Kailynn’s step faltered and a gasp managed to escape her. If the others heard the sound, they did not acknowledge it.
“Yes.”
“Significant,” Venus said suddenly, “were you ever in care of this Keeper?”
“Yes.”
“Were you ever prostituted at that time?”
“What? No!” Kailynn gasped.
“But you were aware of the prostitution of orphans that was occurring at this Keeper?” Venus pushed.
“Venus,” Isa said strongly, “she was a child.”
“I am gathering information.”
Kailynn’s brain was racing. Her feet continued to carry her to the Keeper from muscle memory. She had long pushed away the few years she had remained in the care of the Keeper. The only Keeper in Trid at that time was a man they called “Sir.” He was a thin, tall man with small, beady black eyes and thin, stringy hair that fell over his face and ears. He always left the stench of cheap alcohol in his wake as he stumbled around the halls, grumbling about taking care of all the children and not being paid enough.
The children knew never to go near Sir alone. They always traveled in groups and stayed out of his way.
But one day, a newcomer had appeared at the Keeper. A small, starved girl with bandages around her body. Her father dropped her off without so much as a second glance, walking off with his hundred credits and leaving his daughter at the mercy of Sir. Kailynn never learned the little girl’s name. She had been ostracized by the other children, who called her horrible names and threw dirt and garbage at her whenever the saw her.
Kailynn’s stomach flipped over as she connected the pieces.
One day, that little girl disappeared, as well. Everyone assumed she had died. Kailynn now understood that she had found her way into the home of the Golden Elite.
“Jacyleen,” Rayal said, bringing her back to the present, “are you alright?”
“Significant, answer,” Venus ordered.
“Y-yes, I knew…”
“Jacyleen,” Isa’s voice said gently, “are you alright to continue?”
“I…Elite Isa…” Kailynn wanted to ask a million questions, but she knew she could not with Venus looming over her.
“Look up,” Venus commanded. “Let me see the children.”
Kailynn was feeling weaker by the moment. She wanted to go somewhere quiet and gather her thoughts. However, she obeyed the order and lifted her head. There were some children of Trid sitting on the steps of the front of the building, talking to one another and playing a courage game where they would try to smack the other child’s hands as hard as they could before their opponent pulled away.
“I do not understand,” Venus said.
“They’re just playing,” Kailynn murmured.
“Social interaction is common within Trid,” Rayal added.
“Then unity is a possibility,” Venus deduced.
“Venus, I must implore you to disconnect your translator,” Remus said strongly. “Isa is struggling.”
“I’m fine,” Isa assured quietly.
“Her blood pressure is still safe, and she is still conscious,” Venus said. “I will not cause her permanent harm.”
Kailynn was getting worried about Isa. She decided that she needed to take the tour of Trid into her own hands.
“We can’t stay,” she said quickly, turning around. “I am in enemy territory over here. I’ll take you to see some sick Trids.”
She walked quickly. Through the silence, she prepared herself. She knew that she had to give the appropriate signal to Rayal so that he could go through with the more dangerous part of the plan. But, as the time was drawing closer, she grew more nervous.
She slipped into one of the alleys and stopped at the corner of the building, pressing her back against the wall.
“Why are you stopping?” Venus demanded.
“I just want to make sure that I’m safe,” Kailynn said. She turned and glanced around the corner. She already knew who would be waiting for her, but she allowed time for Rayal to open a virus that Isa had programmed to take down all the blocks on the video feed. This allowed everyone in Syndicate Intelligence to see what Kailynn was seeing, and would, hopefully, spark some controversy. They were sure that the video would quickly spread. She peered around the corner once more.
“Is he a friend?” Rayal asked.
That was her signal.
The virus was working.
“Actually, yes,” Kailynn said, trying to sound surprised. “But…I…” She started forward. “Raffy!” she called.
Raphael turned. His face was pale. He was nervous about the plan that Kailynn had explained. Kailynn had not explained why, but she said that they needed to be there at that time on that day and pretend that they had not arranged the meeting. That told Raphael that they were being watched, though he was not sure how. However, he also knew that her plan was to try and save Theo’s life, so he decided not to ask questions until afterward. Kailynn was too tense and frantic to explain beforehand. He would have to wait.
“What are you doin’ here?”
“I was going to ask you that,” Kailynn said, trying to sound confused while communicating with her eyes that they were being watched very closely. “I thought Viv was supposed to bring Amailli her food today.”
Raphael swallowed hard and lowered his eyes to the ground.
“Listen, Lynni,” he said. Kailynn tried not to show her fear at what he called her, remembering that she had not told him to use her fake name. “Amailli is dead.”
Kailynn stopped, legitimately surprised. For several long moments, she could not speak.
Amailli and her two children were under the care and protection of the Cobalt Panthers. Two years previous, during a dark territory dispute between the Cobalt Panthers and another gang that had since been eliminated, Amailli’s partner, and father to the two children, had been gunned down, leaving Amailli pregnant and caring for her six-year-old daughter, Emira, alone. Kailynn had seen the bullets tear through Amailli’s partner, killing him instantly. Ever since, she had felt a duty to care for the small family, even if it was only providing small amounts of food and clean water when she could.
At the beginning of her care for the three Trids, Kailynn would stay and visit with them, playing with Emira and helping Amailli look after the infant Annette. But time progressed, Kailynn got a job with Brad, then Theo continued to get into trouble with the authorities. She had delegated the task of caring for Amailli to others of her gang. Even when they got the sickness that was frighteningly common among Trids—nicknamed “Wheezing Death”—Kailynn continued to insist that care was given to the small family.
Suddenly, she believed that she had failed them.
“What?” she hissed. “A-are you sure?”
Raphael nodded and glanced at the door.
“I came here instead of Viv,” he said. “When I went in there to check on them…she was dead. Seems like it’s been a couple days.”
Kailynn was speechless, her jaw opening and closing uselessly.
“Let me see the corpses,” Venus said in her ear.
The others watching the video feed did not speak.
Kailynn still could not speak for several long moments. When she did, the words caught in her throat and almost choked her.
“And the kids?”
Raphael hung his head.
“They’ve both got it,” he said. “Annette…probably won’t last to tomorrow.”
“Show me,” Venus ordered.
Kailynn bit her tongue from snapping at the computer to leave her alone. There was a lot for her to process.
“I want to see them,” Kailynn muttered, turning and shoving the door open. Raphael glanced around behind her. He was desperate to know what was going on, but he knew that Kailynn was in no position to tell him in that moment. He was worried that Kailynn was in further trouble, and being near Amailli’s children, who were extremely ill, he was very concerned for Kailynn’s safety o
n many levels.
Kailynn was sure to keep her eyes up as she climbed the stairs to the flat where Amailli and her children lived so that everyone, Venus included, could see the horrible conditions I which Trids lived. There was a small bite of contempt in her blood as she stepped around a large hole in the stairs, holding the rail tightly, in case more of the staircase collapsed.
Kailynn found the door to the flat open.
She could hear the soft sobbing as she rounded the corner into the dirty, refuse-filled home. There were broken bottles everywhere, wrappers of rations littering the ground with dirty clothes and rags. The smell was rancid and Kailynn cringed away, covering her face. Raphael came up behind her, holding out a rag that was mostly-clean. Kailynn placed it over her nose and mouth and stepped further into the flat.
Raphael followed nervously, holding his sleeve over his mouth.
Kailynn walked around the half-demolished cabinets that originally made up a functioning kitchen and found Amailli’s body curled on her side, facing the cabinets, her eyes wide and glassy and her skin blue, the color only broken by the large, dark, aggravated blisters. Her stiff body was in a disturbing position. Kailynn tried to block out the images of finding her father dead in the alleyway when she was a child. He had also been in a horrifying position, though he had been propped upright against some discarded crates.
“Blue hints in the skin indicate lack of oxygen,” Remus said quietly.
“Severe malnutrition,” Rayal added.
“Is this spread through air contamination? Or physical contact?” Venus asked Kailynn.
The Significant did not respond.
Unable to look at Amailli’s body, she turned her attention to the eight-year-old girl holding a still two-year-old. Emira, Amailli’s older daughter, was pale and thin, her eyes sunken into dark sockets as she cried, staring at her mother’s body while she clutched desperately to Annette.
Kailynn had made it a point to avoid anyone with Wheezing Death, so the horrifically-ill child caused her stomach to flip and a chill to run through her body. However, she had no concern for her safety. She quickly went to Annette and put a hand on her shoulder, staring at the girl worriedly.
Emira turned her head to Kailynn, shaking.
“She’s cold…”
“Please, be careful,” Isa said gently.
Kailynn looked down at Annette, seeing the open sores on the girl’s skin and the way her chest quickly rose and fell as she tried to breathe. Her eyes were closed, her face contorted in pain.
“She will die tonight,” Venus stated simply. “The older girl appears healthier. Take her to the hospital for examination. The bodies will be collected by a HazMat Team and brought in for analysis.”
“What?” Kailynn hissed, feeling her anger bubble within her.
“What is it?” Raphael asked, walking over to her.
“I have already contacted the Officials,” Venus said. “You can wait with the girl until they arrive or you can take her to the hospital yourself. You will need examination as well. You are not allowed near any member of Syndicate until you are decontaminated.”
Kailynn stared with wide eyes at the floor.
“How…how can you…”
“Jacyleen,” Rayal said quickly, “it is for the best. The doctors might be able to treat the girl if we get her there in time.”
“She just lost her mother, and her sister is dying,” Kailynn snapped.
“Kailynn…what…” Raphael trailed off when he saw the distant, angry look in Kailynn’s eyes. He realized that she was talking to the person who was watching them. That was when he realized that not only were they being watched, but Kailynn was bugged with some sort of audio feed.
“There is nothing that can be done for the younger girl or the mother,” Venus said shortly. “We must gather all information possible for analysis.”
“She just lost everything and you want to turn her into a lab rat?!” Kailynn growled darkly.
“She is vital to understanding what illness is plaguing Trid. If we can discern a way to treat it, then we can stop it before it reaches Anon,” Venus continued.
“This illness has been killing Trids for years!” Kailynn snapped. “But because it could spread, now you pay attention?”
“Kailynn, who the hell are you talking to?” Raphael hissed. Emira’s tears began running more freely as she looked around nervously, holding her dying sister tighter.
“Jacyleen,” Remus’ voice said slowly, “I suggest you let the Officials take the girl to the hospital. You will need to be examined as well.”
“I’m not going to leave her,” Kailynn said darkly. “She’s scared and she’s alone, and you want to have her arrested and hauled to a lab for testing like she’s some kind of criminal. She has done nothing wrong!”
“She is a Trid,” Venus responded. Even though the translation of her voice was even and calm, Kailynn could almost feel anger from the machine. “She is not a citizen.”
“So she’s going to be arrested?”
“She will be treated,” Venus corrected.
“And then turned back here with no family and no protection,” Kailynn challenged. “She’ll starve to death.”
“No, she will not,” Venus said. “She will be taken to the Keeper and cared for until the age of fifteen, as is custom.”
“The same Keeper that prostituted Tarah?” Kailynn hissed. “Isa, you can’t possibly—”
“Learn your place, Jacyleen,” Remus said quickly.
“Always address the Elites with their titles,” Rayal said, trying to remind Kailynn of the situation.
Kailynn turned to Raphael and, upon seeing his pale countenance, she could feel the color drain from her face as well. She had just said Isa’s name in front of him.
He knew they were being watched by the Syndicate.
“If the Officials are coming, we cannot stay,” he said quietly.
“Raphael—”
“Are you insane?” Raphael hissed.
“Officials?” Emira gasped, her eyes wide. “Am I in trouble?”
“This situation is getting out of hand,” Venus said. “Significant, leave the premises at once. Go to the hospital.”
“I told you! I’m not leaving her!” Kailynn snapped, closing her eyes and lifting a hand to her head. “This…there has to be another way…”
“She will die if we leave her untreated. She has no one to care for her. She has no citizenship. She will be treated, her treatment will tell us how to keep this from spreading to the public, and then she will be taken to the Keeper where she will be fed until she is fifteen,” Venus repeated. “This is a command, Significant.”
“This is why the Trids are so desperate to kill the Elites,” Kailynn said with an exasperated chuckle. “What choice do we have to change things for ourselves? We are confined to a place where we cannot get medical help, we cannot be taught, we are forced to live in filth and rely on theft just to eat. If you are so desperate to keep your social peace, then why are you letting this happen to us? We’re human. We deserve to live, too. Emira has done nothing wrong. Her family was just taken from her, and your solution is to pretend to help by treating her and then tossing her back here? How can you call yourself a ruler?”
“Venus! Venus, there was a meltdown in the security coding,” Rayal said quickly. “A virus tore down the blocks. This is being broadcast.”
“How far is the reach?” Remus demanded.
“Shut down all feeds,” Venus ordered.
Suddenly, everything went very still and silent.
Kailynn stood still, staring at the terrified child holding her dying sister. For several long moments, she could not move. She slowly sank to her knees again, her body shaking.
“Kailynn, what the hell is going on?” Raphael murmured, seeing the terrified look in Kailynn’s eyes. “They’re going to take her to the hospital and treat her? Are they going to kill her?”
“I don’t know. I…”
As Kailynn kneeled on the floor of dirty, rancid-smelling flat, she started to realize how powerless she was. Whenever she had heard her brother talk about how easy it would be for the Trids to rise up and overthrow the Syndicate, she had felt as though she could conquer the planet. She felt powerful and smart, knowing the horrible conditions the Trids lived in and how many Trids were angry with the Syndicate and Venus. She used to believe that if those in Anon could only see the way the Trids lived, they would revolt against the Syndicate and Venus, which would allow the Trids to change their lives and show the power they actually had on the planet.
But in those moments, where an eight-year-old girl, who had done nothing wrong other than be born within the borders of Trid, was about to be hauled away by Officials to a hospital, Kailynn understood what Isa meant by carefully playing a game with Venus. Venus did not have the compassion of a human. She saw everything as a procedure, steps to accomplish a goal. People were not people, they were numbers. Trids were not humans, they were statistics.
Everything was numbers to Venus.
Kailynn did not know how to play the political game. She was worried that she had made things worse. She had forgotten that Rayal had broadcast the feed to the Intelligence Agency, meaning everyone had heard her angry words toward Venus.
There was fear and anxiety coursing through Kailynn like she had never felt before in her life.
“Kailynn,” Raphael hissed, “tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“I can’t…” Kailynn said, shaking her head and swallowing hard. “Not today. They’re coming to take her to the hospital. If you want to leave, you should go now.”
“What happened?”
“It’s too complicated to explain now,” Kailynn said, closing her eyes. “Just get out of here. I’ll explain another time.”
“…I don’t even know you anymore,” Raphael hissed.
The words hurt Kailynn far more than she should have let them. She flinched away and distracted herself by putting her hand on Emira’s shoulder.
“Just get out of here, Raphael,” she murmured.
“Next time you want to betray all of us to the fucking Syndicate,” Raphael snapped, “leave me out of it.”
The Significant Page 29