Z 2135 (10 page)

Adam stared at the screen, watching as
his friend Michael—
his
sister’s
friend—betrayed her
by reporting a relationship with Liam. That was why Ana ended up thrown to The
Darwins, and how she died.

He glared at the screen, unable to bury
his anger.

“Remember that feeling, Adam,” Keller
said. “Know the truth: people in City 6 will betray you in a heartbeat, so long
as it serves their purpose. You can count only on the brotherhood of City Watch
and your fellow Cadets.”

“I can’t believe Michael did that!” Adam
said.

“Would you not have turned your sister
in, if you discovered she was Underground?” the Chief
said, his left eyebrow arched.

Adam realized he had shown too much
anger. And in doing so had broadcast that he would likely lie
for Ana. He wouldn’t have reported her, and had probably just proved
himself unworthy of City Watch.

Adam looked at Keller, almost shameful.
“I can’t lie. I don’t think I would’ve reported her. Ana’s my sister. I would
at least want to know what she was doing before deciding.”

“Excellent,” Keller said, folding his
hands on his desk. “I wouldn’t want a Cadet who would turn on his family.
Family is all we have, Adam. Remember that. You should
always
be able to count on family. I consider you part of our
family at City Watch, Adam. That means you can always count on us. On
me
.”

Adam smiled, relieved that he’d not
messed up by being honest.

“I wouldn’t hold it against Michael too
much. He didn’t realize how deeply Anastasia was involved with The Underground.
He believed he was helping her.
Try
not to hate him.”

He nodded. That made sense. Still, Adam
wasn’t sure he could
forgive
Michael.

“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” the
Chief said, sweeping his hand over the desk and smiling. “Do you know what a
ride-along is?”

Adam could tell a ride-along was special
by how the Chief was asking. “No,” he said. “But I’d love to know!”

“A ride-along is when a Cadet gets to
spend a patrol shift with a Watcher. Ride-alongs give our Cadets a good idea of
what they can expect from their jobs. Like the instructionals, there’s nothing
held back. But unlike the instructionals, ride-alongs happen right in front of
you and in real time, so they can be frightening for our younger or more
sensitive Cadets. We know you’re quite mature for your age, but are you one of
those sensitive Cadets, Adam?”

Adam shook his head no, even though Ana
had always said that he was.

“Of course not. That’s why
you
don’t have to wait until your final year as a Cadet to go on your first
ride-along. You’re going to get to go on your first one
tomorrow
.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Absolutely. The State’s already granted permission.
They are very interested in you, Adam. You’ve no idea how special that is, you
making quite a name for yourself like you are. I’ve been reporting how well you
are doing—with everything really. I’ve told them about the strength of your
intentions to City and State. They fully agree—your eligibility requirements
are outstanding. So, Adam, how does it feel to have such accolades raining all
the way from City 1?”

“Amazing,” Adam admitted.

“Yes, amazing,” the Chief nodded. “Now,
because we are smart City Watch officers, we know that we must always be
vigilant, and that vigilance means managing more than one thing at once, yes?”

“Yes,” Adam agreed.

“So this time we want you to have all the
benefits of a City Watch ride-along, to see as a Cadet what you will one day
face as a Watcher. But I’d also like you to keep your eyes open for the other stuff
we discussed—signs of cancer in The Watch. How does that sound, Adam?”

“That sounds great!” He was more excited
by the second. “What exactly am I looking for? Are the Watchers I’m with
suspected traitors?”

 “It’s
simple,” the Chief smiled. “I’d like you to keep your eyes open, and stay on
the lookout for anything odd. I don’t think these particular Watchers are bad
seeds. They might be, or perhaps it could be others. I just want you to tell me
if you see anything strange or in any way out of the ordinary, with either of
the two Watchers from your ride-along, or with any of the people you meet while
on it. Does that sound simple enough?”

It did, but Adam felt confused.

“If these Watchers are
bad, why would they do something wrong in front of
me?
I’m a Cadet, and I could tell on them.”

“Ah, young Lovecraft, you still have so
much to learn about people, the world, and the way people act within it. If you
knew all the things I do, you would not be surprised. Human behavior is rarely
black and white, or people good or bad. Your father was an example of someone
who snapped; the pressure was too much, and a good man did a horrible thing
that no one saw coming. But your father is an extreme example. Most bad things
that happen behind The Walls aren’t the result of heinous acts, the sort of
unthinkable things that often make the Reels. No, they come from small acts
done by bad people who don’t even realize they’re bad.” The Chief leaned toward
Adam and narrowed his eyes. “Once people justify something long enough, they
can’t see it as
wrong
or
bad
. Does that make sense, Adam?”

“Yes,” Adam nodded, although he still had
questions. “What if nobody does anything on the ride-along, then
what do I report? And if City Watch has orbs and cameras all over The City, wouldn’t
you catch stuff on them?”

“For all the good of the cameras and
orbs, they don’t match an individual’s ability to see things, especially the
small things.” The Chief seemed pleased by his questions. “As for not
witnessing anything, we can consider that extremely good news and mark our day
as a success. I don’t want you to find things that don’t need to be found,
Adam. I just want to make certain you’re keeping your eyes open, so you can let
me know if you see anything I should know about. I trust your judgment, and
your integrity. I’ll rotate you into the ride-alongs with a few of our older,
already scheduled Cadets, and different Watchers too. With your high
performance and youth, Watchers will see you as a brother, rather than a
threat.”

Adam sat taller, feeling more confident.

“Besides,” Keller added, “most of the
Watchers know who you are because they knew your father. I imagine most
Watchers will be loose around you.”

Once again, what Keller said made no
sense to Adam. Why would anyone care about what happened to him when his dad
was a bad guy who had done such a horrible thing? He looked up at Keller,
hating the question and not wanting to hear the answer, yet knowing he needed
to.

“But, don’t they all hate my dad …
you know, for doing what he did?”

“No, Adam,” the Chief shook his head,
still smiling at Adam, looking proud. “Not at all. As
I said, City Watch is family. These men are brothers, through thick and thin,
and now they’re your brothers too. They were disappointed in your father’s fall,
but they still loved him. There wasn’t one Watcher who was happy bringing your
father in.”

Adam sat on his side of the Chief’s desk,
hands in his lap, wondering what he should say. Then the Chief made it easy.
“So, are we going for a ride-along?”

“Yes!” Adam said, his doubts fading with
the excitement to see what might happen, and to report wrongs by Watchers doing
what they shouldn’t.

Jonah was sitting with Katrina in
Hydrangea’s small bar. It looked enough like the Saxon—a bar behind The
Walls—that Jonah couldn’t help but think of it every time he brought the glass
to his lips. The Saxon had been one of his favorite lazy hangouts, for those
rare times when Jonah had been able to afford such a thing. The bar was meant
for Watchers and regularly had special events like open mic and trivia nights.
The shape of the bar and the color of the wood, as well as the warm light and
lived-in walls covered with posters and framed photos from the refugees’ former
homes, all felt familiar to Jonah; but the Saxon was usually filled with
people, while the Hydrangea’s bar had only him and Katrina.

Jonah had been sitting long enough to get
drunk—his first time on the pleasant side of drink since Molly. He had a high
tolerance, and it took a lot to feel the alcohol’s effects. He wasn’t sure, but
it seemed to him that Katrina had downed more than he had. Despite being
two-thirds his size, she seemed far less soused.

“I didn’t know that,” Jonah said,
laughing. They were playing a game called “I Didn’t Know That,” a game Katrina
made up to “see if new people at the camp were worth talking to.” Judging by
her smiles and laughter, which made Jonah picture birds pecking from their
shells, he was apparently worth it so far. “Your turn.”

Katrina took a long pull from her drink,
swallowed, then gently set it on the table and said, “A long time ago when
settlers first came to the Old Nation, there was a hurricane—a tornado that
swept inland from the sea. The settlers were caught unprepared. Life was
destroyed on the coast and in the interior villages nearby, wiping out the
pioneers and natives living there. The hurricane was the Old Nation’s first
national disaster, from back in 1635.”

“I didn’t know that,” Jonah said.

“Back then they didn’t record things like
they did later,” Katrina said. “And yet it’s amazing that we know more about
the distant past than our years since the Plague. I guess people were more
interested in preserving the past back then. Now everything seems to be about
shaping our future.”

Jonah inhaled the silence before he
started his story.

“Ice cream was invented in the Old Nation
in some place called Kentucky. A farmer took cow’s cream and sugar, then flash froze it with liquid nitrogen, make those little
balls like you buy in the arcade. After The Wallings, The State wanted to bring
some of the Old Nation amenities back, 
but the cities were still young and had limited resources, so they had
to make the ice cream in a new way, by hand.”

“I didn’t know that.” For some reason,
though, Katrina’s expression had soured. “Come on,” she said, “let’s go for a
walk.”

She stood, packed their bottles into her
bag, and strolled away from the table. Jonah followed her out of the bar. They
were through the doorway, just turning into a long and warmly lit hallway, when
Katrina said, “So are you going to help us get the doctor, or have you buoyed
our hopes for nothing?”

“Hey,” he said, “I wasn’t looking for you
guys.”

“True, but if you believe in fortune—and
sometimes we all have to just to cling to sanity—then you must believe that
some things
are
destined. That there
are pieces to move on a board. I
believe
fortune brought you to us.”

She sounded so earnest,
Jonah didn’t know what to think, and certainly not what to say. He
wanted
to say that fortune didn’t bring him to them; they came and
found him, but that felt wrong. So he stayed silent, listening as her voice
softened into a honeyed tone left warm from the drink.

“Help us, Jonah,” Katrina persisted.
“Anastasia won’t be here for another nine days or so. That’s plenty of time to
reach City 6 and return. It’s a two-day walk from Hydrangea.”

“I said I would think on it, and I will.
But I’m not leaving before Ana gets here. I can’t risk anything happening
before then.”

“But Jonah, you could be
done
when
she gets here. Won't it be a lot harder to leave the safety of Hydrangea
after
your reunion?”

Jonah paused. Of course it would be,
though he’d not considered that before. He deflected.

“Why are you so hot to help the fearless
leader? What’s in it for you? What’s
your
Anastasia?”

Katrina’s face flickered with something;
Jonah thought she might want to hit him. Instead she deflected right back.

“I hear plenty of Anastasia—don't you
ever think about Adam?”

She didn’t hit him, but Jonah felt
slapped anyway and probably looked like Katrina had a moment before. “I think
about Adam in between those seconds when I’m not thinking of Ana.”

“That doesn’t leave a lot of room for
Jonah,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t.”

Jonah had
never
had
much time for Jonah, but had also never minded. He was happiest when his time
belonged to City Watch and Molly and Ana and Adam. Now it was all his, and every bit of it rotten.

Adam was his little man, an honest boy
with a generous heart, desperate to please and do the right thing. A pure soul,
deserving of the world's best—certainly not what Jonah had actually left him.

“Wouldn’t you like to see where Adam is?
Don’t you wonder how he’s doing? What if you could get
him
out of The City?”

It was bait and Jonah knew it, could
smell it like one of Molly’s bribes in the oven. He would be tempted, but
Katrina had already broken one promise when she said Ana was at Hydrangea.

Katrina spoke when Jonah said nothing.
“We could do that, you know. Get Adam out of The City.”

Jonah wanted to take the bait, even
knowing it danced at the foot of a snapping trap, but hope would bury him if he
let it.

“Adam's better off without me. I can only
make things worse than they are. I’m a criminal.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“Doesn’t matter what I believe, it’s what
everyone behind The Walls will think the second they see me. I’m an enemy of
The State. Even if I wasn't, I’m in no shape to be a father. Look at me, I’m
starving. I can barely survive on my own. Ana’s different, bigger, stronger, already out here. Adam’s best off where he is.”

“But don’t you want to know how he’s
doing? Wouldn’t you like to at least see him? Check in with him from afar? We
can do that, Jonah. We can get you into The City. You can help us, and we can
help you. We’ll be back for Anastasia before she gets here.”

The drink was hitting Katrina harder.
Words were leaving her mouth in a light slur, almost a lilt.

“This is right. You know it. Just say
yes.”

Of course Jonah wanted to say yes, to see
one of his children before the other, end his obligation to Sutherland, feel a
peace he’d not felt since before Molly’s murder.

They were nearly back at his door. She
drew a keycard from her pocket and went to open it.

Great, she has a key to my room.

“I have to know,” Jonah said, “what it is
that makes you so loyal to Sutherland. I have to feel safe, or I can’t go. And
right now I just don’t trust you.”

Katrina opened the door, stepped inside,
and turned to Jonah. Three steps through the doorway she removed her armor plates
and set them on the ground, then removed her long-sleeved top.

Jonah was confused. Katrina was
attractive, but she didn’t seem to have any interest in him, or in anything
beyond the cause.

Is she seducing me?

After her shirt, Katrina peeled off the
tight tank beneath. She stood before Jonah, topless from the waist up. Her body
was tight, and her breasts would have been attractive, if not so horribly
scarred, lashes like tallies above, beneath, and around them. Her nipples
looked many times burned.

Jonah stared, unable to swallow, barely
able to think.

“Who did that to you? Geralt?”

“Yes,” Katrina said, pulling her tank
back on. “For starters.”

“Why?”

She pulled the long-sleeved shirt over
her head.

“Because I was a spy
for The Underground, living in City 2. City 2 is where Geralt gets most of his toys. He loves
traitors most because, as he says, they make the best …
pets
.

Jonah felt a shiver through his entire
frame, seeing too many atrocities at once, knowing she suffered them all.

Katrina recited her story with no shame:
how she was caught red-handed and treated well, encouraged to turn informant.
She wouldn't budge, so she was taken to City 1 and tossed into a giant room
full of slaves, owned by Geralt and offered with no limits to the Council
Guard. Katrina was used by that lot
for years. A girl could live well forever with Geralt, if so inclined. The more
trouble they were before capture, the more he craved their compliance. Katrina
was trouble and then some, without a compliant cell in her body.

Geralt made an example of her, then left her for dead. She lived, however, and made it to
the other side of City 1’s Walls because a guard took pity and led her to the
sewer rather than the incinerator as ordered.

Katrina looked at Jonah. “Geralt must pay
for his crimes. This will be done, no matter what. I’m going to City 6
regardless, and will bring the doctor back. But I’d far prefer it if you talk
her into coming willingly. I believe in you, Jonah, and hope you believe in
us
enough to do what you
know
is right. Trust
that
.”

“I’ll do it,” Jonah said. “But I want
Sutherland to promise that Ana will be taken care of if we don’t come back.”

“Of course,” Katrina nodded. “Sutherland
would settle for nothing less.”