Access Restricted

by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

  “You don’t have to take the test,” Arturo said to her.

  The kit’s screen made a sound. “Ah,” the DNA man said. “The results for you three are in,” he said, meaning Margot, Mira and me.

  “It shouldn’t matter,” I said, suddenly wishing everything wasn’t so complicated. “I just want our family to be together.”

  “The little girl is one-eighth Guatemalan,” the DNA man said.

  “Is that Latino?” Mira asked.

  “Latina,” Arturo corrected. “Or Latinx, if you prefer.”

  Norflo cocked his head, looking at me. I shrugged. The word was new to me, too.

  “No familial match,” the DNA man said to Margot. “Neither you, nor your sister, have parents or siblings here.” Margot showed no concern. Did she know, somehow, that her parents were safe in Portland? “You are Chinese, French and English,” the DNA man went on.

  “No surprises,” Margot said with a yawn.

  “For you,” the DNA man said, looking at me, “I have good news. You have both Mexican and Colombian DNA, and we have found a familial match.”

  “My parents?” I asked hopefully. Saretha moved closer to the screen.

  “It seems likely,” Arturo said, looking at the kit’s screen, too.

  “We have located three close relatives in a refugee camp set up just south of here,” the DNA man explained, pointing at a small map.

  “Three?” Saretha asked, looking as confused as I felt.

  There should only have been two possible matches. “Could the third be an aunt or an uncle? A grandparent?” I asked. I’d never met any, but I would have loved to. The hope of it, like so many other hopes I’d had, was very brief.

  “No. These are first-degree relatives,” the DNA man said. “Parents, full siblings or children. Neither of you has had a child?”

  “No!” Saretha cried, holding her stomach.

  “Who could be the third?” I asked, utterly baffled.

  DNA man shrugged and read from the screen. “Two males and one female, in a refugee camp twenty miles south.”

  Saretha’s eyes widened. “Speth!” she said excitedly. Pins and needles ran down my back. “It has to be Sam!”

  An odd feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes, and Margot grabbed my arm to steady me. I sat back on the bed. I knew for certain that it couldn’t be true. “That’s impossible,” I said, holding back a sob. “We saw him dropped off the bridge.”

  “We didn’t see him hit,” Saretha countered. “We never looked.” Her face filled with anticipation.

  How could he have survived? I began to wonder, then shook the question off. I refused to get my hopes up. Not about this. Both Rogs had tried to fool me into believing he was alive. I couldn’t believe again.

  “Could this be a mistake?” I asked. “Are these tests ever wrong?”

  The DNA man forcefully shook his head. “Almost never.”

  “That isn’t the same as no,” I said, my voice shaking. It was wrong to make Saretha hope this way.

  “It is unlikely,” Arturo said. He could see the turmoil between us and put a hand on each of our shoulders. “This is easily settled. After we meet with the Lawyers tomorrow, we will bring you to your family,” he said. “And you can all be reunited.”

  Vs. Butchers & Rog: $49.98

  The next day, Arturo took us to a government building. There, seated around an enormous table, we recounted all the details we could remember about how Saretha’s identity had been taken. Lawyers and government officials listened intently as I gave them my whole history, telling them about being picked up by Kel and her Placers, and how I’d discovered the fraud the day I went to Carol Amanda Harving’s address and discovered no one was home.

  They seemed to think this case was going to change everything for them. Their enthusiasm and hope was inspiring. Saretha shone in her bright yellow dress, believing every hope they offered. Her smile returned to full wattage, like when she had been happy and thought being Branded was an honor, and paying for words was a privilege.

  “We would like to establish a timeline,” Arturo said. He was careful to mediate and proceed slowly with us. I half wondered if he was afraid we might run.

  “Our records indicate Saretha would have been just over fifteen when Carol Amanda Harving’s first movie came out,” he noted. “Would she have been in contact with any member of the Rog family before then?”

  “The Rogs were the ones who sued us into debt in the first place,” I explained. “That’s why my parents ended up Indentured. But they do that to everyone.”

  “We don’t know how you, specifically, came to the attention of the Rogs. Were you in contact with the general public?” one of the Lawyers asked Saretha.

  “After my Last Day, I worked for Mrs. Nince, at the Nince Boutique,” she said. There was still a bit of a sales lilt in her voice. “I used to model clothes for the customers.”

  I wondered if she could see that what she remembered as happiness was really only her hope that things would someday be better. Hope was what restored her now. I was beginning to feel some optimism, too. The case looked good, to hear the Téjican Lawyers tell it, and when we were done, we were finally going to see our parents.

  And discover the identity of the third person who matched our DNA.

  “This Mrs. Nince—” Arturo started.

  “Mrs. Nince was a horrible woman,” I said quickly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she illegally scanned Saretha while she was changing and sold off the data.”

  “At fifteen?” Arturo’s face scrunched up in disgust. Saretha looked horrified. The idea made me sick as well.

  “There are literally billions of infractions,” one of the Lawyers said, pointing to a dense legal text on a large screen. “Each frame of each movie they exported is potentially subject to a $10,000 fine. And that is just here in Téjico. There are other nations as well. France, in particular, is eager to join the suit, and China, Canada, Romania, Turkey and Vietnam are all looking into participating. It is a strong coalition, and we would be beating the Rogs at their own game.”

  They had even found a few examples of where they had simply used scans of Saretha, right down to her crescent-shaped scar.

  “We have contacted the US government,” another Téjican Lawyer said. “They acknowledge there may be ‘some’ cause for a trial.” She rolled her eyes at the word some. “Our only setback—and I don’t see a way around this—is that the case will need to be tried where the crime was committed. Especially with an alleged murder involved.”

  “Portland,” I breathed. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else. In an hour or two, I would be able to hug my mother for the first time in years. I would be able smell my father’s hair, though I realized with an ache that I’d been small enough to ride on his back, my chin nestled in his hair, the last time we were together.

  “I can’t go back,” I said, my body chilled by fear.

  “Without you, and your family, there is no case at all,” Arturo explained.

  A thin Téjican official was looking over the odds. “Based on our interpretation of the Law, and our computer prediction, we have a 94 percent chance of winning. But only with all of you. They would have to come up with something extraordinary to defeat us in court.”

  This all sounded convincing, but as the official finished speaking, a voice crackled to life, intruding into my thoughts through the implants just below my ear.

  “Speth...” the voice said, though I could barely hear it. My stomach did a slow roll. I shook my head, hoping it would just go away. I’d been afraid this would happen—that Lucretia Rog would somehow be able to reach me through the implants. She must have obtained access to the Téjican WiFi. I put my hands on my neck and pressed at the bumps, vowing to get them removed somehow.

  “Something extraordinary?�
� Saretha asked, sounding fearful. We both knew the Rogs were more than capable of coming up with something astounding and terrible.

  Before any of us could even speculate what that could be, I held up a hand. “Stop,” I said, my joy and optimism draining. “She’s found me.”

  Everyone looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

  “Speth?” the voice said again. The static that came with it made my eyes twitch. I just wanted to get through this. I wanted to see my parents again. “The Rogs are setting a trap,” the voice said.

  That startled me. It wasn’t Lucretia.

  “What is it?” Arturo asked.

  “You can’t win against them in court,” the voice said, like it was doubt personified, sitting on my shoulder. “Especially not up here.” I didn’t want to listen. I’d fought enough. There had to be some way to win.

  “Someone...” I pointed to my neck where it met my ear. “Someone is contacting me.”

  “Speth, it’s Kel,” the voice said. My insides unclenched a little, but I still hesitated. It sounded like Kel, but what if Lucretia Rog had a filter for that? What if she was impersonating Kel to win my trust?

  “Someone has breached the WiFi,” one of the officials confirmed, looking at a Pad. “At address X0562.1.1.” He pointed to me.

  “Shut it down!” Arturo shouted.

  I held up a hand. “Wait.” I didn’t want a voice in my head, but if it was Kel, I needed to hear what she had to say. The room fell utterly silent. Saretha leaned in, putting her ear close to mine.

  “You can’t beat them with the Law,” the voice in my head continued. “They will rewrite the Law.”

  “Who is that?” Saretha murmured, leaning in to hear.

  I pushed her back, away from my neck. “Kel, what was the last thing you told me to do?” I asked the air in front of me.

  “Let yourself be happy.”

  My whole body sagged. It wasn’t Lucretia. But her words were bittersweet—how could I be happy? I had just wanted to see my family, but the specter of Sam’s death cast a shadow on that coming reunion. I wanted to be safe, but I was being asked to return to the most dangerous place I could go. I never wanted to think about the Rogs again, but I had no choice.

  “It’s Kel,” I explained to the room, pointing to the terrible spot beneath my ears. “She says we can’t win this case.” If that’s true, at least I won’t have to return to Portland, I thought.

  “They’d have to produce Carol Amanda Harving herself to beat us,” the lead Lawyer laughed. He clearly found the idea preposterous. A scattering of chuckles followed, but I didn’t laugh with them.

  Arturo tried to reassure me. “Even the Rogs can’t create a living human being to suit their needs.”

  The blood drained from my face as I realized what the Rogs would do next. They had no other choice.

  “If they need to create a living, breathing Carol Amanda Harving to win, that’s exactly what they’ll do,” I said.

  “How?” Arturo asked, struggling to take my concern seriously.

  “Plastic surgery and genetic reengineering,” Kel said in my ear. I repeated the information to the officials.

  “This is what they’re like,” I added. The smirks fell away, gradually replaced by looks of horror.

  Kel made a sickly gasp in my ear. People started talking around me, but I shushed them. I needed to listen. Kel’s voice crackled through the static in my ears again.

  “Speth,” she said, as tentatively as I’d ever heard her. “I need you to remember your training. We have to stay calm.”

  We? When had she ever included herself in such a suggestion? Her voice was agitated. She was struggling.

  “For their Carol Amanda Harving, it looks like they are going to alter the genes inside Sera Croate.”

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  Discussion and argument broke out around the table. I could barely focus on their voices. I couldn’t stop thinking about when our family Lawyer, Arkansas Holt, had suggested we maul Saretha’s face so she didn’t look like Carol Amanda Harving—and he’d actually been looking out for us. What the Rogs would do to Sera was similar, but more diabolical.

  I begged them to help her, but what could the Téjican government do? They had no power to extradite Sera, or even to request her records. Even if they did, they would have found nothing. Kel said they all had been erased. Sera Croate no longer existed, and Carol Amanda Harving was suddenly listed as Indentured to Silas Rog.

  The lead Lawyer insisted the case was still strong. “I do not see how they can get away with such a ruse. The Commander-in-Chief Justice himself will be the Judge. Surely that will count for something.”

  “He’s in their pocket!” I screamed. “They have his picture on their walls, like he’s family!”

  “No one even knows who he is,” Kel reminded me.

  “But the Commander-in-Chief Justice will have to abide by the Law—he is hardwired into it, is he not?”

  “You don’t understand,” I said. “Those Judges are hardwired through their visors so they can control the Law, not so it can control them!”

  “No,” the lead Lawyer contradicted me. “We must presume good faith adjudication of the Law, or we will have no Law between nations at all.”

  There were nods all around the table. How could they be so naive?

  “Not having Laws would be better than the Laws they’ve created,” I protested.

  “You’re describing lawlessness,” Saretha said. Wasn’t she anxious about all this? She seemed far too calm.

  “She is describing anarchy,” one of the Lawyers corrected, looking affronted.

  “Without Law, there would be only chaos,” Arturo said.

  “Is slavery preferable to chaos?” I asked.

  That gave them pause.

  “The Laws just need to change,” Saretha said, as if it was that easy.

  “And who will change them?” I asked, standing up. My legs felt cramped and itchy.

  “Something more radical is needed,” Kel said in my ear.

  “Enough,” I said. “I’m done discussing this. I want to see my parents.” I turned and pushed through the doors, out into the late-afternoon light. Without Arturo’s help, I had no way to actually get to them, but if I couldn’t see them, then at least I could have a moment alone.

  Then I remembered Kel was in my head. I couldn’t be alone.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  A new fear gripped me. “Kel,” I said, “if you can connect to me, what’s to stop Lucretia from doing the same?”

  “She’s not going to do that, Speth. If she connected to you, it would be an easily traceable international crime—this one on the Téjican side of the border. She can’t give them that kind of evidence to work with. Even the Rogs wouldn’t be able to defend that.”

  “Aren’t you breaking the same Law?”

  “Yes. If they want to prosecute me, they can.”

  Arturo came outside looking for me. Clearly, I would have no peace.

  “We will try to expedite the proceedings,” he said, trying to soothe me.

  “What good will that do?” He no longer made me feel calm.

  “The faster we go to trial, the less time they will have to alter your friend.”

  “Kel, what exactly are they going to do to her?” I asked.

  “They have genetic material from you, Saretha and Sam,” Kel said. “They are going to splice it into her DNA.”

  The idea was so sickening that all I could do was scream. It ripped from me, like it had in my dreams, but it didn’t ease the pain. Across the street, in the filigreed light of a protective glass awning, a few people stopped and stared.

  “Why alter her genes?” I cried. “It isn’t enough to change her face?”

  “They will do both,” Kel said. �
�If they isolate the right genes, they can use them to alter her appearance through rapid chromosomal generation and get a better match.”

  “Why Sera? Why not Victoria?” I asked, though I didn’t actually wish this on the girl who helped me escape. “Why not anyone else?”

  I glared back at the people gawking and they awkwardly moved on, mixing in with the others who passed by, unconcerned with me.

  “Victoria isn’t an option,” Kel said quietly. “The process will be agonizing, and they’ll need compliance from whoever they change. I suspect they have offered Sera a movie star’s lifestyle in exchange for putting her old life behind her.”

  That wouldn’t be a hard choice for Sera to make. Silas Rog had offered it to my sister, and I knew she had been tempted.

  “If they would really dare to genetically alter your friend,” Arturo offered, “it will take time—weeks or months. If we move fast, they won’t have an opportunity.”

  “They will move faster, at the expense of her health, but he is right. The sooner you can get the trial set up, the better.”

  “The trial they will win,” I said, my voice hollow. “You said so yourself, Kel.”

  Arturo moved to respond, but then thought better of intruding. He could only hear my half of the conversation.

  “They’re pouring resources into stopping you,” Kel replied. “They’re afraid of you. That is a remarkable accomplishment. They’re massing troops in every tunnel and on every road in the nation to prevent you from making it to the courthouse. And they’re retaking Portland in case you make it that far, so they can trap you there.”

  “So we’ll be dead before the trial even begins?” I exclaimed. “How is that useful?”

  Arturo looked worried.

  “If you can find safe passage to the courthouse, they will be forced to have the trial. The Commander-in-Chief Justice will have to preside and rewrite the Laws from there.”

  “This all sounds terrible,” I said. “Even if we make it, we’ll still lose.”

  A family walked by, a dog on a leash. They all seemed quite happy, but the dog was restricted and straining by the neck to get at a colorful bed of flowers she desperately wanted to smell. I understood how she felt.