The Line Book One: Carrier

by Anne Tibbets

  “Tym!” Doc barked.

  He shrugged and turned back to the screens. “What does it matter if she knows?”

  “Know what?” My eyes went back and forth between Doc, who was looking guiltier by the minute, and Tym’s back as he flung boxes of text, maps and motherboard blueprints across the screen wall. When Doc crossed his arms and didn’t answer, I got nervous. “What does he mean, pedigree?”

  Doc looked defeated. “I have relatives high up in Auberge.”

  “So?”

  Tym scoffed. “Real high.”

  “Like, chairman high?”

  Doc dropped his eyes to his feet, so Tym answered. “Almost.”

  “Are you serious?” I was dumbstruck. “Do they know what you’ve been doing? The other girls?”

  Tym piped in. “Not yet they don’t.”

  “Why would you do this? Against your own family?”

  “Look, it’s not like my family owns Auberge,” Doc said defensively. “If we did, I certainly would be taking a more public role in destroying the Line and the many other disgusting Auberge subsidiaries.”

  “What other subsidiaries?”

  He was on a roll and ignored my question. “But I’ve got connections,” he kept on, “and the fact that they don’t know what we’ve been doing has allowed me to get certain information without raising suspicion. If I get caught, this whole operation ends, even if I do get off with a slap on the wrist. So I’d prefer that not happen. The best way to make sure it doesn’t, if security is able to spot Sonya, is to drop her off to disappear and lead the squad cars away. I know these streets pretty well. If I play my cards right, I’ll lose them.”

  “And if you don’t?” I asked.

  Tym’s arm paused in the air and he spun around in his office chair. “We disappear, as best we can.”

  “For how long?”

  Doc’s expression was bleak. “For as long as Auberge is in power.”

  “Or the alien apocalypse—you know, whichever comes first,” Tym said, chuckling to himself and turning back to his screens.

  The inside of my throat had begun to clench. They were willing to give up their entire lives? For me?

  The pressure was overwhelming. “I can’t let you do it. There has to be another way.”

  Doc shook his head. “If there was another way, believe me, we’d be doing it.”

  “It’s our choice, Natalia,” Tym piped in. “Don’t you go worrying about us.”

  “I don’t get it. Why would you do this just for...just for me?”

  I stared directly at Doc, but he appeared at a loss for words.

  I wished I knew what he was thinking.

  “If we could,” Tym said, “we’d do it for all the girls on the Line. But we’ll just deal with you for now. You know what they say? You gotta walk before you run. Personally,” he continued, deftly changing the subject, “I’m surprised the Line is still in business. Not sure how they’re making a profit, what with all the overhead and them charging so little. You should see their financials. Been in the red since it started. Makes me wonder if the Line isn’t some front for something else.”

  This made sense to me and it was a relief to hear someone else give voice to it. “You know, I wondered the same thing when they let me go. Seemed awfully strange.”

  Doc nodded. “We’re working on finding out what happens to the other girls, the ones who are retired but are never seen again.”

  “Rumor has it they’re killed and dumped over the wall,” I said.

  He nodded again. “I’ve heard that too. But I think it’s bigger than that. I think Auberge is sending girls to the outside.”

  “Why? What for?”

  “Haven’t figured that out yet,” Tym said. “But we’re working on it. For now, we’ll just save one girl at a time. Each time one of you gets out, we learn a little bit more.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like Line girls can get pregnant, and Auberge will find an excuse to kick them loose,” Doc said. “Like they let you out to get a replacement when there’s a waiting list of families looking to sell unwanted daughters.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense.”

  My head ached as my suspicions morphed into fear. My mouth tasted bitter at the idea. “You think I was set up?”

  “Either they know we’ve been helping the girls and they set you free to track you to us, or there’s something else,” Tym said.

  “What else could it be?” I dreaded the answer.

  “Not sure yet. Maybe something to do with the babies, maybe not. Did the manager say something to you when he turned you loose? Give you advice on where to go?”

  “It wasn’t the regular manager. It was some other guy with this huge, creepy smile.”

  Doc stiffened.

  Tym turned around in his chair. “Creepy smile?”

  “Yeah. Tall. Brown hair. Teeth out to here. Kept twitching and messing with his tie. A real asshole. He didn’t tell me where to go, just that my contract would expire during my pregnancy, so that’s why they released me early. As I said, the whole thing was suspicious but I didn’t want to press it for fear they’d change their minds.”

  Tym and Doc started shouting and screaming over each other in an outright panic.

  “Holy shit—”

  “No way in hell!”

  “Do you really think they—?”

  “This doesn’t make any sense!”

  “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

  “Tell you what exactly?” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Doc, what are we going to do?”

  “Shh. Shh. I’m thinking!”

  Their panic was infectious. My heart quickened. “Wait! What’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong!”

  This stopped Doc. He shot a look to Tym, who’d gone pale. Doc walked over to me.

  I tried to stay calm, but my blood was pumping so hard I could hear it. What the hell were they saying?

  Doc stood in front of me wringing his hands. “We, uh, we think the Line may have impregnated you on purpose.”

  “Wait. What?” I involuntarily gripped one of the hard drive tables for balance, and it groaned under the pressure.

  “You okay, Naya?” Tym asked.

  “Why would they do that?” I gasped.

  Then, the hot and sticky air in the warehouse weighed on my lungs like anvils. I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Doc noticed and skirted past me to open the door.

  I bolted.

  Outside the air wasn’t much better, but at least it was fresher than inside.

  We stood on the staircase landing just outside the door and I gripped my knees, gulping.

  “Oh my God,” I gasped. “Oh my God!”

  “In and out. In and out. We don’t have time for panic attacks, Naya. You need to calm down.”

  “The babies,” I choked, trying to catch my breath. “You mean they’re not from an appointment?”

  He didn’t answer straight away, but then said, “It’ll be fine. We’ll figure something out. I promise.”

  “Figure what out? You still haven’t explained anything to me!”

  “Okay. Okay. Just... Here. Sit down. Let me think.”

  I sat down on the top step and wiped my face with the back of my gloves.

  Doc sat next to me. His thigh brushed mine and he inched away. “Look, the Line doesn’t usually release girls when their contracts ‘expire.’ That’s just what they tell the public to make them feel better about the place.”

  This didn’t sit well with me, but I fought to understand through my fear. “Then what do they really do?”

  “They usually resell you, or sign you up for another ten-year contract. It’s for life. Your enslavement. There is no release,
not matter what they say publicly. So for them to tell you your pregnancy cancels out the last part of your ten-year contract... That’s just not true. It was a lie. A bad one at that.”

  “I knew it,” I said. “I knew it the moment the asshole said it.”

  Doc swallowed thickly and continued. “They wanted you out. And that means they probably wanted your babies out too. Which means they may have put the babies inside you on purpose.”

  “Wh-Why would they do that?”

  He shook his head. “Maybe it has something to do with the Genesis Project, the genetic mutations you heard about on that news declaration. But without proof, there’s no point in speculating. Whatever it is, it’s nothing we can change. We just have to make the best of a bad situation.”

  I pushed my hair away from my face and tried to think. It was hard to concentrate with so much information rushing through my head.

  I’m a fucking experiment? And the babies too?

  How could this get much worse?

  I slowed my breathing and sighed. But then another realization struck me and my heart throbbed in my ears again. “I was out for a while when I got pulled.”

  “Out?”

  “Knocked out. They hosed me off and gave me a pelvic, which is all normal. But then they had me take some medicine and when I woke up, I was dried off and lying on a bed. With sheets and a pillow.”

  “I take it that’s not standard?”

  “No.”

  “That could have been when they inseminated you.”

  I groaned.

  “Then where’d they take you?”

  “To the manager’s office, but it wasn’t the manager. It was that other guy, and he was asking questions about if I knew my birth name and where my parents were.”

  “To see if they’d have to send you home,” he said.

  “What if it’s true? What if they implanted the babies? Are they even mine?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Oh my God!”

  “Look, so far we don’t have any proof to back up this theory. It’s all guesswork. Let’s not fly off the handle.”

  “You started it!”

  “I’ll give you that. But now, we need to think. Okay. Once we get you settled in North, we’ll run the babies’ DNA and see what turns up. Okay? We’ll start there. It’ll be all right. We’ll figure this out. I promise. Are you okay to go back inside?”

  “I guess, but I don’t understand... What does this mean?”

  “Nothing has changed. We’re still going to erase your prints. We’re still going to give you your new life. You and your babies. We’re just going to have to keep track of you afterward to make sure they don’t come find you. They wanted you and the babies loose for a reason, and until we figure out what that is, we’ll just have to keep tabs. That’s all.”

  That sounded simple enough, but I knew it was far from that. “But they might not even be my babies.”

  “Think of it this way—whether they’re yours or not, do you want them to go back to the Line?”

  My stomach went icy. “No.”

  He nodded as if he agreed. “That settles it then. They’re yours now.”

  “But I’ll be running forever. That’s what you’re telling me. Even after my prints are gone, they’ll always be looking for me. For the babies.”

  “Probably. Yes. Whoever did this will want to find them, and you. Very badly.”

  “As long as Auberge is in power,” I said.

  “Or, like Tym says, the alien apocalypse.” Doc cracked a small grin. His dimple appeared, and I resisted the urge to touch it.

  “Yeah,” I mumbled, looking away from his mouth. “Great.”

  * * *

  Back inside Tym’s room of computer buzz, Tym handed Doc a small black earpiece and slapped him on the back. It wasn’t until Doc turned from Tym and stared at me oddly that I realized this was goodbye.

  “I wish you all the very best,” he said.

  “Oh. Me too. I just... That’s it? But I’ll see you after, right? You’ll be keeping tabs, you said.”

  “Yes,” he said. He added hastily, “Of course.” His eyes left mine and went to the floor.

  “Oh. Okay.” I let it hang in the air, uncertain what I should say. I managed, “Thank you, Doc. For everything.”

  He cleared his throat and suddenly sounded very professional as his green eyes met mine again. “You’ll need to see an obstetrician after you get to North.”

  “Can’t I come back and have you check me?”

  Tym laughed out loud. “You ain’t got the right parts, sweetie.”

  Doc smiled again. “I’m not a medical doctor. I’m a veterinarian.”

  The dog and kitten posters from the clinic—I should have guessed. I’d realized it was a veterinarian’s office, but not that he was a vet. That made me grin. “Does the clinic know?”

  “Why do you think the clinic is free?” Doc laughed a little, but it trailed away and shriveled in the tension. “Anyway, take care.”

  “Yeah. You too.” I stepped forward, as if to hug him, but I couldn’t do it. My arms froze at my sides, and all I could do was offer him my hand, which he shook quickly.

  It seemed like there was more to be said, but he turned away and shoved the earpiece Tym had given him into the canal of his ear. “Can you hear me now?” His voice sounded over a pair of old speakers, plugged into a drive on one of Tym’s tables.

  “Loud and clear, Doc,” Tym said. “Good luck.”

  Doc nodded and breezed past me as he left. He didn’t look back.

  I stared at the door for a moment, caught in what I wanted to say but was unable to voice.

  Don’t go.

  Tym got up to pull out another swivel chair. “Have a seat, Natalia. This is going to take a while.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I was worthless to help, and this drove me crazy.

  Insane.

  I didn’t last long in the chair to which Tym had directed me. I paced back and forth behind him and wrung my hands. On the screens showed empty hallways, air ducts and the exterior of Auberge headquarters.

  Sonya’s breathing came from speakers Tym had synced with her earpiece, so I could hear, but I couldn’t talk back.

  This made it worse.

  They were probably wise to exclude me from the plan, but why torture me by making me watch?

  Useless.

  My hands were clammy inside the leather gloves. Despite taking them off and rubbing my palms on my jeans, they were quickly moistened again once I put the gloves back on.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Sonya appeared in the corner of one of the cameras, at which point Tym started typing feverishly on the keypad in his lap. Sonya still had all her piercings but wore a pair of skin-tight black pants, a similar shirt and carried a tiny backpack slung over her shoulders. And, of course, no shoes. She must have left the bunny slippers at home.

  Tym’s hands swung into the air, and security camera screens flung about like balls in the hands of a juggler. “I’ve got you,” he said. “Loop started. You’re clear in five, four, three, two, go.”

  I tried to keep quiet but failed. “Loop?”

  “Footage of these same passageways from the last time we went in,” Tym explained. “That’s here in these boxes lined in red. I run that on the monitors in the security booths, and they think their air ducts are free and clear while Sonya slips in unnoticed. Meanwhile, what’s in these blue screens is what’s actually happening with our girl. Oh—” His attention was diverted back to the screens. “Bogey at three o’clock, Sonya.”

  In one of the blue screens, Sonya crouched on the cracked cement sidewalk, using a small mechanical screwdriver to unscrew an air grate on the exterior wall of headquart
ers. She left each screw in the grate as she loosened them.

  “How much time do I have?” She had two screws left.

  “Ten, nine, eight...” Tym watched the screens, fumbled around the table in front of him looking for something. He found his glasses on top of his head and flopped them down on his nose. “Seven, six...”

  One screw left.

  I felt bile gathering in the back of my throat but swallowed it down.

  Sonya had the last screw off. She opened the grate, crawled through and closed it behind her.

  “Five, four, three...” Tym said.

  On an adjoining screen, Sonya appeared. Inside the air duct, there was an immediate ninety-degree turn down, and while propping herself up by jamming her bare feet into the metal air duct wall, Sonya was able to use her hands to rummage in her tiny backpack for a battery-operated socket wrench and tighten the backside of the four screws that held the grate from the inside.

  She had two screws left when Tym whispered, “Freeze.”

  In the corner blue screen, a security guard wearing a wool uniform and black boots ambled by the grate. Two screws visibly poked out the opposite side.

  Sonya held her breath. She slid partway down and ducked.

  Tym didn’t speak a word. He waited for the guard to walk by.

  The guard strolled at a leisurely pace, scanning the area around him. Just as he was about to round the corner, one of the protruding screws from the grate fell from the outside and hit the sidewalk with a clink.

  The guard stopped.

  I gasped.

  Tym held up his hands to silence me.

  The guard turned around and checked behind him but failed to notice the loose screw, which had rolled into a crack in the sidewalk.

  After a few seconds, which felt like a million minutes, the guard turned and went back on patrol.

  Tym and Sonya both let out their breath at the same time.