XVI

by Julia Karr

  I couldn’t let him take Dee—all he needed was one DNA screen and he’d find out she wasn’t his daughter. My eyes followed the dim glow from his LED. The dust was filling my nostrils and I prayed I wouldn’t sneeze.

  “Nina ... just give me the book, Nina. Are you listening to me?” His voice became strident. “You know that it’s because of your father that I’m a Chooser. I used to be top-level B.O.S.S. People worked for me. I told them he never drowned, but they said I was crazy. I spent ten damn years trying to get the truth out of your mother. But when I give the GC proof that Alan’s alive, they’ll have to reinstate me.”

  His voice lowered. “I really loved her.” There was something close to tenderness in his words. “She despised me,” he went on. “You think I didn’t know that? Even after having a kid with me, she still loved your father. Funny, ain’t it? He’s alive, she’s dead. How unfortunate for her.” His voice lowered to a growl. “Even with that knife to her belly, she wouldn’t give him up. Almost couldn’t go through with it, though,” he said. “That woman turned me on—what a waste.”

  Then there was silence, horrible silence. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. The taste of bile filled my mouth. Ed had killed my mother. I think I’d known all along that he’d killed her. I clenched the pipe more tightly, my rage growing.

  “I’m getting tired of this, Nina. You know what, Nina? I don’t think I need you to get that book. I think Dee knows where it is, and you know she loves her dad. That leaves you ... well, now, I can’t just leave you, can I? Not with all you know, now. That just won’t do.” He kicked some rubbish. “But what to do with you, now ... There’s an old saying ‘like mother—like daughter.’ What do you say we find out if that’s true? And if I like what you do, I might not kill you, least not right away.”

  Pervert! I wanted to scream so badly. Scream and scream and scream, until I’d screamed him into oblivion. I knew if I made a sound it would be all over for me, for Wei ... And after he got to me, he’d go for Dee. I couldn’t let that happen, no matter what. I had to keep focused.

  The faint beam of his LED trailed along on the other side of the counter.

  This would be my only chance to get away. I watched the light getting closer and closer. Pressing my back against a piece of countertop, I braced myself. He stepped closer to my hiding place, his LED shining right in front of me. I held my breath, waiting.

  The moment the light moved past me, I leaped up and the full force of my rage and every other emotion I’d been holding inside surged out. I let loose one horrible shriek and with both hands brought the full force of the pipe down on Ed’s head. I heard a sickening crack and Ed crumpled into the rubble.

  XLII

  Ed’s LED wobbled across the floor, the light throwing shadows everywhere. I grabbed it, then raced to the storeroom and out into the night.

  I pulled out my PAV and called Sal. “Sal—I need help, NOW! Wei and I are at Robin’s Roost. Come through the alley. Come now!”

  Wei—I had to get back to her, but what if Ed came to? I began to shake and it wasn’t from the cold. I couldn’t leave Wei in there, alone with him, unconscious. I had to risk it. I turned to go back inside when the door creaked open. I pressed against the building, paralyzed, hoping I blended in with the shadows. If Ed found me, I knew what would happen.

  “Nina?” Wei’s voice was weak and thready; she slid down the doorjamb into a heap.

  I ran to her. “Get up. Come on.”

  She tried to sit, but only managed to slump forward, holding her head.

  “Wei, come on, we’ve got to get out of here,” I said. “Ed’s inside. I knocked him out but he’s gonna come to. If he finds us ...”

  She struggled to her feet, and I half carried her up the steps to the alley. We had almost reached the entrance to the street when I saw Sal and Mike.

  “Sal, Mike, over here! We’ve got to get Wei some help. She fell ... and ...”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I’m just a little woozy.” Her legs kept giving out under her. “No worse than other falls I’ve taken. I just need to sit for a minute, okay?”

  The guys supported Wei as we snuck out of the alley and crossed the street. A three-story walk up, with large bushes on either side of the steps loomed in front of us.

  “You girls get behind those.” Sal pointed to the bushes. “We’ll keep watch until Ed comes out.”

  Ten minutes passed ... nothing. Twenty minutes later, Ed still hadn’t come out. Wei and I stayed hidden behind the bushes. Much as I ached to call Sandy and make sure she was all right, I couldn’t. Ed might have come to and would, no doubt, be looking for me. He might be able to hone in on my PAV signal. I dared not take that chance.

  Everything Ed had said inside Robin’s Roost ran through my mind. He’d killed Ginnie. What was to stop him from ... No. I refused to believe Ed had killed Sandy, too. Maybe he hadn’t even raped her—maybe it was just talk to scare me. She’s probably at Soma already, I thought, talking to some guys. That had to be it. I checked my PAV receiver for the millionth time to see if she’d called while I’d been inside Robin’s Roost. She hadn’t.

  “Ed couldn’t have gone out any other way, could he?” Sal asked.

  “Maybe we should go take a look?” Mike said.

  “You can see through those windows into the basement if you get close enough.” My voice was trembling as bad as my insides.

  “You guys stay here.” Sal walked nonchalantly across the street to Robin’s Roost. He took something out of his pocket and dropped it. Kneeling down, he pretended to search for it, but I saw a flash of light—must have been an LED—and figured he was looking inside for Ed. Eventually, he stood up and continued walking toward the corner. When he got there, he glanced up and down the street, then checked his chronos. He strolled back and sat down next to Mike. Perfectly normal—a guy waiting for someone on a Saturday night.

  “He’s lying on the floor. He’s not moving.”

  “You don’t mean ... he can’t be ... I didn’t hit him that hard.”

  “Maybe you did,” Wei said. “We should call my parents.”

  “No,” Sal said. “If the GC had your dad questioned in Greenland, that means they’re already suspicious about Nina’s visits to your house. I’ll get in touch with Aunt Rita. Let me go take another look.”

  “The hotel’s DZ.” My voice was shaking and my insides were roiling like a pond full of carp at feeding time.

  Sal reached behind the bushes and took my hand. “It’ll be okay, Nina.” Then he crossed the street and disappeared down the alley.

  Two seconds later I doubled over. Wei held my hair back while Mike diplomatically looked the other way. I felt as though I was turning inside out.

  By the time Sal returned it was pitch-black outside. “Come on, let’s get going. Derek’s probably wondering where we are. Sandy, too. I’m surprised she hasn’t called you.”

  “Sal ... is Ed really ...?” I didn’t want to know, but I needed to.

  “Yeah.” Sal steadied me. “I checked.”

  I lurched forward into the bushes and anything left inside me heaved out onto the ground. Soon I was empty, but I couldn’t stop retching. Wei took my arm and pressed her thumb above my wrist, hard. In a few moments, the nausea subsided.

  I looked at her, bewildered.

  “Acupressure. I pay attention to some of what my mom does.”

  “What do we do now?” I said.

  “We go to Soma and see if Sandy’s made it there yet,” Sal said.

  I leaned over and whispered to him, “Ed said he ...” I couldn’t finish the sentence. “Sandy ...”

  “We’ll go look for her. Come on,” Sal said.

  Wei and I must have looked like those wounded soldiers in old End-of-Wars vids. Mike was half carrying her and I was clutching Sal’s arm—my legs about as steady as running water.

  When we got to Soma, Sandy wasn’t there.

  “We have to leave,” I whispered to Sal. “We h
ave to find her.”

  “When you’re in a DZ, tell Derek what happened,” he said to Mike. “I’m taking Nina home.”

  “Okay. I’ll bring Sandy over after the show.”

  I nodded; the tears were welling up. Then I stumbled outside, Sal right behind me.

  We ended up at our oasis. Through my sobs I managed to tell him the whole story. Everything Ed had said, about my mother, about Sandy.

  Sal rocked me gently in his arms until I couldn’t cry anymore.

  “What have I done?” I paced back and forth under the muted lights. “I can’t have killed someone—even if it was Ed.”

  “Nina, it was self-defense. He killed your mother. We don’t know what he’s done to Sandy, if anything. He was threatening to take Dee and he said he was going to rape and then kill you.”

  “Courts never believe sixteens,” I said. “What will happen to me?”

  “Nothing.”

  I sat down on the bench. “I’ll be reassimilated, won’t I?”

  “No one will ever find out about this. It’s been taken care of.”

  “What? What do you mean, taken care of?”

  “Please stop worrying.” He took my hands in his.

  “Rita. Did she fix it?” I could picture her sending someone like Max to “take care” of things.

  Sal put a finger to my lips. “Even if this oasis is DZ, we’re out in the open. We need to be careful what we say. Just know that Ed will never hurt you again.”

  “What about Sandy?” I started to cry again. “It sounded like he ...” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

  “Nina ...” Sal twisted it out of my hand. “Stop.”

  I buried my face in his neck, sobbing.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”

  It was late when I fell into bed. Sandy hadn’t shown up or called. I’d tried to reach her mom, but no one answered. All I wanted to do was sleep and forget, but I couldn’t. Ed’s words kept running through my mind. Don’t you want to know what happened to your friend? ... She really was a virgin ... Bonus for me. Too much had happened.

  My PAV beeped.

  “Sandy!”

  “No, it’s me.” It was Wei.

  “Wei, are you okay?” I asked.

  “Mom doctored me up. I feel a little better.”

  “Any word about ...?” I knew I had to be careful what I said, and Wei did, too. As much as I wanted to know if they’d found Sandy, or Ed, I was afraid I’d wake up Gran if I went and got the scrambler.

  “Nothing. I’m sorry.”

  “And the packet—” I still had the proof Ginnie had stolen from Ed. I didn’t want to think about it, not yet, but I knew we had to get the information to my father. This all had to be for a reason.

  “Yeah, we’ll talk tomorrow.” She clicked off.

  I lay in bed, scared to close my eyes, scared to see the images that were hiding in the dark.

  I rolled over and looked at Ginnie’s picture. She’d let all those awful things happen to her, just to keep my dad and Dee and me safe. “Oh, Mom ... I miss you.”

  XLIII

  The police found Sandy’s body three days later, partially buried in a gravel pit outside of Cementville. Media claimed it was sixteen-related and gave lip service to the perils of overt teen sexuality—immediately followed by a vert about how to increase your sex appeal with a pheromone-based body wash. If Ed could have been killed again, Mike would have done it.

  Sal borrowed a hire-trannie from his brother and we all went to Cementville for the funeral.

  Sandy looked so beautiful—like she was sleeping. Her mother was on a dozen drugs to keep her under control. Even her stepdad looked like he’d been crying. I wanted to think I’d misjudged him, but I don’t think I had. I stood at the casket, unable to take my eyes off my best friend. For all of her sex-teen ways, she’d been so naive and trusting. All she’d ever wanted was to get out of her tier, to find someone who loved her. I hoped that somehow she could see or feel just how much I loved her. I leaned over, kissed her forehead, and straightened her bangs. I was so going to miss her.

  Mike had offered to be one of the pallbearers. Before they shut the pod, I saw him place a tiny plasticene cow in her hand. He’d had it since kindergarten—I knew because I’d given it to him. One tear trickled down his cheek. That was the only time he showed any emotion from the funeral home to the burial rocket. He watched as it left on its journey to collect other pods before the final launch into space. Long after everyone else had gone to Sandy’s parents’ place for the wake, Mike was still standing, staring down the highway.

  Sal, Derek, and I finally persuaded him to get in the HT and we drove back to the city in silence.

  Back at home, I opened the packet again and read the rest of Ginnie’s note to my father. It outlined everything that Wei had told me about FeLS. Some of it was on the up-and-up, but most of it had to do with using sixteens as sex slaves for government officials and the ocribundan miners. The chips contained documents, pictures, names, and enough evidence that if it got to the right place, it could not be ignored. My father would know exactly what to do with it. And I would put it and Dee’s baby book in his hands myself.

  Eventually, what Ginnie’d found would help thousands of girls. But I wondered what would happen to me. My FeLS contract was gone. But at least Ed wasn’t around to push a Chooser into taking me. If I was chosen, there was no way of knowing if I’d get sent to the sex-trafficking training or the regular training. Running away was starting to look like a viable option. Except that would mean I’d have to leave Dee and Gran and Pops. And my friends. And Sal. But, I couldn’t worry about becoming a fugitive now. I had to get this information to my father first

  There were still nearly three weeks until Holiday Day break. It was a rare sunny afternoon in Chicago’s winter, so Dee and I walked home from school through the park. It was nice not to have to look over my shoulder constantly, worrying about Ed. We stopped by the horse pasture and stood watching the horses pull at mounds of hay. In the distance, I saw the resident herd of cows. I could almost see Sandy leaning over the fence, mooing. I had to turn away.

  “Gran says that there’s only one way to get to the happy memories. You have to cry out the sad ones,” Dee said. “I’m really sorry about Sandy, Nina.”

  “Yeah; me, too.” I swiped a tear away. So much had happened over the past few months. It was going to be a while before I got over losing Sandy. And my mom.

  Dee raced up the side of the pasture, petting every horse that would come near the fence. She was safe from Ed. I hadn’t told her that Alan was her father. That would remain a secret, at least until I could find him.

  “We’re home.” I tossed my gloves on the top shelf of the closet.

  Pops thumped into the room. “Checkerheads were here today.”

  I stopped right in the middle of taking my coat off. “What did they want?”

  “It was about that ... uh ... Dee, honey, go see what your gran wants. I heard her call you.”

  My knees were knocking together as I hung up my coat and sat down across from Pops. “Ed?”

  “Yup. Seems he disappeared. Tracked his last PAV signal somewhere around Lincoln and Wells.”

  “Why did they come here?” I managed to keep my voice normal—suppressing the shriek that wanted to burst out.

  “They thought he might have visited Dee.” Pops chunked back in his chair. “I told them the deadbeat never bothered before, why would he have been around then? She wasn’t anything to him, ’cept by DNA.”

  I hadn’t told Gran or Pops about Dee’s parentage either. They were safer not knowing.

  “Did the police say anything else?”

  “Nah, just to let ’em know if he showed up.” Pops snorted. “Like I’d tell them anything. They said his wife hadn’t even reported him missing, it was his job that wondered why he wasn’t at work.”

  “I’m not surprised,” I muttered.

  “Huh?” Pops cupped an ear
toward me.

  “Nothing, I just wondered if they’d ever find him.”

  “I hope the miserable SOB dropped off the planet,” Pops said.

  If only you knew, I thought. Sal had never told me the whole story about who did the cleanup after we’d left Robin’s Roost that night. He said the less I knew, the better. I was in full agreement.

  XLIV

  December 10, 2150. My sixteenth birthday.

  I’d left the doctor’s office after getting my STD vaccines. They say a girl has to be safe; I was thinking it was more that the guys didn’t want to catch anything. Next stop, the government tattoo parlor. I sat in the ID tech’s chair, gritting my teeth while she jabbed the needle into my wrist. When she was done, the GCMANDATED XVI was etched into my skin—a black stain.

  “You’re absolutely certain about this?” the tech asked Gran, pointing to a line on the paperwork.

  “That’s what it says,” Gran replied. “The girl’s got sense—she doesn’t need to be tracked like some animal.”

  The woman shook her head, but proceeded. I winced as the vac tool penetrated my skin and then sucked the pellet out. She chucked it into the wastebasket. One less GPS to track, I thought.

  Gran tucked away my birth certificate, signed the remaining forms, and we left.

  Our next stop was the Bureau of Identification and Ranking. More forms, more signatures. I couldn’t believe I actually smiled for my photo. The new scan listed all my pertinent information and the box marked Creative was checked. All I’d had to do was show them the transcripts from my art classes in Cementville and pay a fee. Now I knew why Ginnie’d sacrificed so much for me to take the classes.

  Much as I wanted another tattoo, one like Wei’s—the thistles circling the XVI—I knew I couldn’t afford one. Besides, when she’d told me about hers, a bit reluctantly as I recalled, it seemed like the tattoo had another meaning, one even beyond its anti-XVI symbolism . Maybe someday I could afford to get my own tattoo, one I would design myself, with special significance for me.