Deliverance (3 page)

Her frown has smoothed away, but I can tell she's unhappy. I don't know how to interpret that. Is she unhappy because I dreamed about something incriminating? Or is she unhappy because I didn't dream about something incriminating?

She doesn't say either way, so I have to trust that if something is wrong I will find out.

Of course, if I dreamed about any of the Christians I met in Middle City 3, I will have no way of knowing.

My stomach churns and my throat erupts with hot, bitter liquid.

Sindy holds out a trash bin immediately, almost like she was expecting it.

“It's the medication that puts you to sleep,” she says. “It's common. You'll feel better soon.”

I feel more like it's because I may have betrayed good people, but I keep that to myself.

“Are you ready to go home?” Sindy asks.

Home? I wish. “Sure.”

She helps me off the medical bed and leads me to a room where I can change back into my own clothes.

The ride home is quiet, and I'm thankful Sindy is leaving me alone with my thoughts. It gives me time to consider what Fischer meant when he said, “Keep trying.” I have no idea what he was trying to tell me, but I will find out.

 

 

 

 

4

 

Morning light filters through the windows the next day, and my eyes adjust to the changing shade. I squint and study the windows. They are definitely changing—they're getting clearer, letting in more light, automatically.

Weird.

I take a bath as soon as I get up. The feeling of being completely engulfed in gloriously hot water is like no other joy I've ever felt before. It almost erases the horror of not knowing what I did or said—what I showed them—in my dreams. Almost.

When someone knocks on the door, I don't worry about answering. I know now it is the food service. They will leave the food in the dumbwaiter beside the front door, and I will eat it when I'm finished. The food yesterday arrived three times: once in the morning, once at noon, and once at six o'clock in the evening.

Today is my first full day in Greater City with nothing to do. My training starts in four days, and Sindy promised to come by tomorrow to take me on a tour of the training facilities. She also warned me not to go out alone. She said Supreme Moon hasn't given the approval for my total freedom, at least not yet. She assured me it would come. She promised I would enjoy the freedom that everyone in Greater City enjoys, as long as I could prove I deserve it.

But I don't really care what Supreme Moon has to say. If I'm going to live here, then there are certain things I want to find—people who believe like I do, for starters. They will have more information about the problems I found in Middle City 3. What are the blinking lights? And is there really a secret prison?

When my fingers are wrinkly, I climb from the tub. A large, round machine is attached to the wall next to the bathroom sink. It has a curved cut-out that looks like the shape of a head. I think that if I stepped inside, it would dry my hair for me, but that seems way too strange and I'm afraid to try.

It's hard to trust anything in this place.

I stick my hand underneath it, just to see, and it blows to life. The pressure of the air pushes my hand away.

Why would I stick my head in there?

I quickly dress in my Greater-wear and towel-dry my hair.

After breakfast, I look out the windows. Transporters move like magic over the streets, and citizens come and go through doorways that lead into buildings. I don't know what goes on in any of them. Shops? Grocers? Schools?

I mess with the HELP comp, which I can't figure out at all. Besides, if they're watching me through it then I don't want it on. I glance at the pillow covering the clock. There is no way I'm taking it off, ever.

That's enough of this lonely cage. I slip quietly into the hallway of the building and glide to the elevator. In place of an ordinary button there is a plastic pad. I press it.

Not Approved
flashes across the plastic screen.

I frown and lean in close.

I press it again, and this time I notice a thin red line that moves over the pad of my thumb.

It's scanning my fingerprint!

I grind my teeth. Sindy was serious when she told me to stay in. Still, there has to be a stairway. They can't keep me locked up forever.

I hurry through the hallways, searching for a door. It sits hidden behind a huge, potted tree. Using my shoulder, I nudge the tree out of the way. The door sticks, but after a few pushes it creaks open. A dim staircase stretches down below me.

I smile and hurry to follow it.

Stairs are comforting to me. They remind me of home.

I hadn't realized how high up I was until I start to get winded. Then I remember Sindy pushing the seven button in the elevator. Butterflies erupt in my stomach but I push through them. I've never been so high in my life.

The ground greets me when I reach the bottom, and I sigh in relief. It takes me several moments to catch my breath, and then I peek out the door for guards. People walk up and down the streets en masse, but there are no guards in sight.

I slip out of the stairwell and into the daylight. Buildings rise toward the sky, but these aren't like the buildings in Middle City 3. These buildings sparkle. The windows shine, the bricks are clean, and the streets are in good repair.

Something else I notice is the road. No one walks in the middle of it, like we do in Middle City 3. Everyone scurries along the sidewalk.

A transporter glides past and then I understand. Greaters have transporters and the roads belong to them.

I fight my fascination with Greater City, but I'm afraid it's a losing battle. I've never seen anything like it. No wonder Keegan was so enamored when he wrote to me all those months ago.

HELP comps line the streets like the old road signs back home. Various citizens stand at the comps, gliding their fingers over them. I step to an empty one and tap the screen. It glows to life, and small squares dot the screen.
Movies. Directions. Transport Schedule. Training Schedule.
The list of options goes on and on. This is very different from my own HELP comp. The words and the glowing confuse me.

I tap a square and the screen changes. My own picture fills the comp. It's me staring back at myself. How is this happening?

A tiny dot in the upper right corner of the screen catches my eye. It flashes red and I can't stop the shiver that shakes me. The red dot is watching me?

Greater City is not good. I need to keep this at the front of my mind, but it's hard when so many new sights are clamoring for the space. I force my feet to move away.

The people here have healthy, round faces. Most of them smile and laugh, and their walk is relaxed instead of clipped. They don't have a care in the world.

It's the opposite of what I'm used to—people hoping to make it home before curfew, hoping to not run out of food before the end of the week, hoping to not get caught.

I pass one block, two blocks, three blocks. The Training Dome rises from the ground like a mammoth. It's a huge half circle sticking out of the ground, made entirely of shining metal. I've never seen anything like it.

Government Headquarters
is painted in graceful, curving letters. A fence and gate surround the building. Obviously, only certain people are allowed inside the government buildings. I am one of them.

As I come closer, I see several smaller buildings behind the larger one. It's an entire campus. It reminds me of the campus back home, the one I crossed when I went to find Fischer the night of my promotion. I cling to this simple resemblance.

What is Fischer doing today? Working at the hospital? Helping someone else who has the mutation?

It is most likely he was sent away. Supreme Moon must know Fischer was involved in the rebellion. He seems to know everything.

My stomach drops as I realize he may not have known, not until yesterday when they watched my dreams. Where will they send him?

I take a shaky breath and turn away from the Dome, back toward my apartment. Fischer told me to keep trying. Trying for what? Looking for Mom, maybe, or spreading the gospel. I'm not sure which.

Those are the things I need to focus on, that and helping the Lessers.

My schoolgirl goal seems a thousand lifetimes ago. How can I help anyone? I don't believe in our society anymore. I don't believe in what we do. Helping the Lessers seems like wrapping a small, square bandage over a gaping, circular wound.

I reach my apartment and hurry up the stairs. My breaths come in short, burning puffs by the time I reach the top.

I quietly close the door to the stairwell and nudge the tree back in place, and then I walk casually to my own apartment. Supreme Moon thinks he can keep me locked up with a simple fingerprint scanner. He was wrong.

I turn the corner and stop, nearly tripping over my own feet. A guard waits outside my door. This one doesn't carry a small, electronic pad. He doesn't look menacing or angry. In fact, he seems respectful with his hands clasped behind his back, his shoulders loose.

He turns and sees me. “Miss Norfolk, the Great Supreme has requested a visit with you. Won't you come with me?”

 

 

 

 

5

 

The ride through the city is quiet. The transporter zips up and down the streets, and I watch the people as we fly by. The guard says nothing, and he doesn't even look uncomfortable.

Whatever it is, it can't be that bad. I hope.

At the capitol building, my mouth falls open as I stare toward the sky. I didn't know such tall buildings existed. It literally reaches into the clouds, and it seems to be made of a solid sheet of glass.

We climb from the transporter and head toward the building. I study the guard as we walk. He is tall, with broad shoulders and short-cropped, brown hair. He's the epitome of what a soldier would look like in any story book I ever read. He wears the brown guard uniform, the same one the guards at home wear. The only thing to set him apart is a red band of material wrapped around his right, upper sleeve.
G.C.
is embroidered on the band in black letters.

Inside the building, the guard takes us to a security desk. He speaks with the woman in charge for a moment, then leads me to what at first looks like an elevator. The shaft is glass, though, and I don't see a platform.

The guard steps in then waits for me. His eyebrows go up, like he's waiting for me but isn't sure what the holdup is.

I glance at the floor again, hoping to see something resembling the elevator in my apartment building. Slowly, I step inside. The guard pushes a button marked
102
. I gape at the number. One hundred and two floors?

The door slides closed and a whooshing sound builds in the air. My hair begins to blow and I take a sharp breath.

The guard frowns. “You've been in a vac chamber before, haven't you?”

I shake my head spastically, my panic growing.

“Just—”

His sentence is cut off as we go shooting through the air. My stomach drops all the way to the sewers below the city, and the air moves so quickly that my eyes dry out. I close them, hoping I don't crash into something. I try to lift my hands to my face, but I can't seem to move them at all. The inertia of the flight has me frozen in place.

My guard! I peel open my eyes and glance at him. He is perfectly calm, his hands at his side, his eyes closed.

I close mine again and pray for the ride to end.

The pressure drops the moment we reach the correct floor. I'm not prepared for it, and I fall in a heap on the carpeted floor that has appeared beneath us.

The guard kneels down to help me. “Are you OK?”

“What was that thing?” I demand.

“A vac chamber. It's an easier mode of transportation. I had assumed you'd been in one before.”

I shake my head furiously. “No, I just came to the city three days ago.”

His eyes fill with compassion. “I'm sorry. I should have asked. Are you OK?” He helps me to my feet and I wobble, but then I find my balance.

“I'm fine, I think. I don't understand what that thing does.”

“The air moves you,” he says.

I want to snap at him, but he's being too nice. Instead I press my lips closed.

“Are you ready?” he asks.

I take a shaky breath and nod. My hair is probably a mess, but I guess that's the least of my worries. He leads me down a long hallway that ends in an alcove. A waiting area sits on the left and a door to the right. The door is guarded by a woman at a desk. Her face lights up as soon as she sees us.

“Hi, Nev.” She smiles at him, eagerly leaning forward.

He smiles back and steps toward her. “I was given orders to bring her to Supreme Moon.”

The woman nods but makes no move to let Supreme Moon know we're here. The guard—whose name, apparently, is Nev—steps closer to the desk. They laugh and talk quietly for a few minutes. They must know each other well. By the looks of it, they also like each other well.

I turn away, not wanting to intrude on their private moment.

The view out the windows on the left is breathtaking. Literally. I move closer to the glass and glance down, which is a big mistake. I realize how far into the sky we stand, and sudden fear strikes me.

Swallowing hard, I push the idea of a long fall toward death from my mind and turn around. The guard notices me and quickly straightens up.

The woman's laughing features disappear. “You can go on in. Supreme Moon is waiting.” She presses a button and the door behind her slides open.

I glance between the two of them, but whatever friendship they share isn't meant to be shared with me.

Guard Nev leads me through the door and into Supreme Moon's office. The Great Supreme sits behind a huge desk in the center of the room. Again I am struck by how big everything in this city is. The room is mostly empty. Three walls are taken up with the glittering windows and the fourth wall with bookshelves. Two chairs sit on my side of the desk, and to the left is a small buffet table with fruits and vegetables. Dad would inspect them, if he were here.