Unawakened

by R. J. Blain

  Maybe Rob was a dae, but he was also a far better human than me.

  Rob slept beside me on the couch while I worked. I was relieved the dae wasn’t watching me for a change. His ability to sense my emotions was limited when he slept, else he’d be getting a heavy dose of self-loathing and disgust served with a helping of guilt.

  Everything had been so much easier when I hadn’t put much thought into the consequences of the things I did. I stared at my hands for a long time, remembering how I had pulled the trigger of my gun, ending Lily’s life to protect my own.

  We hadn’t liked each other, but I wondered. Was my life really worth more than hers? I doubted I’d ever know.

  All I could do was try to make my life worth something more than just another fringe rat scrambling for the scraps offered by the upper castes.

  I needed to go visit Kelsie again and make certain she was feeling better. The cold had taken her two months to kick, and I worried she’d get sick again from poor nutrition, although Rob and Colby helped to make sure she had what she needed in her hidden flop. I also needed to find out if Rob could find some way to protect her.

  I’d been in Kelsie’s shoes, and she walked a dangerous road, one that often left women like her broken.

  If I could, I wanted to help her beat the odds.

  But first, I needed to untangle the mess created by Terry Moore, Dean Lewis, and Kenneth Smith.

  I didn’t want to watch the murder videos again, but if I wanted to find the invisible ties binding Terry Moore and Dean Lewis together, I needed to know who the women were and why the dean had paid so much for them to be drugged, raped, and killed. No, if I wanted to find out if there were any binds tying the two men together, I needed to take a closer look.

  I had put off the uncomfortable task for too long.

  With the Dawn of Dae, the government’s information structure had crumbled. The police no longer had an updated list of missing people, which hampered my efforts to get a positive ID on the women. So many people from all castes had disappeared in such a short period of time it would probably take months to untangle the mess.

  I browsed the law enforcement websites open to the public, wondering how I’d be able to sniff out information on anyone with the government in such a state of chaos. Even the government acknowledged the problem.

  For the first time in my memory, the police were recruiting from the general public, and even those from the fringe could apply for admission into the training program. The list of open positions was staggering, ranging from paper shufflers and secretaries to supervisors.

  They’d even accept the unawakened among them, although the positions were limited to internal roles within law enforcement.

  Infiltrating the police had been something Kenneth had considered time and time again, but he had ultimately decided against it as too risky—or too far out of reach. Fringe rats like me couldn’t apply; no matter how far I climbed, my history remained a black mark against me.

  The police couldn’t trust someone from the lower castes to protect and serve those of the upper castes.

  Before the Dawn of Dae, information had been easier to acquire. I considered the drug lord, wondering how far he would go to ruin the dean of my college—or why.

  The elite confused me on a good day.

  If Kenneth’s thirst for revenge ran deep enough, I could see him approaching me with an offer to slip among the police to further his goals. I had always refused to even associate with the police, unwilling to risk my education and further entomb myself in Kenneth’s dirty work.

  With so many changes tearing through society, I wondered if my tactic of avoiding relationships with those in the police had been a mistake. During the interviewing process at the college, most of the police had treated me well enough.

  Either my caste didn’t bother them as much as I thought it would, or my acceptance into Bach studies had been enough to counter my upbringing.

  Could taking advantage of the police’s open application period give me everything I needed to finally free myself from Kenneth?

  With Rob and Colby around, the burning need to escape my caste didn’t consume me like it once had. As long as I remained eligible to continue my Bach studies, I could build a comfortable life—one with them in it. A life I could enjoy even when burdened with the need to chase perfection.

  I turned the volume down on my laptop, pressed play on the first of the videos, and studied the woman’s face. Watching the video reminded me what Kenneth had meant to do to me—would have done if Rob hadn’t been around. No matter how much I loathed the idea of having sex with Kenneth, he would have gotten exactly what he wanted from me with the drug’s help.

  I wondered how many of the women had wanted to sleep with Terry Moore before he took them to his bed and killed them.

  Kenneth Smith and Dean Lewis were bound together, of that I had no doubt from their interactions at the college. If I ruined one, I stood a good chance of ruining both. First, I had to provide irrevocable proof Kenneth had supplied Terry Moore with the red drug. Second, I had to prove Dean Lewis had signed a contract with Terry Moore to have the women raped and murdered. If he hadn’t signed a contract and the invoices framed him, I would do my best to make sure everyone behind the rapes and murders would pay for their crimes.

  The law cared little for the women, and if I didn’t try, no one would.

  The waters ran deep and cold, and I’d swim in them, as much of a predator as the elite who sought to rule the world. Maybe Rob was right in his belief the elite would work together to remain in power, but he was wrong about one critical thing.

  The elite could be played against each other, all thanks to their relentless greed to remain in power.

  If I did everything just right, I could work with both Kenneth Smith and Dean Lewis without either one of them believing I was doing anything other than the work they ordered me to do.

  I was good at what I did. Even if they believed I intended to betray them, I would profess my innocence until the moment I turned on them, baring my fangs and biting until they bled.

  I had started as Kenneth Smith’s hound of war, but he had forged me too well. I had become something else in the process, more than some mere obedient collie ready to please. To destroy Kenneth’s empire and disgrace Dean Lewis, I would be a wolf eager for the hunt.

  I’d be a little more human, too. Rob had it right. He didn’t need a reason to care about the victims left behind in the games the elite played, and neither did I.

  All they needed was justice, and we would get it for them somehow.

  My determination to find justice for the raped and murdered women kept me awake long after I should have collapsed in an exhausted stupor. I dug out and booted the college’s laptop, pulling up the database I had created for the registration of the dae.

  It took me most of the day to manually recreate the database on my laptop. My attempts to wake Rob and move him to the bedroom had ended with his sleepy complaints and refusal to move.

  I had no idea how he could sleep for so long sprawled on the couch, but I liked having him close while I worked. Turning my attention back to my laptop, I considered my options. While I could disconnect the system from the internet and temporarily disable the government-installed spyware, there was still a chance someone might figure out what I had done.

  There was no official reason for me to need a copy of the dae registration database, and the last thing I needed was unwanted attention.

  When I finally finished, I logged into the college’s network.

  Others had picked up where I had left off, although none of them had been as thorough. Judging from the collection of files and emails, at least twenty people had tried to fill my shoes, and none of them had lasted two days before they had been removed from the job.

  The fact Dean Lewis hadn’t revoked my access to the files filled me with hope. I had been given strict orders to stay off the network and focus on recovering, but I no longer had any
excuses to dodge my work.

  It was time to dive back into the fray. If I wanted to survive with my life intact, I needed to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. In the past, I had waited for Kenneth’s orders before taking action.

  Over the years, I had grown used to anticipating what Kenneth would do, although I seldom thought about why he chose the actions he did. My job was to do his dirty work, not criticize his actions.

  That needed to change.

  I began with emailing the dean about my recovery, claiming infrequent but moderate to severe headaches as a result of my captivity. Doctors had verified the severity of my concussion, which had been caused when Arthur Hasling had pounded me into the asphalt. Smacking into the side of the skyscraper hadn’t helped, either. Of course, the doctors had no idea I was one of the people responsible for the robbery and vandalism of the Ivory Tower, and I meant to keep it that way.

  It had been easy to blame Hasling for my broken ribs and other injuries.

  After updating the dean on the status of my health and asking if I could return to my studies within the next week or two, I informed him I was reviewing all of the entries in the database, claiming it would take two weeks for me to sort the mess out and add the missing information for the files. In closing, I mentioned I could possibly shorten the time to several days if I had access to a more comprehensive database.

  Before the Dawn of Dae, everyone had been registered in the government’s tracking system. The police had access to those records, as did the colleges scattered around the United States. I’d only seen the interface once when I had enrolled for my Bach studies, but one look was enough.

  If I gained access to the original database, I’d be able to learn about Terry Moore’s victims and identify how they related to Dean Lewis.

  The database wouldn’t help me deal with Kenneth Smith, but I’d figure something out. I always did.

  I sent the email, shut down my college laptop, and returned to my antiquated relic of a computer. Maybe it was slow, but it had everything I needed to do my job without getting caught.

  Until I ruined Kenneth Smith and all those who worked with him, I couldn’t afford to make a single mistake.

  4

  A kiss for your thoughts?

  I worked until I collapsed into an exhausted stupor, and when I woke up, my head was pillowed on Rob’s lap. The dae’s attention was focused on his laptop, and deep lines furrowed his brow.

  Colby quivered on the coffee table between my laptop and Rob’s. Despite its lack of distinguishing features, I could somehow tell its attention was consumed by Rob’s efforts. While I wanted to discover what they were up to when they thought I was asleep, a yawn slipped out of me.

  Rob shifted beneath me and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Good morning.”

  “Morning. What did I miss?”

  “Dinner, breakfast, and lunch. It’s almost time for dinner again. You’re going to become an owl if you continue sleeping through the entire day, Miss Daegberht.”

  I stretched and wiggled my toes. Sometime after I had fallen asleep, Rob had covered me with my favorite blanket. Even without Kenneth’s drug fucking with me, I savored the way the plush material rubbed against my skin.

  The thought of the red fluid made me shiver. While I had worked without craving the impossible pleasures it offered, I tensed in anticipation of needing another hit.

  The memory of the drug’s high haunted me, and I wanted to experience the sensations again.

  I closed my eyes and sighed. I wanted another high, but I didn’t need it. The difference was subtle, but a real enough distinction for me. I could live with the nagging but resistible desire for more of the drug. Determined to keep it that way, I forced my thoughts back to Rob’s words. “Why are you calling me Miss Daegberht again? We’ve been over this before, Rob.”

  “Maybe I like all of your name. It rolls off my tongue so nicely.”

  My stomach chose that moment to gurgle its unhappiness with me. “I got carried away.”

  “I saw you had been working, which is why I let you sleep. Find anything interesting?”

  “The police are hiring. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kenneth asks me to try to infiltrate them. They’re taking anyone who qualifies and passes background checks, apparently—including unawakened.”

  “Too dangerous.”

  “The unawakened won’t be working with the public sector. It’s all private, behind-the-scenes work. It might gain me access to their databases. If Kenneth asks me to try, it means he’s desperate—if he’s desperate, that’s good for us. I can think of a lot of ways we can put police contacts to good use.”

  I meant to sit up, but Rob had other things in mind; he slid his hand beneath my blanket and shirt to trail his fingers along the curve of my throat. “Interesting. You’ve put some thought into this.”

  The way Rob caressed my skin made me want to abandon thoughts of work altogether, but I forced my attention to the immediate problem of dealing with Kenneth Smith and Dean Lewis. I wiggled away from him, sat up, and reached for my laptop. “I manually copied the database of dae from the college laptop. It has government spyware on it. My laptop doesn’t. I didn’t want to risk anyone finding out I had made a copy.”

  “How’d you manage that? They’ve been installing spyware on all systems for at least a decade.”

  “Now you know why it takes so long to boot up.”

  “Where the hell did you get it?”

  I preened at the admiration and surprise in Rob’s voice. “Stole it fair and square from the collection of an elite who had crossed Kenneth. He had a mausoleum of old computer artifacts. I grabbed the first system that booted up. I doubt he missed it; there were tons of them in there.”

  I was pretty certain the brand no longer existed; along with the formation of the caste system, companies with a more philanthropic bent, especially in terms of employee treatment, had undergone mysterious failures, bankruptcies, and closures. Empires had fallen and disappeared, paving the way for the current system.

  Those who hadn’t bent to the designs of the elite had disappeared right along with the mega corporations.

  The same elite had also possessed one of the better libraries. I wondered if the wealth of knowledge still existed. The manor had been several hours outside of Baltimore, tucked away out of sight, which made it a prime location to avoid detection.

  It hadn’t been easy busting into the elite’s vault, either.

  “A kiss for your thoughts?” Rob murmured in my ear.

  Hello. As I held no hope he lacked awareness of my interest in his kisses, I asked, “What happened to pennies?”

  “I enjoy kisses more than pennies.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be paying me instead of the other way around, Rob.”

  “You enjoy them, too. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

  I couldn’t argue with him on the point. Laughing, I gestured to our laptops. “I was thinking about the elite I pilfered this laptop from. I don’t think the computer had ever been used before I stole it. It’s so old I had to hunt down an obsolete version of the government systems to load on it because it won’t run the newer ones. That’s part of the reason it lacks spyware; those versions didn’t have it. But in addition to the computers, he also had a lot of history books and other banned materials.”

  “You stole a lot more than money and drugs from him, didn’t you?”

  “Knowledge, and a lot of it. The elite was away for a month on business, and once I learned the schedule of his caretakers, I spent a lot of time in his place. He was an interesting fellow; didn’t have an alarm system worth shit on his house. From all appearances, he really didn’t seem to care who came and went from his place. I really doubt he noticed the machine was gone. There were probably hundreds of them just like it, still new in their boxes.”

  The man’s vault, however, had an alarm system second to none, and the idea of bypassing it a second time thrilled me.
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  “That’s interesting. Do you know who the elite was?”

  “No idea. Kenneth didn’t give me his name. He wasn’t interested in that information. He wanted me to recover some discs and chips for him—money if he had any laying around, or items easy enough to resell without drawing attention to himself.”

  “That’s not like Mr. Smith.”

  The confidence in Rob’s voice startled me, but I was forced to nod my agreement. “I wasn’t the hound to sniff out the information on that hit. I was just the ground team to infiltrate the mansion. It was an easy hit for good money—and the laptop.”

  Of all the crimes I had committed for Kenneth, the heist on the elite’s mansion had been the easiest—once I had figured out how to get inside the vault. It had also been the most profitable. The laptop alone was worth its weight in gold, and Kenneth had paid me top dollar for the things I had brought back for him.

  It had also been the turning point in my life, allowing me to really pursue Bach studies. I smiled a little at the memory.

  Maybe it had been my hard work that had resulted in my advancement in education, but Kenneth had laid the groundwork for my success, and that on its own counted as sweet revenge. “It’s old, but it works really well. I try to take good care of it. The battery’s long since dead, but I managed to get a converter plug for the charging cable.”

  Changing the format of the electrical outlets had been a simple way for the government to restrict who could have what; in less than a decade, no one had electronics the government didn’t want them to have.

  Only the elite were permitted to have the converter plugs. I masked mine as a multi-outlet adapter for a wall socket, something that had taken me several years to build. The plugs even worked; no one would have any reason to believe there was an illegal device hidden in the mess of cables I had plugged in. Most didn’t go anywhere, but no one noticed that.