Access Restricted

by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

  Saretha spoke as gently as she could. “Your friend Henri—he didn’t make it.”

  Henri: $35.99

  Inside the shelter, Margot was sitting on the ground with her back to the wall, staring out with empty eyes. She barely seemed to notice us. Mira sat by her side, watching as I entered. Norflo stood, shaking his head, and wrapped me in a bear hug. I squeezed back as best I could, my strength feeling all but gone.

  Saretha couldn’t mean Henri was dead. There had to be some other explanation.

  “What happened?” I asked in a broken voice. For a moment, no one answered, and I let myself feel a brief surge of foolish hope. “Did Lucretia’s people take him?” That would be awful, but we could go back to DC and free him.

  “No,” Margot said darkly. Her face twisted with pain, and she snarled, “They just left him there.”

  “But why?” I cried. I’d heard the shot. I’d seen Henri fall. I saw the blood. “Why? He was supposed to be safe!”

  Margot choked back a sob. Mira clung to her more closely.

  “But he was owned,” I protested. “That should have protected him from being killed.”

  “For Lucretia Rog, it meant she couldn’t own him,” Norflo said darkly.

  I slumped against the far wall by the door. Saretha sat carefully beside me. “Surely she could have bought him,” I said, desperate to believe we could still rescue him. “She has the money. Why would she kill him?”

  Outside the door, the DC dome loomed beyond the clearing and the trees, low across the sky. It looked so massive and wide, despite being miles away from where we were. I couldn’t entirely comprehend the size of it. Why couldn’t Henri be somewhere inside?

  “He was owned by his father,” Margot said, shaking her head. “The Rogs knew Henri’s father would never sell his son. That was the point of owning him. That is what Henri always said when he defended him. His father had bought Henri and Henri’s mother to protect them.”

  She didn’t sound like she believed his motives. I didn’t blame her.

  “Kel checked,” Margot continued. “So we could be sure. Lucretia paid out a huge settlement to Henri’s father—five times the earnings of a Placer’s full career, plus pain and suffering damages because he says he loved Henri.”

  “No,” I whispered. “No. No. No.” My mouth kept saying it, like an incantation against what I knew. The awful, empty pit of a feeling that I’d shoved away after Sam’s murder opened up before me. Henri and Sam were both innocent, with such shining, good hearts. Why did the Rogs need to destroy everything that was good in this world?

  “Did you see him?” I asked, wishing what I’d remembered wasn’t real—that it was sleep gas or one of Lucretia Rog’s tricks.

  Margot shook her head. “We ran through the woods,” she said, keeping her tone as even as she could manage, still staring out the door with glassy eyes. “We lost Lucretia’s men in the trees.”

  “I thought there were bears,” Mira said, shivering.

  Margot stroked her hair absently. “I told her those men—they are worse than bears.”

  Kel entered the shelter, eyeing Margot and me. Sera was not with her. Where was she?

  Outside, the van started up again. The lights flashed as it moved off.

  “Worked our way back toward OiO™,” Norflo said solemnly. “Only place we knew. Took days. We sneaked in. They were focused on keeping Indentureds in, not us out. But the Indentureds knew the Silent Girl had passed through. Was a small uprising behind us, started by those women in the street. They had the factory locked down. Margot took down an overseer. Used his Cuff to get a message to Kel.”

  “I did not think she would receive it,” Margot said, her voice weaker than I’d ever heard it.

  “But she did,” Norflo said. “Only took a few minutes ’fore Kel had a new message scrolling in Margot’s eyes.”

  Margot dropped her head into her hands and let out a sob. “It took days for Kel to reach us there.”

  “Thought we could still save Henri,” Norflo whispered.

  A tear formed at the edge of Kel’s eye, and she quickly pushed it away. “I’d been using the WiFi incursion in Portland to monitor when I could,” she said. Her voice was gentle, almost funereal. “But it wasn’t enough.”

  Was this what a funeral was like? I had never been to one. You don’t get a funeral in the Onzième—not with debt scores like ours. All you get to do is pay for disposal of the body and say what few words about the dead you can afford.

  “Shut down OiO™ for two days,” Norflo told me. “I took down the power. It was an uprising. Full-on. Shut the tunnel. Held ’em back ’til Kel arrived.”

  “Word has begun to spread,” Kel said. “People know about Portland.”

  “How could you hold back Lucretia’s people?” I asked. It didn’t seem possible.

  “Weren’t hers,” Norflo said. “Once they took you, the Rogs had what they wanted.”

  Margot’s head dropped down even lower. They hadn’t wanted Henri.

  “’Twas OiO™ security,” Norflo said.

  “I knocked one out,” Mira said proudly. Margot patted her hand without looking.

  “What about Sera?” I asked.

  Margot hesitated for a moment before answering. “Taken,” she said, harshly wiping at her eyes. “With you.”

  “But I never saw her,” I protested, which proved nothing. Why would they take her and not Henri? But I knew. She could be Indentured.

  “Lucretia Rog has her in DC,” Kel confirmed. “Kiely dug up the transfer of ownership. She bought the girl down to her DNA.”

  “But not Henri?” I begged.

  Margot shook her head.

  The blood drained from my face and my heart started hammering. “We have to get her out,” I said, feeling panicked. I knew what Lucretia would do to her—what she might be doing at this very moment. Sera wasn’t perfect, but no one deserved this.

  “Kiely barely got you out,” Kel said, avoiding my eyes. She looked to the door, like she expected Kiely any moment.

  “Sera is on her own,” Margot added without pity.

  Sera is always on her own, I thought sadly. I felt tears stinging my eyes, remembering the years of loneliness she’d endured.

  “Sera is lost,” Kel confirmed softly. “You have to accept it.”

  Saretha rubbed my back with her hand to comfort me. I couldn’t catch my breath. Nothing made sense. I shook my head against it all.

  “If it was Henri, we’d go back,” I said coldly.

  “But she is not Henri,” Margot retorted angrily.

  Mira’s eyes widened at her sister’s tone, and I felt as if I’d been punched in the heart. “You...” I stopped myself. What was there for me to say? That Henri mattered to us more than Sera? Our world assigned a value to everything and everyone. Did that sick truth have to condemn Sera to a life of torment?

  My head was too jumbled to make sense of it. Were we as bad as the Rogs, who saw us as little more than debts for them to move from dome to field to work until we were dead? We were all supposed to know the Affluents mattered most and the Indentureds not at all. Did we need to create a pecking order in between?

  I forced myself to stand. Saretha’s hand slid from my back. I took the few steps to the door and rushed out into the night. The DC dome loomed over the horizon like an empty eye. I’d wanted nothing more than to be together with everyone, but for a moment, I just needed to be alone.

  Regret: $36.99

  Outside, in the night, the DC dome glowed, half-obscured by trees, but too large and luminous to ignore. The sky above it glowed, lighting up the clouds and air. Off to one side, a crescent shape caught my eye. It was the moon, smaller and so much more detailed than I’d expected it to be. I couldn’t think how to describe it, except that it seemed intensely real and separate from our wor
ld. I envied that.

  I paced out farther into the grass. Each time my mind drifted to Henri or Sam, a sob would well up and I’d have to press it down. I didn’t want the others to hear, but Saretha soon stepped outside, limping across the distance to join me.

  “The moon looks like your scar,” I said.

  Her hand went right to her shoulder. Without that scar, we might never have known Carol Amanda Harving was a fake.

  “Sort of,” she said.

  We stood quietly for a moment. I struggled to keep myself together. Henri and Sam were dead. Sera was doomed to a life of torment under Lucretia Rog.

  “You’re not going silent again, are you?” Saretha asked, half joking. It reminded me of something Sera would say, and suddenly, I could no longer contain the tears. I collapsed to the ground, sobbing, and started hammering at my knees in frustration. What had I done?

  “Oh, Speth,” Saretha said, her voice trembling.

  “You’re right,” I cried, breaking apart. “If I had just read my speech, we all could have had a few more good years. Then...”

  When I thought of then—of what would have come next—my insides ignited with fury. Our futures would have been bleak no matter how obedient I might have been. The Rogs had built a maze with no exit for people like us.

  “Beecher couldn’t find a way out,” I said, my lip trembling.

  “It was awful,” she whispered. She was the one who’d screamed when he threw himself off that bridge. I’d kept my mouth shut. Mrs. Harris had been proud, not knowing what use I would put my silence to.

  I stared into the distance. The moon cast its light through the haze over DC.

  “Inside that dome,” I said, “Sera’s toiling away, punished hour by hour. Or maybe Lucretia Rog is just torturing her for fun.”

  “You never liked Sera Croate,” Saretha said with care.

  “That doesn’t mean...” I broke off with a sob. I couldn’t face thinking about what plans Lucretia might have for her. She might spare Victoria her wrath because Victoria was her daughter, but Sera wouldn’t be so lucky. “Sera has no family. She has no one.” My heart lit with a need to do something. I began to pace.

  Kel had moved outside the shelter and was quietly attending to one of the printers nearby. When I called her name, she turned and walked over to us.

  “Can’t we send Sera a message?” I asked.

  Kel held the small printer in her hand. It whirred and struggled, like it wanted to get back to work.

  “There’s no WiFi out here,” she explained, holding the printing drone out for me to see. “These are hacked.”

  “And we’re going to Crab Creek!” Saretha exclaimed. “To find our parents, remember? Not to save Sera in DC!”

  My breathing hitched. “If we make it to Crab Creek, and if we find our parents and manage to free them, what will we tell Sera’s mother? She’s there, too.”

  Saretha looked taken aback.

  Kel let the printing drone go. It flittered off to find the rim of the shelter, where it began printing again. “If I can get a message to Sera, I will,” she said. “But I doubt it will be possible. Lucretia Rog is going to shut everything out now, no matter what Patents or Laws she has to break. She knows by now Kiely hacked in and contacted her daughter. She blinded a whole city just to stop your escape.”

  “What do we do?” I pleaded.

  “Leave,” Kel said. “Find your parents. Go with Norflo and Margot to Téjico. I know you feel awful for Sera, but there are millions of people worse off.”

  Kiely had said much the same thing—I couldn’t do everything, no matter how much I wanted to help.

  “Look, I don’t know what you’ll find at Crab Creek,” Kel continued. “But they’re not going to just let you walk in and set your parents free. I wish I could tell you what you’re facing, but communications are shut down.”

  Two lights shone in the distance. Kiely was back. The van turned, silhouetted against the long low form of the DC dome, and then turned again, blinding us with its light.

  Kiely stepped out, and the lights from the van dimmed. It wasn’t the same van from before—it was larger and decorated with fruits and vegetables, all held in the claws of an enormous stylized crab. My heart started to race. In the faint light of the printer, I could just barely read the words below the image.

  Crab Creek Farms—Exclusive, Garden-Fresh Produce.

  “This, at least, should get you inside,” Kel said as Kiely reached us. Her face was bright and exuberant, and for a second I thought she was going to sweep Kel up into a bear hug. Then her head tilted, like she’d heard something.

  “Are our parents...” Saretha started.

  Kiely held up a finger. She stepped over to the shelter door and waved everyone out, then moved to the printer, her eyes searching the night. Without looking, she managed to catch the printing drone midprint. It struggled for a moment before she shut it down, leaving a messy ribbon of plastic squiggled in the air. The area fell dark, save for the glow of the DC dome.

  “Grab a stick,” she whispered to us all, her shadow reaching down to grab one off the ground. Something was out there.

  I heard Mira whimper, “Bears?” Margot shook her head and shushed her. I put my hands to the ground and, after a moment’s searching, wrapped my fingers around a thick, weighty branch.

  “Dropters,” Kiely whispered.

  I heard a faint hum, then spotted the tiny blue light of a NanoLion™ battery bobbing a few yards off. It was easier to see if I looked away and used my peripheral vision. There were more behind it. A breeze blew across the clearing, and the dropter motors pitched up and down, compensating for the wind while holding steady.

  Suddenly, there was one right near me. The dropter whipped by my ear, followed by a hard crack. The blue light went spinning off and sparked to the ground. Kiely had batted it away.

  “Four more,” she said, putting her back to me. “Don’t let them escape.”

  The remaining dropters spread themselves out, silhouetted against the DC dome. Behind us, something swished as Mira took a practice swing. When I turned to look, one was moving straight at my face. I hauled back, swung and missed. Saretha stood frozen as it passed her. It tilted and started to move off. I bounded after it, raised the stick over my head and brought it down fast. The hard crack of the dropter’s plastic casing told me I’d gotten it. It plummeted into the grass, and I stepped on it for good measure. Its engines whined in protest, then ceased with a hard snap as it shattered under my foot.

  Behind me, Margot swung and knocked one sideways, right into Kiely’s path. Kiely hammered it hard enough that the battery hissed and sputtered blue-white flame in the dirt, then erupted, filling the clearing with crisp white light.

  “Two,” Kiely counted off.

  “How did they find us?” I gasped.

  “I should have been more careful,” she growled.

  The two remaining dropters abruptly turned and flew off, calculating the danger. I caught one with a lucky smack. Kiely swore as the other one sped out of reach, but Kel reached back, plucked the fist-sized printer from its spot and hurled it out into the night.

  It arced perfectly into the retreating dropter, knocking it to the ground. Norflo hustled after it and pounced before it could recover.

  “You are incredible,” Kiely said to Kel. Kel beamed at the compliment, hiding her smile behind an embarrassed hand.

  “They transmitting?” Norflo asked, cupping the last one as it sputtered in his hands.

  “No,” Kiely said, taking the small dropter from Norflo and looking it over. “They’re out here looking for what caused the WiFi to go down. When they find it, they head back in and report.”

  “We are what caused it,” Mira said, coming closer. She reached a finger toward the dropter.

  “You should not touch it,” Margot warned. �
�If it was connected, it might zap you.” She stomped her foot, which made Mira jump. Margot’s face sparkled for one brief moment with playfulness, but then I could see her remember Henri was gone. The air seemed to darken around her.

  “Just be careful,” she said, businesslike once more. Margot dropped her stick. Mira picked it up, trading hers out, then moved closer to her sister.

  “We’re going to have to move,” Kiely said, gesturing toward the white-hot glowing battery fire. “When they don’t return, someone will come looking, and this mess is a beacon.”

  Kel's Advice: $37.98

  “I want you to leave this behind,” Kel said to me. She meant more than the camp, and more than the Dome of DC, where Sera had been abandoned. I sat in the van’s driver’s seat. The faint smell of fruit hung in the air, remnants of whatever delicacies the van had delivered before Kiely stole it.

  “You did your part,” Kel went on. “More than any fifteen-year-old should have to.”

  “I’m not fifteen anymore,” I said. I didn’t know exactly how long we’d been on the road, or how long Lucretia Rog kept me, but I was sure my birthday had passed by now.

  “I’m going to return to Portland, to help your friends there and fend off Lucretia as long as we can. We’ll help the people you inspired. You don’t need to feel bad about leaving this behind. What’s ahead of you will be hard enough.”

  “She’s right,” Saretha said, settling herself in the passenger seat. The others were gathered around Kiely by the shelter, absorbing some kind of instruction or wisdom from her.

  “I don’t even know what’s happening in Portland,” I said. “How can they—”

  “I have good people in place. Placers I know and trust. Your friends Mandett and Nancee are dedicated to rescuing others the way you rescued Nancee. What you choose to do now is all that matters.”

  Nancee. I hadn’t thought of her once since we’d left Portland. “She never would have been taken if she hadn’t copied me,” I said hoarsely.

  “Did you make her do that? Did you tell her to go silent?”