss Thorne.” Even though he stood directly in front of her, his voice still startled her.
“Yes, sir.” Even behind her knees was sweating.
He frowned. “What brings you down to this quad? You shouldn’t be here.” His eyes flashed at her like he was angry, but his voice was calm, steady.
Miya swallowed hard, her mind cycling. “I, uh, I was trying to find…you. I wanted to ask you about…this.” She held out her arm so he could see the inside of her left wrist. She forced a smile even as her right eyelid twitched. Could he tell she was lying?
“I’ve taken a couple of those injections, but I think it’s getting worse. I think I’m, uh…” She squared her shoulders in spite of the queasiness in her stomach.
Or
en’s narrowed eyes never left her face. He stepped closer to her. “Invalidated.” The word sounded sharply like an accusation.
She bit the inside of her lip. Well, that was the truth, kind of. She was concerned about being invalidated. Heat crept into her cheeks, and her pulse pounded under his intense scrutiny.
“How do you expect to make food selections? And how will you get around if you can’t even open doors?”
She kept her wrist up, fist clenched. “Can’t you help me? I really would rather not have a full-body scan. It’s…kind of embarrassing.”
She shouldn’t have said that. Normal people didn’t say things like that, but Oren just smiled slightly and took her arm in his hand. The grip of his fingers around her wrist felt steady this time.
“Let’s see.” He looked down at her arm. With his other hand he took his pocket scanner and pressed it against her implant. Miya cringed at the pain that radiated up her arm and resisted the urge to pull away. Oren released her, then held the device at an angle to read its auto-diagnosis in the dim light. Without as much as an eyelid flicker, he slid the scanner back into his pocket, then tilted Miya’s chin with his thumb and index finger.
“Despite my best efforts, the infection has progressed. The system will no longer acknowledge you. I’m sorry that’s not what you wanted to hear.” He dropped his hands, but kept his eyes on hers.
She stared at his perfectly shaped eyebrows, unable to look directly in his eyes.
“No need for that scan now, I suppose,” he said.
She swallowed the thick feeling in her throat. If her heart pounded any louder, Oren might hear it. She sucked in a quick breath. So, Leadership was finally acknowledging she wasn’t in the system. But why now?
“What do I do?”
“Miss Thorne, the best way to look at your new status is to recognize that for the first time in your life, you can do as you like. Without being monitored. I imagine you’ll use this time wisely. It won’t last long.” He turned on his heel and walked down the corridor back toward the fourth quad.