“The alarm works fine. We’re simply running a systems check to ensure that everything is functioning as it should.”
“Sounds like Neville’s worried they’re going to find something wrong. Like a memory-reading machine, for example.”
As I’d expected, he had nothing to say to that. I knew he’d never admit out loud that Neville had been keeping secrets. I took another mouthful of the bland bar and retreated into silence, thinking about the Inspectorate and wondering if I could find a way to tell them about the machine.
The creation of the Inspectorate had been the first major victory the reform movement had achieved. Pro-Illegal groups like Friends of Detainees, together with concerned Citizens throughout Gull City and its associated towns, had put so much pressure on the government over detainee treatment that they’d appointed an independent Citizens’ committee to inspect detention centers. Problem was, although both the current Inspectorate members were known to be sympathetic to Illegals, they were required to announce their visits well in advance. This particular inspection had been scheduled for weeks, which meant Neville would have already worked out how to hide what he didn’t want seen.
Only I know something he doesn’t. I knew that two days from now, on the same day the Inspectorate would be here, an Illegal with a ridiculous alias would launch an attack. Unfortunately, the Serpent wasn’t attacking the center itself. He was aiming for something in the mountainous terrain that bordered it on two sides. The Tribe had known for a while that something was happening in the Steeps, because enforcers kept going out there, even though there was nothing for them to patrol except rocks. The Serpent had refused to share information with us, though, so I had no idea what he was attacking. But if the Serpent was going to use his reality-bending ability — however that worked — or if there was any kind of explosion, people might be able to see the attack from the center. It would be a good distraction, if I could find a way to take advantage of it.
Connor’s voice broke into my busy thoughts. “Ashala? You need to finish the bar.”
My lack of enthusiasm must have shown on my face, because he added, “Once you’ve eaten it, we can go outside for exercise.”
“Exercise?”
“You are to receive half an hour of exercise every day.”
“I didn’t get half an hour yesterday.”
“Yesterday you were a patient in the hospital. Today you are a prisoner in the cells.”
Rules. The government loved its rules. Although I couldn’t complain this time since they were working in my favor. I’d barely been outside since I’d come here, and it would be useful to get an idea of the center’s layout. I polished off the bar and rose, only to find myself standing not more than two paces away from Connor. I almost sat down again, wanting to escape the unwelcome proximity — or, rather, wanting to escape the fact that it wasn’t as unwelcome as it should be. But before I could do anything, he turned and strode out the door.
I followed, making sure to keep some distance between us as we began to walk down yet another white corridor. My thoughts drifted back to Friday. I seemed to have a lot of small pieces of information, which altogether might add up to a big opportunity. The Inspectorate, the Serpent, the fire alarm. Something was stirring in my mind. Something that was almost a plan.
And I didn’t know why, but I had a weird feeling that I’d thought of all this before.
This is very odd.
I was sitting on a bench, looking out over, of all things, a park. Stretching out in front of me was a grassy oval with spindly young trees, gleaming composite benches, and a whole lot of shiny play equipment at the far end. If it wasn’t for the high wire fence around it, and the rest of the center beyond that, I could have been in any park, anywhere. It was all so strange that I felt slightly dizzy.
There were saurs screeching in the distance, loud enough that some of them must still be in the part of the grasslands that was nearest to the front of the center. The lizards had apparently decided the large number of staff moving into this place constituted a potential threat to their territory, and they’d been stalking about for weeks now. The direction of their screeches let me know roughly which way the main gates were, but other than that, I had no better idea of the center’s layout than before. My sense of direction was usually pretty good, except every time I’d thought I glimpsed a pattern to how the structures were set out, it slipped away, as if the knowledge wouldn’t stick in my head. All I could say for certain was that there were lots of buildings, far more than seemed necessary for a detention center. It was making me suspicious that Neville had plans for this place I hadn’t begun to fathom.
There was a sudden flurry of movement from outside the fence, and I sat up, surveying one of the rows of house-like buildings that bordered the park. Doors were opening, and four beige-robed administrators were coming out, followed by a bunch of children in white clothes and collars. The detainees! I shot to my feet. Connor, who was standing guard a few paces away, gave me a warning glance. I sat back down again, almost twitching with the effort of keeping still as the administrators guided their tiny charges through a gate at the other end of the park. Sixteen children in total, and none of them seemed older than ten. There’d be a lot more to come, too, if the Inspectorate decided that everything in this place was functioning as it was supposed to.
The administrators sat down on a couple of benches, smiling and chatting. They didn’t appear to be paying much attention to the detainees, which I supposed was no surprise since the whole park was one giant cage. It was nice to see the kids running around and to hear them giggling and yelling. Then I realized that one of them was watching me. A thin, spiky-haired boy who was perched on the top of a climbing structure like a big lizard in a tree. My heart flipped over. Jaz? Except of course it wasn’t him, just a kid who vaguely resembled my lost Firestarter. This boy had a longer, leaner body, his hair was inky black instead of brown, and something about the stillness of his stance and the tilt of his head reminded me of the saurs. He has to be a Scaly. For some reason, animal-speakers often start to resemble the animals they communicate with. The boy raised his arm to chest height and moved his hand in a quick serpentine motion.
My mouth fell open. That looked like . . . a snake! Could it have something to do with the Serpent? Could the boy know what was going to happen on Friday? I didn’t see how, though. Perhaps all he was trying to do was to tell me of his ability by making some sort of reptile sign.
He seemed to be waiting for a response to his signal. I checked to make sure Connor wasn’t looking, then hastily made the same snake sign back. It was all I could think of to do to let him know he had a friend in me, and it seemed to satisfy him. He nodded and tipped his head toward the other detainees. Puzzled, I followed the direction of his stare. What is he trying to show me now? It was just a bunch of children playing silly games — three girls running around with their arms flapping like wings, a boy jumping up and down in one spot, another boy and a girl speeding across the playground. I almost gasped out loud when it dawned on me what they were doing. They’re telling me their abilities. Three Chirpers. One Rumbler. And two Runners.
Concentrating, I studied each detainee until I’d figured it all out. Three Chirpers, one Rumbler, two Runners, four Growlers, three Leafers, one Waterbaby, and one Pounder. Plus the Scaly boy. I turned away, hoping they’d realize I’d gotten the message. I was so impressed by them that it was hard to keep the smile off my face. They might be detainees on the outside, but on the inside, every one of them was thinking like a free person. These kids were Tribe in their hearts. And if there was any kind of confusion on Friday, we might be able to help one another.
An entire scenario began to form in my mind. If we could make it to the main gates, the only thing between us and the grasslands was a long stretch of gravelly earth. Unfortunately, the saurs had a very keen sense of borders, so unless someone was stupid enough to provoke them, they wouldn’t help us by crossing onto the gravel. But if
we could make it to the grass . . . The big lizards knew my scent, and I should be able to get them to understand that the children weren’t a danger. Anyone who tried to come after us wouldn’t be treated so nicely.
I was trying to think of a way to communicate all of that to the Scaly boy when, from somewhere to my right, someone called, “Justin!”
I jumped. A lanky, pale-haired enforcer was approaching from the outside of the park, waving at Connor. He didn’t look more than a year older than I was, which meant he’d probably graduated from enforcer training only a few months ago. His thin, earnest face was set in an expression of extreme seriousness, and when he stopped on the other side of the fence, he was standing so straight and still that I was surprised he didn’t strain something. He cleared his throat and asked, “Can I have a word, Justin?”
“Stay here,” Connor told me before striding over to the other enforcer. The two of them began discussing something in voices too low for me to overhear, and I shifted my attention back to the boy, only to find that he wasn’t on the climbing structure anymore. Worried, I searched for him, and spotted him mingling with the other children. The kids suddenly scattered, making a tremendous noise as they chased one another around the park, and the boy began to meander in my direction. The idiot! Connor was standing with his back to me, but he was half facing the children. Even if the administrators were distracted by what the other children were doing, he’d notice the kid for sure. I shook my head furiously, gesturing to Connor. The boy shrugged, plainly unimpressed, and kept coming. He was getting closer and closer, and I was growing steadily more frantic. Then he stumbled abruptly to a halt, his eyes wide, and ran back into the noisy crowd of children.
From behind me, someone whispered, “Ash!”
Twisting around, I found a petite, hazel-eyed girl staring at me through the wire of the fence. She had short blond hair and freckled skin and was wearing a collar and detainee uniform. It couldn’t be. Except it was. “Briony?”
“Hey, Ash.”
I glanced at Connor. He was deep in conversation, and still turned toward the kids. Moving as surreptitiously as I could, I crossed the short space to the fence. I pressed my brown hands to Briony’s pale ones through the cold wire and scanned her face. She seemed okay, but knowing her, she had no idea how much trouble she was in.
“What happened, Bry? How did they catch you?”
Words rushed out of her in a typical Briony-like fashion. “When you didn’t come back, Ember sent Daniel to Cambergull, and everyone there was talking about how you’d been caught and probably killed! I said we should go to the center and try to find out whether you were okay, but Ember said it was far too dangerous. So I pretended I agreed with her, because there’s no arguing with Ember, and then I snuck away to find you on my own.”
“You shouldn’t have done it, Bry!”
“I was worried about you, and besides, I didn’t expect to get caught. Then some enforcers found me, and they were carrying those streaker weapons. And I didn’t know if I could outrun a blast from one of those, since I’m nowhere near as fast as Daniel. I thought I’d better give myself up, and here I am.”
She sounded almost cheerful. If I could’ve gotten through the fence, I would have shaken her. “Have they hurt you?”
“Oh, no.” She frowned. “Except they took my stuff.”
That was the last thing she should be worried about, but I knew that however trivial it might seem to me, it wasn’t to her. Briony clung to her things, especially the hiking boots she wore everywhere and the little knife she always carried. They were the last gifts her parents had given her before they sent her away.
“At least you’re okay, Bry.”
“I was frightened at first, but these places aren’t as bad as everyone says, are they? I mean, there’s a park and everything! And I met the Chief Administrator, who was so nice to me.”
“You met Neville Rose?”
She nodded. “He said I might get an Exemption! Even though I’m a Runner, and Runners don’t usually get them. But since my ability’s not very strong, it might be okay.”
She was fizzing with excitement. I wanted to shout at her, “You can’t possibly be that stupid,” but I knew that she could. This was Briony, a girl who lived in a make-believe world where the Citizenship Accords would be repealed any day now and she would be able to go home to her mom and dad. “Bry,” I said carefully, “there’s no way they’ll ever give a Runner an Exemption. He’s going to string you along and try to get information out of you.”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t want anything from me. He wants something from you.”
“Something from me? What?”
“I don’t know. He said it isn’t anything bad — and you’ll give it to him, won’t you? To help me?” She bit her lip. “You don’t blame me for Connor, do you? I thought he was an administrator, and he was a good guy when I knew him as a kid. I’d never have introduced him to you otherwise.”
I squeezed her fingers. “Connor fooled all of us. It’s okay.”
She brightened instantly, as I knew she would. Briony hated people being mad at her. She had to have everyone’s approval. It was why she clashed with Ember, who’d always been impatient with her flightiness. In fact, I was willing to bet she’d come here for no better reason than that Ember told her she shouldn’t.
“Bry, you can’t trust Neville Rose.”
“I know that. I’m not stupid.”
No, she wasn’t, not entirely. Her willful blindness to reality could lead her to do some very silly things, but Bry could be crafty in her own way. As if to prove it, she continued. “What I thought was, we can pretend to be going along with him, to get what we want. We can trick him, you and me together.”
She smiled at me, and I felt sick. This was what Bry did whenever she wanted something — she smiled her extraordinary smile, the one that was like sunlight, all brightness and warmth, and waited for people to respond to it.
I tried to make her understand the threat looming over her. “Listen to me. Neville’s not as harmless as he seems —”
A shout cut across our conversation. “Get away from there!”
Spinning around, I found Connor approaching.
He stalked up to the fence and addressed Briony coldly. “Step back.” She scurried backward, looking lost and uncertain.
I spoke quickly. “It was my fault — everything was my fault.”
The other enforcer hurried to Briony’s side, scowling. “You were supposed to wait at your quarters, Briony. If you cannot be trusted to follow the rules, the privileges the Chief Administrator has given you will be revoked.”
It was a mild rebuke, under the circumstances, but it was delivered in a harsh tone of voice, and Briony wilted. I watched as she started to smile at him and then stopped herself. At least she has that much sense. But it hurt to see her faith in that smile falter.
Connor subjected the other enforcer to an icy stare. “I think you had best escort her to where she is supposed to be, Evan.”
The lanky enforcer took Briony’s arm. I didn’t like the intensity in his dark eyes or the way he seemed so focused on her. I’d bet guarding Briony was the first important job they’d given him, and he was obviously eager to succeed at it. I clutched the fence as he led her away. Bry was never going to survive in here. And Connor, who had used her to get to me, didn’t care. In the end, we’re all just Illegals to him. He would stand by while they did horrible things to Briony, the girl he’d known as a child, in the same emotionless way he’d stood by when they’d done horrible things to me. Except I was a fighter. She wasn’t, and Connor knew it.
Briony and the enforcer dwindled into the distance. She kept glancing back at me, as if I might be able to help her, until she vanished behind one of the white buildings. Connor spoke my name, once, and again. I stayed where I was. Finally, he reached out to touch my shoulder, and that was more than I could stand. I lashed out, my fist driving toward his jaw. He moved at lightning
speed, catching my hand in his, and for a second we stood locked together, our faces centimeters apart.
“Stop,” he hissed. “If nothing else, think of your audience.”
I glared up at him, choking on rage. But he was right about having an audience. The children were watching, their small faces pale and worried. They were much closer than they’d been before, and so were the administrators, who were standing between them and us. I took a deep breath, and another. I didn’t want to get anyone else in trouble on my account today, especially not a kid. Staring bitterly at Connor’s perfect features, I whispered, “I hate you.”
His mouth twisted. “I know.”
He let me go and walked over to the administrators, waving at the kids and speaking sharply. The Scaly boy was standing ahead of the rest, as though he’d been the first one to run toward me. Connor came back, pausing to say something to him. I tensed, but the kid was all right. The moment Connor moved past him, he gave me a toothy grin, and I managed a small smile in return, warmed by his defiance.
It wasn’t until we were leaving, when I was waiting for Connor to open the gate in the fence, that my tired mind put everything together. This wasn’t exercise. It was another part of the interrogation. It was no accident that Briony’s guard had lost track of her or that Connor had lost track of me. Neville had wanted to show me that he had captured a Tribe member. He’d known I would understand the danger she didn’t. I could even guess which of Briony’s memories the machine would find first. It would be the one that hurt her the most, the memory of the day her mom and dad sent her away.
Briony never talked about it, only about how much they must miss her, how glad they’d be to have her back. With Bry, though, you had to listen to what she didn’t say as much as to what she did. From things she’d let slip, I knew that her mom and dad had adored her until she was thirteen. Then they’d discovered she had an ability, and overnight they’d gone from being proud to being ashamed. They’d helped her get out of Gull City after making her promise she would never try to contact them again. Briony had found her way to a group of Illegals hiding in some caves along the coast, and then, when that didn’t work out, to us. I didn’t think those other Illegals had meant to be cruel, but they’d tried to make her understand that she could never go home. They hadn’t seen what I had — that Briony needed to believe in her happy ending or she couldn’t go on. If the machine shattered that faith, it would shatter her.
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe) Page 5
