Deviants (2 page)

“It’s gone now.” I smile to cover my white lie. There’s no way to get clean up here in this filth, and Scout’s not exactly
a master in the hygiene department. I doubt he noticed or cared.

She leans in close. “Do you think he’ll ask me?” Red spots flare on her cheeks.

“If he doesn’t, he’s crazy.” I grin, happy she’s happy, but an uncomfortable squirming grabs hold of my belly. I can’t believe we’re sixteen and old enough for official dating license bracelets. Next step is a marriage contract.

But it’s not like
I
could date. The risk is too high. If I apply for a license, someone in HR is bound to review my employment records and ask questions about my brother. He can’t be discovered. No one except Jayma knows he’s alive.

“I need a favor.” Jayma’s hands slip down to mine. “Scout’s going to the Hub, and—”

“Today? On day one?” The Hub’s always swarming on the first of the three days designated for employees in our pay-grade to pick up monthly rations. Some people can’t plan. But as much as I don’t want to go today, Jayma can’t go to the Hub alone with a boy without a dating license. If I agree to go, she’ll get more time with Scout, even if I’m the third wheel.

“Of course I’ll go to the Hub with you.” I squeeze her hands.

“You’re the best.” She leans in closer. “Plus Management is holding a lottery to celebrate the quarter-end holiday.”

“What’s the prize?”

“An entry-level Management position. Can you believe it?” Jayma bends and cranks her lantern.

Hope drifts up with the news, filling my head with dreams
of the future. Even employees born into Management families have to work really hard and pass qualifying exams to be eligible to apply for those jobs. “Do you think they’ll really promote the winner?”

Jayma nods. “And what great timing—just before we graduate and get our work placements.” She smiles and, even though her lantern’s fading, I swear the rooftop grows brighter.

My mood certainly does. Imagine having a Management job. And straight out of GT? A job like that might give me the power to protect Drake. There must be Deviants born into Management families, but I’m not sure I’ve seen one expunged. The possibility of winning tingles, even if the promised prize is a long shot.

Clang
. A rock slams into steel at the edge of the roof, and I cringe. The surveillance cameras up here haven’t been repaired since before I was born, but too much noise is a sure way to get caught.

“Rat dung,” Scout curses, and we look over to where he’s been shooting rocks and, based on what I’ve heard, hitting more roof than rat.

“Are we going to the Hub, or not?” A deep male voice comes from the darkness, and my shoulders shoot up. Cal, Scout’s older brother, steps out of the shadows and my heart takes off at full sprint.

Cal grins. “Did I scare you?”

“No.” I stand taller and brush my hand over my hair. “When did you get up here?” Has he been there since Jayma and Scout arrived, standing in the shadows listening to Jayma
and me? I hope I didn’t say anything embarrassing. Anything to reveal how I feel.

Cal’s arrival, not to mention the way his blond hair drapes down over his blue eyes, makes it hard to keep calm. While my curse isn’t powerful enough to hurt anything as large or smart as a human, it wouldn’t do for anyone—even my friends—to associate me with a cramp in the stomach, a shot of pain to the kidneys, a squeeze in the heart. As much as I trust my friends, they can’t know I’m a Deviant.

Cal’s work boots crunch across the fine gravel; his back and knees bend to fit his tall body into the tight space. “Where’s your net?”

“My net?” I can’t keep my eyes off Cal’s handsome face.

“You said you got lucky with your net. Where is it?”

He
was
listening. I gesture idly behind me.

He tips his head to the side, clearly knowing I’m lying, but he doesn’t take it any further. Now eighteen, Cal was top of his General Training class, aced the M-Ap exams, yet got a work placement in Construction & Maintenance. That waste of brains is all the proof I need: Management only promotes from within. My dreams of the lottery deflate.

Cal brushes hair from his eyes, and the light from Jayma’s fading lantern sharpens his chiseled features. Always tall and lean, his body’s grown harder from physical labor—his neck, his arms, and legs transformed by hard work into strong ropes covered by skin. My eyes focus on his wrist, still without a dating bracelet, but I can’t afford dreams.

“Don’t you girls look pretty today.” His compliment makes my heart stutter.

Cheeks burning I meet his gaze, and my insides squeeze with a sharp stab I only feel around Cal. Buzzing I rub my mother’s ring to invite in her calmness, her strength, to push down emotions that make me dangerous to my friends.

“Jayma,” Scout calls from the shadows. “Did you bring any stones? I ran out.”

“I did.” She lifts a hand to shield her eyes from the lantern light bouncing off the sky. “Where are you?”

Scout’s hunched silhouette waves a slingshot about fifteen feet away, and Jayma picks up her fading lantern and cranks the handle. “Okay if I take this?” She must really like Scout if she’s willing to head into those rats. When she leaves, I’m alone with Cal and the dark.

I didn’t think the temperature could increase up here, but Cal’s muscular form exudes heat and a strong spicy smell that tempers the rat droppings and makes me feel safe and in danger all at once. My skin prickles with tension that I need to defuse before emotions trigger my curse.

I pick up a rat by the tail. “Want a bite?”

“Very funny.” He widens his stance and puts his hands on his hips, copying the way the Comps stand when they want to look particularly intimidating. “Young lady”—there’s a sly grin under his stern expression—“did you use ration points to purchase that meat at the Hub?”

Cal is treating me like an equal, not a little girl, and my insides warm. “Of course I did, Officer. Obtaining rat meat any other way is strictly prohibited in the Policies & Procedures Manual. Black-market goods damage the Haven economy and threaten our very way of life.”

“Haven Equals Safety.” We say the Haven slogan in unison, then laugh. My chest heats.

“Glad to hear you’re still drinking the coolade, little lady.”

“It’s so, so refreshing.”

Such a strange expression—none of us knows what coolade is—but it’s one of those things that everyone in the Pents grows up saying to describe employees who act and talk as if they’re reading straight from the P&P.

Cal’s hand lands on my shoulder, and a thrill traces through me as he draws in close. “I’ve got a secret, but you have to promise you won’t tell anyone—ever.”

He leans forward, moving his lips close to my ear, and he’s all I can smell, all I can feel. His heart beats so strong and steady I feel it inside and melt as his breath burns my neck.
Please don’t let my Deviance trigger
.

“I was recruited into the Jecs.”

I jump back, alarm causing my heart to race more than Cal’s touch. Emotions spark the back of my eyes—anger, disbelief, betrayal. I don’t dare look at his eyes and instead stare at his feet. “Why would you do that?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

I straighten and my head bangs the sky.

“Careful.” Cal reaches forward and his hand grazes my cheek. “I joined for a chance at a better future, a way out of the Pents.”

My breaths come more quickly, but I fight to hold myself together as emotions inflate and threaten to explode like a bomb. “The Junior Ethics Committee?”

His eyebrows draw closer together. “I know some of
them are slimy and turn in their friends for petty crimes, but it doesn’t need to be like that. The committee’s a stepping-stone to a better life. If I work hard, I have a shot at Compliance Officer Training.” He grins. “Besides, I’ll just go after Deviants.”

I’ll just go after Deviants
.

My stomach caves, my chest tightens. “But—” Words won’t come. My tongue’s dry. If he discovers my secret, I’m as good as exed.

Cal reaches for me, but lets his hand drop. “I thought you’d be happy. You took the M-Ap exams; I know you’re ambitious.” His jaw twitches and hurt builds in his eyes, before understanding flashes. “Is this about your father?” He takes my hand. “You must hate him.”

My gaze shoots straight for Cal’s eyes. “Hate him?” Cal’s right, mostly, but the man was my father, and it’s more complicated than that.

“Glory, your dad was a Deviant.” Cal’s voice is hard and deep. “He had to be exed.”

Nausea builds and pain crushes my chest as Cal’s revelation exposes then incinerates my dream of a normal life, my dream of being with him. My hand, slick with sweat, slides from his grip.

“Say something.” He looks worried.

“You’ll only turn in the dangerous Deviants, right?”

His head jerks. “They’re
all
dangerous. Part Shredder.”

“No one knows that for certain.” And the idea that I’m related to Shredders, might turn into one, is something I can’t let myself think. My nightmares are bad enough.

“Glory.” Cal’s voice takes on a patronizing tone. “You can’t deny history or science. The Deviants and Shredders both arrived when the earth died.”

I bite down on my lip. The earth didn’t die—not really—but over three generations ago it was buried in coarse dust from the asteroids and volcanic eruptions. In GT we learned that much of the world was burned, the rest of it buried. We learned how the dust kills normal humans. But some of the things we’re taught about life Before The Dust—like air travel and long-distance telephones—seem like science fiction, not history. And since discovering my Deviance, I no longer believe every word we were taught in GT.

No one knows why the dust killed most life on earth. No one knows why Shredders can feed off the dust, or why some people became Deviant, neither Normals nor Shredders. If someone does know, Management’s not telling. Everyone knows that neither Deviants nor Shredders existed BTD, and I shudder to think I might have DNA in common with Shredders.

“You won’t tell anyone I joined the Jecs, will you?” Cal’s forehead wrinkles. He’s clearly uncomfortable with my silence, and I wonder what he might do without reassurance.

“I won’t tell.”

“Good.” His shoulders relax. “Because if you told anyone, I’d have to kill you.” He laughs and lightly punches my arm.

I force a smile.

Cal leans forward and places his hands on his thighs. “The first thing they told us at Jecs orientation was, ‘Don’t tell anyone you’re in,’ but I had to tell you.”

Scout and Jayma approach and save me from asking why. I’m not sure I want to know. Scout’s got two rats by the tail, dripping blood, and Jayma’s face is even paler than normal. My mind spins. Cal, one of the Jecs? I wonder how far he’ll go with his role. Scout’s violating policy right now, and it’s reassuring that Cal doesn’t comment.

“Let’s head back down,” Scout says. “I’ve got to stash these at home before we go to the Hub.”

I break away from Cal to pick up my catch, but as I’m wrapping them in a scrap of cloth, he steps close.

“Do you know why I trust you? Only you?”

I flick my gaze to his eyes, then down, and draw a ragged breath.
Only me
.

My tongue feels thick. Conflicting emotions wage war inside me.

His head drops, his lips inches from my ear. “You won’t tell, right?”

I nod, my neck tense.

He exhales, his breath warm on my neck. “I knew you could keep a secret,” he whispers, “because you’ve got secrets, too.”

CHAPTER TWO

^B
LOOD RUSHES IN
my ears, and I pull back, trying to control the rising terror. What does Cal know? My skin’s like ice, threatening to crack from too much pressure. If he knows I’m a Deviant, I’m as good as exed.

He touches my arm. “Don’t worry. I won’t report him.”

“Who?”

“Your brother.”

My throat closes; my ears fill. It’s not me, but Drake who’s in danger.
So much worse
.

Tucking my wrapped rats against my body and zipping my jacket to hold them down, I head for the edge of the roof as calmly as I can, but it’s all I can do not to run, to get far away from Cal. As I climb down the rope that provides roof access, emotion-weighted questions buzz through my mind like the static on the Hub’s TV screens when dust infiltrates the cameras Outside.

We climb down the rope, one by one, then swing off and into a corridor in the top-level penthouse, where we live. I can’t look anyone in the eyes. I don’t dare.

“You boys go on ahead. Save us a place in line?” Jayma says. “I need to talk to Glory.” She turns to me, concern in her eyes, but I can’t look at her long—not while I’m feeling so much—though I’m touched that she’s sacrificing her plan to spend time with Scout for me.

“We can wait.” Cal’s concerned, too.

I shake my head, and flash a grin of reassurance. I can’t be around him yet. I need to calm down.

“We’ll follow after you boys.” Jayma’s voice is more forceful than I’ve ever heard it, and the boys shrug and leave.

“What’s wrong?” she asks once they’re gone.

I raise a finger to my lips, and she nods with understanding. Too many ears out here in the halls. My throat tightens. I thought Jayma was the only person who knew Drake survived and can’t believe she’d tell Cal. But if not her, then who? And what else does Cal know?

I can’t overreact. All I’m certain of is that Cal knows Drake’s alive. Perhaps nothing more. That’s bad enough, but when you’ve got an emotion-triggered curse, it doesn’t pay to imagine worst-case scenarios.

Jayma follows me down the narrow passageway leading to the small apartment I share with my brother. Because of his injury—not to mention his Deviance—he hasn’t reported for GT since our parents died, making him unemployed—a Parasite. Cal must know the Parasite part, and as a Jecs he’s supposed to report him. But if that’s his intent, then why tell
me his secret? That would be cruel, and while I can’t fully trust him—or anyone—I know Cal’s not cruel.

Arms bent, I trail the palms of both hands along the corridor’s walls. One advantage of this location is that the Comps’ body armor barely fits through. They have to walk sideways.