by R. J. Blain
“They weren’t exactly wearing a whole lot.”
I shuddered again at the memory of the murders. “Middle to upper caste judging from their clothing. Probably not elite, but it’s possible. Like it or not, until I earn my Bach, I’m a fringe rat. They were likely somehow involved with the college in some capacity or another. Young, but not too young. I’m not all that good at judging ages, but I’ll be surprised if any of those women were over the age of thirty.”
“You fit their age bracket. Once you earn your Bach, you’ll be in the same group. By association with me, some will say you’ve already elevated your caste.” The smile Rob had been trying so hard to hide made its appearance. “If I didn’t know you’d probably pull your gun and shoot me for the suggestion, I’d say we could fix your caste problems by making a stop at the government registration offices. They reopened ages ago.”
I snorted. While it wasn’t unheard of for an elite to bring someone of a lower caste up through adoption or marriage, I couldn’t stomach the thought of doing it myself.
Once I went down that road, there was no turning back. Getting married was easy.
Divorcing, however, wasn’t—especially for the elite, who had appearances to maintain.
“I worked hard to get here, Rob. I’m not taking the cheap and easy way out, not happening.”
“Offer’s open if you change your mind.”
I snorted again, turning my attention back to my college-issued laptop. Working on the college registration database would give me an edge working on the police system. The police had access to data the college didn’t, and the college had a focus on studying and understanding the new dae. If the two groups merged their data, the government would have a comprehensive idea of the capabilities of everyone.
Wars could be waged and won with the knowledge of how to use the dae. A rebellion could form, rise up, and have a chance of victory. If the lower castes realized what was within their reach, the entire world could change.
The world had already changed, but instead of taking advantage of the chance they had, the people had settled into the monotony of normality despite hosting the bizarre. Things I had only believed possible in fairy tales and stories walked the streets, born from the dreams of those wanting better lives for themselves.
I straightened, frowning at my thoughts.
People always dreamed of something better, myself included. I had chased after my desires, and step by painful step, I was making them real. Twisting around, I stared at Rob.
He looked human, he acted human, but he wasn’t human, and if I were to believe him, he never would be.
“Rob?”
“What is it?”
“Why do you like me?”
“Like, Alexa?” A human’s playful grin and a human’s bright eyes transformed Rob’s expression into something so warm and pleasant I also smiled. “I liked everything about you the instant I saw you. You’re you. What other reason do I need?”
“Maybe you’re a dae, but you’re human, too. Only a human would come up with such an illogical answer,” I informed him, pleased by his answer and my decision to ignore his declarations of his lack of humanity. It didn’t matter what he thought.
He was human enough, and that was good enough for me.
“You’re such a strange woman, Alexa.”
His observation was so absurd I laughed until I cried. Me? Strange? Offended by my mirth, Rob huffed, flipped a rude gesture in my direction, and went to sulk in our bedroom.
Several hours after my interview, Sergeant Gildroy messaged my college address with a schedule for me. Not only did the calendar include the times I would be working for the police, but it also included a list of my classes, the times I would be working with Dean Lewis, study time, and scheduling for my so-called ‘free’ time.
I drummed my fingers on the kitchen counter, which I had claimed as my work space. Not to be outdone, Rob had made himself at home across from me, working on his laptop. I admired his focus; no matter how much I muttered to myself, he didn’t seem to notice.
Having him so close gave me a sense of security. With him around, I didn’t have to worry about Kenneth or Jacob making an unexpected appearance. If they did, we could deal with them. I smiled and returned to my work, going over every entry in my schedule.
Several of the notations surprised me. With the attack on the college, I had assumed the dean would have nullified his agreement with Kenneth Smith. However, five hours a week, I was slated to work with the drug lord directly. The location was at one of his official businesses in the downtown core, which was only several blocks away from Rob’s home.
“Fuck,” I muttered, wondering how I’d be able to go to Kenneth’s turf without putting myself at risk. Dealing with Jacob at the police station would be bad enough, but going where Kenneth ruled both sickened and frightened me.
“What’s wrong?” Rob looked up from the antique system I had set up for him.
“Five hours twice a week at Kenneth’s fucking office. You have me for twelve hours a week. The dean gets me for fifteen hours, but most of my time with him is between my classes. They even scheduled when I’m supposed to be sleeping.” Scrutinizing the calendar only made me keenly aware I’d have very little time for any personal pursuits, including sniffing out information on anyone.
How was I supposed to hunt down information on the murdered women if I barely had time to breathe? I wrinkled my nose, sighed, and examined the schedule yet again, looking for something I could trim to give me a little time.
Sleep would be a luxury I couldn’t afford. Eight hours a night, at least, was enough to ensure I wouldn’t fall over into an exhausted stupor. They had given me enough time to study. If the courses continued to be simple, I could free a few minutes here and there to pursue my work.
They even had me working over the weekends.
Rob circled the kitchen island and peered over my shoulder. “They’ve planned out every last minute of your life, haven’t they?”
“Sleep is optional, right?”
“Hardly.” Reaching around me, Rob scrolled through my schedule. “This could work really well for us, actually. We can talk to Colby about going to work with you when you’re slated to work with Kenneth. At his public front, I really doubt he’d be stupid enough to try anything. He has appearances to maintain, and it’s a drug-free zone. You should be safe enough, but I’d rather have Colby with you.”
“I’d definitely feel better with you or Colby with me,” I admitted.
“We’ll figure something out. If the workload is too much, I’ll step in. I have a reputation to maintain, after all.”
“A reputation as what?”
“An ethical employer, actually. Of course, it’s just smart business to keep employees healthy, but I try to keep my staff happy, too. They work better. They don’t want to lose their jobs to someone else, and since I do hire those from the fringe, I find I have one of the better performance rates right now.” Rob pulled a stool over and sat beside me, bringing my laptop closer to examine the hours I was assigned to him. “This will work well. My first project for you will be dealing with the incoming fringe employees. Since you’ve been there and lived like they do, you’ll help me establish a program for integrating them with the middle and upper caste employees.”
I grimaced. “That’s going to be interesting.”
“Why?”
“Prejudices, Rob. They don’t disappear overnight.”
“Maybe they don’t, but unless we actively work to get rid of them, those prejudices will never go away. It’ll take time, but it’ll happen. If a person is forced to say or believe something long enough, they’ll actually believe it, even if it is wrong. That’s why things are like they are now, right?”
For a long time, all I could do was stare at the dae with my mouth hanging open. The realization he was right sank in, and I wondered how much I had believed was the truth simply because I had heard it often enough. “That’s horrifying, Rob.
”
“Ignorance is a prison, and every last American is a prisoner.”
I couldn’t disagree with him. I’d seen the graveyards of abandoned libraries, experienced the restrained flow of information within the education system, and recognized many of the lies fed to those fortunate enough to get any education at all.
Our lives were as much of a lie as the lectures given by the teachers who truly believed the reformation had changed our world for the better. We had, as a whole, sacrificed our freedoms for basic comfort, and we’d sacrificed all of our liberties for a false sense of security.
Despite being born from dreams, wishes, and unobtainable desires, the dae had done nothing to free the world from its chains. Change had come, but it was as superficial as the clothes we wore.
Change had come, but nothing of importance had truly changed.
I started working with the police before classes resumed, and I was relieved to learn Jacob would be kept occupied far away from me, minimizing our chance of contact. My domain became the server room hosting the registration databases, and I took my time restructuring the system. If I wanted to have the time later to poke around the primary database, I needed every minute I could free up. By working at a slow and steady pace, I gave the illusion of productivity while buying the time required to explore data once I got my hands on the primary registration system.
Until I rebuilt the new database, the police wouldn’t give me access to the system they had used prior to the Dawn of Dae. I had, with a little cajoling, convinced Sergeant Gildroy I needed more information, and had gained access to all of the table layouts and a sample set of records so I could build the new system to be compatible with the old one.
I had a feeling it would take months to finalize everything, and the scope of the task both excited and terrified me. The reality the police didn’t have many people capable of building a working system bothered me.
I knew of four merit students entering my year at the college, myself included. Were the children of the elite truly so superior to everyone else? The database I was in the process of correcting had been made in haste, lacking the logic to weave all points of data in a consistent, usable way. Had one of the younger elite built it?
Why was education so restricted if there was such an obvious need for intelligent, trained people? What was so dangerous about learning how to write, read, do math, or apply logic to problems?
It took me three days to build a sane structure, but without someone who also understood how the system was supposed to work, there was no one to double-check my method of organization.
Stuffing my pride in the deepest, darkest hole I could find, I went in search of Sergeant Gildroy with a printout of the database structure. I found him in his office, and he waved me inside.
“You have something for me?”
“Yes, sir.” I held out the printouts to him. “This is the draft of the new database structure.”
“Draft?”
“I wanted someone to go over this to make sure it was sane, sir. While all tables connect and references can be drawn from any of them to find matching criteria, I lack familiarity with the original registration databases, so I may have missed some important piece of information. The set up should allow us to import entries from the original database to this one, but I won’t know for certain until I make a copy of the database and load it into the new system.” I shifted my weight foot to foot and kept the rest of my misgivings to myself.
“The maintainer of the old system went missing during the Dawn,” Sergeant Gildroy replied, frowning as he looked over the papers. “Those with the knowledge of working on such systems are difficult to acquire. While we have quite a few tech-oriented people, they have no interest in working with the actual databases. They maintain the hardware and make certain the search and entry forms work, but that’s the limit of their expertise. Most of the merit students are immediately hired in military or higher government capacities.”
“I can correct any logic problems as we go, but there may be delays involved. Systems this complex are easily broken.”
There was a huge difference between working on a spreadsheet and accessing databases to pull out information. Building one tested every bit of knowledge I had scraped together over the years.
How could a fringe rat who served as a drug dealer’s bitch have more education and skill than the children of those in the elite caste?
It was madness.
“How long to make this functional?”
“I would need a day at the minimum to look over the old registration system, check over record formats, and make certain there are no logic errors in what I’ve designed. After that, it depends on how good the servers are. I’ve never worked with a system quite this robust before, sir. The education system has nothing quite like this available for student use.”
“I’ll have someone give you access tomorrow. Take the rest of the day. Good work, Miss Daegberht. Do you mind if I keep these?”
“They’re yours for your review, sir.” Instead of bowing or curtseying, as they liked at the college, the police had a fondness for saluting each other. The gesture felt awkward, but I did it anyway. Sergeant Gildroy nodded his acknowledgment and turned his attention back to his work. I backed out of his office before he could change his mind.
An entire day with the primary registration database would be a good start. Once the data import was complete, my real work would begin.
Kenneth Smith would fall, and I smiled at the thought of masterminding his demise, along with all of his accomplices.
13
Criticizing cops was a good way to get arrested.
The first day with access to the master registration database filled me with foreboding. The database’s haphazard construction warned me of future days of misery, when it would be my job to undo years—if not decades—of poor judgment and illogical decisions. The only consistency in the system was the inconsistencies plaguing it.
I wanted nothing more than to find the original creators of the database, take them into a dark alley, and beat sense into them. With the resources available to the government, couldn’t they have built something better?
From the outside looking in, the world of the elites was a place of wonder and wealth. They had everything, including the wits and means to advance themselves. I had expected a whole new world to open up to me, one where I would be among intellectual peers.
Instead of joining a group of the intellectually superior, I faced a mess of incompetency, doomed to correct someone else’s mistakes—an elite’s mistakes. At least the database’s creator was probably long dead. I couldn’t blame the man who had maintained the system; there was a high chance he had been devoured by his dae.
Then again, maybe he had been smart and had made himself disappear on purpose to avoid working with the police database systems any longer.
I’d do my best to create a usable system without sacrificing my dignity to mediocrity. Rocking the boat was a good way to get sent back to the fringe and lose my Bach student status. While the system was a mess, I doubted any elite would want to know the truth about it.
If I wanted to survive among them, I needed to smile, pretend my head wasn’t throbbing due to their idiocy, and work hard. I’d take what I needed right out from under their noses, and I’d wait until I was in the privacy of Rob’s home before exploding.
Of course, I’d have to check myself for bugs every time I returned home. In the last four days, there had been six of the black discs stuck to my clothing, and Colby had located them all. He had managed to eat the first four before Rob snagged the fifth one to examine it.
I smiled at the memory of Colby chasing Rob around the condominium in its desperation to eat the device. The surveillance bothered Rob a lot more than it bothered me. Someone was somehow touching me without me being aware of it. I found the problem interesting.
Someone had the ability to sneak up on me, touch me, and get away without catching my at
tention—or triggering my allergies. Who was doing it and why remained a mystery. I doubted it was Jacob, unless he could be in two places at one time.
We still didn’t understand what the devices did; Colby ate them before we could do anything with them, but Rob and I doubted they were cameras. Cameras required a place for a lens, and as far as both of us could tell, the discs lacked one.
Long after I should have headed home to sleep, I lingered at the police station, working on the cantankerous database system.
“You were scheduled to leave thirty minutes ago,” Sergeant Gildroy commented from the doorway of the server room.
I spun on my stool, widening my eyes to portray innocence. “Ah. I lost track of time, sir. There’s a lot to be done.”
“That’s how it always goes. When do you think you’ll be able to do the import of the old data?”
I turned back to the computer I had taken over as my work machine and tapped in a few commands, looking over my set up for the database. I pretended to think about it, despite already knowing the exact answer. I could have started several hours ago but had delayed the inevitable by doing check after unnecessary check. “Tomorrow, probably two hours after the start of my shift, sir.”
“Excellent. How much monitoring will you need to do?”
“I should be watching it as much as possible, sir.”
“Noted. I’ll have a tech set up a tablet with monitoring access for you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“All employees of the police, be they officers or support staff, are fully licensed and trained with firearms. While you have a carry license, we have come to the decision you require complete training. Depending on your skill, we may issue you a new weapon, one a little more… modern.”
It took every scrap of my willpower not to snort at the man’s understatement. “Understood, sir.”
