Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  They wandered together to the café.

  “What would you like, Ela?” Amon asked.

  “A banana smoothie?”

  Amon nodded. “Two banana smoothies,” he ordered then touched the Com on his wrist against the screen. Two sachets slid down the shoot and lay there cradled in the silver bowl. Amon grabbed one and handed it to her. They waited while Isabelle and Lucan decided what they wanted and ordered it.

  “Are you going to Humicrib this afternoon?” Amon asked.

  Ela nodded. He knew her schedule. She’d never bothered to learn his. “I’m with the Preborns. They’re so sweet.”

  Isabelle and Lucan had finally decided on something orange and unhealthy looking. All four of them wandered off sipping.

  “Do you want to sit somewhere?” asked Isabelle. It looked like most of the seats near the café had already been taken. Kids in blue cloaks sat sucking on sachets, talking and laughing.

  Ela nodded and they all wandered over to the library building and sat on the steps there. The library was just as tall and covered in silver glass as the rest of the buildings in the City.

  She looked at her three friends, all Humicrib babies, and she had to admit they all looked perfect. Isabelle, tiny, curvy, and pretty, Amon tall, blond, good looking and in good shape. Lucan, tall too with a great smile and tawny eyes and hair.

  She was the imposter, almost as tall as Amon and skinny and a Natural. But her friends didn’t know that. Hardly anybody did, and that was the way her mother and grandfather wanted to keep it.

  Amon stretched out on the steps, laying on his side, boots crossed, elbow planted on the tiles, chin on his fist. “You should have taken law Ela, and then you wouldn’t have to be free labour for Humicrib in your afternoons.”

  “I like it.” Ela sipped at her smoothie. “Do you have more lectures today?”

  Amon nodded. “Yeah, Ethics. We’re discussing whether the decrease in the world population has saved the planet.” He rolled his eyes.

  “Has it?” asked Ela. She’d never thought about that. But if nobody had had babies for the last fifty years, of course the population would have decreased. Humicrib cloned and sold millions of babies each year but not enough to replace the old people dying off.

  “It’s stopped global warming. Less people, less carbon emissions.”

  “I guess so,” said Ela.

  Isabelle sucked on her smoothie, then frowned. “It doesn’t sound fair on the people who can’t afford to buy a Humicrib baby. I want a baby sometime, what if I can’t afford one?”

  Lucan touched Isabelle’s hand. “I’ll buy you a beautiful one.” He turned to Amon. “It sounds a boring class.”

  Amon nodded. “It will be. I’ll go to the Velodrome and blow out the cobwebs afterwards, and since Ela can’t go with me, I might as well go early. Do you fancy a few hours of training?”

  Lucan seemed to be considering it then looked at Isabelle. She shook her head and smiled at him. A small secret smile that Ela had seen between those two before.

  “No,” said Lucan. “Izzy and I are going to her place to study.” Ela watched him touch Isabelle’s hand again. Lucan and Isabelle were definitely an item. Once when Isabelle had got hurt Lucan had held her in his arms until the EvacHovers turned up. They didn’t kiss or anything, but sometimes there was that brief touch. Maybe when they went to Izzie’s to study, they weren’t just studying.

  But even though Izzie was her best friend, she couldn’t ask if they made love when they were alone together. Anyway, Izzie would deny it because if it was true, they’d be breaking nearly every law there was.

  Ela looked at her Com, she was running late. She crushed the empty smoothie sachet and stood. “I have to go. It’ll take me a quarter of an hour to get to the hospital, and then I’ll need to get changed.”

  “Don’t ever be late Ela,” said Amon. It sounded like sarcasm. He always acted like this when she had to leave him.

  “I’ll see you after lectures tomorrow,” she said to Izzy. “Enjoy training on your own,” she said to Amon.

  He grinned. “Skip training too often, and you’ll never beat me again,” he said.

  “In your dreams.” As she walked away, she gave him the slow fade. “He gets beaten by a girl sometimes. He should train harder. It’s lucky sometimes he can fit in an extra training without her.”

  She could hear Amon and the others laughing behind her. They were good friends, and it never seemed to occur to them that she wasn’t always telling the truth. What would happen if she said what she was really doing this evening?

  “Well actually,” she’d say. “I’m going to meet up with the City Cell of the Resistance, and we’re planning to put an end to your whole way of life. All this is going to be over soon.”

  Very soon if what Jacob and Nick said was true.

  She hurried to the MonoRail port and took the elevator to the platform. As the glass lift rose silently and effortlessly, she saw the City stretch out in front of her. The SkyTower and the HarbourBridge were all the Administration had left of old Auckland when the Quarantine was first placed over the country. They knocked everything else down and replaced it with Vector’s base on the North Shore, the Hospital where Humicrib cloned the babies, the Administration offices that took up most of the central city and the University a bit further out where the Local kids were housed and forced to donate their genetic material, and on the other side of the City, the University where the Elite kids were educated.

  She couldn’t figure out why the Administration destroyed the old city. She’d seen pictures and it had all sorts of buildings. And outside the City in the Hinterland where Jacob lived the houses were all old and worn but they had soft colours and rounded edges that made them seem more real somehow.

  She stepped out of the lift and onto the platform. Over the harbour bridge there were a few derelict buildings, but here in the centre where the Administration’s offices were built, and Humicrib and the University, everything was new and shiny. In fact, everything matched. All the buildings were covered in the silver glass hiding what was inside, and the entrances and pavements were grey tiles like in the University and stretched out in continuous endless monotony.

  Other students were waiting to be taken to Humicrib. It was part of being accepted at Medical School. They had all agreed to spend their afternoons at the Hospital helping with the babies. She didn’t hate working here. Babies were lovely. Right from when they were tiny foetuses to when they were viable the Preborns were interesting. But she didn’t want to spend her life caring for the cloned babies like her mother did either. She wanted to be a physician and treat adults. Not a paediatrician.

  In the locker room with all the others, she changed into the Intern’s uniform. So different from the flirty clothes everyone usually wore under their cloaks.

  “Do I look all right?” asked Annabelle. She turned to Ela, adjusting the mop cap she’d just pulled on. She was dressed head to toe in a pink outfit that showed she’d be working with the new foetuses.

  “Devastating,” said Ela. She sat and pulled on the fabric booties they had to wear. With the mop cap, the shapeless top and the loose trousers, all pale green for her, they all looked the same. This week she was working with the older Preborns, the ones that were nearly viable and would be adopted out in a few weeks.

  “I know,” said Annabelle and tried to adjust the cap to a better angle. “Thank goodness we only have to wear these things for a few hours a day.” She grinned and went out of the locker room.

  Ela heard her Com ding. A Txt. She opened it, expecting Amon to say something about his training, or whether she’d be able to beat him during tomorrow’s run, instead it was Nick.

  “What time will you be here?” the Txt asked.

  “Around 5.00,” she Txted back. Something must really be up. He didn’t usually check up on her. He knew she had to keep up appearances and couldn’t just disappear whenever she felt like it.

  “Ok,” came back.


  Ela slid the Com into her pocket, stood, straightened her clothes then looked in the mirror. She looked like one of the pale teddies they gave the older Preborns to play with. She mightn’t be interested in clothes the way Isabelle was, but she could see this wasn’t a great look. At least she looked like everyone else.

  She went on the Travellator that would take her to the ward she’d been assigned to.

  Inside the ward rows and rows of cribs similar to giant eggshells were lined up like pieces on a giant chess board. The lines were orderly and stretched as far as she could see. Each eggshell had a perfect forty-week baby in it. At this age, they would grab your finger in their hand and pull it to their mouth or kick their legs and press against your palm if you held it against the soles of their feet.

  She would swear some of them smiled too when she was teaching them how to feed by mouth. Soon their intravenous lines would be removed, and they had to learn to feed before they met their new parents. The textbooks said it couldn't happen, they were too young to smile, but she was sure the textbooks were wrong.

  In one corner of the room near the nurses’ Station, a group of other interns wearing pale green stood clustered around a group of doctors and nurses getting their instructions for the day. She hurried over and joined the rest of the interns just before Professor Bradford started talking. She’d only just made it. She should have left the University sooner because Bradford was one of those Professors who put punctuality ahead of almost everything.

  She slipped into the group between Elsa and Darien. Darien still had traces of makeup around his eyes. When she’d seen him at University earlier, he’d had black wings painted like a mask across his face. He always dressed up, makeup, masks, sequins, he made Isabelle look restrained. He must have been running late too and didn’t have time to get the wings off properly. Still they’d both got away with it this time. Elsa looked at her and gave her a grin and then looked back at Bradford.

  The Professor took a Tablet from one of the assistants standing near him and then studied the group of Interns. “Now today,” he said gravely. “You will be assisting us in assessing this batch for viability. We will be taking each unit through a series of developmental tests to see if they are ready to leave us. If any of the subjects fail any of the tests, they will be scheduled for reassessment in a few days’ time. If they still fail a decision will need to be made about whether they are suitable for adoption.” He nodded at the assistant who had given him the Tablet and the woman started to read off the names of the Interns and assign each one to an assistant.

  What would happen to the babies that failed the developmental testing? Ela knew she should keep her mouth shut; this wasn’t the time to ask that question. In fact, after finishing here she could just go to her mother’s office two floors up and ask her, her mother was the person in charge of this part of Humicrib.

  But she just couldn’t help herself. She raised her hand. “Professor, if the baby fails the developmental testing a second time, what will happen then?”

  The Professor frowned a little. “Ah, Miss Hennessey. Not only do you arrive with no time to spare, but then you interrupt the flow of things. However, to answer your question, I think you must be aware of what happens. Under no circumstances can Humicrib allow defective units to be adopted. They will be eliminated.”

  “Eliminated?” asked Ela shocked. “But surely…” How could they eliminate any of these babies?

  The professor interrupted what she was going to say. “I think this discussion should be scheduled for another time. We have work to do.”

  Ela lowered her hand. Perhaps it would be safer to ask her mother. Eliminated how? She’d find out.

  “Yes, professor,” she said. He couldn’t really mean the babies would be killed. They were babies. But Humicrib had had these babies in their care for nine months, surely if there was anything wrong with any of them, it would have been found by now. This just had to be a final check and there would be nothing to find.

  Chapter 4

  SHE FOLLOWED BEHIND the assistant she was assigned to. The woman ran through a standard spiel. “We have been assigned subjects 20006 to 20106.” She studied her Tablet. “We have one hundred subjects to test, so we’ll need to work quickly. Professor Bradford expects we’ll be finished by the time this shift is over.”

  Ela did a quick calculation. Just over four hours. One hundred babies to test. That was two and a half minutes per baby. They weren’t going to find anything in that time. This was just a formality. The final thing before the babies were signed off as viable. She felt relieved.

  They stopped in front of the first eggshell crib. The baby lay there curled up and sucking its thumb. At least it was awake, so they wouldn’t have to wake it to do whatever they had to do.

  “Have you done viability checks before, Hennessey?” asked the assistant.

  Ela shook her head. She knew the theory. Sucking reflex, grasping reflex, pushing against things with their feet, but she’d never tried to test those things.

  The assistant nodded and looked down at her Tablet again, then up at Ela. “We have ten tests to do. I will tell you each one and you will perform it and tell me whether the subject has passed. Do you understand?

  Ela nodded again. She lifted the top of the eggshell off the first crib.

  “Subject 20006,” she said. The assistant tapped the tablet with her stylus, then read out the first item.

  “Gently stroke the subject’s cheek and tell me if the head turns towards the stroking and the mouth seeks out your finger.”

  That seemed easy enough. She leaned over the cradle.

  “Hey, Baby 20006,” she said gently as she stroked its cheek. The baby turned its head towards the stroking and its little mouth formed an O.

  “Don’t speak to the subject,” said the assistant. “We are testing only one stimulus at a time.”

  “Sorry,” said Ela. She stroked the other cheek and the baby turned that way. “Yes, the response is there.” She felt overwhelming relief. It was only the first baby and the first test, but the baby had passed. This was going to be fine.

  Quickly they worked through the other tests, the baby passed them all and then they moved onto the next subject. Baby after baby got the tests one hundred percent correct.

  They came to subject 20059. They were well over halfway and so far, there had been no anomalies. This was just a formality.

  Then she saw one of the cribs being pushed to another room.

  The assistant watched the intern in pale green pushing the crib. “That’s disappointing,” she said. “Professor Bradford was hoping to achieve one hundred percent viability with this batch.”

  “What will happen to it?” Ela asked again.

  The assistant looked at her for a moment and then said, “Don’t be naïve, Hennessy. Like the professor said, Humicrib can’t afford to release any defective product.” She looked back down at her tablet. “Now for 20059.”

  Ela lifted the lid of the crib. The baby kicked its legs and waved its arms, the feed lines didn’t seem to worry it. As she leaned over the baby turned to look at her and smiled. She was certain it did. She stroked its cheek and the baby’s mouth searched the way it was meant to. She felt relieved again. After seeing that crib moved to the other room this testing took on more significance.

  She went through each test and the wee baby performed beautifully, all the time looking back and smiling at her like this was some game they were playing. If this had just been a normal duty day, she would have talked to him and tickled him, but she didn’t want to annoy the assistant. She didn’t need to be put on report and have to stay back for a lecture about following procedure. She needed to get away quickly when the shift finished, spend a little time talking to her mother so things seemed normal and then go and find Nick.

  She got to the final test. She held her hand against the soles of the baby’s feet and gently pushed against them. The baby didn’t push back the way it should have. She pushed a lit
tle harder, but still no response.

  “Come on, little one,” she said under her breath. Of all the babies she had tested so far, this one had been the most responsive, the most smiley, and then he didn’t do this final thing. She looked at the baby’s face. His eyes were on hers, they seemed to follow her every move, then he gave a quirky little half grin, but he didn’t push back.

  “Is there something wrong, Hennessey?” asked the assistant.

  Ela straightened up and smiled at the woman. “No,” she said. “Everything is perfect.” She moved onto the next baby. Maybe she’d done the wrong thing. Maybe if she reported the lack of that reflex something could have been done to help 20059 but from Professor Bradford’s response to her question, and the assistant’s, she didn’t think that was likely.

  She’d ask her mother when she saw her.

  When Ela’s shift finished, she changed back into her own clothes. She still felt disturbed about 20059. Had she saved his life? Or ruined it? Or just destroyed her own future? What if her lie was found out? And what would happen to an Elite child who didn’t have use of his legs? She’d never seen any Elite who was less than physically perfect. Is this how Humicrib achieved that? They tested for imperfections and eliminated them? How could her mother be involved in something that cruel?

  She took the glass elevator up to the floor where her mother’s office was. When she was younger, her mother worked with the babies, but now her work was mainly administration.