Deliverance (4 page)

“You may go,” Supreme Moon says.

Guard Nev nods and leaves the room.

I stand in the wide, open space, staring at Supreme Moon. He wouldn't demote me, not this early. Will he revoke my allowances? I may have enjoyed my first and last hot bath.

The room is eerily silent. I watch him, letting all of my memories flow through my mind—memories of Mom being taken; memories of Dad's face, full of disappointment; memories of running for my life as Mr. Elders was killed.

“I had hoped I wouldn't be seeing you so soon,” he says. He remains in his chair, his fingers poised in a triangle near his chin.

I clear my throat. “The feeling is mutual.”

His serious face changes instantly, and he throws back his head and laughs. “That's why I like you, Hana. You've got spunk. Very few people have been bold enough to speak to me that way.”

His words surprise me, but I work to hide it.

He watches me, waiting, and when I don't speak he goes on. “Sindy informed you that you weren't to leave your room, I presume.”

“She did.”

“And yet, here we are.”

He obviously wants an explanation. What to say? Implying that I'll do whatever I want doesn't seem to be the right thing.

I consider my end goal. Finding Mom and Jamie is at the top of my list, and finding Christians in this city is next. If I'm cooped up in my apartment all the time, then that will never happen. I will never learn what the blinking lights are, or see Fischer again.

Being defiant won't get Supreme Moon to give me my freedom.

“I was curious,” I explain. “Greater City is very different from Middle City 3. I wanted to explore the huge buildings and see the transporters. I wanted to see the people who I've been told are so great. I just wanted to see.”

He considers my words. Does he believe them? They're true, at least partially.

Emotions play across his face and it strikes me that he's not a very good liar. He doesn't believe me—so maybe I'm not a very good liar, either.

“From now on you may come and go as you please. There is no curfew in Greater City; however, there are rules that must be obeyed. You cannot leave the city without permission. Your travel allowances must be pre-approved. And I will keep my eye on you, Hana. Don't try anything foolish. You were brought here for a reason.”

Again I wonder what that reason is. I get the feeling that Supreme Moon is keeping something from me—something that pertains to me, specifically.

The door behind me slides open and a guard enters. He doesn't bother waiting to be invited in. Instead he walks with clipped steps to Supreme Moon's side. He leans down and whispers into the Great Supreme's ear. Supreme Moon's nostrils flare and he nods slightly.

Something is wrong.

They talk quietly, facing away from me, but I manage to catch a few words.
Dissention
stands out to me.

Before I have time to process this, the guard leaves. Supreme Moon turns his attention back to me.

“That being said.” He goes on as if we were never interrupted. “I don't trust you. You apparently have too much free time on your hands. I am arranging for your training to begin tomorrow. You will report to the Training Dome by nine o'clock in the morning.“

Exploring the city will have to wait. “I understand.”

“You may go now. I will not ask Guard Nev to escort you home, but see that you make it there.”

I nod and turn to go, but then I pause. I glance at Supreme Moon uncertainly, weighing my next question. “Were my tests helpful to you?” I hold my breath as I wait for his answer, knowing full well that he might not tell me the truth, anyway.

His emotionless mask settles firmly into place, and he shifts away from me. “I saw a girl full of puppy love who wants nothing but to find her mother. You should be very happy to know that the tests were not helpful in the least.”

 

 

 

 

6

 

After a terrifying ride back to ground floor in the vac chamber, it is a long and solitary walk home.

I don't mind at all. Unlike the spoiled Greaters, I am used to walking everywhere I go. The weather in Greater City is very pleasant—not too hot or too cool—and yesterday I saw a lake from my apartment windows.

Supreme Moon's words replay in my mind as I go. He knows I'm hiding something. Why isn't he more forceful with me? There was no cajoling with Jamie when she got pregnant. They took her away without a second glance. He didn't hesitate to send Mom to a Lesser hospital when her medical allowances ran out. Why is he letting me get away with so much?

Someone bumps into me, knocking my left shoulder backwards. “I'm sorry,” I mutter, but he doesn't notice. He's already five feet down the path and swallowed up by the masses.

People come and go, as they always seem to be doing here. I wonder about them—do some of them have menial jobs like shop keeper or hospital janitor? If not, who does those things? In Middle City 3, being a shop keeper is a place that is respected, but many janitors are Lessers who have been shipped in to do the work.

Surely they don't bring Lessers here.

I want to know the ins and outs of this city. Every alleyway, every nook, every cranny. That is the only way I will find answers, but looking for those things is out of the question now, with Supreme Moon watching me so closely. The best way to get what I want is to play by his rules—go to my training, walk the straight and narrow—but I won't leave it at that. There must be a way to get around the machines that seem to be watching my every move.

One thing still nags me—Fischer's message in my dream:
Keep trying.
It was only a dream. My own imagination. But it felt so real. How am I supposed to do what he says if I can't get out and search?

One of my first goals needs to be finding Christians in this city. I have to believe there are at least a few. I need someone who can tell me the things I haven't learned—I know about Jesus Christ, but I don't understand how to trust him or how to tell others about him.

Once I reach my apartment building, I slip inside and head straight for the stairwell. The jog up is just as hard as it was earlier in the day, but I know from experience that it will get easier.

At the seventh floor, I open the door as quietly as I can and step out of the stairwell. The tree can stay to the side because I think I'll be taking the stairs from now on.

“What are you doing in there?”

The voice makes me spin around, afraid of seeing another guard so soon. A girl with wide eyes stares at me. Her long, golden curls wrap around her face in a pretty cascade. She's my own age.

I consider what to say. “I like the stairs.”

She frowns. “Why?”

I give a small laugh and shrug. “Just do.” I glance around, but she's alone. “Do you live here?”

“Three doors down,” she says, pointing past my own door. “Technically I live with my mom, but she's always gone on business, and so I'm mostly here alone.”

“I'm alone, too,” I say.

“I'm Kassy.”

“It's nice to meet you. I'm Hana. Maybe I'll see you later.” And maybe I'll have a friend, after all.

She smiles and lets me pass. I glance at her one last time before stepping inside my apartment.

The change is immediately apparent. Pillows lay prettily on my bed, arranged exactly as they were my first day here. The clock sits on my bedside table, uncovered.

A chill races up my arms. Someone was here.

My first instinct is tossing the clock out the window and watching it smash into a million pieces, but it probably won't do any good. Supreme Moon will send something else to replace it. Next time he might not even wait until I'm gone to do it.

Paranoia ripples through me. What if he's watching me from a different angle with some other device in the room? I scan my apartment for other blinking lights, but I don't see any. I'm not foolish enough to believe that means there's nothing here, though. Can the HELP comp watch me even if I don't turn it on?

I take several deep breaths. There's nothing I can do about it right now. I force my thoughts to things I can control.

I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in hours. I dig through the food left at lunchtime. Inside a cooler I find a sandwich and an apple, and I sit at the table to eat.

After my meal I move to the window to watch the fascinating traffic.

Traffic. It's a word I only know from books. It's hard to believe there is traffic right here on the streets below me, only a few hundred miles from my own home town. What other splendors does Greater City hold that I haven't yet learned? What lies beyond the buildings I can see from my window?

The thought makes me pause.

What lies past the city's boundaries? We were taught in school about the enemies who destroyed our once-prosperous nation, but what kind of world is it today? Are there others out there? Other people who are suffering or prosperous?

Do they know about God?

Sadness wraps around me like a fog as I consider all the people out there who might be wondering about life after death like Mom was--like I was.

The evening passes slowly. I brought one book from home—the Bible Fischer gave me. I'm too afraid to bring it out of my bag, especially since I know Supreme Moon can see me.

I go to bed at exactly ten o'clock, just because old habits are hard to break.

The dreary feelings from the night have vanished by morning. I slept surprisingly well, and I climb from bed. There's no time for a long, luxurious bath. I have a purpose today; a place to be. I yank my hair into a ponytail and pull on the clothes provided for me by the Greaters. What will I find inside the Training Dome?

I'm anxious to learn, in spite of myself. It's hard to squelch the feelings of wanting to help the Lessers when I've been working toward it for years.

I jog down the stairs and hurry outside. Pigeons peck at the ground, and they don't even skitter as I walk through their fold. I notice more today than yesterday. Shops dot the sidewalks between the big buildings. They hawk everything from flowers to shoes. If I don't get allowances, how do I buy things? Surely the shop owners don't give me anything I want just because I'm inside the store.

The Training Dome rises from the ground like the sun. The metal glimmers in the sunlight, making the world almost sparkle. I walk to the gate and stop at the guard station. “I'm here to report for training.”

“Name?” The guard is eating some kind of biscuit, and he doesn't even look at me. It's doubtful that anyone ever tries to sneak inside the government training center.

“Hana Norfolk.”

He punches a few buttons on his sleek HELP comp—it's nothing like the ancient computer Fischer used in Middle City 3—and then he pushes a different button. The gate swings open.

“Thank you,” I say. He grunts but still doesn't look at me.

Arguably, anyone could saunter up to this gate and give my name, and they would be allowed inside.

Back home we lived in fear at every turn. The carefree attitude of the Greaters is disturbing. They don't have to worry about things like the mutation or running out of food, or anything else, apparently.

I stomp through the gate and all the way inside the dome. The interior stops me in my tracks. The entry of the building is vast and open, and even though the outside looks like opaque metal, from the inside I can see everything going on in the outside world.

Hallways and vac chambers are suspended above me by what looks like nothing but must be some sort of suspension ropes. A huge HELP comp sits in the middle of the room, ready for anyone to find the information they seek.

To the right, another guard sits behind a desk, and this one is more adept. He asks me to scan my fingerprint for identification verification.

“You are to report to room 314. It's on the third floor.”

“Thank you,” I mumble.

The room number reminds me of Fischer and his dorm room. It reminds me of the faint pain I still have in my ankle from falling off of the ledge of his building the night I learned I would be promoted—the night he caressed my face.

When I reach the vac chamber, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Who invented this thing, and why does anyone think it's a good idea? It's only three flights—I would rather walk the stairs.

I take another deep breath and step inside, then push the number three. Mimicking Guard Nev as the air starts to blow, my arms hang by my sides and I relax my shoulders.

The air shoots me upward and my breath catches.

Unlike the agonizing ride to the one hundred and second floor of Supreme Moon's building, this ride is over almost as soon as it begins. I step out of the vac chamber, brush my hair back into place, and congratulate myself for not collapsing when the floor reappeared.

A few trainees move through the halls. No one looks at me, so I hurry past them to find my room. Room 314 is the seventh door on the right, and I turn inside.

Instead of rows of desks like the school back home, this room is open. Tables with various machines on them dot the space, and only one other person occupies the room. He's an older man with a graying beard, and he smiles at me when he notices me standing in the doorway.

“You must be Hana.” He stands from behind his work station and walks toward me. “I'm Professor Higgins.”

“It's nice to meet you,” I say. He's holding his hand out, so, obviously, he shakes.

His hand is warm and his smile is friendly as he pumps my hand up and down twice before letting go.

“Are there other students?” I glance around at the empty tables.

“Not today,” he says. “I'm supposed to get in your head and find out what makes you tick.”

I pause, not sure how to respond, but then he laughs.

“I just want time to learn your ideas. I hear you're one of our most promising students this year, and when I learned I would have some one-on-one time with you, I was thrilled.”