This was where the man picked up the story. “One official has indicated that Mr. Granjer might be the leader of a group of young people, all of who put themselves in danger of death by the Bug regularly. If you see Mr. Granjer, help him and the people of the New Chapter by reporting his location immediately via EarCom, IM-box, or directly to any Admin or Enforser. Remember: better safe than sorry, better calm than dead.”
Dread felt like a piece of ice sliding into my stomach. I swallowed a sudden sour taste. Lies. All of it sounded so good, so real, but it was a lie from the start. The Bug might have killed Bren, but it was like a tool. Or like the Keeper I still carried. I could have been killed by a bullet yesterday, but the truth was that it would have been a Ranjer killing me, not the bullet. The Bug was a bullet fired every day at every person in New Frisko by the Prime Administrator.
I made it through the small market area, passing among the people buying toys and games and clothing accessories kind of in a haze. I shook the weird feeling away and focused again as I approached the School Dome. I needed to get to the south entrance. I checked my Papa, which was more of just a wrist-mounted clock now. I had maybe three minutes.
Lengthening my stride, I kept my eyes and ears open. I needed to look like I was busy. If anyone talked to me, I’d be found out right away. The clean white wall of the School Dome, practically glowing in the bright sun, curved ahead of me and to my left as I walked fast. In my visor, the wall even had a bit of a heat signature. I saw kids leaving the school, maybe a hundred meters away. I walked faster, worried I might catch someone’s eye, but counting on the fear that the Enforsers caused in people to keep any questions quiet.
I rounded the sidewalk corner and arrived at the edge of the stream of kids. Kids. I was still one of them, wasn’t I? Glancing down, I saw my arms and chest, covered in Enforser uniform. No, I guessed not.
I watched my former peers as they made their way out of the Dome. I would never do school again. That was crazy.
Bren’s sister, Jan, walked out, surrounded by other girls a year younger than me. Seeing Jan’s sad, drawn face, her blue eyes red-rimmed and black hair kind of messy, felt like a punch to the stomach. She had to be so confused about what had happened. I thought back to the call I’d made to her that first night, wondering if I’d done the right thing. Did she blame me for Bren’s death?
How could she not? Her world had completely changed with my call two nights ago. And it was because of me. Maybe by the end of the today she would understand. That was my best bet. Maybe then I would have the guts to talk to her again. If everything worked out, she would know by the end of the day who was really responsible for her brother’s death.
I watched Jan pass, wishing I could talk to her right now without getting noticed. There was no way. I went back to scanning the crowd, hoping I would recognize Pol or Koner from behind if they had already come out. I tried to picture where in the Dome their classes would be. With luck, they would have come out by now.
Yes. There was Koner. He caught sight of me and looked away fast.
I debated how to catch his attention. I didn’t want to grab him and cause a stir. I had to be an Enforser. Nobody questioned Enforsers. I stepped into the stream of kids, some of them taller than I would be if I weren’t wearing big Enforser boots and the helmet. Moving quickly, I caught up to Koner and walked beside him. He tossed a nervous glance at me, and looked down, obviously hoping I was just on patrol.
I toyed with the idea of playing a joke on him and acting like I was on official business. Bad idea. “Koner.”
He looked up. The helmet and visor distorted my voice so he couldn’t know who I was.
“Koner. It’s me.” I scanned the people close by; nobody was watching. In fact, everyone was obviously doing their best to not look at me.
“What?”
I returned to Koner. “Dok. It’s me, Nik.”
“Holy Bu—” he caught himself and glanced around. When he spoke again, he whispered, but I had no trouble hearing him. The helmet. “Nik? What the Bug?”
“Hey. Don’t look at me. We’re just walking near each other.”
“Okay.” He looked pointedly down. “What are you doing here?
“We’re here to finish it. It’s all a lie and we’re going to stop them.”
“Stop who? What’s a lie? What happened to Bren?”
“I can’t explain much here. But the Bug isn’t what everyone thinks it is. We have to stop them or . . . ” I thought fast. What would happen if we didn’t do anything? I thought of Bren. “We have to stop them or more people are going to die.”
“What do you mean? Where have you been?”
“Look. Just meet us at Holland Park. Near the scarf store.”
“What for?” Koner’s face turned right and left. I scanned the dispersing students, too. Nobody seemed to be watching us.
“We need your help.”
“Help with what?
“I told you. We have to stop them.”
Koner missed a step and looked like he almost tripped. “Seriously? What do you need me for?”
I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I pictured what our moves would have to be in Prime One. Koner was pretty good with computers. “I need your help getting into their network. We have to get some proof of what they’re doing.”
“Who else?”
It took me a few seconds to understand his question. “Melisa’s with me. I’m going to get Pol, too.” I figured it would just complicate things in his mind if I mentioned Devera.
“Okay.”
I felt some tension leave my body.
“But I’ll talk to Pol. You’re kind of . . . noticeable.” I heard the smile in his voice.
“That’s good, thanks. Tell him we need his special EarComs.”
“Special?”
“Special EarComs.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ask him.”
“What’s going on?” I heard the frustration in Koner’s voice.
“We’ll talk more when we meet, okay?”
“Fine.” I moved away from him, but stopped when he raised his voice somewhat, “Wait. When?”
“As soon as you can,” I said. “Don’t let anybody see you. And don’t EM or use regular EarComs.”
“Okay.”
“Be careful.”
“You too, Mr. Enforser, sir.”
CHAPTER 32
I headed off, circling around and back toward Prime One, figuring I had time to do some scouting before everybody showed up at the meet-up. My path took me near the Dumps. As I walked, the railing that kept people from falling down the ten meters into the Dumps ran along on my left. I held my Keeper in both hands, trying to imitate the way the Enforsers always looked. I had another slung over my shoulder, hanging against my back, which Enforsers didn’t usually do, but so far nobody seemed to have noticed. Or cared enough to show they noticed.
In the Dumps, I could see some of the first shift of workers and students finishing their work, spraying down the conveyor belts. It was hard to believe I had been down there less than twelve hours before, being chased by Enforsers and Ranjers. The memory of my few seconds hanging from the underside of a trash conveyor made my bandaged back twinge.
Studying the area, I felt like I was watching a video clip of a story or some other kind of fabrication. Like a hologram of what life in the New Chapter should be like. People wearing the city-issued clothes, some of them wearing accessories they had picked up in one of the markets in town. I wondered why the markets were even there. Everyone knew that if you wanted to sell something, the item and the cost had to be approved by Admins in Prime One. Besides, you had to go into debt something like a thousand Mits to be able to open a vendor front. But I guessed if a person wanted to sacrifice an entire year’s worth of Remittances just so they could sell scarves or cheesy jewelry—if that made a person feel like he had anything like a free life—it wasn’t my problem.
I remembered learning about t
he market system of the old way things were done, how there were literally thousands of food vendor fronts, Rest-Ronts, where people could go to get food any time of day or night. Not in the New Chapter. Nobody sold food here. If you wanted to eat a meal outside of school or your house, you used your Papa and got the meal the computer system said you should have—all to keep us perfectly healthy. No freedom or choices there. How would it be to ask for a plate of deer meat and actually get it here in New Frisko?
That made me think of the Wanderers, and the image of their bodies scattered around the forest floor hit me again. I forced it away and focused on the path in front of me. I passed the edge of the Dumps; Prime One’s immense dome filled my vision, soaring at least a hundred meters up. People walked by, some shadowing Maintenance bots, others making their way home or to a shift somewhere. It was funny how people with so many different hair and skin colors pretty much looked the exact same in the city-issued grays.
I crossed the street, dodging a bot and hanging a left so I could circle the dome of Prime One. Twenty minutes later, I rounded the east entrance and turned toward Holland Park, chewing on what I’d seen and learned.
First, these uniforms were amazing. I was covered head to toe in black Enforser uniform, walking in the bright afternoon sun, but I was cool and comfortable. I didn’t feel a breeze or anything, but there had to be some mechanism that was moving air around. Or something.
Second, there were no more guards than normal at the four entrances to Prime One. I could only guess why this was, but it made sense if the Admins didn’t want to make it look like anything was wrong, or that they were worried about me and what I might do. I wondered if the Prime Administrator was back yet. He had to be. I hadn’t bothered to take his EarCom. I hoped he thought that we had just run away. He may have sent out Enforsers to find us.
That thought almost stopped me, but I saved the moment by turning left into Holland Park. If they had sent out pods to go after us, they may have caught up to the one we’d sent off on autopilot. If they had, maybe they had shot it down and thought we were dead. Or maybe they had somehow made it land and found that we were gone.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Hopefully they weren’t expecting us to try to get back into Prime One, but that wouldn’t change anything. We had our plan and we were going to get back in there.
I was the first one at the meet-up. I stood in place for a while, the Keeper hanging from my hands, trying to look like a normal Enforser on patrol duty. While I stood there, I tried to figure out how we were going to get in. Each entrance to Prime One had a guard to either side of the door. The uniforms might fool them, but if we had Pol and Koner and Devera with us, there would be questions we couldn’t answer. More than that, though, we probably needed to have some kind of identification. Since neither Melisa or I had a working Papa, and we were going to deactivate Pol and Koner’s, that would be a lot more than just suspicious.
My thoughts were interrupted when Melisa and Devera came into view; at least, I assumed it was Melisa. We should have memorized each other’s numbers. Devera wore basic New Frisko grays, with the sleeves of her zip long enough to cover up the fact that she didn’t have a Papa. She walked a few steps behind Melisa; they were obviously trying to make it look like they weren’t together. Melisa looked my way. I raised my Keeper and nodded, hoping she could tell it was me. She approached, passing a bench on the way, which she pointed at with her Keeper for Devera’s benefit. That was definitely Melisa.
“Greetings,” Melisa said, taking a position to my right. I guessed she might not be sure it was me.
“Name and ID,” I said, pitching my voice low.
“Uh . . . ”
I heard the sudden panic in her voice.
“Kidding. It’s me.”
Melisa hissed at me. “If we weren’t wearing these things I’d smack you.”
“If we weren’t wearing these things I could have seen your face just now and mocked you for years.”
“Jerk.”
“Yup.”
A quiet moment passed. “Did you get them?”
“Yeah. I talked to Koner and he was going to talk to Pol. They’ll meet us here.” I hoped another Enforser didn’t walk by any time soon.
“When?”
“Soon. I hope.”
Devera was staring expectantly at us. She needed to stop, but it would be a bad idea for one of us to talk to her. I pointed this out to Melisa.
“Yeah,” she said. “So Pol and Koner need to get here.”
“Koner’s right there.” Koner had shown up at the opposite end of the market row that Melisa and Devera had come from. I turned so he could see my visor, trying to catch his eye. He saw me and looked around. I figured he decided nobody was looking, because he gave me a small thumbs-up with a questioning expression. I put my left thumb up and pointed my Keeper at the bench where Devera sat.
Koner walked casually in our direction, his hands buried in his zip. When he got to the table, he said something to Devera, who looked surprised but then started nodding. Koner sat and slumped low, obviously trying to look uninteresting.
“Hey,” I said. “Do you still have the Prime Administrator’s card?”
“I do,” Melisa said. “They never searched me. I think they always thought you had it.”
“Good. Hold onto it.”
We had to wait another ten minutes before Pol showed up. I had to stop myself, at least once a minute, from going to Koner and asking him what was going on.
Pol carried a satchel slung over one shoulder and across his chest. He spotted Koner and walked right up to him. After a short exchange, Pol turned and gave me and Melisa a long stare, his mouth slightly open. We watched as Koner and Pol had another exchange. All of this was done while the same clip I’d seen earlier played on a loop on the Skreens and people came and went through Holland Park. Melisa and I stood maybe a meter apart.
Finally, I saw Pol hand Koner something then walk off. As I watched, Pol found another bench, sat, and tapped his Papa. He started tapping on his wrist, so I assumed he was playing on his hologame console that projected from the Papa.
Now Koner said something to Devera and stood. I was impressed with how Pol and Koner were acting. I could tell they knew they were probably being monitored. Koner walked toward us and passed close to Melisa. After he had gone, Melisa stepped closer.
“They did great.” Her voice was pitched low, but I had no trouble hearing her despite the somewhat noisy area.
“What do you mean?”
“That didn’t look suspicious. And I’ve got Pol’s EarComs.” Her hand touched mine and I closed mine around something very small that had almost no weight.
“We need to take off the helmets to get these in,” I said.
“Yeah. Let’s split up again and find somewhere out of sight. When we’ve got them in, we’ll talk to everyone.”
“Good.” I moved away from the scarf vendor and headed south, toward the Enjineering Dome. But before I got to the dome, I turned left toward Hope Park. This was a section of road that nobody was walking on. I quickly pulled the helmet off, stuck it between my legs, and used my left hand to insert the EarCom. I had the helmet on again in five seconds, maybe less. I felt the EarCom grow warm, like they usually did. The power pack for EarComs was really small and ran off the heat generated by a person’s head, and they activated when they were placed in an ear. So Pol hadn’t changed that part of them.
I heard the last part of a sentence. “—should be on any second.” That was Melisa’s voice.
“I’m here,” I said. “Everyone else?”
“Here,” Pol said.
“Yep,” Koner said.
“Pol only had four, so Devera doesn’t have one,” Melisa said.
“Okay. Pol, Koner, thanks for doing this,” I said.
“Dok,” Koner said. “Of course I’m in for this. Whatever it is.”
“Nik,” Pol said. “How did Bren die? Is what they’re saying true? I don’t th
ink it is.”
I winced at the question and the grief that already felt like it had settled into my bones.
“Slow down, Pol,” Melisa said. “Nik, tell them everything. Koner, Pol, are you somewhere . . . uh . . . discreet?”
“Yes,” Koner said. “I’m walking toward the park.”
“I’m still at Holland. But nobody can hear me,” Pol said.
I told them the story of the last two days. So much had happened, but I was done talking after less than five minutes.
“So if what you’re saying about the knockout is true,” Koner said, “Bren died of the Bug, but you didn’t. And he was basically killed by the Admins.”
“Yeah. And they want to kill me and Melisa too, since we know the truth. Or maybe it’s just the Prime Administrator. Maybe he’s somehow the only one who knows what the knockout really is,” I said. I began to make my way back toward the Enjineering Dome.
“Could he really do this alone?” Koner asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. It was time to get moving. “Look. We need to do this.”
“Like Teacher Harris!” Pol’s voice came through the EarCom high-pitched.
“What?” Melisa asked.
“Remember when he went crazy? Started shouting about the Bug?” Pol sounded excited.
“Sure,” Koner said.
“Maybe he’d figured it out too,” Pol said.
We chewed on that.
“So he didn’t retire or anything,” I said.
“They killed him,” Koner said.
A moment of silence passed. “What’s the plan?” Koner’s voice again. We had all understood what Pol had figured out. If the New Chapter learned that someone figured out the secret, that person was dead. Every time. It had happened before.
We had to stop them.
“We go in to Prime One and get proof about the knockout, probably with a chemical analysis. Everyone knows what the Bug looks like chemically and under a microscope. Then we broadcast it to every Skreen in New Frisko.” It sounded ridiculous. I couldn’t believe Melisa and I had tried to do this on our own just a few hours earlier.
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