Death Thieves (34 page)

“Yes, dear?”

“I need to hire a car.” I tried to sound confident. People who hired cars had to be confident. I’d already been yelled at for the little adventure with Jay and hiring cars.

Kathleen lifted an eyebrow and set down the tray of flower arrangements for the dining tables she’d been holding. “A car, Summer? Where will you need to go that you would need a car?”

My plans had to sound important and had to be truthful because they could track where I went with my IDR anyway. “I’m going to visit Professor Raik.”

She took in a small sharp breath, and her head barely moved in what might have been a shake of disapproval if she hadn’t caught herself. “What is your business with Professor Raik that you should need to see him without him sending for you?”

I tilted my chin in defiance. I was the New Youth after all. I didn’t need to answer to anyone. “It’s personal.”

She stiffened. “Of course. Why don’t you come back here with me while I make the arrangements? That way you’ll have somewhere to sit and rest.”

I followed her behind her counter to her break room. She motioned me to sit at a red plush chair in the corner by a small table. I sat. She maneuvered to her lapdesk and continued to cast hasty glances in my direction before muttering under her breath, scraping back her chair and standing abruptly. “No, I won’t!”

“What?” I stared at her in disbelief. Did she really just tell me no?

“This may get me ex-ed, and I just don’t care. I think I know what you’re doing going to see that man. You won’t accomplish anything—not that way. And you’ll lose yourself there. That man’ll never let you go. You won’t help anyone by going like this.”

My heart raced and I stood, too, trying to slip toward the direction of the door.
She knew? She knew what my plans were?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What do you think I’m trying to accomplish?”

She placed herself between me and the door and crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. The scowl along with that severe bun made her almost as frightening as a soldier with a charged weapon. “Don’t play the fool with me. I’ve been on his orders to watch you since you got here. He almost sent you back like he did a few of the others in the beginning. They weren’t submissive. They weren’t vain or desperate enough to live to take part in this scheme.”

My mouth had dropped open. “Sent me back? They were going to send me back?” My chest tightened around the pain in my heart.
I could’ve gone back.

Her eyes softened. “No, dear, not like that. No one goes back and gets a second chance with their lives. Going back means they send another soldier back to just before whatever accident took your life. The second soldier informs the first that the mission is to be aborted. Whatever happened to take your life will happen on schedule. Those sent back weren’t to be considered lucky.”

“But they didn’t send me back.” I shook my head realizing there was no way around her. I’d have to play the part of a New Youth so she would drop her suspicions. “Because I deserve to be here. I’m the elite. I—”

Kathleen let out a grunt of disapproval. “Oh stop! You don’t believe that. I told you I’ve been watching you from the beginning, keeping track of where you go, who you talk to. Professor Raik doesn’t trust you. He lets you stay because you’re intelligent and strong and those are attractive traits. If you go to him like a sacrificial lamb, he’ll have no problem slaughtering you. You already know he’s capable.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I saw Jay Savage come to your room the other night. Are my assumptions right about why he was there?”

“You haven’t told me what your assumptions are,” I said carefully.

“The marrieds were all separated, secreted away, and then they lost their babies. Why wouldn’t they keep these people together so that any offspring they create would grow up together, intermarry, and create more offspring? Why would they all lose their babies when nothing was wrong with any of them? Jay knows about the babies, doesn’t he?”

Careful. I had to be careful. But I was also so afraid, and her questions jumbled my senses. I stared at her black skirt.

Her hand went to my chin, and she forced me to look at her. “You’re not like them. Your heart is good. If you want to help Jay and Jennifer, then you can’t face him directly. He’s crazy, you know.”

The word crazy made me jerk my chin from her hand.

“Don’t act surprised. You know it’s true. That man walks an unstable line. You go to him and you will lose yourself.”

I threw my arms up in the air. “So what am I supposed to do?”

“Every fine home has a service entrance. And I happen to know the people who take care of that house.” She smiled. In that smile, I made up my mind to trust her.

I told her my whole plan. “Tonight’s too soon!” She insisted when I tried to get her to go with me immediately. “The only servers in his house after dark are cooks, and not one of his cooks is friendly enough to help you; plus, he’ll be home. You don’t want him home while you snoop about. Wait until morning. Be patient.”

Patience wasn’t my best virtue, if I could count it as a virtue at all. Sleeping was impossible, and I had to pull out my sun quilt after Alison had started snoring. That did the trick and soon it was morning. I acted sick so Alison would get ready and leave without me. Then I hurried to dress myself, repacked my backpack, and waited for Kathleen to fetch me.

Part of me feared she was setting me up, and it took every ounce of effort not jump up and run away on my own.

When the door glowed green and Kathleen appeared, I half expected a small army of soldiers to be with her.

She was alone and looked as nervous as I felt.

“I’ve done some looking into things, just in case he keeps things in his office here. I didn’t find anything, so it must be all at his house. I know some people handy with the IDR access who broke into his lapdesk. He doesn’t keep anything much there except student schedules and other things that don’t help. That means everything you need is physical—real paper and the like. That man may be crazy, but he’s smart enough to know how vulnerable the lapdesk access is to anyone with a whit of skill. I’d hoped we could keep you out of his house altogether, but it looks like you’ll have to go in.”

I nodded, anxiously awaiting her to lead the way, but she stopped me. “Leave your ring here. The IDR won’t grant you access to the dark and will alert to those watching that you’re trying to go into unauthorized areas.”

I yanked the ring off my finger, placed it under my pillow, and followed her to the dining hall. We didn’t go through the doors I typically used—the ones all the New Youths used. We went through the door that led to the kitchens. Dennis was there.

“Den, I got a package for you to deliver to your girlfriend’s mum.”

Dennis wiped his hands on the front of his food-stained white smock and looked up to find me there. He immediately shook his head and backed away. “Last time I took her to the dark levels, Natalie got tased.”

“Yes, well this time, you’d better be more careful because if anything happens to Summer, you’ll wish it was a just a good tasing you’d get.”

“What’s Natalie’s mum got to do with her?” He’d picked up a chopping knife and deftly sliced a carrot into little orange coins. He’d started another one when Kathleen grabbed his hand away from the chopping block.

“She needs to get into the professor’s house. She just needs information. It’s not like she’ll be taking anything he’d notice was gone. No one will know she’s ever been there. No one will get caught or into trouble.”

I didn’t mention that I’d gathered my things in case I couldn’t come back, in case I did get caught and needed to run. Dennis looked skittish about the whole idea as it was.

When Dennis consented, Kathleen turned back to me. “Good luck.”

“Why are you helping me?”

A shadow fell over her face, and her lower lip tightened against the upper one. “I lost two little girls to testing day.”

I nodded. The words
testing day
said everything that needed saying. That very first day Kathleen had indicated a great hope in the New Youth. If she now knew the professor was using that hope to make his own life more comfortable, she must be really angry.

Dennis took off his apron. “I’d better hurry. If we’re gone too long, you’ll be wrong about no one being in trouble—
I’ll
be in trouble.”

I threw my arms around Kathleen’s neck. “Thank you for helping me. You know, you remind me of my aunt Theresa.”

She smiled as though she understood the compliment I never thought I’d place in such words.

***

“Keep up!” Dennis called as he led me deep into the dark levels. I felt like I’d walked down enough stairs to reach the earth’s core.

We entered a wide cobbled sort of street off a narrow alleyway. It felt like we were in a neighborhood at nighttime, not in some weird underground sewage system. He knocked on the third door to the left. The knock made a tinging noise since the door was made from thin rusted tin sheeting. Natalie opened the door and nearly bowled him over in an embrace. “Did you tell them you were sick? How did you get off work?” Then she saw me and dropped her arms so she could fold them over her shirt that glowed an odd bluish white in the light over their door. “What’s going on?”

“We need to talk to your mum.” Dennis looked genuinely sorry to be standing there making such a request.

Natalie eyed us both before widening the gap of the doorway and letting us in.

Natalie’s mom, Maggie, shook her head to say no and shook her fists to say absolutely no. At least until I told her about the babies.

“Babies born naturally . . . and here I’d thought the world was about to end, when you’re telling me it’s just starting over.” She grabbed a bright white apron and placed it over my head. “Raik’s housedressers always wear these. You’ll stand out showing up without it.” She also made me wear a hat to cover my natural brown hair.

Dennis had gone as soon as he’d relayed his message to Maggie. I silently wished him well as he made his way back to the world in the sky.

Maggie gathered a few other things and we set off. We took several derelict elevators going to various degrees of up. She’d apparently had better clearance than Dennis because he hadn’t had access to very many elevators at all. Like Dennis, Maggie barked out orders to pick up my feet and keep up. “If I’m late, there’ll be questions!” She insisted. Once we reached a level she called topside but still seemed like the dark hallways of the cities under the earth, we caught a train.

“He’s almost always gone until five on weekdays.” She coached me on how many precious minutes I’d have. How I should keep my head down and not speak to anyone if I ran into them. “And don’t touch anything you don’t need to, and absolutely don’t take anything out of the house. I can’t have trouble for my family, understand me?”

I nodded and agreed and tried not to catch her paranoia.

We exited the train and entered a for-hire car. The car took us to Professor Raik’s mansion, settling in the back close to some sheds. A couple of men moved in the garden area beyond the pond, but they didn’t bother to look up beyond a passing glance at the car arriving.

Once the car had taken off, Maggie set off for a small door at the back of the house. “Stay close to me. You aren’t getting in without me and my IDR,” she said in a low voice. “Once we’re inside, I’ll take you to his office. I won’t come back for you for forty-five minutes. His office is the only door in his house that requires an IDR for entrance and exit. You’d better be ready when I come for you because I won’t be giving a second chance by coming back for you.” I nodded even though I walked behind her and she couldn’t see me. I hoped it wouldn’t take forty-five minutes to find where the regents’ apartments were.

We crossed the main hall, where his big party had been held, to a hallway with several doors, his office was the last door straight back. I bounced on my toes a little as Maggie swept her hand over it and it glowed green. “Remember,” she said for the tenth time. “Don’t touch anything you don’t need and don’t take anything! None of the other housedressers have access to this room, so my entire family will be at risk if you get caught. Don’t get caught.” She gave a short nod to indicate she meant business and closed me inside.

I turned to face the office and grunted. The huge room would take hours to search. There were as many shelves in here as there had been in his library upstairs. And they were all full. The shelves seemed too daunting, so I made for the desk first.

The long top drawer held nothing interesting. An old fashioned fountain pen and ink pot sat in a thin marbled case. I snorted at that. Who did the guy think he was? King George? There was a key chain with a chunk of amber dangling at the end. A couple of real keys also dangled from the amber key chain. No one used real keys anymore.

I sifted through his belongings: the letter opener shaped like a dagger, and the odd paperweight shaped like an Egyptian scarab beetle, cough drops, packs of gum, and a few electronic things that could have been anything.

Nothing.

I cursed under my breath, furrowed my brow, and went for the second drawer. He had real paper files here. I opened a few of them, but nothing looked interesting except the one at the back that had a patent seal. It looked like an invention of some sort and had Raik’s name at the top. So was the man a frustrated inventor? I shoved the file back in the drawer. Who cared who the man was or what he wanted. I made a vow not to get lost in anything else I might find until I found the information Jay needed.

I kept that promise through the third drawer, ignoring the files with several names of marrieds and not quite yet marrieds that I knew personally. I kept that promise right up until at the very back I found a file with my name.

I forgot the promise immediately.

“What’s this?” I lifted the file out of the drawer and spread it open on the desk. It had Tag’s report of my life, all the information about who I was, what I liked and didn’t like, my test scores, my grades, my blood type, my physical exam records, news clippings of the accident and the coroner report. Tag had said many times to me in those few days we were together, “When you died in that accident . . .” But I hadn’t really felt dead until reading the news clippings of the accident, my obituary, the coroner’s report. “I really am dead,” I whispered.