by Shawn Keys
Chianne jumped to quibble with him, “What’s so funny?”
Kyle couldn’t stop it. He had to actually stop from letting out a hopeful chuckle. “Sorry. I’ve just realized that if Soo-Yun has earned this kind of loyalty, she’s definitely the one I want to talk to.” He waved that away. “Look, I’m not here to cause her trouble. Exactly the opposite. I’m the one in trouble. If she’s willing, she’s going to stop me and my other friends from getting in over our heads.”
“You need her as a doctor?” George grouched.
Kyle jotted out, “Yes.” He shook his head. “Not going to say much more than that. The rest is for her ears only.”
Chianne sniped, “Convenient!”
“For your own safety!” Kyle fired back. “Look, do you trust her or not? This is her turf. I’m here to talk, not fight. If you know what she has been through, then we both know she’s tough enough to handle a hard conversation. Thinking any less of her… well, that would be the insult. Tell me where she is. Please. It’s important, and time is ticking.”
George glanced at Chianne. The angry woman gave a tight shake of her head, but there wasn’t a lot of heart behind it. George’s mouth worked like he was chewing on those words and barely handling the taste. He might have spit if the floors weren’t recently cleaned by one of his own workers. “Seems you know her, after all.”
“Her worst enemy could say the same!” Chianne barked.
George tried to calm her again. “Oh, enough, Chi-chi. He’s right. Are we going to baby her? When has she ever backed down from a fight? Even if he’s here to serve her a summons, she’d want to know rather than have something secret lurking over her head.” He gave Kyle one last glare. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Kyle gave his most genuine smile. “I’m not here to make any enemies.”
Not looking any less hostile, Chianne kept her peace. It was all she was going to give him. George pointed back down the corridor the way he had come. “The clinic she runs is in a convert storage room in the back. She’s back there now, if you want to go see her.”
Kyle looked around, scanning the area. He could hear a couple people banging away in the kitchen, and he heard a few more footsteps in the rooms above their heads on the next floor up. “Can I ask… I mean, do you know why this place means so much to her? Why here?”
“Lily,” George answered. “Heard you say her name. Well, that’s who told Soo-Yun to come our way. She had community service hours to pay off. Not only that, but she hated the halfway house she was in. Only way around that was to find somewhere to live and work that didn’t care who she was. At first, she washed walls and dishes or whatever else we asked her to do. That changed over time. If you know anything about her, then you know what I mean.”
“Yes, Sir, I do.” Kyle glanced around one last time, then shrugged. “Maybe I could pitch in for supper?”
Chianne rocked back on her heels. “Thought you were here to see Soo-Yun?”
“Well, if she cares as much as you say, then she’s going to be focused on helping anyone who comes in here injured over the next few hours. Bet that’s sort of like her triage to catch anyone who’s too proud to admit they’re hurt, right?” He took their silence as confirmation. Made sense to him. He might be too proud if he was in their spot. “Lily cares about this place. So does Soo-Yun. Least I could do is lend a few hours of my time. I’ll talk to her after, once things calm down for the night.”
George was struck by the offer, and a smile came to his lips in spite of any effort to hold on to his grouchiness. “Well, that’s a fine offer, son. Never turn down a pair of hands, I’ve always said.”
Chianne looked caught between the ever-present need for volunteers and knowing… knowing that this might be a great trick to earn a bit of trust. Her stoic distrust lost the battle, even if it didn’t concede the whole war. There was no sign of her liking Kyle, but a morsel of grudging respect ate into her scowl. “Fine.” She jerked her head toward the tables. “Haven’t had a chance to wipe them down, yet. Was just on my way out when you stepped in to waste my time.” She tossed him a wet rag, then kicked a bucket near the door into the kitchen filled with soapy water. “Start there.”
The cheeky part of Kyle wanted to demand that she say please, but he wasn’t that stupid. He wasn’t scared of her, or anything. But scoring a few points with her was going to make this all a lot easier, and it would be an idiotic move to cost himself those same points by flipping his mouth off. “Sure. My pleasure.”
Chianne huffed. “We’ll see how long those manners last. Ever serve in a place like this, Kyle?”
“No, Ma’am. Can’t say I have.”
“Yeah, well, you’re about to see a whole buffet of humans at their worst. Some mean well. Some have forgotten what that even means. Some would puke in your shoes as soon as look at ya. I’m betting you’re running for the hills before the hour’s out.”
Kyle didn’t say a thing. Words were only words, after all. When he proved people wrong, he much preferred action. He’d been proving people wrong all his life. It felt good. This time around, it might even feel good for more than one reason. “I’ll do what I can to prove you wrong, if that’s fine by you.”
Chianne snorted. “We’ll see.” She stomped off.
George shook his head. “Should have taken the pass I gave you. Might not have gotten a lot of time with her, but it would have been easy and done. You know that if you mess up, Chianne will run your ass out of here, right? You won’t see so much as one of Soo-Yun’s ankles.”
Kyle shrugged. “Sometimes, the way through isn’t the easy one. Been learning that lesson a lot, lately. Figured I might as well embrace it.”
George gave a final laugh, then wandered off to his own work. “Good luck. And whatever else Chianne says… thanks. Honestly, in the end… any pair of hands really does help.”
Kyle gave him a last, friendly wave. Then, he eyed the two dozen tables still stained from the mess of the last meal, half-congealed from the hours they had sat without being cleaned. Giving a long sigh, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
* * *
“Ahh, there you are. Every time I think I have a second to come find you, Chianne has found another chore for me to do between patients,” a woman said from behind Kyle. “You’re Kyle, right? George told me.”
Kyle’s hands were halfway up to his elbows in steamy dishwater, a scrub brush in one hand and a pot needing a good scouring in the other. He was a little surprised to hear anyone at all. He had unplugged his earpiece and stuck it in his pocket during the dinner, having nearly lost it a few times. He wasn’t quite used to wearing it, or maybe it was a little loose.
Hearing Soo-Yun come looking for him now made sense. The cynical part of his brain decided it was the exact moment Chianne would finally let her come into range of him, with his hands partly trapped in scalding water. What, does she think I’m going to just grab her and run off with her? It was such a blatant yet miscalculated attempt at keeping their friend safe, once again Kyle was struck by far the staff of this place were willing to go for her.
The voice that spoke to him was intriguing. He had never heard a Korean accent before, with all the ‘L’ sounds blurred and rolled into soft ‘R’s, though he knew that must be what he was hearing based on Soo-Yun’s name. Beyond the accent, there was a fascinating mixture of sharp, skeptical wit wrapped around a core of professional concern for others that went bone-deep. He was reminded of Lily; she had that same, innate caring, though her personality mixed that with a spritely cheerfulness that never wavered, even she had every right to be grumpy.
“Yeah, that’s me. Kyle Hutchings. Soo-Yun Jin?” He was about to crane his neck to see the woman who matched the voice, but Soo-Yun didn’t make him strain. A woman who he guessed was just shy of thirty wandered into view, leaning against the counter next to him which he had just emptied of dishes.
She made no secret of sizing him up and down; he had removed his coat during his
work in the hot kitchen, and his simple cotton t-shirt was tight enough to show off the hidden strength concealed inside his deceptively compact, corded muscles. He had put on a little more weight while living up at the chalet. He had been teaching Chloe, Laura and Lily jiu jutsu whenever they had a chance for a lesson, but typical days involved more heavy lifting, wood clearing and chopping, and other chores that tended to build blockier styles of strength. He had never been good at putting on that kind of bulk, but there was a difference that the women at the cottage seemed to find impressive and enjoyable. He knew the rest of him wouldn’t inspire her; he had dressed to be non-descript, after all. The pistol he had with him was still floating under his jeans with the shirt flipped over it. He hadn’t intended to do manual labor when he had first shown up, but he wasn’t about to leave it laying around anywhere. So far, he had managed to keep it generally out of sight and under his coat.
Since she wasn’t being shy, he inspected her right back. He had to admit, she wasn’t what he had been expecting. Her pearl-cream skin with a faint undertone of jade was a beautiful variation on Asian tones. Her complexion was emphasized by her bold choice to dye her long hair into a deep, sea-green and teased into a wavy sort of near-curl. It made her seem like a mermaid risen from the waves who had decided to walk on land for a time.
She was dressed in a strapped, sleeveless, black blouse that floated loosely enough to hide some of the details, though he got the impression of petite breasts and a trim waist. She was shorter than him by a few inches, though not as tiny as Lily or Dazz. Her choice of blouse didn’t conceal at all her smoothly sculpted arms. Her sleek biceps, triceps and forearms had a little definition, strong like whips layered over with almost contradictory, deceptively soft, feminine skin. Knowing a little of her past, Kyle imagined her being hammered into something hard and resilient while in prison, only to rediscover the silken side of her personality once back on the outside. That hidden part of her wasn’t lost, but maybe buried under a thin mask for her own peace of mind. Her veneer of culture was capped by a heady perfume of sandalwood mixed with a floral scent that Kyle guessed was lotus blossom, given that it was a translation of her name. It suited her, so he decided she must have embraced the connection rather than fighting it.
Her night-black eyes finished roaming over him. Deciding he was mostly harmless, she used her hands as props to pop herself up on the counter, folding her equally toned legs emerging from her white-denim shorts and ending in black sneakers that looked comfortable for walking around in all day. Every detail drove home her chill practical side layered over by her gentler side.
Perched on the counter, Soo-Yun leaned against the wall, finally affirming her name. “Yeah, that’s me.” She challenged him, “Came a long way to talk, hmm? Lily was down in Lionsgate, last time I heard.”
Kyle rolled his shoulders, easing a little soreness that had settled in. “Further than you think. We’ve moved to a more private sort of place. Had to do it.”
“Oh?” It was a cautious question, sensing they were dancing around the issue.
Kyle shrugged, weighing his options. Eventually, she would know all their secrets. Lily had vouched for her, so he wasn’t worried about that. But there was a line. Over that line, the dark-FDPC types might decide she was a loose end that needed to be snipped off if things went badly. Over that line, Soo-Yun might decide their cause was worth it and the would be past the point of no-return for her. He couldn’t go over that line without feeling sure about this. “Do you watch the news?”
Soo-Yun let out a quick spurt of mocking laughter, then waved around. “See a lot of televisions in here?”
Kyle remembered something Megan had once told him. “I was reminded that news comes in more than one format. No phone?”
Soo-Yun returned a sad smile. “Been a while since I had the money for that sort of thing. I’m afraid the outside world doesn’t have a lot in the way of interest for me recently.”
Kyle couldn’t resist a touch of honest curiosity. “But, isn’t there a law or something about all women having access to… you know… ‘the app’? I don’t know what the percentage of people without phones is in the country, but I can’t see the FDPC letting that many possible connections go.”
Soo-Yun found a small, wry grin. “Sounds like the sort of answer you could find on your phone.”
Kyle laughed. “Don’t have mine on me.”
“Breaking all the percentages, aren’t we?” She sighed. “Well, I already know. My parole officer told me all sorts of stats as he was changing out my implant on my first check-in after leaving prison. Lily told you…?”
“Not the whole story,” Kyle elaborated. “Don’t think she wanted to give away your secrets.”
Soo-Yun smirked. “Just enough to get you interested in meeting a screwed-up rebel like me?”
Kyle tried to smooth over the biting humor. “We might have more in common than you know.”
Soo-Yun considered that idea and him more carefully for a few seconds. Then, she said, “Well, the number hovers around 2-3%, apparently. People who don’t have phones, I mean. Males don’t matter since all fertile males broadcast from their implants. That leaves 1-2% of the population on the female side who would be horribly unaware of all the possible stud males walking by them. And you’re right, there is no way the FDPC would allow that.”
She fished a small device out of her shorts’ left pocket. It had a white case and looked exactly like a typical cellphone except for being about half the normal size. The LCD screen came alive as it recognized she was holding it. An FDPC fertile-finder display showed the hospice, as well as several buildings around them. It had auto-zoomed outward to find the nearest viable male mate, who happened to be about five blocks away walking west. “They issued me this.” She shook her head, her humor draining away. “This is it’s only capability. Has to be within ten yards of my implant at all times. Part of my parole conditions. They don’t want me ignoring it, you see.”
For most of his life, Kyle had thought the FDPC’s efforts made sense. That they were even necessary. Lately, it wasn’t only the shadow element that was starting to make him wonder how far things had gone wrong. Chloe had been kicked out of school because she hadn’t hooked up with some guy to spit out a ‘baseline-worthy’ baby. Lily couldn’t advance her career because she couldn’t have kids. Kyle took a guess, “Does your parole get easier if you have a child?”
Soo-Yun flicked a wink at him. “Now you’re catching on. If I had a child… parole? What parole? I didn’t do a violent crime. Full pardon. Clean sheet. Not to mention a $100,000 bonus upon successful delivery. I’d heard of blood money in the past, but this was on another level. If I wasn’t so pissed off at how the system for what it has done to people…” She faded off, looking a little ashamed at how close she had come to selling out on her own beliefs to get that sort of relief.
Kyle whistled. “Everyone gets that?”
She looked a little confused. “I don’t think so. A lot of the women in jail heard from people who had left. The deals seem to change, depending on who it is.”
Unable to help himself as his thoughts shifted, Kyle’s eyes traced along the lean, gorgeous legs crossed in front of him. Soo-Yun’s green-dyed hair was an odd choice, but it wasn’t a shade that was meant to startle anyone. It emphasized her natural coloring to wonderful effect, turning her into a siren taking on human form for a time. “What if I told you I know why certain women are chosen?”
She blinked in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“It’s why I’m here, though I didn’t know how to get into it all.” He gestured at her. “You’re the doctor. You know more about genetics than I do. Answer me this. Let’s say you have a small, select group of fertile males. For argument’s sake, let’s say you are sure that almost all of those males have been selected based on certain standards. Call it a ‘baseline’, if you will. Every once in a while, you have an anomaly creep up, but you do what you can to make sure those don’ stay aro
und for long. Now, you also have a wide population of potential female partners. How would you go about making sure all the resultant children end up meeting that same baseline?”
Soo-Yun looked properly disturbed by the idea. “Wow. That’s insanely creepy. You’re talking about selective genetic advancement. Some call it eugenics. I wasn’t trying to suggest anything that weird.”
Kyle met her eyes, “And what if I’m saying that someone else already has?”
“Excuse me?”
“Answer my question, Soo-Yun. You have a group of selected males. You want those selected genes to spread. But the available female in the population come from an unselected populace. How would you try to keep your new standard from being reduced?”
Struggling with the dark ideas, Soo-Yun suggested awkwardly, “Well, genetics aren’t that simple. There are latencies. Dormant genes. You can’t guarantee –”
Kyle jumped in, “– I know, believe me. I have a huge, massive reason that I know that for sure. But we aren’t talking about needing perfect results. We’re talking about a trend. We’re talking about getting close, and then using pruning shears to lop off anything that doesn’t grow right.”
The idea made her balk again. “That’s horrible!”
“Damn straight it is. Lily, me and the others with us have been running through this sort of thing the last few months. We’ve been trying to figure out all the horrible things that might happen. Know what we came up with?”
Soo-Yun’s medical training helped as she ticked off a few immediate thoughts. “Assuming you can’t just forcefully hand-select them? Well, you would encourage certain elements to pursue having children. Women who express physical capability, intellect and creativity.”
Kyle ticked off his own list, “Athlete scholarships, college tuitions and artistic grants.” He gestured with his chin at her, since his hands were still stuck in the water. “And if someone who is attractive, smart, and resilient wanders off society’s chosen path, who are they going to encourage to get back into the mix? Hate to say this, Soo-Yun, because it is the most back-handed compliment in history, but they took one look at you and gave you the full-meal deal.”
