The Best Place.
Yeah, yeah. The Best Place. But I think she thought it was a real place. She used to get in fights about it. She said it was better than inside and she was going to go there. Some of the little kids believed her.
His voice was so close. Li could almost touch her.
Lady? Wait, Lady?
I’m still here.
It’s good you’re looking for her.
Li stayed where she was, with the phone to her ear so the others wouldn’t know she’d finished the call. Yesterday. She’d missed Matti by one day.
Now what? It made sense that they’d go north. There was nothing south between here and the ocean except the checkpoint in the fence, and if Sumud was willing to take busloads of unsheltered, makecamp wouldn’t have been cleared in the first place. Agency wouldn’t ship unaccompanied minors back west if there was no one there to claim them. She’d asked around when they first got to makecamp and everyone said the same thing. XB Force might but Agency was government and government was still signed up to conventions. That only left north.
Further down the factory, the others were keeping their distance, pretending not to watch her. She turned her back fully. She had never thought she would call this number. Frank only ever asked her about it once, after they’d got to Valiant and he was wearing himself out in Agency queues, searching for ways in that didn’t exist.
You could ask him to sponsor us, he’d said. He might have connections now. He might be happy to do something for you.
As if she would have asked Chris for anything. It had caught her off guard, that Frank still thought this way about people. She told him she’d already searched the Source directory. That either Chris was dead or he didn’t have a phone. Had Frank believed her or had he just decided to let it go? She’d found the number years and years ago – long before she met Frank. Just to know he was still in the world, to place him on the map. Not ever to call. She used to recite it in her head when she was walking or falling asleep, over and over until it had a rhythm. Later, in Nerredin, she gave that up, never thought about him, not really. But when she reached for it now, the number was right there.
She got up as she dialled because she needed to be on her feet for this. While it rang her heartbeat raced ahead of her. Such a small thing she was asking, in the scale of things.
The voice that answered was completely unfamiliar.
She said, Chris?
Yeah.
It’s Li. She waited for him to speak. When he didn’t, she said, Do you know who I am?
Li. Another pause. Right. I guess. I guess I’m surprised that I’m hearing from you. Under the shock, his voice was rearranging itself, setting up lines of defence.
I need to ask you something.
I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Li pushed past his wariness. My daughter and I have been in the makecamp outside Sumud for the last three months.
You have a kid? He sounded confused, like this wasn’t what he’d expected.
Yeah. XB Force just cleared the camp. We got separated. I don’t know where she is now. She heard the news like it was being reported about someone else, someone more careless.
How?
How what?
How did you get separated?
I was. She cleared her throat. I was out of the camp when it happened.
Right. Silence again. A harder, assessing silence. And what is it you think I can do?
Fuck him, what did he think she thought he could do? She took a shaky breath, couldn’t afford to alienate him. Agency took the unaccompanied minors north, she said. I heard there’s another holding up there, somewhere along the XB. A place they keep kids.
Okay.
So, you’re in Fengdu, right? You have a phone. If I give you her status number, can you make some calls, find out where that would be?
Why don’t you make the calls?
It was possible that he didn’t know. She said, I can’t call into those places. They’ll just put me in a queue till my credit runs out. She heard footsteps, turned. Adam was striding down the factory floor towards her.
Look, Li, Chris said. I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong idea about how things work inside. I don’t have any special access to the Population Distribution Agency or anything else.
Bullshit, she thought. Said, You have sheltered status. They’ll tell you things they won’t tell me.
I don’t know what you’ve heard, he said, but the Agency doesn’t have two sets of rules.
Maybe his calls were monitored. She’d heard that happened inside. Adam was in front of her now, lit with indignation, holding out his hand for the phone. She knocked his arm aside. Chris was telling her to log a missing-minor claim.
I don’t have a number they can call me on.
That doesn’t matter. He sounded impatient now, done with it. The Agency doesn’t call. You need to follow the Source procedure and they’ll contact you that way when they have news. Okay? I have to get back to work.
Let me give you her status, she said. In case you change your mind.
I can’t help you, Li. He started to say something else, something placating. She hung up.
One call. Adam’s voice went high. The trade was for one call.
I needed two.
You think you’re the only one trying to find someone? You didn’t even put in for the credit.
He stepped towards her and then froze when she raised the phone above her head and drew her arm back, ready to throw.
You think you can put it back together? They stayed like that for a few seconds and then she thought that this was a waste of time. Dropped it into his hands.
You’re welcome, she said, and walked away from him.
They’d crossed the Gulf in the dark. The man sitting next to them in the
