On top of what was included in the basic job description, the staff could give her and the other cypher girl every task that the “real” secretaries, the ones with a name and social security number, didn’t want. At least, she was spending her workdays inside, heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer. She got to keep her clothes on. The OA officer had a point: Other people got it worse.
Ami gave a wry grin to her reflection in the computer monitor. At least she still got to fantasize about a woman who looked rather stunning in a uniform, even if she was IdA. Her life could be so much worse…
She wouldn’t take a break today, but after a few more hours, Ami realized she had to walk a few steps before sleep would take her over. Her fingers on the keyboard were slowing down by the minute. Walking to the break room and back one time would do the trick, she hoped. Ami had closed the door behind her when it opened again, and a couple of the secretaries stepped in.
“Hey, 51308,” one of them said. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
Ami froze, scolding herself for her reaction. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She wished it had been the other cypher instead. They never talked, but at least Ami knew the woman didn’t hate her like her other co-workers did. She tried to explain.
“I just—” Ami broke off when Mary and her pal Peggy started to giggle. She was allowed to use the break room, even though that rule was effectively useless. She couldn’t afford to get anything from the vending machine. Peggy had no such problems. She turned to Ami, coffee in hand, some creamy latte-type concoction. It smelled so good Ami felt lightheaded.
“Would you like some of this?” the secretary asked sweetly.
“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I have to go back to work…” Her ramblings sounded as panicked as Ami felt, even before the situation deteriorated.
“Oops,” Peggy said as she poured the coffee down the front of Ami’s blouse. “Sorry. That was an accident.”
Mary was laughing. No surprise, this was a great joke to the regular staff. Picking on cyphers came with no consequences. “Oh Peg, look at you! You are so clumsy! What are we gonna do with the poor girl? She can’t go home to change. Maybe we should lend her a shirt…oh, wait, we can’t.”
She was right about that. All of Ami’s clothes had to be black or white, with the required 51308 clearly visible.
“If looks could kill,” Peggy chuckled. “Don’t think about it, 51something. Whatever. You’ll get your ass kicked out of here, and the folks at the OA will find you something a lot less enjoyable. Remember that.”
Ami stood motionless, forcing back the tears that were burning behind her eyes, uncomfortably aware of the big stain making the fabric stick to her skin.
“Oh, and 51-something, why don’t you clean up this mess first?”
She had no choice but to comply and tackle the sticky mess with paper towels, more precious minutes off her time that she’d need to add tonight. When Ami walked back to her place, she held her head up high and her back straight, ignoring the looks she knew were following her. She had to look ridiculous, but she couldn’t waste another minute. She needed to get a few hours of sleep tonight, or becoming crazy would be a real prospect. People could become delusional from a lack of sleep. Ami knew she was almost there.
She missed the last bus, walking home in the rain. There were stories about how it wasn’t safe to be outside in this area, at this time of night, especially for women. Ami wasn’t scared. The only people she encountered were others like her, coming from work or going there. She walked past a couple of girls who were shivering in their short skirts and ridiculously high-heeled sandals. They were dressed in black and white, like Ami. The men who came to see them would rather be caught dead than have their names revealed and dealing with the IdA. They hardly caused any problems, but when they did, it was almost unequivocally a cypher that paid the price. This could be her future.
It was late, again, when she arrived home. Ami was overcome with the longing for an extensive hot bath, but Cypher units came with a tiny shower stall only. She had heard that there were protests forming among some citizens of the City. Radical politicians had promised further budget cuts, arguing that cyphers were freeloading off the government’s generosity, having all their needs taken care of, so they didn’t need to have individual showers. Ami shuddered at the thought of a community bathroom.
She stayed in the shower until the warm water ran out and then prepared a quick dinner for herself, pasta with a simple tomato sauce. While the water was heating, she powered up her laptop, finding the expected email. Ami frowned at the content of the surveillance request. She didn’t have a car. How did they expect her to pull this off and still fulfill her obligations with ShelTech?
Too bad they hadn’t asked her to spy on Peggy or Mary. Ami thought she might have enjoyed that. Surveillance subjects were mostly, but not always, cyphers. The new subject wasn’t, and her file came with a note that said “High priority”.
She read the file twice, staring at the picture that had come with it. All day, she’d been looking forward to finally be home and eat, but her appetite had vanished. This was going to be complicated, and what if she failed? Ami thought with dread about the report she’d emailed earlier. Sooner or later, they’d find out that she was forging them. That would be the end of all of her careful planning.
* * * *
Ami avoided the break room the next day. After another bad night with once again little sleep and vague nightmares, she preferred being cramped in her cubicle all day to having another run-in with the secretaries. If only she wasn’t so tired…
“Hey! You! 51-something!”
Ami jumped. “Yes!” What was the woman yelling about? She had only closed her eyes for about a second and…She turned around to find a furious Mary right in her face.
“Are you stupid? Falling asleep on the job? Oh, I knew that was going to happen when they hire your kind. Taking away the jobs from the real people and then screwing up everything—”
“Mary. It’s okay, I’ll handle it.”
The secretary turned beet red at the sound of Adam Shelton’s voice. He was the owner of ShelTech, someone they didn’t see often down here. Ami wished everyone would leave her alone for a good twelve hours, let her catch up on the sleep she’d lost despairing over reports and her future. Somewhere at the back of her mind the thought was forming that she could be in real trouble.
“51308?” Shelton asked, his tone quiet and friendly. She relaxed a little. “Would you please come with me to my office?”
“I didn’t sleep,” Ami said with a quick look at Mary who could barely hide her glee. “You have to believe me!”
“We’ll talk about it. Don’t worry, the time will not go off your hours. I’ll tag it as a meeting. Please, follow me.”
Ami got up from her place. At least this wasn’t the day Peggy had poured the coffee all over her. She couldn’t bring herself to feel grateful. Again, all eyes were on her as she followed Mr. Shelton all the way through the room, into the hall and the elevator.
In the confined space, she averted her eyes, carefully putting as much distance between them as possible. Much to his credit, he didn’t try to make small talk. There were employers who tried a lot more with cyphers, and usually, they got away with it.
Ami remembered having been on the top floor when she’d been sent to the job interview. The blue carpets were very different from the worn grey ones in her work space, furniture and decoration new and shiny. If she could work her way up to chief secretary with a name, she would be able to work here too. It was something to consider. Her old dreams didn’t have much meaning any longer. What Ami hoped for was to make enough at some point so she could never slide this far down the ladder.
Mr. Shelton took the key card out of his breast pocket when they reached his office door, but he hesitated.
“Before we go in there, I wanted to tell you that I’ve always been satisfied with your work, and I wish I was able to
pay you more.”
“Thanks, but why am I here?”
“I’m sorry, 51308.” His expression was genuinely apologetic. He said the numbers quickly as if they would be less offending that way.
“What. You said this was a meeting…” She could feel the panic rise again, making it hard to take enough air in. All the niceties had most likely been a show so she wouldn’t cause a scene in front of the staff. “Mr. Shelton, please believe me, I value this job!”
“There have been complaints. One of them, I could have just ignored it, but they’ve been adding up.” His regret seemed sincere.
“What are they saying?”
“That you’ve been stealing other colleagues’ food and beverages.”
“That’s not true!” Her heart was racing. Ami was sure she’d be fainting any moment. This couldn’t be happening.
“I couldn’t believe it, but then I checked with the OA. The officer didn’t speak in your favor either, so I wanted to come here and find out what’s behind these accusations…and I find you sleeping.”
“I wasn’t sleeping!” Ami realized she would have to come up with something better than denial. She wondered if telling him about her side job would make any difference. After all, not even someone like him was completely safe. She’d use that if she had to. Adam Shelton could be a target some day, and then he would depend on her good will.
“What’s going to happen now?”
“I had no choice. I had to call in someone from the IdA. It’s out of my hands.” He finally unlocked the door, waiting for her to go inside. Ami froze, after two steps into the office, when the woman sitting in the visitor’s chair swiveled her seat around to face her.
The IdA had sent Inspector Katlena Cervantes.
* * * *
“Third time’s the charm.” Ami had to try, though she admitted to herself this was a lame joke. No one laughed. Figures. There had to be a way she could turn this around, make them see she wasn’t guilty. So she was guilty of falling asleep at her desk, and she was willing to make up for the time lost. Ami wasn’t a thief or a troublemaker. They had to understand that.
“I’m afraid this isn’t a very charming moment, 51308,” Cervantes said.
All of a sudden Ami was overcome with a raging—and irrational—disappointment. Without a doubt, she had bigger problems than that, but for a single moment, she had hoped the inspector could address her with her real name. After all, she worked for the institution that held all the information on the people whose lives they had been handed. She wanted anyone, just for once, to take her side. Ami wouldn’t mind if Inspector Cervantes was that person. She wished they could have met in another reality. The truth was, her life, what was left of it, was about to go down the drain, and Cervantes had no intention of preventing that from happening.
“Am I being fired?” she asked, already resigned to the fact.
Shelton looked uncomfortable, but he didn’t say anything. Inspector Cervantes, obviously aware the unpleasant task of explaining had fallen on her, sighed.
“I’m afraid it’s a little more complicated than that. With the charges I’ve been notified of, I have no choice but to start an investigation. I’ll have to ask you to come with me.”
“Wait.” Ami shook her head, unable or maybe simply unwilling to process this information. “You’re going to arrest me? Really? Based on a rumor that some evil bi—that someone spread about me?”
Cervantes got up to step behind Ami’s chair, a subtle but unmistakable gesture. Her caution was probably based on experience. People did ill-considered things when they were cornered.
“Please let’s do this quietly. Chances are you’ll be back here sooner than you think.”
“Yeah, with a minus I’ll never get out of,” Ami murmured. It was too late to be bitter. The clinking of metal made her jump, and she spun around.
“You’re not going to—”
The inspector looked chagrined as she jiggled the cuffs. “Sorry, 51—oh, whatever. It’s procedure.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Ami knew it was one thing to walk through the office with a coffee-stained blouse, and another, to be escorted out in handcuffs. She was never going to return. This was how the horror stories always started. You could have a rather peaceful if not fulfilling life as a cypher, if you stayed under the radar. You screwed up and you could end up like those girls she saw on the street when walking home after hours. The OA people could put you anywhere, and if you didn’t comply, they’d throw you out of the program. There was only one thing worse than being a cypher, and that was being a cypher out of the program. From there, you could only do whatever you could to survive. There were homeless people who wouldn’t share a fire with you.
“We must go now,” Inspector Cervantes said softly, jolting Ami out of her catastrophic fantasies. The cuffs were loose around her wrists. She hoped that meant the inspector would continue to go easy on her, maybe put in a word for her with OA. If she played this right, maybe she wouldn’t lose everything.
Maybe she already had lost her mind.
Ami wished she could close her eyes, like a child hoping it would make them disappear in a game of hide and seek. As it was, all eyes were on her once more, everyone enjoying the spectacle. Some co-workers were talking behind their hands, snickering.
Leah, the other cypher girl, wasn’t snickering. She looked terrified.
They were almost out of the room when, out of the corner of her eye, Mary stood up.
“Let’s be grateful to the IdA for sorting out the bad apples and keeping all of us safe. Thank you, Inspector.” She started to clap, and some others joined in. Leah ducked like she expected to be hit any moment.
Ami wanted to hit someone, preferably Mary, but it would have been hard to do with her cuffed hands. She wasn’t worried about making her own situation worse. It couldn’t get worse than this. Katlena Cervantes looked annoyed and not all that grateful for the spontaneous praise.
“Can you stay here for a moment?” she whispered to Ami. “Please, don’t run away. We’d both get fired in that case.” Ami shrugged, and the inspector turned to address the room.
“That’s enough, folks. We follow the law, that’s all. Remember that we are obligated to look into any complaint, no matter how serious—or ridiculous—it may be.” She walked back to Mary’s place, leaning close to say something to her. Ami couldn’t understand what it was, but she saw Mary blush. When Inspector Cervantes returned, there was a smug smile on her face.
“What did you tell her?” Curiosity won, if only for a moment, over despair.
“What she needed to hear,” Cervantes said grimly. “Let’s go.”
* * * *
The two officers that drove her to the IdA were about Ami’s age, a man and a woman who talked to each other about their vacation plans, their voices lowered. Reality continued to come crashing down on Ami during the short ten-minute drive. She had no money for a lawyer. She had no job anymore. She was less than a no one.
“51308? We’re here.” The young officer’s tone was carefully neutral, but Ami thought she saw the pity in his expression. If I were him, I’d pity me too, she thought. It’s over. There is no hope.
They led her through the lobby into an elevator that took them to the second floor. In this part of the IdA, there were inspectors’ offices, and interview rooms. The few people she saw working at their desks hardly looked up. It was a day like every other day for them. The officers left her in one of the interview rooms, promised her that an inspector would be with her soon, and locked the door behind them.
The air seemed stifling. Once again, Ami felt lightheaded, close to hyperventilating. The surroundings were severely triggering of that one other time she’d been treated like a criminal. They’d pressured her until she wasn’t sure what was right anymore, and she’d done what they asked of her. The memory came with a tug of war of anger and fear. Ami was grateful when the door opened, the interruption keeping her in the
present.
Katlena Cervantes was joined by a blonde woman whose accent revealed that, like Cervantes, she wasn’t a City native.
“51308, this is Inspector Noelle Raymond.”
“Good morning, 51308,” Raymond said. She was in plain clothes, jeans and a light blue shirt. Ami couldn’t help but stare at her in jealousy. She stood leaning against the wall while Katlena Cervantes sat across from Ami. If she was trying to stare her down, Ami wasn’t going to make it hard for her. She had something to say.
“I suppose this won’t help much, but just for your record, I didn’t steal anything. There’s nothing I have to gain by losing this job. I want to save money. It’s not my goal in life to stay a cypher forever.”
“Yet you said in the meeting earlier this week that it was impossible to do that,” Cervantes reminded her. So much for going easy on her. “What changed your mind?”
“I didn’t…” Ami cast a quick glance at the other cop, but there was no help forthcoming either. “See, you’ve got to understand, there have been a lot of misunderstandings.”
“Enlighten me, then.”
“People think we are taking their jobs if we have one like mine that’s kind of—”
“Easy?” Cervantes supplied.
Fuck you. Ami knew better though than to voice her spontaneous reaction out loud. “If it’s something other people are trained for or want to do. The secretaries think their hours are cut because of us. Because we’re…” Ami shrugged. “Well, cheaper.”
“Isn’t that the case?”
“It not like we can control that, can we? In any case, they have been hostile to me and Leah from the beginning. One of them poured her coffee over me yesterday.”
“Oh, that.” Inspector Cervantes looked at the sheet in front of her, then back at Ami. “She says you reached for it and she tried to take it back, and that’s how it happened.”
“She’s lying.”
“So for the record, you’re accusing your former co-worker, Peggy Lambert, of a false statement.”
“You can bet your a—I do,” Ami said quickly. “Definitely. She and Mary had it in for me from day one. I tried to avoid them best I could. You believe me, right?”
CYPHER: A Dystopian Novel Page 2
