meant.
“Do you mean they’re just standing there waiting to die?”
“Of course,” Anna said. “It is the logical thing to do.”
There was a disapproving murmur from behind. A man was walking quickly back to the twin girls. Their father, presumably. He pushed one of them forward, sent her running to join Saskia’s line. He picked up her sister, cradled her in his arms as he watched the other child go. Still the crowd complained.
“What’s the matter?” Saskia asked.
“He should not send on the child,” Anna said. “She will be slower, more likely to panic.”
“But it’s his daughter!”
“There are others here, too.”
“Everyone acting completely selflessly,” Saskia murmured. “That’s what Judy said.”
“Don’t look down,” said Anna. Of course, Saskia looked down.
Three black cubes lay on the snow near her feet, frozen in position by her gaze. Still the snowflakes fell. The man behind her tapped her on the shoulder.
“You saw them first. Pick them up. Don’t let them escape.”
“What?” Saskia said incredulously. “No way. Why should I?”
She tore her gaze away from the Dark Seeds.
The man who had spoken to her made a tutting sound.
“Then I shall do it,” he said, and he bent down and scooped up the seeds. Saskia watched him walking back along the line, cradling them in his hands, gazing at them with rapt concentration. Flickering black tendrils emerged from his palm, fascinating black tendrils…And then she realized what he had done.
“No!” she called. “That should have been me!”
“Too late,” Anna said, a strained smile on her face. “Maybe next time.”
“No, but he’s heading back to be sterilized with the rest! I didn’t realize.”
“I know,” said Anna kindly. “You are obviously not from hereabouts.”
“Yes, but, I mean…”
“Just keep walking.”
Up ahead, Constantine was a fuzzy grey blur, his skin’s fractality increasing all the time. Judy walked at his side, seemingly unmoved by the scene unfolding around her, marching along the street, part of the stream of people moving in a river of snow. Individuals were peeling away from the crowd as they spotted the Dark Seeds flickering throughout the containment area. They picked them up and headed back the way they had come, towards the sterilization zone.
“Why are they going back?” Saskia heard Edward ask Maurice, and she blinked back a tear.
“Because,” Maurice said. “Because they have been programmed by the Watcher to be selfless individuals who do everything for the common good.” His voice was shrill with evangelical fervor. “This is why we are wearing our active suits. This is why we must resist!”
“But—” Saskia began, and then something else hit her.
“The old people,” she whispered. “They are choosing all the old people.”
It was true. It wasn’t exclusively the elderly, but there was a preponderance of grey hair, of thin limbs and careful steps amongst those now shuffling in the opposite direction to the line. Suddenly Saskia understood the enigmatic words of the woman closing the shutters outside the I-train station.
