And some say—the legends say, anyway—that when Journalism stopped worshipping Truth, that was the start of the Terror.
The Rulers know about the temple. They know it’s somewhere in the Uncharted Zone. But they didn’t know where it is. Their scouts could never find it. Because it’s not in one place anymore.
A lot of years after the Terror, a new crew started up in the tunnels. None of the others know exactly when that happened, because the new crew was just there one day . . . like it had always been. And that’s what the Sages say: that we had been here all along.
The other crews called us the Book Boys because we wrote on the walls of the tunnels. We wrote what happened. We always wrote the Truth. After a while, nobody really paid any attention to the InfoBoards anymore.
Lots of crews write on the walls in the tunnels. They do it to mark their territory, or to send messages, or just to scream. But we’re the only ones who write in blue.
“If it’s written in blue, it must be true,” that’s the word in the whisper-stream.
It’s a special shade of blue. They only make it in the temple. The Rulers know this, but they can’t change it. First they tried to imitate it, but they could never get the color exactly right. The whisper-stream says there’s a secret ingredient in the blue that comes from the temple. Nobody knows what the secret ingredient is, but everybody agrees . . . it must come from Outside.
The temple has a link to Outside, that’s what everyone believes. So, when the Book Boys write, it’s not only true, it’s a link to Outside, too.
The Rulers did what the Rulers always do. They made a Rule. If you break a Rule, you go to the HydroFarm. If you break a Major Rule, you go for a year.
And for a Violation, you get put Outside.
The whisper-stream says that the first Book Boys who got put Outside . . . after a long time, they found a way to come back. And that’s when the temple started. So there were Book Boys before there was a temple, if that legend is true.
It doesn’t matter.
It is a Violation to be a Book Boy. Even if you’re a girl. There are girls in the Book Boys too, but they still call all of us Book Boys. I don’t know why. In the temple, they said that, at first, we always called ourselves Book Boys so the Rulers would think that there were only boys in the crew. That way, the girls would be safe. But the Rulers know now, and I guess they could change our name if they wanted.
It doesn’t matter what the Rulers call something. In the whisper-stream, we would always be the Book Boys. In the temple, they talk about tradition. How truth always lives.
“Whatever the name, the truth is the same.”
That was one of the first lessons in the temple. One of the things we had to practice writing. All the Book Boys have the same handwriting. The exact same. We never sign our writings, the way other crews do. The Rulers can’t tell which of us wrote any particular thing.
There’s another crew. The Guardians. They don’t come from the temple, but they protect us. They’re a war crew, mixed skin/ shades and everything. If anyone tries to sign what we write, the Guardians hurt them. And if anyone tries to erase what we write, the Guardians kill them.
Just being a Guardian is enough to get you sent Outside. That’s a Violation all by itself, same as being a Book Boy.
We never meet them, but we know them. We are all One, that’s another thing they taught us in the temple.
But lessons aren’t important—learning the lessons, that’s what’s important. Once you learn a lesson, it’s in you.
Then you go and do your work.
I have my work now.
If I get too close to her, the curtain will come down. A Jexan curtain, floor to ceiling. Come down right between us—like the laser-proof barriers they have in the Sex Tunnels.
I don’t know which tunnel I’m in now, but I know I’m still Underground. Outside, there are no Rulers.
They want me to tell them things. A lot of things. But, mostly, they want to know where the temple is. Nobody can tell them that. The temple moves. All the time. When you need to go back, you just step into the Uncharted Zone and start your walk. You move until one of us finds you. If anyone follows you, all you have to do is wait—the trackers stop, sooner or later. The Uncharted Zone is full of things that can stop them.
So there’s really nothing for me to tell the Rulers. Except the truth.
But they don’t know that. They think Book Boys can’t lie. But we can. We’re not allowed to write a lie, but we can speak one. If we have to do it to survive.
The Rulers have serum. They have electrodes. They have girls who offer you sex. Or boys, if that’s what you want. They have promises. They have threats. They have everything, and it’s all to make you tell the truth.
But when you tell them the truth, they think you’re lying.
That’s what they taught us in the temple. That’s what they said would happen if we were caught. The best way to lie to the Rulers is to tell them the truth.
They were right.
The Rulers have a lot of information, but they have no knowledge. They teach other things in the temple besides Journalism. That’s how come we can go into the Uncharted Zone and stay there for as long as it takes. The Rulers never ask about anything else that we’re taught . . . just where the temple is. That’s all they care about.
I have to get close to the Questioner. When I do, I’ll show her some of those other things I learned. I have to go back to the temple. I have to go back to my work.
That’s the truth.
for Kamau
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
The first time I saw her, I was with my horde, so I couldn’t do anything but watch. That’s because everybody watches you when you’re in a horde, and you have to be careful.
A horde’s not like a crew. Not like the Game Boys or the Dancing Girls. Crews get formed by people who are . . . like each other, I guess. Or maybe people who like each other even if they’re different. I don’t know. I do know they’re hard to get into. Everybody has to be in a crew, or you get swept up. Then you’re in a horde.
My horde works the outside of the Sex Tunnels. We have to keep them clean and quiet. Especially clean. The Rulers don’t allow any bad things near the entrance to the Sex Tunnels, because they want to be sure everyone who wants to can come.
I knew she wasn’t one of the Sex Workers the second time I saw her. Not because she’s a little fat. I know better than that. In the Sex Tunnels, there’s places to buy all kinds. Whatever people like. And for every kind of person Underground, there’s another person who wants to be with them for sex. That’s the way it was Outside too, before the Terror. At least that’s what people say.
The reason I knew she wasn’t is that she didn’t live in the Sex Tunnels. It doesn’t matter what the work is, the workers always live in the tunnels. They always need workers, because the tunnels never close.
When you live out your contract, you can leave the tunnel you were assigned to. But most people don’t leave, they just sign up again.
There’s a lot of jobs in the Sex Tunnels that don’t have anything to do with sex. Just like the job my horde has—cleaning up. I mean, we don’t have anything to do with sex either, but we help them run.
Our hardest job is the tunnel walls. We have to keep them very clean. The Rulers don’t want anything on them, ever. The walls are pure, glistening white—so bright it hurts your eyes to look at it.
Most of the stuff people write on the walls is just silly. Sex stuff. Drawings of people doing . . . whatever. That always comes off easy. One shot of Chloroscope from a hydropistol usually takes care of it. When it doesn’t, we have to use AC7. That eats the cover off the wall, but it removes anything on it too. Then we have to cover the wall again with the plastic spray-sheets. In a few hours, it always looks like new.
The real problem is the damn Book Boys. They’re a crew too, like the others. But nobody knows who they are. They don’t walk around in fans, and they don’t wea
r crew clothes. You only know them by what they do. And what they do is write on the walls. In a special blue. The Book Boys are the only ones that can use it.
There’s a one-hundred-thousand-credit bounty on any Book Boy. If you capture one, you collect. But you have to catch one actually doing the writing, and you have to get the special blue paint too—that’s the only proof there can be.
When my horde arrived for its cycle, there it was, right on the wall near the entrance. Written in blue:
We all knew what it was right away, but there wasn’t anyone in sight who could be a Book Boy. I did see a couple of the Guardians, but I wasn’t dumb enough to ask them. That crew guards the Book Boys. Guards their work, I mean. If anyone tries to write in the same blue, and they’re not a Book Boy, the Guardians take them away. Or kill them right there.
The Guardians are a warrior crew. Nobody bothers them. Sometimes the Rulers capture one of them. But never one of the Book Boys. Either the Guardians are too strong for the torture to make them tell, or they don’t know where the Book Boys hide.
Every time the Book Boys write something on the wall of the Sex Tunnels, traffic slows down. That’s why the Rulers make more Rules.
That’s why the bounty is so high.
That was another message. It takes a long time to remove a Book Boy’s message. Even when we take the whole section off and replace it, sometimes it seems like there’s a little blue glow behind the new plastic. I know that can’t be true, but other people have seen it, too.
It just got worse. The Rulers posted their own guards all around the entrance to keep away the Book Boys. But those guards, they scared some of the customers, so that wasn’t any good.
I saw her again. She smiled at me. Quick. I don’t think anyone noticed.
I wonder what she does in there. I know, whatever it is, she’s always just finishing when my horde comes on duty.
She was just leaving when we started to clean that one up. This time, she moved her head a little bit. Like telling me to come over to where she was.
The horde was all working. I moved toward the back. It was easy—everybody wants to be up front, so they could have a chance to capture a Book Boy.
She told me her name was Cassandra. I told her my name was Jamal. I asked her, was she with a crew, and she told me no. She didn’t have a horde either, but she had to pay tolls to one to get to and from work every time.
I saw her a lot after that. Once she told me where she celled, I would go over to see her sometimes.
She’s very nice. Very good to talk to. She would ask me about my work, but I never asked about hers. So, one time, she said that to me. I mean, she said, why didn’t I ask her what she did. I was . . . embarrassed, I guess. She told me what she did. She was a cashier. People told her what they wanted, and she would direct them to the right arrows. They follow the arrows to what they want. After they pay her. The color of the arrow tells how many credits they have to pay.
She said most of the customers already know where to go and how much it costs, so she doesn’t have to do much.
I thought that would be a good job. She said some of it was good. But some of it was evil.
I asked her what that meant, “evil.” I never heard it before. She said, when people have sex with children, that is evil. I asked her why. She said because the children didn’t want to do it, and the Rulers made them. I said the Rulers make everybody do things they don’t want to do. That’s what the Rules are.
She said that was wrong.
How could that be wrong? I asked her. The Rulers make the Rules.
She looked real sad when I said that. She asked me, did I ever actually read the stuff the Book Boys write on the walls. I told her my job is to take it off, not read it.
We talked a lot. It was almost four cycles later when I asked her if she would be with me. My cell isn’t even as good as hers, but if we each sold ours, we could get one big enough for the two of us.
“I love you, Jamal,” she told me. “But you’re not ready to be with me.”
“I can get more credits,” I told her. “All I have to do is—”
Cassandra slapped me. Real hard. Then she started crying. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen. I knew I did something wrong. And I knew I couldn’t come back until I figured out what it was.
I thought about it every time I was at the wall. With my horde. By myself. All the time.
This morning, I got to the tunnels during the shift change, a few minutes early. Nobody was there. I saw . . . I saw a Book Boy. Writing on the wall. In that special blue. All alone.
And then I saw how I could fix what I did wrong. How I could prove to Cassandra that I was ready to be with her.
I never knew Book Boys could be girls.
for Dawn Bailey
SAFE SEX
The safest place in all Underground is the Sex Tunnels. A long time ago, the way I heard it, everything was different, and the Sex Tunnels were the most dangerous. They scared people, just being there. Nothing is forbidden in the Sex Tunnels. But that doesn’t mean there are no Rules. The Book Boys wrote it on the wall. In their special blue.
What that means is the one Rule. You have to pay. You can buy anything in the Sex Tunnels. Any skin/shade, any age, anything you want to do or have done.
The Rulers keep count. It goes on your encoder, so they always know. I mean, you don’t even have to ask anyone. As soon as you go inside, the scanner tells the truth about you, and you follow the arrows to the subtunnel where they have what you want. After you see the cashier.
The only thing you need to know is that you can buy anything. That’s what the Sex Tunnels are for. Nothing is for free.
Kill-sex costs the most credits, because they can only use the product once.
But nobody is afraid to go into the Sex Tunnels anymore, because the Rulers made it safe for everyone.
Only the Book Boys scare anyone. The Rulers say they are terrorists, and there is a reward for naming any of them. I heard some of them got captured once. It was on the InfoBoard. But the very next turn, the Book Boys wrote on the walls again:
So nobody ever knew what really happened. Everybody knows the Book Boys never lie. But did they mean the Rulers were lying about capturing some of them, or just . . . lying?
Nobody knows that. And there is nobody to ask.
People have sex outside the Sex Tunnels, but that has to be sanctioned—and only approved sex is sanctioned. So, if people want to have unsanctioned sex, but they don’t want to pay for it, they have to go into the Uncharted Zone.
Some of those who wanted to have sex with children, that’s where they went. They took the children with them. They said this was different. What they were doing was love. You shouldn’t have to pay for love, just for sex. So they went where they could do what they wanted without paying.
But they never came out. They made their speeches and they went into the Uncharted Zone and nobody ever saw them again.
The Book Boys wrote:
That one was tricky to understand. A debit is a death. Everyone knows that. But . . . who died? And why?
It didn’t stop anything. The people who say they love children go into the Uncharted Zone. They even sell maps of how to get to certain places where it is safe to have that kind of sex.
But nobody knows if the maps work, because none of them ever come back.
The whisper-stream says maybe they don’t go to the Uncharted Zone at all. Maybe they go Outside. It’s okay to do that to children Outside without paying. Here, you can only do it if you pay.
But the Book Boys say it’s all a lie:
The whisper-stream says the Terror was just what those people do—the ones who want sex with children and don’t want to pay the credits. The best way to do that is to breed your own. The whisper-stream says some do that. It is not sanctioned, and, sometimes, there are Bad Babies born that way. If the Rulers find one, it goes into the Sex Tunnels. So it isn’t wasted.
I wonder if t
here are any Rulers at all. The whisper-stream says there aren’t. It says there was a computer program. Outside, before the Terror. Because Underground had to be built before the Terror. It had to be ready for people a long, long time before anyone came down here. At least the life-support systems had to be in place. Some say it was prisoners who built it, the way prisoners on the HydroFarm work to make the power that drives everything here. Some say it was the children, the used children.
Nobody really cares what the truth is—people just like to talk.
Some say the Rulers don’t ever put you Outside at all. That’s supposed to be the ultimate punishment, but some say it never happens. They just kill you. Because some people, they want to go Outside, and they can’t get there. I know this one guy, Horto, he wanted to go Outside. But there is no Rule about going Outside except that’s where you go if you break certain Rules. So Horto broke one of those, and they came and took him. The thing is, Horto said he would contact me from there. From Outside. And everybody knows there are transmissions from Outside. In the Uncharted Zone. But nobody knows if they are real, or just from some people Underground themselves. Horto never contacted me. I wish I knew what that meant.
I know secrets. Secrets even the Book Boys don’t know. I was one of them. One of the children. They took me into the Uncharted Zone. They said it was love.
Here are my secrets: I grew up and I came out. There are others like me. Children, grown now. Some became just like the ones who took me into the Uncharted Zone. Now they say they love children, too.
But some are like me.
And those like me, we are the only ones who really know the ones who say they love children.
And we don’t love them.
for Bror
CHARMED LIFE
I know she’s in there. It was on the InfoBoard. Not her name, they never do that . . . her ID number.
I know her ID number, even though it’s a secret. I know a lot about her. When she is with me, I will know everything about her. Now I have to find out. Where it is, I mean—where they are keeping her. And then I have to take her away. I know she wants me to do that. I can hear it in my head, telling me. All the time. It never stops.
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