Deliverance (15 page)

I consider returning the smile, but I just don't have it in me. We walk to the dining room in silence, Guard Nev trailing behind.

Supreme Moon sits at the table like a king—except he's not. He had no right to sentence Mom to death.

I breathe deeply through my nose so I don't say anything stupid, that he's a fraud, for instance, and I take a seat. Guard Nev moves to stand guard at the door, but Supreme Moon holds out a hand to stop him. “Please, stay. Eat with us.”

This is obviously out of Guard Nev's comfort zone because he pauses before he moves to sit beside me.

“Wonderful!” Supreme Moon says. “Now that we're all together, we can begin.” He claps his hands and servants bring the platters of food.

Heaping piles of food are loaded onto my plate. More food than I could ever eat. The same for Guard Nev.

Supreme Moon begins to eat, and we follow suit. “I hear you have taken a few excursions into the Lesser cities,” he says between bites of egg and potato casserole. Cheese strings from his chin and a servant moves in to wipe it away.

“Yes,” I say. “Cities one, two, and three.”

His face lights up and he smiles. “Excellent! And how did you find it?”

I shift in my seat. How am I supposed to answer that? I can't pretend that I care about his programs at this particular moment. “They were much like I expected, except the people were better than I was always told.”

“That's a unique perception. Professor Higgins tells me you have some promising theories for training the Lessers. How do you propose we implement them immediately?”

“I don't know, sir. I'm only in training.” Again the eerie feeling that he's putting too much trust in me creeps up.

“No one cares about them like you do, Hana.” He leans toward me, his words clipped and demanding. “You can help them become more disciplined, more able to follow orders, and ultimately more profitable to us as a country.”

Why does he need the Lessers now when he hasn't needed them for all the years of his supremacy? Unless the rumors are correct.

But speaking against him is not an option, especially when his eyes bore into me.

“We would need to test those Lessers who have shown the most promise as teachers—the ones who run shops or grow large crops. Once they're tested and trained, we develop classes and put them at the head to teach the others.”

Supreme Moon listens intently, nodding. “And you think they'll cooperate?”

I pause. “Not everyone, no. Some will have to leave their families or businesses, and that will be difficult. The others might not like it either, especially when it comes to training the undisciplined citizens. They'll resist becoming disciplined.”

“And how should we deal with that?” He leans toward me, ever eager.

“You could offer incentive—a better place for their family, a place where they can grow gardens so they will have more to eat. Offer them seeds. Winter coats. Perhaps even gasoline. But you would need to be careful with this program, so they don't feel that you owe them more.”

As soon as the words leave my mouth my stomach rolls. Did I really just say that? I watch Supreme Moon to see if he realizes what my words mean—I sound exactly like him. I'm helping him do something detestable. Why did I have this idea in the first place?

“Amazing,” he says. He sits back and glances at our plates. “Eat, please. I've kept you talking far too long.”

Guard Nev continues eating in silence, but I've had my fill.

“Aren't you hungry?” Supreme Moon asks. “It seems you wouldn't want to offend your Great Supreme.”

I force a smile and take a small bite. He continues watching, so I take another and another. Finally, I push the plate away. “I'm full now, thank you.”

His face changes from excited and kind to chilling. “You will eat more.” It isn't a question, and it isn't debatable.

I take another bite and he smiles again. “See? It's not so bad. I figured you would want more, because it seems that you always want more. More freedom than the other citizens, more knowledge than the leaders of the country, more time with a dead mother.”

I gasp. My first thought is to lunge at him, and I would do it except Guard Nev grabs me and keeps me in place. “You monster!” I hiss.

“I watched you on the cams. You tried to find her in Records. Didn't though, did you? I wonder why.” His last sentence is spoken with an absent stare over my shoulder. He is sincere. He doesn't know where Mom's file is, but I think I do.

“You managed to find her, though, with his help.” He nods at Guard Nev. “Did you get to say your goodbyes? She was a good woman. I'm sure she will be prominent in her next life.”

My fingers clench so tightly that the nails slice into my skin.

Now he turns to Guard Nev. “She's not the only one who wants more. I hear you visited the concert arena recently.”

Guard Nev stiffens and slowly lets me out of his death hold.

“My secretary was there. Or should I say, my former secretary? Yes, sadly I had to release her from her duties. It isn't proper and fitting to have a Lesser as my own, personal secretary.”

It takes a second for his words to sink in, but when they do, Guard Nev lunges. There is no one to stop him at first, but other guards rush in and haul him off the Great Supreme's table.

Supreme Moon laughs in delight. “You must have known you were on dangerous ground, Nev. It was foolish of you, really. Perhaps you will be more careful in the future?” He turns back to me. “And you may want to keep this scenario in mind in the future, in regard to your pow-wows with your former neighbor boy. Keegan, isn't it?”

It is a clear warning, and dully noted, but my heart rips in two. Not see Keegan again? He's my only link to home and happiness.

Guard Nev is dragged from the room. I watch him go, wondering if I'll ever see him again, either.

Seconds tick by. When the clamor caused by Guard Nev dies down, I force myself to turn back to Supreme Moon.

“Don't worry about him. He is loyal. He only needed to be reminded of it. I am, however, concerned about you.” His voice turns icy and his eyes narrow. “You were searching for your mother. I can understand that. It is done, now, though, and I want your word that you will not continue this nonsense.”

I'm hyper aware of everything going on in the room. A servant wiping the counter top. Sindy picking at a fingernail. Supreme Moon watching me.

I clear my throat. “I understand.”

“That's not what I want to know. I have no doubt that you 'understand'. I want to make sure you are going to comply.”

He isn't giving me specific situations. I do not want to lie, but I have no intention of letting all the corruption go unnoticed.

“I will comply,” I finally say.
Please forgive me.

He smiles and leans back in his chair. “Excellent. Sindy will escort you home.”

 

 

 

 

23

 

I place the letter in the mail box on my way to the Training Dome in the morning. Surely Keegan won't get in trouble for one last letter. If someone confiscates it they will only find two words.
I'm sorry.

My mind lingers on Guard Nev. Is he badly hurt? Locked up? Sent away? Supreme Moon said not to worry about him, but I can't trust anything Supreme Moon says. Whatever his plans are, they are wicked.

Walking alone, and not being on the run, feels foreign to me. I reach the Training Dome in record time and slip into a seat near the back. I press myself into the chair, hoping no one notices me, but of course Kassy does. She moves to sit beside me, an odd look on her face. “Are you OK?”

“Of course.”

But her eyes tell me she can see I'm not. What does my face look like to everyone else? I can't imagine since I can't even describe how I feel. Afraid. Angry. Confused. Dead.

The training today is focused on improving the voting system in Greater City. As only the Greaters are allowed to vote for the Great Supreme, Supreme Moon has been reelected multiple times. No one in class seems to see the injustice of this system, and their efforts focus mostly on better polling locations, or the opportunity to vote via HELP comps at home.

The entire thing is absurd. Don't they care that people are dying in Lesser cities so that they can sit in this fancy Training Dome and discuss HELP comps? Do they realize that for every extra portion they eat at breakfast, someone else is starving without it?

I press my hands to my eyes and ears, wishing I could block out this entire place.

When training ends, I quickly leave the dome. Seeing anyone—speaking to anyone—could get me into trouble. I hurry through the streets as fast as I can go without running, but it's not fast enough.

“Wait up, Hana!” Kassy calls. She reaches me, frowning. “Why did you leave so fast? You've got to tell me what's going on.”

Tell Kassy? She's a Greater and telling her could definitely be a mistake.

She grabs my hand to stop me. People stroll past, some walking their pets, others hurrying by on their way to some place or another. I watch them go, considering what to do.

“I can't talk about it, Kassy.” My eyes scan the buildings, searching for silver disks that let me know
he
can see me.

“Come with me,” she says. She nods toward our building with a definite purpose. I'm reminded that she isn't as clueless as I first thought.

I follow her down the sidewalk, but instead of going inside our building, she continues walking. We finally reach the end of the street and take a left. After another block there is an alley. She pulls me inside.

“There are no cam disks here,” she says.

I stare at her, still not sure what to make of her. “No offense, Kassy. I really like you. But I'm sure you can understand that I have to be careful.”

She grabs my hands and looks me straight in the eye. “You can trust me, Hana. They split my friends apart because we found the Broken City. We didn't know what it was—we still don't—but we knew it was something important, and they didn't want us to know what. I know how it feels to be watched.”

The Broken City. I had almost forgotten about it. Kassy has information that I can use.

“They assigned me a guard to keep me in line,” I explain. “And then they punished him to warn me when I wasn't doing everything they wanted.”

She nods. “That's no surprise.”

“Do you mean this happens often? To me, to you? Why doesn't anyone stop it?” Greater City is so messed up and no one seems to mind.

“We can't stop it,” she says. “There's nothing we can do.”

“That's not true, Kassy. There is always hope.” The words come out harshly, and she draws back. I lick my lips and take a deep breath. “I'm sorry. I do believe we can change things, though. I do.” But the idea of deliverance seems as far away as Middle City 3.

She studies me for long moments and finally nods. “I'll help you.”

What little hope is still alive in me flutters and blossoms. “You will?”

“Yes.”

I need to tell her why I'm doing it. She needs to understand all of the areas where we are being oppressed. “Kassy, have you ever heard of God?”

Kassy soaks in every word I say more quickly than I can believe. I hadn't trusted nearly so easily. She promises to help me, though, and her help is something I can definitely use.

We take separate routes home so we won't seem suspicious. I stop at one of the public comps, reminded of the trick Kassy gave me earlier about disabling the security features. Now is as good a time as any since I want to give Kassy a good head start. Taking care to stay out of view of the tiny cam at the top of the box, I tap the screen and watch it come to life. When it loads, I tap the circle at the bottom right of the screen and it brings up a security box. I tap in the code Kassy gave me.

Cam disabled
appears on screen. I smile.

I press the
directions
box. It brings up a myriad of options, and as it loads I glance at the buildings around me. One cam disk is mounted to my right, but it isn't pointing in my direction. Another disk is situated across the street, but the HELP comp itself blocks me from its view.

I study the maps in front of me, noting that the area to the southwest, where Broken City lies, is shaded in with green trees. They don't want anyone to know what's really there.

The city is much larger than I realized. I haven't seen nearly as much of it as I thought I had. The far border stretches for miles toward the east.

After ten minutes of studying the maps, I close down the screen, not even bothering to reboot the cam, and then I head toward my apartment.

I'm almost lonely as I walk. I hadn't realized how I'd come to depend on Guard Nev. With this thought comes new freedom, though. I can explore any part of the city now. I can learn every nook and cranny. I can meet others and find the people I most want to find.

My legs itch to head toward the lake, but something holds me back. What if Supreme Moon finds out and they punish Keegan?

I walk to my apartment and have begun eating supper when my HELP comp chimes. Keegan is playing at the concert arena tonight. I delete the message and almost delete the prompt that notifies me of his schedule. It would be easier not knowing. I hold my finger over the box. It lingers, wavering, and I can't do it. Knowing he is in town is connection enough. At least then I know he hasn't been demoted or worse.

I move to the bathroom and dig out my Bible from inside the dryer. My letter from Keegan falls out. Staring at it lying on the floor, I consider what to do. Keeping it could do further damage to him, but throwing it away means I lose the one part of him I have left.

His safety wins out and I take the paper to the sink. I run water over it until the ink is washed away, and then I tear the paper into pieces until it's no more than mush.

After I throw it away, I catch sight of myself in the mirror and realize I'm crying. The tears come harder now. My body crumples to the floor, and I bury my head in my lap. I cry for Mom, for Jamie, for Ava and Markus, for Guard Nev, and even for Keegan.