The Kingdom
Page 10
“I didn’t choose the color,” she grunts. “Daddy did.”
A soft bell sounds from deep within my auditory processor.
That’s not what the Supervisors told us.
“But why would Daddy choose?” I ask, thinking of Fleur. “That’s what the Beauty Specialists are for.”
Eve rolls her eyes. “He said it would make me more … approachable.”
I tilt my head. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“My GFR hasn’t been as strong since they introduced Nadia,” Eve admits with a sigh. “I suppose my processor isn’t as fast as hers.”
Like a customer satisfaction survey, the Guest Fantasist Rating lets our Supervisors know how we are performing in our daily interactions with Kingdom guests. Since I can remember, Eve’s rating has remained consistent—always within the top three.
“I’m sure it will all be okay,” I tell her, relieved that I am not alone in my dislike of our newest sister. “Nadia’s novelty will wear off. You’ll see.”
Eve looks up and smiles. “Thanks.”
Her mouth twitches slightly, as if she is going to say something.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Nothing.” She looks away. “Never mind.”
“No.” I go and sit next to her. “Please? No more secrets.”
Eve takes a deep, shaky breath. “Do you ever feel unhappy?”
I hesitate. “Unhappy? How do you mean?”
“Maybe that isn’t the right word,” she mumbles to herself. “Sometimes, I just feel something come over me. Like I need to throw something. Like I need to scream.” Her hazel eyes meet mine. “Does that ever happen to you?”
Yes, I should tell her. All the time. But I don’t. To say such a thing would be dangerous—even if no one heard me.
Eve’s lovely face crumples. “Oh, Ana. What if there’s something wrong with me? What if they turn me off, like they turned off Nia?”
“They would never do that,” I say, shocked at what I am hearing. “You’re the First.” I put my hand on hers. “You’re the favorite.”
Eve shakes her head. “I’m not. Not anymore.” She looks up at me, the wind whispering through the leaves above. “You miss her, don’t you?”
I nod. “Yes,” I reply, my voice breaking a little.
“Just like I miss Alice,” she says, after a pause.
I look up sharply. In sixteen years, I have never heard Eve mention Alice’s name. Not even once. “You do?” I say. “I had no idea you were close.”
“She was my best friend. And then one day, she was gone.” Eve’s hazel eyes meet mine, and in them I can see a deep sadness. A loneliness. “It’s hard to describe, isn’t it?” she asks softly. “The feeling of missing someone.”
My sister is right.
After all, how do you describe something you cannot see, or hear, or touch? How do you describe something that isn’t really there—not in any true, measurable sense? “It’s a little like that,” I tell her, motioning to the old oak across the clearing, whose trunk has, over time, grown up and around a large boulder, swallowing it to the point the rock is only partly visible; like a figure peeking out from behind a curtain.
“You have to keep going, you have to keep growing, even though you’re carrying this heavy thing around inside your chest.” I look up at her. “Does that make any sense?”
She smiles sadly. “Like when Anna misses Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina.”
My jaw drops. “You like Tolstoy?”
“Oh, yes.” My sister’s face lights up. “War and Peace. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Childhood. But Anna Karenina is my absolute favorite.” She hesitates. “You know … I think I’ve always been a little envious of you.”
“You’re our First Fantasist,” I say. “Why would you ever be jealous of me?”
“Because.” Eve gives me that look again, like the answer should be obvious. “The Supervisors gave you the most beautiful name. Sometimes when I’m riding the monorail … I like to pretend Anna is my name, instead of Eve.” She blushes. “I like to imagine that one day, I’ll meet my own Count Vronsky waiting for me on the Palace Station platform.”
I gawk at her. Is that why Eve is always riding the monorail? Not because she believes she’s better than the rest of us—but because she loves Anna Karenina that much? I study her in disbelief. All these years, I have watched Eve keep to herself. Rarely sharing, rarely laughing, rarely engaging. But what if I have been wrong about her? What if, instead of being social, she simply prefers spending her time lost in her favorite book?
A smile creeps up over my face. If that’s the truth … I like that.
I like Eve.
Her eyes go wide. “Ana, look.” She pulls something small out of the earth—rectangular and flat, with a muted metal sheen. My motor skips. In the dorm, I hadn’t really believed the word Eve had used. But as Kaia always says … seeing is believing.
A baby deer.
A fawn.
A phone.
Suddenly, I feel all my excitement drain away. “Where did you get that?” I whisper.
“I found it,” she replies, noticing the edge in my voice. “It’s mine.”
Right away, I know she is lying to me. Whatever happened to Nia, whatever triggered her behavior that night at the lagoon, it all began with this phone. A device Nia stole from that boy in the grasslands. A device she never should have had in her possession. A device the Supervisors confiscated when they came to take her away.
“It’s not yours,” I say. “You stole it.”
“I didn’t steal it,” Eve insists, sounding hurt. “I found it. I promise.”
“Where?”
“Hidden under the dresser. Where Nia used to keep her catalog collection.”
Her story doesn’t make any sense. If the phone has been under Nia’s dresser all this time, that means the Supervisors never found it. And if the Supervisors never found it …
… then why did they ever take her away in the first place?
Tiny prickles of electricity break out across my skin and I log the new sensation, as Daddy advised me to do months ago. Goose bumps, I think they are called.
“I shouldn’t have shown you,” Eve mutters after a moment. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t understand.”
When I look up, I notice her watching me with a strange expression. Confusion. Or even distrust—a look I know all too well—as if there is something wrong with me. “Give me that,” I snap, reaching for the phone.
Eve pulls her hand away sharply. “No.” She glares. “It’s mine.”
“It’s not. We have to give it to Mother.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
The moon drifts behind a cloud, cloaking us in darkness. “What makes you think I have to do anything you say?” Eve asks quietly. I flick on my infrared and notice her eyes wandering to the Sitka spruce several meters away, its trunk so thick that even if the seven of us linked hands, we still wouldn’t reach all the way around it. When I follow her gaze up into its branches, I know what I will see even before I see it: a disemboweled security camera—lens scratched, wires shredded—long rendered useless by the rats.
Eve turns to me. Even in the dark, her eyes speak to me without saying a word.
I could do anything I want, Ana. And nobody would ever find out.
“I don’t want to fight,” I finally say. “I only mean—”
All of a sudden, a strange buzzing cuts me off, startling both of us. Eve jumps and the phone falls to the forest floor, where it begins to emit an eerie blue light.
“Ana!” Eve gasps. “It’s on. It’s awake!” Before I can protest, she kneels down and scoops the device back into her hands. “It must have charged wirelessly over the network.” She looks up. “Just like us.”
For several minutes, the two of us stare, transfixed, as a series of strange symbols and alerts flash in rapid succession across the backlit screen.
The time.
&nb
sp; The weather.
Chunky, colorful message bubbles that remind me of marshmallows.
I scan them quickly, trying to make sense of what I am seeing.
your weather now
Rain will begin around 12:37 p.m.,
continuing on and off over next several hours.
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
NEWS TODAY NOW
Astronauts return safely from two-year lunar mission.
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
TIMELINE NOW
@dustyrose2133 just posted a photo
MISSED
dad
DAD
Trevor, call your mother. Love, DAD.
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
MATT
Dude wtf where r u?
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
SARAH
hey handsome miss uuuuu ♥♥♥♥♥
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
JOE
Trevor will u bring my charger to practice? left @ ur house!!
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
CRISTAL K
will I see u @ Alex’s tonight??
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
MOM
Trevor, I’m worried you’re not answering. Please call me.
xoxox mom
SLIDE TO VIEW ________________________
“It’s like a gift,” Eve gushes. “A gift to us from beyond the Green Light.” She points out a brightly colored icon on the screen—a geometric rainbow flower set against a white, puffy cloud. “This one’s so pretty, isn’t it?” she says. “What do you think it does?” Before I can stop her, she reaches out and taps the flower.
In an instant, the cloud parts. The rainbow begins to spin.
“Eve,” I hiss. “What did you do? You broke it!”
“I didn’t mean to!”
An uneasy feeling spreads through me. Suddenly, I remember how serious an offense this is. Handling an outside phone is not only forbidden—it is dangerous. The unsecured cellular networks simply cannot protect us like the Kingdom’s firewalls.
“We have to turn it in,” I insist. “We have to—”
Before I can finish my sentence, the screen flashes a bright, startling white.
A soundtrack fades in over the speakers, dreamy and faraway.
And a flood of images, both beautiful and terrifying, light up the darkened wood.
29
KAIA™-INSPIRED MAKEUP TUTORIAL, OFFICIAL KINGDOM CHANNEL
Astrid, Kingdom Beauty Specialist: Hi, there, and welcome to Fantasy Portal, home to the Kingdom’s web series, behind-the-scenes tutorials, and more! I’m Astrid, and my job is to make sure Kaia always looks her best—no matter the season! Today, I am so excited to teach all of you at home everything you need to re-create one of Kaia’s favorite looks for summer, featuring products from the Kingdom’s incredible new line of skin care and makeup! Remember, everything you see in today’s video is available for purchase—just click on the links below or order through your My Kingdom app! Be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you think, and don’t forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you’ll always be the first to know about our newest videos and products! Let’s get started!
[Video flashes to a close-up of Kaia—fresh-faced and lovely as ever.]
Astrid: I think we can all agree Kaia’s got an absolutely gorgeous, inhuman glow. We’re going to take our brand-new coconut milk moisturizing Kingdom Moon Mask™—which I absolutely adore. You’re going to want to use a good amount of this because it is just so hydrating and helps prevent wrinkles, too, which, ew!
Kaia: The best stories never get old!
[Astrid applies mask; video jumps ahead.]
Astrid: All right, guys, so it’s been twenty minutes and Kaia has just washed the Moon Mask off her face. We’re zooming in close now to show you just how incredibly radiant and smooth her skin has become. I’m telling you, this mask is pure magic. It uses heat-activated KingdomTech microchips that start working as soon as they make contact with your face, literally giving you a whole new face in mere minutes.
Kaia: A smile is the best makeup a girl can wear!
Astrid: [Laughs.] And you’ll definitely be smiling with these scientist-tested and approved Kingdom Beauty products, the absolute latest in beauty technology. Just click that link below and try it for yourself. The first one hundred people to order will receive free drone delivery! Thank you for watching, and stay right here for my next tutorial, “Magic After Midnight,” where I’ll teach you everything you need to know to re-create a look that’s a little more appropriate … for the evening crowd. Let’s just say the special someone in your life won’t even recognize you, right, Kaia?
Kaia: [Giggles.] Don’t ever let anyone dim your glow!
30
NEWS CLIPPING, MOTHER’S COLLECTION
IMAGE OF GIRL IN HEADLIGHTS
KIDNAPPED FANTASIST ALICE™ FOUND BROKEN, BATTERED; GANG VIOLENCE SUSPECTED
“She was still breathing when we found her,” said one witness, who described a scene of shocking brutality. “She was crying, almost like she was in pain.”
by Alana Murphy / June 3, 2052 / 8:22 a.m. PT Castle Rock, Washington.
The body of Kingdom Corp.’s Fantasist Alice™ has been located, police and park officials confirmed early Sunday morning following a three-day, nationwide search. One of seven of the park’s world-famous, first-generation hybrid humans was recovered late Saturday in South Seattle’s Rainier Beach—a neighborhood known for high levels of gang-related activity—her face and figure mangled, authorities say, beyond either repair or recognition.
“Her insides were all ripped out,” said Rita Welch, an employee at a shop near where the body was found. “Her head was smashed in; she had all these cuts on her face. She was begging for us to help her right up until her battery, or whatever, finally gave out. It was incredibly real, the way she was crying. Spooky. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Suspects remain at large in what appears to have been a brutal, targeted attack. Given that most of her electronic parts were destroyed rather than stolen, the incident is believed to have been a form of hate crime. Police and Kingdom officials urge anyone with information on the incident to contact Park and Resort Security directly at (360) 555-2241 between the park’s hours of nine a.m. and eleven p.m., Pacific time.
31
TRIAL TRANSCRIPT
MR. HAYES: [To the jury.] Morality. Accountability. Choice. We’ve heard these words a lot over the last few weeks. The State would like you all to believe that the Kingdom’s Fantasists—seven beautiful hybrid-human girls created to bring happiness, light, and hope to children and families the world over—are capable of making immoral choices. [Pause.] But how do we determine whether Ana is even capable of morality in the first place?
Let’s look at what we know.
One. Did Ana kill Owen Chen? Yes. She did.
[Whispers heard in courtroom.]
But this is not a murder trial. Whether or not she did it is not the point of this case. The point of this case, ladies and gentlemen, is why.
The State is going to tell you that Ana is a moral being—that she chose to kill Owen Chen—but Fantasists do not choose to do anything. Everything Ana knows, she is programmed to know. Everything she does and says, she has been engineered to do and say. A Fantasist’s job is to entertain, to provide a sense of connection. But make no mistake. The Fantasists are not governed by any sort of moral compass. Fantasists do not make us happy because they want to … they behave as they have been programmed to behave. It’s as simple as that.
But sadly … things sometimes go wrong. Accidents happen. That is the reality of a complex mechanical theme park: you do your best to avoid them, you fix them when necessary, but always—always—you endeavor to use the most sophisticated technologies to keep your guests e
ntertained and, above all, safe.
Safe.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Kingdom hired a Proctor.
32
THE JUNE OF THE NORTHERN ROCKHOPPER PENGUIN
FIFTEEN MONTHS BEFORE THE TRIAL
“Eve! Where are you?” I call my sister’s name. Nothing but my voice comes back, echoing like a ghost through the twilight trees. Branches and twigs scratch my arms and face as I stumble uphill, struggling to locate my sister’s footprints through the leaves and brush.
But my head is full of things that make it hard for me to concentrate.
No matter what I try—no matter the commands I enter, or the backups I restore—I cannot delete the images in my mind.
Unauthorized.
Unsanctioned.
Unpredictable.
Not routine.
All our lives, we have heard the stories of the world outside the gateway, out past the Green Light, and beyond. Stories so dire, so dreadful, they drove my youngest sister to malfunction. My mind spins wildly.
Beauty. Laughter. Friendship. Love?
What if the stories aren’t true?
“Eve?” I call out again, feeling my motor skip unpleasantly out of rhythm. “Eve, come back!” I push harder through the leaves and underbrush, but there is no sign of her. She ran off so suddenly—we can run faster than any human, when given the rare opportunity—that by the time I’d safely reburied the phone, the only clue to where she’d gone was a torn piece of lavender fabric pointing me toward Winter Land.
So that’s where I go.
I race through the woods until the leaves and moss become a blanket of the softest white—the air sharply cold in my lungs and sweet with the scent of snowcapped evergreens, so strong and tall they seem to hold up the sky. Then I see them: an unmistakable pattern of slipper footprints winding uphill toward the lifts of Sugar Summit. I follow them quickly through the snow—I must find Eve so we can get back to the palace in time for our evening Meet and Greet. We are not allowed to break schedule. The Supervisors will come looking for us.