“I suppose.” Ami shrugged. “I got fired from Shelton’s, but I was offered an internship instead.”
“Okay. Wow. Things are moving, out there in the real world. That’s good, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course it is,” Cara insisted. “It must have been a shock at first though. Where are you doing that internship?”
“At the IdA.”
Cara who had been just about to hand Ami her glass, halted in mid-motion.
“What?” She set both glasses on the counter, regarding Ami with curiosity. “I’m not sure I got that right. Tell me, who did you kill or sleep with?” she asked.
Ami cringed. She didn’t want Cara to know exactly how close to the truth her assessment was.
“The inspector who came to my meetings was on the case. She helped me.”
“That’s really nice of her.” Cara said with unveiled sarcasm. “Be careful. Somehow I can’t believe that these people are so super-altruistic. What’s in it for her?”
“I guess she was in a good mood, because she got some kind of promotion. I think she realized the accusations weren’t true.”
It was odd to discuss Katlena with Cara. Ami took another hasty sip, finally feeling the effect of the alcohol. The wine was cheap, not like the one Katlena had bought for them, but at the moment, she didn’t care. It did the trick.
“So maybe it’s true what they say about gift horses.”
Ami detected a hint of bitterness in her friend’s voice. “What about you? Everything okay?”
“Oh yes. Same old. I’m glad you came by though. It’s gets a little lonely sometimes.”
Despite the fact she was barely in a position to change things for herself, Ami vowed to make careful inquiries if there was anything she could do for Cara.
“Actually, I’ll have a little more spare time with the new job. You could come over some time, have dinner if you like.” The offer was made before she thought it through. Then again, there was no saying how much of a role Katlena would play in her life in the future. She had seemed uncomfortable in the confines of the cypher unit. Imagine how I feel living there, day after day.
Cara smiled at her and poured them both another glass.
“Darling, I appreciate that. I’m just afraid it’s too late to re-socialize me.”
“It’s never too late.”
“That’s easy for you to say. They didn’t steal ten years of your life.”
“Well, five, then, doesn’t it count? I’m sorry,” Ami said when her sharp tone registered with her. “I didn’t come here to drink your wine and then argue with you. Sorry.”
“No problem,” Cara assured her. “I have a nice stash. Tell me more about what happened.”
Ami began with the day she’d been caught sleeping at work. Cara made a face in distaste. “Such a bitch. You can be glad you got rid of her.”
“Yeah. I was lucky.” She shuddered, the events of the morning coming to mind once more.
“What is it?” Cara asked, her tone soft. She touched Ami’s shoulder lightly, left her hand there.
Finally, Ami told her about the attack.
“Oh, honey. That must have been bad. I heard about it on the radio. I had no idea you were there…I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“That’s okay. I’m glad you’re all right. Also, no more Mary and Peggy.”
“Let’s drink to that.” Cara refilled her glass swiftly before Ami even registered it was almost empty.
“What’s it like in the lion’s den where they guard all our innocent little souls?” she asked, intrigued.
“Oh, I don’t know, so far, an office like any other. I don’t have clearance to see any particular files.” On the other hand, she could try. The file room was next to the library to which Ami actually had access. Maybe she should give up on trying to save the $20,000 she needed. Maybe there was another path. She could find her own file, find out where Lily was and then…what? So far, Ami had been staying within the laws with everything she did, never mind the fact she’d been spying on the neighbors for some secret section of the IdA. She assumed that was still well within City law. Could she go and take Lily from her foster parents? Lily was five years old. She wouldn’t remember Ami. At the thought, tears welled up in her eyes once more. She was screwed whichever way she chose to go.
“God, I really don’t know anymore which is worse,” she said. “I need to get out of this. I need to get this money together.”
“Good luck with that. What do you want to do, rob a bank? I’ll be with you. We can be like the girls from Set it off…no, wait, that ended badly.”
For some reason, mostly the alcohol, she guessed, Ami had to laugh. She couldn’t stop, well bordering on hysterical. Cara leaned forward and hugged her close. Ami leaned into the embrace, but even in her inebriated state she realized that a friendly talk wasn’t what she needed, what would help her go forward. She needed to talk to Katlena. She needed her to stay the night the next time.
“You can sleep here if you want to,” Cara said. The offer seemed innocent enough, even with the limited space they were both aware of. Ami shook her head.
“I better go. They won’t like it if I show up at the new job hung over.” She’d been drinking wine two evenings in a row, and she was feeling the effect. One bottle of wine or a six pack of beer over a year, a bottle every two months. There wasn’t much of a chance to get used to it, which, on the other hand, might not be such a bad thing. She got up, about to leave when the sound of hushed voices and footsteps in the hallway made her halt.
“Wait until they’re gone,” Cara suggested.
Even if Ami had done a bad job of it lately, it was the best to stay under the radar, even with your own folks. Not all cyphers were friendly.
Some of them spied on their neighbors.
The voices grew louder in intensity. Ami had a bad feeling that cut right through the comfortable haze created by the wine. She had to fight the urge to hide in the bathroom, little more distance from an undefined threat.
“Shouldn’t we clean up here?”
Her instincts had been right. The door sprang open, kicked by a man in the familiar black uniform. Several other IdA officers followed. All of a sudden, the room was packed. Cara calmly lit another cigarette.
“Sorry, guys,” she said. “We’re out.”
Ami was in a panic. The officer approaching her with handcuffs didn’t help. She had heard of the raids, but miraculously, she’d been spared for five years. Probably that had to do with her association with the man whose name she’d learned only today: Paul Trenton. He wouldn’t help her now, because going against the distribution rules was a serious offense. You could go to prison for stealing or smuggling food or alcoholic beverages.
“No! I haven’t done anything!”
“Where does all this come from?” the officer asked in a stern voice. “This is a lot more than your yearly delivery.”
“Wait a minute, Officer,” Cara continued. “I got this bottle earlier this year, same as the cigarettes. You can’t barge in here, let alone arrest me for saving up. I’m a patient person, you know.”
“It’s not for saving up,” the man said with a hint of regret. “We got a tip that there’s more to be found and—”
“Here,” another male voice called. Ami froze when she saw him tear the old movie poster off the wall, the irregularities in the brick easily visible. A rectangle, different in color, made up the door. Behind it, there was a small space stacked with bottles and packs of cigarettes.
“You been saving up for the past ten years, 16439?” the other IdA officer asked. This one was not so friendly, his words dripping with sarcasm. Ami stared in shock at Cara who had gone pale. She hoped her laptop wouldn’t be that easy to find if they decided that she was a possible accessory. It might not matter anymore. Her reports on Cara would be closely examined.
Ami leaned forward to cover her face in her hands, jolting upright when she heard Cara cry
out.
“No! You bastards, you’ve taken away my life, now you won’t even let me get drunk? Screw you!”
“Cara, please, stop!”
Her friend didn’t listen her, kicking and screaming as the officers tried to drag her out of the room. Ami felt a hand on her shoulder.
“51308,” the officer who had spoken to them first, said awkwardly. “We need to take you to the department for questioning.”
“What the hell is going on here?” an all too familiar voice asked, and for a moment, the tableau in front of her seemed frozen. Ami wanted a hole in the ground to open up and swallow her. She had an idea what was going on. Somebody in the IdA was looking for a scapegoat to blame the murders on. This was so wrong. Cara could never harm anyone.
From what Ami could guess, she’d been a therapist before she became a cypher. She was always quick with a friendly word or a hug, or if needed, something to ease the pain. The latter could become her downfall.
Then again, here Ami was, getting plastered in the company of another cypher who had amassed more than her government-issued share. Yesterday Katlena had saved her from prison.
Oh my God, she said in her mind, but from the way Katlena turned to her sharply, Ami wasn’t sure if she hadn’t uttered the words out loud.
Another inspector explained to her while he fit the cuffs around Ami’s wrists, much tighter than Katlena had done it before. “Look at this, Cervantes, these cyphers here were having a party. That’s a stash there that’s a few years’ worth of deliveries.” He sounded too pleased with himself. “Rivera couldn’t have done this without black market connections.”
“It’s not all Cara’s—16…” Ami had never addressed Cara by her number really, so she stumbled over the attempt. “Some of it comes from—”
“Would you shut up!” Katlena interrupted her harshly. “She’s my intern, Hale. She’s keeping her hands clean. Surely she didn’t know what her neighbor hid in the wall.”
The officers still held Cara between them, waiting for orders. Cara’s eyes widened with a sudden realization.
“Ami? No. Tell me that isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t rat me out to the pigs of the IdA. I thought you were my friend, damn it!”
“I am! I didn’t do anything!” She was desperate to have both of them believe her, Cara and Katlena. As it was, Ami didn’t have much success.
“16439, please calm down,” Katlena said. “We just need to ask you a few questions, but if you don’t cooperate, we’ll have to take you to the hospital.”
“Like all the others,” Cara said, her tone bitter. “Do what you have to do, Inspector. At least this nightmare is going to end. Thanks so much, Ami. You’ve been a real friend.”
“Cara!”
“Miss, we need you to come with us too,” the male inspector insisted, his grip on Ami’s shoulder becoming painful.
“Hale, quit that bullshit,” Katlena said angrily. “This is my decision to make.”
“True, but you wouldn’t want to ignore protocol. You can have the girl back for whatever it is you need her for after she’s gone through the motions.”
Katlena looked frustrated, but she didn’t argue. She cast a look at the hidden space in the wall.
“So,” Hale continued. “51308, is it?”
“My name is Ami Moore,” Ami said, as startled by those words coming out of her mouth as everyone else was.
Katlena groaned. “That was helpful,” she muttered.
“Be careful, 51308. You have broken the law already. At least try to help yourself. If there’s something to find in your apartment, you better tell us before we find it. It would look better for you.”
Ami sat straight, wishing she could just shrug off the unwanted touch. “There’s nothing to find.” Except for the letters A-M-I written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, another minor misdemeanor. She couldn’t catch a break. “Inspector—Hale, right? I’d like to find out if this is legal, if you really have a warrant for Cara’s and my apartment.”
He snickered. “Honey, we’ve got a search warrant for the building. It’s all a matter of focus, but it seems like we found the right one.”
“Doing great, Hale,” Katlena said. “So far, these folks only assumed we were a bunch of assholes at the IdA. Don’t you worry, I’ll follow protocol. Would you mind finishing this and I’ll join you in a minute over there? Don’t break down the door, 51308 here has a key.”
“As you wish.” His tone held a clear warning. When he had left the room, Katlena crouched in front of Ami, taking both of her hands in hers. Instinctively, Ami withdrew them, making Katlena flinch. She couldn’t help it. At the moment, she didn’t think she had much of an ally in the other woman. Maybe she’d never had.
“I need you to listen to me.”
Ami felt sick. She wasn’t used to drinking this much—or having this many run-ins with uniformed and armed IdA staff. She was scared. Again. She hated it, hated to depend on Katlena for her safety.
“You don’t say anything, to anybody. We might not need a lawyer yet, but if it comes to that, they’ll want to start with a clean slate. In interrogation, you’ll say you came over to 16439 for the first time tonight, and that you didn’t know about her secret stash. Do you understand?”
“I’m not stupid.”
Katlena sighed. “No, you’re not. I want to make sure that we stay on track with the internship, okay? I’m sure someone close to Drago has helped the rebels plan the attack, but I keep hitting walls. Some people are hell-bent on blaming cyphers, and I don’t want to get you caught in the middle.”
“Why? You’re hoping for a chance to get off again?”
Katlena stayed still for a moment as if absorbing the verbal blow. Then she stood, her expression unreadable.
“If you want any chance at a real life, the one you’ve been working for so hard, you better do what I say. Otherwise, you’ll be on your own. Now excuse me. I have a search to perform. Is there something I should know first, like a hidden space in the wall?”
“Katlena, please! I didn’t mean it like that. You know where she is, right? You know where Lily is? You need to tell me!”
“Inspector Cervantes?”
Katlena ignored her for a moment to talk to the female officer who had appeared in the doorway, before she turned back to Ami.
“Officer Greene here will take you to the station. Remember what I told you. No one will interrogate you without my go-ahead.”
* * * *
The officer’s look in the mirror was sympathetic. “I know it’s not a popular opinion, but personally I’d find it hard to get by on a bottle of wine a year.”
Ami forced a smile for her sake. “It’s not about that, you know? It’s when all of those decisions are taken out of your hands.”
The woman, not much older than Ami, shrugged. “I suppose there are some people who are grateful having decisions made for them. There will always be mistakes.”
Yeah, that’s what I am, the mistake, the flaw in the system, Ami thought. “I don’t get it,” she said. “I don’t side with the rebels. If they are responsible for the attack, it’s a terrible thing. Killing people is never right.”
“I agree. I wish you luck, in any case.”
“Thank you.” Ami leaned back into the seat with a tired sigh. “I can use it.”
Chapter Eight
Please, don’t let me find anything.
Katlena realized she was lucky that Ami wasn’t actually accused of anything specific which might inspire Hale to, let’s say, test the tangled sheets for DNA. She watched her colleagues perform the search, making sure they didn’t make another mess.
“This apartment was already searched two days ago. I think we’re done here.”
She ran her hand along the fabric of the pillow and underneath, startled when her fingers touched a small object. What a damn cliché. She flushed hotly as she realized it was her own earring. Katlena hadn’t even missed it.
She closed her fingers arou
nd it, letting it slide into the pocket of her pants, nearly sick with the fear of being found out.
“Got anything?” Hale called from across the room. She despised him. Hale was too happy going through female cyphers’ underwear drawers.
“Nothing. It’s a big waste of time. Do you think it would be following protocol enough if we could get on with the questioning?”
“Oh, sure, Inspector Cervantes.” He straightened, giving her a jovial grin. “Would you have rather done the drawers? Same old, I tell you. They should allow these girls a bit more variety.”
“Why don’t you fill out a form? Nicer underwear for cyphers so the creeps that search their drawers have something to look at? I’m sure Drago would appreciate your hard work for improvement.”
“Wow, Cervantes, what’s gotten in you lately? That sure sounds like frustration.”
“I got nearly blown up less than twenty-four hours ago, Hale. Forgive me if that makes me cranky.”
“Inspectors Cervantes, Hale?” another uniformed officer said. “Look. This was well hidden. I think eventually we need to take a look at all cypher units. Either it’s so easy to manipulate the walls, or this was the architect’s idea of a joke, to give them a secret hiding place.”
Maybe she had indeed overdone it for the day, considering her injury she’d tried hard to make herself forget. Then again, Katlena didn’t think this was the reason why she felt all numb all of a sudden. For a moment, she considered ceasing all responsibility for the woman she’d shared those passionate moments with, because she couldn’t see how she could help her anymore.
The officer had found a laptop. It could be an old model, with no connection to the internet, but she didn’t think she’d be so lucky. An internet connection meant ways of communication cyphers weren’t allowed to have. Katlena wanted to clear the room, so she could quietly punch a wall. She felt a rather irrational resentment for Ami keeping all those secrets from her. What had she expected? In all her training, one thing had reoccurred all the time. Cyphers had no identity for a reason. They needed the government’s care, but they couldn’t be trusted. If anything on this computer led to this morning’s attack, there was nothing else she could do for Ami.
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