Ginni sewed beside me and Xona changed into her training clothes and left. It seemed like she was always working out lately or putting in more hours of weapons training. I’d gathered she was still mad about not being included in the mission and was determined to show her brother she was as capable as any Rez fighter.
My drawing wasn’t working. I couldn’t seem to make the picture on paper match the image in my head. I put down the purple pencil I’d been using and stared at the door Saminsa had left through. I wondered if she’d get any sleep tonight, or if she’d stay up keeping guard against us.
Ginni chatted on like she always did. “So I heard that Tyryn might be dating one of the new Rez recruits. She’s got auburn hair that’s so smooth and shiny, I would just die for it. Nothing like mine.” She tugged at the ends of her frizzy hair and sighed.
I paused and looked at her. “How do you always know about everything that’s going on with people?”
“Oh, you know, I just hear things.” She looked away.
“Yeah, but it’s more than that.” I frowned. “You seem to know things no one else does.”
She bit her lip, hesitating before looking back at me. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to hate me?”
I laughed. “Of course.”
She looked down at the line of stitches she’d made. “I used to be a Monitor.”
My mouth dropped open. “What?”
“The officials at my Academy figured out I’d been glitching from the repeated anomalous incidents flagged in my record. They offered me safety if I spied on the rest of the students for them. So I did.” She fidgeted with the edge of the fabric while the words rushed out.
I couldn’t help gaping at her in horror. Monitors were specially trained as spies, hidden among the regular population. They were adept at detecting all the subtle clues that someone’s V-chip hardware was malfunctioning. After they turned in someone, the subject would be taken away for new hardware installation or, worse, deactivation. An involuntary shiver snaked down my spine. Ginni couldn’t be a Monitor. She was too sweet and good.
“Eventually they even had me tracking not only anomalous students but also other Uppers who came through our Academy. I was good at it because of my power. I always knew when a person was somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. I’d sneak up close but out of sight and listen to their conversations, then report.”
“And you just … went along with it? You helped them capture other glitchers like us?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and I immediately felt bad for the accusatory tone of my voice. “When you become a Monitor, they put more tech in your head. Even though I was glitching and safe from the V-chip, I couldn’t escape the new hardware.”
“Oh Ginni,” I put my hand over hers. Here I was again, accusing someone before I’d gotten all the details. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that was how Monitors worked.”
She forced a smile. “Don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry. When the Rez rescued me, they tried to disable the extra hardware, but they couldn’t completely. I still have the compulsion to spy on people and learn their secrets. The Professor says I can try to fight it, or at least keep the things I learn to myself. But it’s hard.”
I squeezed her hand and pointed to the hardware portal at the back of my neck. “The Community left its mark on all of us. We’re all trying to recover from what has been done to us.”
I went to sleep soon after Xona and Saminsa came back. I pulled the heavy curtain to my bed box closed and said the words to Link myself, waiting for the usual calming tones of Scheduled Subject Downtime to play as my thoughts melted away into the Link.
But as my senses dulled, I realized it wasn’t the calming tones of Scheduled Subject Downtime playing. I’d Linked right in the middle of the Link News, complete with audio and video reports. The Link did its work, slowly numbing me to my outside senses, shutting me up in the gray of my own mind with no stray sensory data or reactions.
Footage played of the current Chancellor Supreme of Sector 6, a short gray-haired man. He stood at a podium and spoke.
The vid scene switched. A girl screamed and thrashed on the ground of an Academy cafeteria, held down by Regulators on both sides. All the other students watched passively, faces mute of any emotion at the scene playing out before them. The girl looked like she was about fourteen. Her blond hair fell out of the careful clip and her scream hit an especially high piercing note right as the Regulator reached toward her neck with the pen-needle. A moment later, she was slumped between the two Regs.
The vid and audio switched again, to a story about recent trade agreements with Sector 5, but the girl’s screaming face seemed imprinted in my head no matter how much the vid flashed and changed.
She was so young. A shot of dread spiked through my veins. My brother Markan was fourteen. I thought he’d have a couple more years until I’d have to worry about the possibility of him glitching and getting caught.
But from what I’d just seen, it seemed like time was running out. I had to get my brother out of there, away from the Community and away from Chancellor Bright, before it was too late. The report had said family members of those confirmed as anomalous were being tested. Did that mean … I suddenly felt sick. Surely Bright would test the brother of the most notorious glitcher ever. I’d been a fool ever to think Markan was safe just because I was gone.
I un-Linked myself and swung the curtain from my bed back. “Taylor’s still on site, right?” I asked Xona.
She looked up from the weapon she was polishing. “Yeah, why?”
“Thanks.” I jumped down off the bed and pulled some slippers on my feet. I had already failed Max. There must still be time to rescue Markan, and the families of the other glitchers who’d been left behind.
All I could think about was Markan as I walked towards Taylor’s office. I remembered the way I used to tiptoe into his room at night and watch him sleep. That was months ago. He might look very different now. I wondered if his soft cheeks had leaned out and how tall he’d gotten. As I got closer to Taylor’s office, I saw the door was partially open already, and I could hear voices.
“Got the skeleton darn near done, but that don’t mean nothin’ if we don’t have the contents to put in the godlam’d thing.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Henk?” Taylor’s voice was sharp. “Obviously I know that.”
“I got myself cracked puttin’ this together for ya. You promised we could take them down for good. That’s the only reason I risked my position to do this.”
“Your position? That’s right, here on the outer dregs of the Rez we don’t get to eat caviar and drink gin.”
“You know I don’t care about any of that.” Henk’s voice got louder. “I wanna bring the whole thing crumblin’ down on the shunters’ heads, same as you.”
I tiptoed closer to hear better. Henk sounded far different from the joking prankster he’d been when I’d last seen him.
“Then find me another way to get what we need.”
“How am I supposed to do that if I’m watch-listed and on the run? This was your side of the bargain. You said if I designed the thing and brought you a prototype, you’d take care of the rest.”
“Chancellor Bright always seems to be two steps ahead of us.” Taylor grimaced like she’d eaten something rotten. “All we can do now is figure out another way to get what we need. You work things on your end and I’ll work mine.”
“I ain’t got an end anymore, or haven’t you heard a single word I’ve said? I need access, machinery, resources. It’s all gone.”
