Mortal Lock (32 page)

FYYAH

(firmly)

I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair.

HEXON

It’s fair if I
want
you to.

FYYAH

Are you sure you can …

HEXON

Sure. It’s easy. Give me your jacket.

FYYAH

(insistently)

Are you
sure
?

HEXON

I’ve been making trading trips out here a long time. It took forever to save enough for the 33-Z. So I slept on less than this plenty of times. The trick is to keep something between yourself and the ground. The more the better.

HEXON

The heat-exchanger is—

FYYAH

I know how they work. If I turn it on, then the outside of the tube will get all cold, right? If I leave it off, it’ll be like I’m another blanket. And if I don’t pull the visor down, we can still talk. I’m not sleepy yet, anyway. Are you?

HEXON

There’s … things out here. It takes a long time to learn how to sleep so any sound wakes you up. We’ll take turns staying awake. Pull up the visor and I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.

FYYAH

(ignoring him; not touching the visor)

Have you been out here
that
long?

HEXON

(not turning around)

Long enough.

FYYAH

Not out here,
out
. Away from your spray, I mean.

HEXON

(soberly, turning slightly to face her)

Almost twelve years.

FYYAH

You don’t look that old.

HEXON

I’ll have my Year 19 soon. You?

FYYAH

A little over two years.

HEXON

Did you run from …?

FYYAH

My spray, yeah. In my Year 13, they sold me on a three-year contract to the HydroFarm. I worked out the contract, but I never went back, even though my spray still owned me. But they never caught me, and I’m too old, now. Even if they found me, they couldn’t bring me back.

HEXON

Couldn’t they still snatch—?

FYYAH

(closing her eyes)

I’m a Dancing Girl. You come for one of us, you come for us all. When we used to take kill-marks, a Drover counted for ten regular ones.

HEXON

(V/O)

It was like I was talking to her and thinking inside my mind at the same time. They used to have a different name for sprays once. Families, they were called. The Book Boys wrote that, in blue. Families were supposed to really want kids. To keep, not to sell. They were supposed to love children. And protect them. But after a while,
they all stopped doing that. Or most of them, anyway. That was part of the Terror. I don’t really understand it all. The Book Boys wrote it in blue.

YOU KILLED THOSE WHO TRIED TO WARN
THE FABRIC WAS TORN
FAMILY WAS DEAD——SPRAY WAS BORN

HEXON

(V/O)

Spray means DNA connection. When people have sex, sometimes a baby comes. The Rulers can always tell your spray. From your blood, that’s how they tell.

HEXON

(V/O)

It felt good to look at her. Rats can’t get into the sleep-tube, not with the visor down. But she had the visor up. I had to keep watch, so nothing would hurt her.

It felt funny, doing that. No, wait. That isn’t what felt so strange. She was probably real good with her razor and all, but, going to sleep like she did, she was … trusting me. Why should she do that?

I talked to her. Real soft, so it wouldn’t wake her up. I told her about the stuff I had to do when I ran off from the work site. The first two times, they caught me. They know how to hurt you without crippling you … because they need you to go back to work when they’re done hurting you. The last time, I finally made it.

I had to do a lot of things after that. Bad things. But it got easier to do them, after a while. And once I found a crew that would have me, once I became a Merchant Boy, I knew they would never get me back into a work site again. It was like she said for her crew—if anyone came after one of us, it was the same as coming after us all.

FYYAH

(in a voice that indicates she was never asleep)

You didn’t have any choice, Hexon.

HEXON

(startled)

When did you wake up?

FYYAH

I never really went to sleep. I was just lying here with my eyes closed. Feeling safe. I loved that feeling. I didn’t go to sleep because I didn’t want it to end.

But I know we have to sleep. We’ll do it like you said, okay? You watch me for a while, then wake me up and I’ll watch for you.

HEXON

I’m not sleepy.

FYYAH

Me neither. What were you looking for out here?

HEXON

I’m … looking for someone who wants to buy Bad Babies.

FYYAH

(on the verge of a terrible sadness)

The Merchant Boys are going to—?

HEXON

(disgusted)

We
never
did that. And this isn’t for the Merchant Boys, anyway; it’s for me. I heard on the whisper-stream that somebody wanted the Bad Babies. I had to see if it was true.

FYYAH

(opening the sleep-tube, sitting up, intense)

It
is
true! That’s why I came … to find them.

HEXON

How can you know it’s really true? Why would anyone want to—

FYYAH

It’s a crew that takes the babies. It has to be. You heard about them, too, didn’t you?

HEXON

Them? You mean the ones who used to—

FYYAH

Not them. They only bought the Bad Babies to sell. You’re only allowed to sell babies from your own spray, but there’s no market for the … parts from the Bad Babies anymore. And the Rulers know how to test the … organs. So whoever’s taking the babies, they’re not taking them to sell; they’re taking them to keep.

HEXON

The Book Boys never wrote—

FYYAH

(with absolute assurance)

Not yet. But they will.

HEXON

Do you know where—?

FYYAH

Nobody does. But it has to be somewhere here in the Uncharted Zone. That’s the only place the Rulers don’t have sensors.

HEXON

(warningly)

The deeper you go, the worse it gets. All kinds of things that you never—

FYYAH

(thoughtfully)

You’re not just talking, the way some boys do when they’re trying to make themselves big. You’ve been out there yourself, haven’t you, Hexon? Out real deep?

HEXON

A few times, but …

FYYAH

(calmly urgent)

I have to find them, Hexon. I think they have my little sister.

HEXON

Your sister-for-real? From your own spray?

FYYAH

(excitedly)

Yes! After I worked off my contract, I never went back to my spray. I knew they’d just sell me again, so I went on my own. Once the Dancing Girls chose me, I learned a lot of tricks. When I got good at stalking, I snuck back to see what was happening in my spray. My baby sister, Fiona, she was still with them; the only one left. I knew, as soon as she got old enough, my mother would—

HEXON

(Hexon is all business, now; calculating trade value. Cutting her off—)

How old is she?

FYYAH

Almost Year 6. Next cycle, she turns.

HEXON

(matter-of-factly)

That’s too young to sell to a work site.

FYYAH

But not for the Sex Tunnels. You know where they list kids gone missing on the Info-Board? They don’t do that if the kid is sold. The Rulers know where the kid is, so that doesn’t count as missing.

HEXON

Why not try your … mother, first. If she was going to sell her, couldn’t we negotiate with—?

FYYAH

(flatly, just the facts)

She’s dead. My father, too. That’s happening all the time now. First, someone steals a kid from the kid’s spray. Then, after a while, the kid’s owners end up getting killed themselves. How could a little kid kill grown people? And not just one kid; this is like a regular thing, so it has to be a crew at work. Some call them the Spray-Slayers, but that’s just talk—the Book Boys never wrote anything on the walls. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what they’re called; Fiona’s with them, whoever they are. I know that, even if I can’t explain it. She’s with them. And I’m going to find her.

HEXON

(V/O, hearing his thoughts)

Dancing Girls are all tough. They have to be—when they say “dance,” they mean fight. All Dancing Girls carry razors. Some of them work in the Sex Tunnels, but most of them don’t work. They steal, mostly. But going outside the Charted Zone takes more than being tough. I know. A few of the Merchant Boys have gone out but not come back. Me, I’ve come back every time. So far.

HEXON

(aloud)

We both need to find that crew, if that’s what it is.

If they have your sister, we’ll get her back.

HEXON

(V/O)

A Merchant Boy isn’t allowed to do anything unless he gets something back. Dancing Girls aren’t supposed to have anything to do with their own spray. In Underground, every crew has its own rules.

But none of that counts in the Uncharted Zone.

HEXON

(to the man he had been trading with)

That’s two mistakes.

MAN

Hey! I didn’t—

HEXON

(not listening)

That’s what happens to people who live out here. You lose touch. You thought Merchant Boys would be easy, because all we do is talk. And you never even heard of Dancing Girls, did you?

MAN

I don’t know what you’re—

HEXON

The deal is off. Give me back my barter.
The Man hands it over, says …

MAN

What about mine?

HEXON

(taking a small blaster out of his coat)

Here’s
what’s yours.

FYYAH

Put your blaster away and get down here with me, Hexon! Do what I’m doing. Quick!