by Carme Torras
He really is efficient, her ROB, he gives her some proposals right away. Let’s see: the home tutor, of course, why didn’t she think of that? She’s a psychologist and must be used to resolving conflicts like this one. Besides, she caused the incident by suggesting they cancel the interview, it’s only fair that she solve the problem, and sort out Celia’s bad mood while she’s at it. That’s the last thing she needs, to have to fight with the girl, and put up with her unpredictable reactions. Of course if she has been kept there against her will, the tutor will take all the credit. Who cares. The most important thing is that her stress levels have plunged.
* * *
It’s hard for Silvana to understand what Lu is asking for; with some difficulty she works out that she’s lost the girl—it’s Silvana’s fault, of course—and she doesn’t know if she has to go and negotiate with a kidnapper or convince a teenager who’s sick of her mother to go home. Since it’s Celia, however, she wouldn’t miss this opportunity for the world, one in which she might have the full range of the girl’s emotions at her fingertips.
The emergency code X327-Cel-Xis-345P, which the POLis has assigned to the case, gives her immediate access to an emergency aero’car, which, since it has priority, takes off immediately, flying toward the exit and out into the open. The sudden brightness forces her to close her eyes, while ROBul’s disembodied voice carries on, picking apart the details of what has happened. It angers her to learn that, behind her back, they’d volunteered themselves for that pretentious bioengineer’s project. That will be why Celia was so inscrutable the other day, she had to keep it a secret. And how uncomfortable for her, poor thing, to resist Silvana’s massagist attacks, which had taken her to the limit of what she could control. She’s ashamed that she’s inflicted such a torture on her, but at the same time, deep down, she can feel a joyous warmth. She knows that, with the secret revealed, she’ll be able to win back the girl’s trust. Intact. Having the weight lifted off her shoulders automatically makes her open her eyes, but only for an instant, just long enough to be blinded.
Back in the dark she recovers her train of thought, and ROBul’s words penetrate more deeply. Now she understands: the warning nudge she gave to Lu scared her to the point of making her cancel the interview. She didn’t confess that they’d been to CraftER, however, despite being a seemingly transparent person. If at first she thought that intervening in this delicate situation might win her some kind of points in the girl’s eyes, as she goes through the facts of the morning’s upset and the images of the girls in the street, she builds up a scenario in which she is the intruder who’s there to oppose Celia’s wishes. She’s terrified of the possibility of ending up on Lu’s side.
More so than her eyes, it was her thought process that had been blinded before: what an error to think that with the secret out in the open any distance would be erased. What does it matter that she went to CraftER before? What really matters is what happened there, and the mark it made on Celia. And she’s all too aware of what she read in the girl’s brain to keep on denying it: a positive emotion tinged everything. Everything. She finds it difficult to infer any interpretation that could make her feel better. Despite the antagonism she feels toward CraftER and its lackeys, she struggles to blame them for the disappearance. As a worst-case scenario, the boy will have gotten something out of it, who knows how much. She doesn’t even want to think about it.
When she opens her eyes again, she’s in front of CraftER. She has to admit that, when it comes to organization, the pro-technos have had their successes. She’d heard of this exclusive ultrafast form of transport, and, now that she’s had the chance to try it, she understands why they sometimes call the anti-technos parasites: because, although they criticize the pro’s advances, they do end up taking advantage of them. She almost blushes at having had such an improper thought, and she gets out of the aero’car determined to stick to her guns.
Lu and the two ROBs are waiting for her with the connection to Leo ready. Since they’ve already told her everything, they don’t need to waste another second and, once she’s on board, they urge her to start the negotiation—in her name only, since Xis’ mother got very anxious when she heard the girls might be inside CraftER, and ordered them in no uncertain terms not to do anything until they received authorization from her. They’d better make sure she doesn’t find out they ignored her.
The communication request is accepted right away, but right at the beginning of the protocol process, they are denied access because the emitter can’t be identified as the line owner. ROBul doesn’t have time to fix this before the connection is reactivated and Leo appears on the monitor:
“Good afternoon, Lu. Have you changed your mind?”
Does he have no shame?, Silvana thinks. Whether the girl has gone because she wants to or because she’s been forced, it’s outrageous that he would rub her mother’s face in the fact that her decisions count for so little. The delay in response makes the boy realize he’s not speaking with whoever he thought he was, and his worried expression immediately becomes annoyed. He’s recognized her. Before he cuts off the communication she intervenes:
“I represent Celia’s mother.” She says this with the solemnity of a lawyer. “The girl needs to come home right now. If you need more recordings, you can make a proposal and we will consider it.”
“Tell her that I’m pleased she’s changed her mind. It’s very important research, not only for the company, but also …”—he shakes his head—“if you don’t believe in this, why are you acting as intermediary?”
Now she’s the one confused. He’s just accepted that mediation is necessary, but at the same time it seems too spontaneous to be a kidnapper following a premeditated strategy. Either he’s a great liar or something doesn’t add up. What does it matter what she may or may not think of the project?
“Of course I personally wouldn’t lift a finger for this research. It’s the girl I’m worried about.”
“Me too, trust me. She has a unique mind, and I’ll do whatever it takes to record it again.”
Silvana feels a shiver run down her spine: she might have said the same thing, in other words, yes, but exactly the same thing. Like a pro-techno. She hates herself for thinking this and at the same time feels too close to her opponent to be able to carry on fighting. Like him, she wants access to the girl’s feelings right now. She envies him, she really does envy him! The girl has chosen to be with him. Now she’s sure of it. And in an outburst of generosity she makes an offer:
“Prove to us that the girl is fine and maybe Lu will feel a little better.”
“Sorry, but I don’t understand. What do you want me to show you? The recordings from the other day? I can assure you they don’t have any lasting consequences. How can I demonstrate that she’s fine?”
“Let us see the girl and talk to her.”
Leo takes far too long to reply, and when he does she can hardly understand him.
“You don’t know where she is … Why didn’t you say so from the start? We would have saved … That’s it, isn’t it?”
“We know she’s inside CraftER.”
“Do you have pictures?”
“We’re waiting for authorization.”
“I’ll check on it now. Do you have any idea who she came in with?”
“Really, she’s not with you?”
“No. Let me know if there’s any news. I’ll try to speed up the permissions process.” He abruptly cuts off the communication.
The exchange of feelings between the two women is cut short by an urgent warning from the POLis: deceased matter has been detected on a public highway, at point 7N28E, in front of the CraftER building, and the organic remains are in transit on their way to the Center for Recycling of Human Material. As soon as they’ve been analyzed they’ll be informed as to whether they correspond to the two missing persons in the case X327-Cel-Xis-345P.
No matter how many times she opens her mouth, Silvana can’t manage to articulate a s
ingle world, while Lu complies with ROBul’s request to notify Leo to see if they can get any more information.
24
It feels like she’s only had her eyes closed for a second, but when she opens them Xis is no longer sitting beside her. She can’t see her anywhere else on the platform either. It’s hard to believe that an aero’car could have landed and taken her away so stealthily. It must be that someone, probably her mother, has managed to unlock the opening from inside. She stands up and goes over there expectantly, but the silence in the corridor seems more hostile than ever. Why has she been left here? No matter how angry Xis was, Celia can’t imagine she would be capable of abandoning her like this. It’s true that she’s gotten her into a real mess and the poor girl was really anxious; so much so that in order to calm her down and make up for what she’d done, Celia had to agree that she would let the girl cut her hair off when they got out. Hair is one thing, but trapping her in this hole is something else entirely … Suddenly, Celia’s face lights up: who’s saying she’s trapped?
She throws herself at the cavity and sticks her hand in, desperate to hear that restorative voice say “Identified as Leo-1.” But nothing’s happening, the system remains silent. Skeptical, she leaps at the opening, but her hands and forehead crash into the membrane that, due to the sudden momentum, has become hard and hurt her. She’s not thinking anymore, just worriedly pushing on the door looking for a crack, a sign that indicates she’ll be able to get in. Although she’s not any more trapped than before, she feels like she is.
As a last resort, she grabs hold of her ring, takes it out of her pocket, and tries to calm herself down. Her mom will show her what to do. She just needs to find a place where she can point it at the sky. Trying to find a better view, she shakily moves over to the edge of the platform, where the unexpected contact with the pole that she’d used as a barrier brings back the image of a hysterical Xis shouting “I’m going to fall, I’m going to fall.” A lump forms in her throat. For a moment, she’s in her friend’s skin and the vertigo makes her feel like she’s about to tumble into the abyss.
She squeezes her eyes shut just as tightly as she’s gripping the ring and carefully moves backward, finally sitting down against the wall. Her heart is beating wildly and her limbs have gone numb. She wishes she could stop thinking what she’s thinking. Stop feeling what she’s feeling. That she’d never thought of coming here, proposing it to … “No, Xis, no!” Her shout comes out already muffled. It’s just not possible her friend could have become so desperate that she’d throw herself off the platform. There must be another explanation, but right now she’s too depressed to see it. Her mother will help her. Together they’ll build barriers to keep out the bad thoughts, like they did when she was sick, they’ll get rid of this terrifying feeling of falling.
Looking through the hole in the ring, she crawls along by the wall looking for a piece of sky, even if it’s just a tiny one. She has to lie down on the ground to find a glimmer of blue sky, and, as soon as she manages to line it up: Mom, Mom! A flood of tears once again blinds her. It’s horrible, Mom, what if Xis is dead? It’s all my fault, she didn’t want to come, it was me who pushed her into it. Oh, no! What am I saying? Not pushed her, no, I never touched her. Oh, Mom, I don’t know what I’m talking about, my head is spinning. And Leo? They’ll fire him … that’ll be my fault too. I’ve ruined everything. How could I have ever thought to come here? I’ve changed so much … I never ran away before, did I? “If you get lost, don’t get all worked up, just think,” that’s what you told me when I was little and we went to crowded places. I have to think … but there’s no one here, no guards to ask, no stores to go into. My only hope is for someone to walk down the corridor … and, from where I am, I won’t even see them! She stretches herself right out so she can look through the opening and a woman’s face disfigured by the membrane almost scares her to death. Reining in the instinct to hide, she recognizes Xis’ mother gesturing at her. She’s come back to save her. Her first thought was right after all, the easiest solution … why did she have to imagine such a monstrous situation?
From the signals she’s making with her hands Celia understands that she’s telling her to wait a moment, she has to go and get something and she’ll be right back. Celia gets the impression that she’s also asking her to hide so she won’t be seen. She must want to get them out of CraftER without anyone noticing. Celia bore such a grudge against her before, but now she’ll even be thanking her: it would be great if Leo didn’t find out about what’s happened.
As if she’s conjured him up, the young man’s outline appears framed by a door right in front of the opening, and, even though she hurriedly pulls back, she figures he’s seen her. Her desperate attempt to avoid detection by flattening herself against the wall turns out to be totally pointless, since his face, disfigured like the woman’s was before, immediately appears right in the middle of the membrane. Aware that, once she’s been found, it would look bad to pretend she hasn’t seen him, she faces up to him and, putting her hands together, begs him both to help her and not to get angry.
Leo is very nervous, and he doesn’t stop peering through the door, left and right. It’s like he’s looking for someone else and Celia, disappointed, instinctively steps back so as not to block his line of sight. Only afterward, from his gestures, does she interpret that he needed to measure the size of the platform, as he intends to come and get her in an aero’car. Him! He’s coming to rescue her! This stuns her so much that, before she thinks to warn him that someone else is also coming to rescue her, the young man has already taken off. What a mess! Xis’ mother getting her out of here would have had the advantage that Leo wouldn’t have found out, but getting out with him … is a dream come true. As good as it’d be to have either one or the other, both options together is a total nightmare. Who’s going to get here first? If it’s the doctor, she’ll try to convince her to get her daughter out and leave her behind. Maybe if she explains Lu is on her way that’ll work.
Unfortunately, they both arrive at the same time. The aero’car hasn’t finished parking yet when Xis’ mother unlocks the security system and bursts onto the platform like a woman possessed:
“Let’s get out of here as fast as we can, kid.”
“Thanks for coming to get me,” Celia says, trying to stall her. “Where’s Xis?”
“Don’t even mention that. No one can know she’s been at CraftER, do you understand?” She grabs her arm so hard that it hurts as she drags her toward the opening.
Celia fights back. With or without black glasses, she still really dislikes this woman. She doesn’t understand why she’s talking to her in such an intimidating way. Xis must be really miserable with a mother like this.
Just as she tries to escape, the doctor literally throws herself at her and pushes her forward without a second thought, but luckily Leo rushes out of the aero’car and stops them. Behind him, she sees Silvana and Lu run out looking very alarmed and, in an unthinking impulse that later she won’t know how to explain and will make her blush, she also starts running and hugs not her mother but her tutor, tightly. All the accumulated tension is let loose at once, making her shake all over.
For Silvana, each wave of shivers feels more and more pleasant, and the human warmth spreads through her body until her eyes and her mind cloud over. Her wise hands take themselves to the neuralgic points on Celia’s back where the shared memory of good vibes from the other day makes a space for the two of them, away from the others’ reactions.
The long silence, which for some is very uncomfortable, is broken by Sus in the end:
“I can see you’re all caught up on what has happened, and I hope that you’ll be able to respect my wishes: all this took place outside CraftER, understood?” Her eyes burn a hole in Lu, searching for an impossible agreement, because it’s clear that she hasn’t even heard her, still shocked by what she’s just seen. “That would be the icing on the cake if, as well as losing my daughter, I got fired …
and maybe you too, Mar’10.” She’s changed tack and is now looking for compliance from someone else.
“You’re the most affected. For everyone else”—Leo glances around at everyone, his eyes settling on Celia for a couple of seconds longer—“what does it matter where it happened? The facts are the same whether they happened inside or outside CraftER. No need to worry, I won’t say anything. The only problem is the recordings …”
“I have them and no one will see them.” Having taken care of the problem inside the company, she needs to make sure there’ll be silence from outside as well, and she addresses the two women acrimoniously. “I imagine you don’t want me to sue the girl. So I won’t, as long as you never mention CraftER in connection with any of this. Erase that name from your minds, understood? The girls escaped from school and had an accident in the street. That’s all Fi needs to know”—she looks at Lu insistently—“and everyone else. With the disappearance resolved, and with my consent as the mother of the victim, the POLis will close the case. If there are any leaks and someone defames the company”—her eyes are like daggers—“I will throw all CraftER’s resources behind coming after you.”
The threat seems out of place to all of them, even though Leo understands the motives behind it better than anyone. All the same the two women, after a brief exchange, and out of respect, they say, to the horrible predicament she’s found herself in with the loss of her daughter, comply with her wishes. Celia is the most disconcerted, as she’s interpreted “lost” in the literal sense of not finding Xis after school, and doesn’t understand all this about suing and the accident down in the street. Taking refuge behind Lu, in an attempt to make up for her earlier effusiveness toward Silvana by returning her adoptive mother to her protector role, Celia keeps her mouth shut so as not to attract the rage of the doctor, who, it seems, is becoming a worse and worse person.