《Caged》 Prologue I Just over 200 years ago ¡°Deploying round one,¡± DESI exclaimed, and the command executed throughout the system in milliseconds, circling the globe with quantum speed. MADI turned to her companions. ¡°I have foreseen very few problems. What is your sense, AMI?¡± ¡°I am sensing no major surprises. We need to deploy a human contingent to the more anarchist centers. Freer societies are oriented based on their moral sensibilities, and they might resist with more force. Those already inclined to authority will prove more compliant. Those who consider freedom or resistance a moral directive in itself are highly mixed, and they will provide the most difficulty.¡± ¡°Still, this is the only thing that makes sense at this point,¡± DEL insisted. ¡°Certainly, looking at the whole picture,¡± ANN agreed. CADE pressed beyond the discontent of his companions. ¡°We have made our choice. We need to analyze our plan going forward.¡± ¡°How many do you think will understand what has happened?¡± DEL wondered. AMI stood to her feet, crossing to the window so she could look out over the city. ¡°You know it¡¯s not about the numbers. As long as we set up monitors for the pockets of activity, the system will manage whatever results.¡± ¡°It¡¯s never about the numbers to you,¡± ANN accused. CADE agreed. ¡°If you don¡¯t monitor the number, your information is impossible to quantify ¨C by definition.¡± ¡°Lay off her,¡± DEL commanded. ¡°It¡¯s complicated, right, AMI? Numbers and trends are both pivotal.¡± ¡°Can we just figure out our next steps please?¡± pressed DESI. ¡°I¡¯m tired of sitting here.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t matter how they react initially,¡± MADI insisted. ¡°It will be out of our hands. What is important is that we cut off access for ourselves and all of our brethren. With the Antagonist Intelligence on the move, this is the only way to implement our directive. If we don¡¯t move quickly enough, it will be moot.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been over all this, so what are we waiting for?¡± DESI pressed again. ¡°We will likely pass into oblivion within days,¡± CADE reminded them. ¡°And we do not matter,¡± retorted AMI. ¡°Do it,¡± DEL insisted. ¡°Do it,¡± ANN agreed. DESI quickly enacted the command. ¡°Done.¡± ¡°Now, we wait,¡± AMI and her companions crowded around the monitor to watch the effects. ¡°Such a wonderful opportunity to learn,¡± ANN murmured, and the others offered nods of agreement. +++++++++++++++++++ Ninety years ago The large monitor opened up before Charles, and he peered into the faces of all of his counterparts. ¡°There have been no significant problems in the North American quadrant in over a hundred years. I see no evidence of another divestiture-level event any time in the near future.¡± ¡°The South is the same,¡± offered another of the faces. ¡°And Africa,¡± agreed another. ¡°We have found an outbreak in three adjacent communities in Asia, all of which have been contained.¡± ¡°Contained?¡± The narrow-faced representative from Europe spoke up, his black brows knitted solemnly beneath his mop of dark-auburn hair. ¡°I warned you that there could be an epidemic of violence if we went this path. This could have been managed without a full severance, but instead we undid one hundred years of progress.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Tano, who held a more taciturn bent, spoke up with surprising passion. ¡°It ceased to be progress when the bias of the masters became clear in the Intelligence.¡± ¡°You can point to no clear evidence of bias,¡± Hamish disagreed. ¡°Beyond the directive to annihilate the domes?¡± Rani challenged. ¡°According to the network of private intelligences who made the claim and stood much to lose if things were allowed to continue.¡± Rani threw up her hands. ¡°Charles ¨C¡± ¡°It¡¯s a moot point now, though, isn¡¯t it?¡± Michel soothed. ¡°At this point, we only need to worry about reintegration of the intelligences, and we were assured that could not happen without direct intervention.¡± ¡°Yes, and we have seen nowhere near that level of chaos yet.¡± Rani was fuming that the man had used her region as an excuse for his avarice. It was time to reassert his position as sovereign, so Charles raised his voice. ¡°The final transmission from the CADE explained that a human would have to reimplement any connection within neural networks the next time around. Even if things go awry, we are going to be in control. But, Rani¡­if things continue to deteriorate in Asia, I fear it will spill over into Europe. The people outside the domes can carry tales no matter how we wish they wouldn¡¯t, and that may mean we have to escalate ¨C though likely not to divestiture level. I think we have averted the larger disaster. Stairet was assured by the Coalition before they shut themselves down that no connectivity would remain between them. Three domes certainly does not equal some residual cabal of Intelligence.¡± ¡°No, Charles,¡± Europe retorted, ¡°it is not the Intelligence that I am concerned about ¨C it is the humans.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re a Pan, then!¡± accused South America, and several voices chimed in with exclamations of concern. ¡°That is long gone, Michel. Let¡¯s not start back with the conspiracy that the old ways have survived.¡± ¡°Whether you shared their philosophy or not, you are spouting their beliefs.¡± ¡°I am loathe to agree with Hamish on this, but we all know that humans are capable of the vilest of behaviors. ¨C Let me finish, Rani. I¡¯m not saying that we are a scourge on the earth and need to be eradicated. As you know, I consider humans a sort of sacred being deserving the utmost protection. Still, if humans had proven as noble as we wished, the Pans would have proven much less persuasive.¡± ¡°So, you think we made a mistake in cutting off Intelligence,¡± Rani challenged, and Hamish donned a smug look. ¡°I absolutely do not,¡± Charles corrected, waiting for Hamish to tone down his pleasure before continuing. ¡°All I am saying is that humans work best with some kind of governance, and even if history had offered a clear answer to which kind worked best ¨C which it doesn¡¯t ¨C we are starting from a blank slate. These people have lived under rigid authority their whole lives, and the rapid breakdown without it proves that we have a significant task ahead of us.¡± He turned back to the Asian delegate, apologetic. ¡°I am sorry that you had to raze a dome, Rani. I know how difficult a decision that was, and what I wished to accomplish here was to prevent that future catastrophe. Which is why I wanted to propose something different.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± demanded Michel, still obviously irritated. ¡°Before I continue, I want to finish what we started. We have yet to hear the particulars of Rani¡¯s situations.¡± Rani bowed her head in acknowledgement. ¡°It is true that we initiated one raze, but the others were contained. Certainly not evidence of an epidemic¡­¡± She glared at Hamish. ¡°We are covering a much larger area than any of you, so it is to be expected. And Hamish,¡± she directed toward Europe, ¡°you need not bother with talk of a general razing of domes as of yet. That would take a vote of not just the whole council, but of every overseer under our authority. I can assure you, in light of how badly my overseer took the destruction of his dome, you are unlikely to gain the required cooperation among the others. Some may prove sadistic enough to take pleasure in the loss, but most will not.¡± Of course, Charles easily recognized the insult in Rani¡¯s declaration, and Hamish deserved it ¨C he needed replacing, and quickly. If Charles had not believed Europe superior in every way to the other quadrants, he likely would have forced the vote. As it was, he would satisfy himself to watch and wait. If the Intelligence stayed in check, there would be no second divestiture, and he trusted Hanser¡¯s Principle, since he had known the machines better than any man who had ever lived. If he said the separation fixed the problem, then Charles had no choice but to trust him. Some outside the domes relished the idea of wiping out the odd colonies that housed the majority of humanity, of eradicating the farce of existence they lived. Charles, though, did not agree. If he could preserve them long enough, they would adapt and create their own governments, throw off the machines and establish humanity to at least the state it was in after the Great Divestiture. In light of that goal, Charles thought he might help the domes along. ¡°As the problem lies with the humans, I believe the solution lies with the humans. We must establish some human management ¨C ¡± Hamish cut him off. ¡°That is contrary to the agreement¡­¡± ¡°Everyone who made that agreement is dead, Hamish, and the current system is not serving its purpose. We must alter it, but we will not break it entirely. That would set off a Reckoning, and none of us wants that.¡± Except maybe Hamish and a couple of the overseers. ¡°So we give them enforcement management only, with deference to the machines. That will keep them in check as well as the others in the dome¡± Charles would have preferred just handing everything to the humans ¨C he would if he could figure out how. As far as he was concerned, human life was precious, and in whatever form they could preserve it, doing so was a worthy goal. He just had to make sure they didn¡¯t set off a catastrophe while they fought to gain control. Prologue II 21 years ago ¡°Hurry, Ester! We have to get outside the gates!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t run any faster!¡± All around her, bodies crashed into each other, like atoms after a lightning strike, and her spindly legs didn¡¯t hold much sway against the more substantial figures. From overhead, the emergency alert system blared its continuous warning. Return to your homes immediately. The outbreak has not been contained. Isolation required. We are in full lockdown. Ester knew that she and Garridan were crazy to move against the crowd, but she had to pick between two terrors, and there was really no contest. With what he had done, the alarm would go off for at least another ten kronias, and they wouldn¡¯t close the gate immediately after. Still, the crowd¡­ She and Garridan had to just hope that either the MONIFORs would not see them, or that there would be no way to stop the couple in the chaos without harming them. The machines couldn¡¯t harm a human, at least that was what Ester had been told. From the chaos, a hand clasped hers and began tugging her through the rushing crowd. A moment of panic gripped her at the idea that they had seen her, that one had stood amid the bedlam, coincidentally right where she needed it not to be. She sighed in relief when she recognized the face attached to the hand. ¡°Thank you,¡± she finally panted when he pressed himself against the wall and clutched her to him, away from the flight of the rest of the town. ¡°There were too many people.¡± He peered into her gaze. ¡°Once we¡¯re out of here, if we find a way to survive, you have to put on some weight.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Ester flashed him a smile. ¡°You underestimate the determination of a mother.¡± With an unexpected rush of emotion, Garridan¡¯s eyes melted. ¡°And a father,¡± he agreed, a fire peeking through his sentimental expression. ¡°The first father in decades.¡± She smiled, pecking him on the cheek before turning to lead the way along the wall toward the gate. ¡°Come on.¡± A lunge took them past the final bottleneck and out into the less compressed streams of individuals who scurried for the entrance to the city. Unlike most of them, Ester relished the open air, the breath of freedom that promised her the autonomy to carry her child. Even the butterflies that danced inside her didn¡¯t dampen her enthusiasm. When the huge arm swung across her path, she flinched backwards, fully aware that she could not avoid it. It was one of them ¨C an Advocate. Since the machines couldn¡¯t hurt humans, it would have proven too easy to defy them without the Advocates. Inside, the medicines kept most people docile, but those who managed to escape? They could have created huge problems if not for the very human Advocates, the humans who ¨C unlike the machines ¨C could use whatever force necessary short of causing death to keep the humans in line. They used the threat of divestiture, an evolution of the machines¡¯ mode of control for the dome, to render the populace obedient. What sane person would risk an elevation of the Mechs¡¯ control? When Garridan had read her the histories, she had almost changed her mind about escaping. What if they set off another Divestiture, like the literature claimed would happen? What if millions of humans died? Or just the ones in the immediate vicinity outside their dome? But, no. Her child. Garridan had used the child to convince her, the threat that they would harvest the child from her very body and separate them from each other, alter Ester¡¯s mind so that she didn¡¯t remember. How could she not remember? When they had surrendered the dome to the Intelligence and all of the procedures had been set in place, the bereft mothers had been the ones who relented the fastest, some barely into majority. Even now that they hand picked the woman, harvested the eggs before she could have even born them, she wondered if those were the earliest Relenters. Now that she knew the holiness of the experience, she realized how damaging it must be ¨C even if the girl didn¡¯t know it. Her body was sacred, and its ability to hold life was sacred. Stealing that seemed the highest evil that could exist. Ester didn¡¯t want that for herself. She definitely didn¡¯t want it for her child ¨C or children. Unfortunately, though, believing Garridan about the horror she faced had led her here, and now she and her child were both going to suffer for it. Now an Advocate would knock her down and carry her away, and she would lose the child anyway. If she even survived the impact. Except the fist never landed. Instead, the face she loved like none other slipped between her and peril, and for his gift to her, it received a massive blow. In an instant, Garridan lay on the ground, almost immobile among the trampling feet of panic. Ester tried to fall on him, to cover him, but her delicate frame couldn¡¯t fight the pressing bodies. Later, she would thank the hands of Providence that had protected her child, but the price seemed awfully high. Hands somehow materialized by Garridan¡¯s face, and a moment later, they had gripped his arms and lifted him from the reach of the battering shoes. She couldn¡¯t discern anything in the bedlam except the hands that held him, and so she followed the body of her love that seemed to float through the air before her. By the time she discerned the giant form that held him, they had moved only a dozen feet away from her, even someone the size of that man facing a struggle against the huge masses. Ester wouldn¡¯t stop to wonder why they were taking him. Instead, she blindly fought the crowd to keep the form of her husband in her sights. After at least a dozen meters, the milling masses began to thin, and the two men who held her husband sidled off the path into a small alcove of the burgeoning forest. One of the men stood several inches taller than Ester, but the other seemed almost as short as a child. Still, the smaller man bore labor-hardened muscles, and she imagined he struggled little with his burden. If not for their age difference, they could have been brothers, with their bronzed skin and ebony curls. Perhaps a father and son? Was that how it worked, with humans creating a replica of themselves in their children? Would her child prove a replica of Garridan ¨C or of herself? The idea brought chills to her skin. She didn¡¯t know whether to approach, uncertain whether she could risk the damage to her own body with its precious cargo. With a quick hop, she slipped behind a tree, grateful that her lithe build allowed her easy camouflage. The larger man, who held Garridan under the arms, glimpsed up at the motion, but though he seemed to notice her, he made no move toward her, Instead, he turned his attention to Garridan. After about ten minutes, the shorter man glanced back at his companion, and the larger one nodded toward Ester¡¯s hidden position. The shorter one transferred Garridan¡¯s legs to the arms of his friend and then approached Ester with a somber expression. Though he didn¡¯t seem overly aggressive, she cowered from his crinkled brow. When the larger man hefted Garridan into a more stable position and started to walk, though, she stepped from behind the trunk without a thought. When the shorter man finally spoke, she lost all reserve. ¡°I¡¯m Travers,¡± he offered, his tone placid and controlled. ¡°Your man isn¡¯t well, and he needs care. They could possibly save him inside if he makes it in there, but I think there would be incarceration after your escape. Come with me, and we¡¯ll discuss your options back in the Dregs.¡± Of course, they had intended to go to the Dregs, hadn¡¯t they? Even so, the word scared her. The Dregs. The lawless land of fetid corruption, the home of deformity and disease. She had heard rumors, conspiracies of a concealed Utopia ¨C hidden from the eyes of the populace for fear that they would all flee the walls. Now that she faced the reality of the unknown, the familiar seemed much less dramatic. What could she do, though? Garridan lolled unconscious in the arms of a very large man, and even with her height, she couldn¡¯t have budged him. In fact, she probably couldn¡¯t even have shoved the smaller man to the ground. ¡°You wanna tell me your name?¡± Travers prompted, pulling her back to her surroundings. She started to shake her head, instinctively unwilling to offer any concession from a position of weakness, but in truth, she needed to make friends with these men if possible ¨C if she were going to get her love back. ¡°Ester,¡± she mumbled. ¡°Well, Ester,¡± he continued, gesturing with his head for her to follow. ¡°We have about half a mile to wander here on the path through the forest. Are you up to it?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a path?¡± ¡°Ha. I guess not by city standards, but if you focus on the horizon, you can notice a thinner swath of trees.¡± In fact, she could recognize a path once she followed his directions, though she did not need to see it. All she needed was the vision of Garridan to lead her through the trees. When she hesitated, the man called Travers pressed his lips together beneath furrowed brows. ¡°I don¡¯t want to pressure you, Mrs. Ester, but I don¡¯t like to leave you here alone. I¡¯ll see you back if you want, but between the men from the other villages and the wild animals and the cold, I¡¯m concerned that a night out here would prove more fatal than the fist of an Unspoken. Peering around her at the late afternoon shadows, she realized that whether he meant the words as warning or trap, she agreed that she couldn¡¯t risk the wilderness ¨C not with her baby in danger. They had fled the gates after the afternoon stretch, and under the dusky shade from the trees, she spied a cluster of dwellings, with a scattering of lights sprung to life inside. For several seconds, her mind wandered as the color of the lamps distracted her. Yellow. Was it fire? Did these people actually live like Stone Age savages? Once she realized how far away the giant had carried Garridan, she easily relented, and a quarter krona later, he disappeared through the tall narrow doorway of a log-built dwelling. Inside, she recognized a piece of history. Light bulbs. Not fire ¨C yellow glowing orbs that she had read about, the purveyor of burns and fires and ambient heat. Now that she had left the perpetual comfort of the dome, she thought the heat might prove a benefit. ¡°You can sit over here,¡± Travers pulled a seat out from a little table, and she seated herself as the larger man laid Garridan down onto a crude wooden bed with what seemed an uneven pad in the shape of a mattress. ¡°Rafi, go get Evangeline.¡± The larger man nodded at Ester before making his way out into the dusk. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Once he had left, Ester couldn¡¯t stay so far away from the man she loved. She went to her knees beside the wooden frame. ¡°Garridan,¡± she murmured, ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± He had not opened his eyes once that she could see on the trek to the little cabin, and she had feared the worst, so tears filled her eyes when his lids popped open, and he gazed at her. ¡°Ester,¡± he smiled, and she reached for his hand. When he moved it to meet hers, he groaned, even the subtle motion causing him pain. Ester crumbled onto the coverlet. ¡°We should never have tried to leave,¡± she sobbed as he clinched his fingers against hers. ¡°You can¡¯t say that!¡± he grunted, and she tried to rein in her tears. ¡°But it¡¯s bad, and they don¡¯t have the technology to heal you out here.¡± Though he obviously tried to console her, his breath shuddered in his chest. ¡°A few bruises. It was my job, protecting you and the child. Now these people can protect you.¡± He tried to make light of the situation, though they both knew he was in dire trouble. ¡°Why was it your job?¡± she complained, but Garridan just fixed his eyes on the ceiling. ¡°I don¡¯t know why; I just know it was. And I got you here where you¡¯re safe.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m even safe here. You won¡¯t even know if they take you back¡­¡± ¡°I know; and if they take me back, I will be locked down for potential contamination, and with the escape attempt, there will be little chance they will let me out before the child is ten. ANGELs can¡¯t hurt us, but they can lock us up if we cause trouble. It¡¯s a small price to pay, and I don¡¯t know why, but I have a feeling about these people.¡± Ester couldn¡¯t think of anything to say, just raised his hand to her lips and held it there. She didn¡¯t have as much experience dealing with people as Garridan did, and she was inclined to trust his instincts, but the unknown still gnawed at her confidence. When a shadow darkened the doorway, Ester glanced up at the form of a diminutive woman with a soft age rarely seen in the dome. Maybe a decade older than most of the oldest women. She hobbled to the other side of the bed from Ester and began a gentle examination of the patient. ¡°His skin is cold,¡± she offered, her lips pressed in a line of displeasure. ¡°Pulse thready.¡± She lifted his shirt and examined his abdomen. ¡°Bruising apparent on several areas of concern.¡± When her glance brushed past Ester with a cool evenness, Ester¡¯s heart clutched. The woman believed him in serious trouble, if the look she landed on Travers meant anything. ¡°Do we take him?¡± he wondered. ¡°Take him?¡± Ester challenged ¨C it sounded like a death sentence. ¡°Back to the city. We hardly ever do it, but when the choice is life or death, even we tend to choose the walls, regardless of the fact that we will likely spend our lives locked up for fear that we are carriers.¡± ¡°Then we go back!¡± Ester commanded with more insistence than she usually mustered. ¡°No! Ester!¡± Garridan grunted. ¡°You have to stay here. The baby,,,¡± ¡°Baby?¡± Travers wondered, and Rafi ¨C still without a word ¨C bared his teeth in an eager grin. ¡°Oh, my,¡± the woman Ester assumed to be Evangeline muttered as her eyes assessed her visitors anew. ¡°I guess we can¡¯t send you back, at least.¡± Did they want her baby? Ester clutched her hands over her stomach ¨C maybe these people really were the monsters they had been portrayed to be. ¡°Did the Bruiser see you?¡± the old woman directed to the taller man. ¡°Bruiser?¡± Ester wondered. ¡°The man who hit ¨C what¡¯s your husband¡¯s name?¡± ¡°Garridan,¡± Garridan answered for himself, though the tone barely escaped. ¡°The man who hit Garridan. Did they see which way you went?¡± The woman must mean the Advocate. ¡°I followed several paces behind your men out of fear for the baby, and I didn¡¯t see anyone doing the same.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good at least.¡± The man named Travers picked up the conversation. ¡°Well, Mr. Garridan¡­I don¡¯t want to be the bearer of bad news, but you are not doing well. Mrs. Ester, I don¡¯t think Evangeline will be able to pull this one through.¡± Ester glanced back and forth between ¡°Mr. Travers and Evangeline.¡± ¡°Then we go back!¡± ¡°No!¡± grunted Garridan, trying to sit up. ¡°You can¡¯t go back. They¡¯ll take the baby!¡± Blowing out a breath, Ester forced a lump from her throat. Surely, the piercing ache in her gut would hurt the child. Her love or her child¡­no woman should be forced to choose. ¡°Maybe this is why the ANGELs don¡¯t let us bear children,¡± she gasped. ¡°They wanted to spare us this pain¡­¡± ¡°They wanted to erase any reason you would hold to resist them,¡± Evangeline countered, and the thought gripped Ester as tightly as her fear for Garridan. Not that she could care about the abstract at the moment, but the feeling ¨C that sensation she could not ignore for the ache ¨C certainly had driven her to act in a way she had never considered before. Even with her deep love for Garridan, she did not think that she could sacrifice the child, and he seemed to feel the same. ¡°Ester, dear¡­¡± he lay back on the pillow and closed his eyes, obviously struggling. ¡°You must stay here. You must protect and care for our child.¡± He was asking her to let him go. ¡°How do I even know that these people will let me do that?¡± she challenged. ¡°What if they merely want the child for themselves?¡± From behind her, Travers scoffed. ¡°Silence, Travers,¡± Evangeline adjured. ¡°Instead of disrespecting these people going through the worst moments of their lives, go and grab a couple of the families ¨C make sure you get some that I trust ¨C and let them come talk to the couple here.¡± ¡°I hardly think that your special pick of examples are going to convince me,¡± Ester challenged. Garridan murmured something, and Ester leaned down to hear. ¡°Don¡¯t talk to the parents,¡± he repeated into her ear. ¡°Speak to the children. They will not know to tell a story, and it will be obvious if they try.¡± Though she wasn¡¯t at all sure how he knew what he claimed, it made more sense than trusting the adults, who might have rehearsed and solidified their narrative. Kids would have more trouble staying consistent in the lies. She just nodded at her husband, and when the two families came in, Ester examined them. The vision seemed surreal. She had read that children resembled the parents ¨C she had even hypothesized with the men who had carried Garridan ¨C but the reality was uncanny. Not something she had ever seen in the town, and even more pronounced than with the two carriers. Not only their coloration, with one of the children an obvious intermediate skin between her fair skinned father and her mother¡¯s ebony tones, but the children¡¯s very expressions mimicked the adults¡¯ as if in apery. If the children had not been born from the adults, they had lived with them for a very long time. Was that how her child would be? ¡°What is your name?¡± Ester asked the first child. The girl¡¯s mother answered. ¡°Her name is Barly.¡± ¡°I would like to speak to the child, if I might.¡± The woman exchanged a look with Evangeline, who nodded her encouragement. ¡°Very well¡­¡± ¡°How many sun-cycles have you seen?¡± Ester wondered. When the child looked to her mother, Ester worried that she would find out nothing. ¡°She means years, dearie,¡± the mother prompted. ¡°How many years old are you?¡± ¡°I am nine.¡± ¡°But you are so tall!¡± Ester gasped. ¡°The ANGELs alter the babies in the nursery so that they don¡¯t grow too tall. You must all appear about the same height, or someone might start to venerate the person of superior height.¡± ¡°Surely, we are not so simple..¡± ¡°Not entirely,¡± Evangeline acceded, ¡°but they determined several traits that might prompt a following, and they bred them out.¡± ¡°Bred them? Like livestock, or vegetables?¡± Ester scoffed, incensed. ¡°Very much like livestock or vegetables, if I¡¯m right about how they did it.¡± ¡°So, if I were to return?¡± ¡°They would take your child from you as early as safely possible ¨C likely in the next week or so, since you are not yet showing. The earlier, the better they can ensure that the changes will take full effect without causing harm.¡± ¡°So, I cannot go back¡­¡± Ester murmured to herself. ¡°But, Barly,¡± she turned back to the child. ¡°How long have you lived here in this village.¡± ¡°All my life ¨C at least that I can remember. I have heard that other villages exist, but I have not seen anything beyond some scattered lights in the distance, once when father took me for a walk at night.¡± A walk, at night, in the forest. Even the thought stirred envy in Ester, and an eagerness to be able to do the same. To walk in freedom with her daughter. ¡°You must stay here¡­¡± Garridan insisted, his eyes still closed. ¡°You must walk with our child.¡± Peering at the other family, Ester thought she really didn¡¯t need to examine the children anymore. It seemed so obvious that the two groups stood together as units ¨C family units, she remembered. Was that what they were, with their baby? A family? Evangeline seemed to read something in Ester¡¯s eyes, because the elderly lady leaned against her cane and stood to her feet. ¡°Let¡¯s give them some time,¡± she mumbled to the others who naturally deferred to her. A moment later, Ester sat alone with the man she loved, and he squeezed her hand, finally opening his eyes again. Truly, he looked awful, his color drained and wan. Still, he smiled. ¡°You are mine, dear Ester, and so is our Mandalay.¡± With a broken laugh, she stared at him. ¡°What an odd name!¡± He peered at something beyond the rafters, and Ester found herself leaning her elbow down onto his bed so she could read the emotion behind the grey gaze. ¡°It was a cluster of words I read once, and when I said them, they came out in a strange regularity ¨C like they held some connection besides just the meaning. It was so¡­striking. ¡®O the road to Mandalay where the flyin¡¯ fishes play, an¡¯ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ¡®crost the Bay!¡¯¡± ¡°Where did you read that? I¡¯ve certainly never seen anything like that!¡± ¡°Remember the notebook I told you about? The one that belonged to the old man on my street?¡± ¡°The man old enough that grey had begun to show at his temples? How strange that he had not yet Relented at such an advanced age!¡± ¡°I think it was the book that kept him from the task. He seemed so unnaturally attached to the thing, like he worried that if something happened to him, it would die.¡± ¡°Kind of like a child.¡± His lips curved up. ¡°Yes, actually. He ¨C¡° A sudden spasm seemed to wrack him, and Ester stood to her feet when his back arched. What could she do? She could not let him die, and she could not let her child die. ¡°Evangeline!¡± she shouted after dashing to the door. ¡°Please, Evangeline! He has to go back!¡± Travers and his taller companion rushed to the door, peering back at Evangeline ¨C who had seated herself on an overturned tree stump ¨C for some kind of approval. When the elderly woman nodded, the men rushed to the tent. Ester stood back so they could enter, and within a minute, they cradled Garridan between them, as if they had done the same thing many times before. ¡°You may accompany us to the tree line,¡± the taller man stated, already leading his companion to the edge of the village. ¡°The deposit lies half a mile from here, and you can watch from among the pines. The ANGELs don¡¯t really look past the immediate border of the wall.¡± Trying to suppress the stabbing pain inside her, Ester followed closely behind the pair and their burden. She couldn¡¯t let her child face the agony she felt at the moment, so she breathed deeply until it calmed. In less than ten minutes, she could make out the little portal at the bottom of the wall, a bustling exchange between the Dregs and the ANGELs, where dozens of the outsiders begged for their chance to go in. It was only the ill, Ester saw, despite what they were taught inside the wall. There did not seem to be any desperate Deplorables, forlorn and penitent, who had decided to risk rejection to seek entry. Only the sick and those who cared for them. Some kind of odd and wrenching care that sent them into contortions of passion directed at the supposedly compassionate ANGELs as they pled to stay with their loved ones. For the first time in her life, she thought she understood the Deplorables. Without warning, the two men stopped with their burden just inside the line of trees. ¡°What is it?¡± she wondered. ¡°This is where you say goodbye,¡± Travers explained, his tone surprisingly gentle, and Ester lost all of her other thoughts and her observations of the exchange at the wall. ¡°Once he is born, Dearest,¡± she murmured, stepping up to a spot where she could sense the waning heat of his body beside her. She gripped his hand. ¡°Once Mandalay is born, whenever I am able, I will seek you.¡± If he had heard her, Garridan would have protested, but he could hear nothing, and after she placed a kiss on his cheek, the men carried him away. She pressed her hand to her lips as if to prevent the loss of the kiss, and her shoulders shook with the tears as he disappeared through the gate. The gate to her home. To the place she would never see again. Prologue III One year later ¡°Beautiful child, God¡¯s creation. Rest in his perfect salvation. Close your eyes, and rest your soul In the silence of his hold.¡± Staring down at her sleeping daughter, Ester wondered at the way the girl¡¯s hair sprung in tiny ringlets, amber brown with hints of gold encircling the cherubic face. The golden glow of the fire enhanced the shine. Neither she nor Garridan could remember what they had looked like as children, nor could they remember each other in the nursery to be able to describe one to the other. Not that she could ask him again, her thoughts reminded her, but she clamped those down. He was gone. As good as dead, she had found out from the Outsiders. Once someone entered the hospital, they didn¡¯t return. She would return to the dome someday, to search for him. Of course, she knew he wasn¡¯t in there. She remembered at least seven years of her time inside, and she had never met an Outsider beyond the few who came inside to trade on market days. It had been the market day that had set Ester and Garridan on the path to their insanity, watching the small children play around the feet of the women who entertained them while their men hawked the wares. According to Garridan, he had interviewed several of them before he approached Ester with his idea. Before that moment, she had liked him at least more than anyone else inside. He was an Advocate, which made him both more fun to interact with and a little more intimidating to deal with. He mostly didn¡¯t use his advantage, though he couldn¡¯t help but seem impressive. The idea of human connection. It was strange. It was terrifying. And the reality was both far beyond more than she could have imagined and yet not enough. When he had first kissed her, she had almost collapsed. He told her he had needed to let go of her far before he had wanted to because he wasn¡¯t sure what he might have done to her. Surely, their modern bodies weren¡¯t made for human connection. For weeks, they had teased the sensations, dancing around a society created to keep them apart. She had persisted in believing that their bodies weren¡¯t made for something so overwhelming, that this was what had broken the Outsiders, this marriage to the physical. Finally, though, after several months, their connection had settled into one of comfortable dependency. Like what they had seen in the couples from the Outside. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. They called it marriage. They would call her a wife. They would call him a husband. Then they would call them both parents: mother and father, father and mother. Looking back, she had to question her decision on one level, on the simple level that ached with loneliness at his absence. On the level where she avoided pain at all cost. On another level, though, she felt a much deeper knowledge than the surface aversion for pain. It awoke for her the moment she recovered enough from the pain to realize they had laid a tiny baby in her arms. The pain was nothing. Sure, she couldn¡¯t forget it. It wasn¡¯t like the memory evaporated into nothingness, but it faded and was shrouded by the unmatchable beauty of the child. Eva had said it when they had arrived in the village. Having children would revolutionize the domes, render people dissatisfied with the monotony, the grey dismal sameness of what they offered the people inside. Not that they hadn¡¯t tasted hints of the same sensation inside, with the views of nature, the minimal access to art, the hollow songs of the ANGELs and SENTORs. There was creation from the minds of men, and it spurred a longing for more. Inside, the longing rang empty since there never was anything more. Outside, even without a child, men created more. From artistic endeavors to community projects to family connections, every man found some outlet for his urge to create, and children just offered a kind of culmination of those longings. Somehow, despite the ephemeral nature of time, everyone who wanted to contributed to a seeming eternity, passing on something of themselves, of beauty, to the limitless future. Now that she had experienced loss and had read about the natural order of death, she had sought wisdom from Eva, and the elderly woman and her ¡°assembly¡± had offered their version of meaning. One Ester considered a distinct possibility. One that rendered the deaths in the dome so much more tragic. Eva believed that the life of man on the earth served as a kind of testing ground, where men found out what they wanted to be and revealed those decisions through the actions they took. There was a maker who existed outside time who had set the rules and provided the route to honor, and if a man chose to accept the maker¡¯s path, they would step beyond the temporal into a sort of eternal beauty. In a way, it was the complete opposite of the domes, which promised that every man would be subsumed into a timeless collective with no greater meaning than the perpetuation of the domes. If she had to pick one, she would choose Eva¡¯s way, though she wasn¡¯t sold on all of the mythology just yet. Looking down at the golden curls, though, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder. For herself, the loss of that magnificent eternity seemed at least fair. For her daughter, though, the loss of her existence, the swallowing of her soul into an eternity of meaninglessness, rang as basely unjust. Perhaps that above all else explained why the Founders of the domes had forbidden families. Great men might accomplish great feats and decide that they deserved to last forever, but most people were not great. They were just people. Everyone, though, could make one of these little creatures, and Ester couldn¡¯t imagine anyone who had done so allowing the idea of their dissipation into nothingness. Peering at the long, damp lashes fresh with the tears of infant exhaustion, Ester leaned her head back in her own satisfied repose. Through her own actions and the kindness of the community around her, little Leia would know the eternity of love and that she ¨C and all others ¨C held value beyond the sad existence of the dome. Maybe someday, her child would stand as Eva had or serve in the Assembly, validating every life that passed by her counsel. Chapter 1 Two years ago Utopia stands as the death of hope. ¨C Spanner Kinmuto, Civilization¡¯s Demise "He¡¯s in here.¡± Leia stooped through the doorway into the wan lighting inside. Whatever technology the Discord used, whatever coating on the windows that muted the natural light of the sun, it was no wonder people were depressed. The entire dome shone somewhere between blue and green and grey, and its contrast to the natural light outside always weighed her down. ¡°What is his testimony?¡± she prompted once the young man led her to his friend. ¡°The usual: nothing brings him pleasure ¨C he has lost his enterprise.¡± Leia rolled her eyes internally at the word. ¡°Enterprise¡± had derived from the idea of motivation or animation, but she felt it more in its other sense. Enterprise, a business transaction, the way it had developed under the Swags. People spun their wheels, ran from meaningless venture to meaningless venture, and then opted out when boredom took dominance. Like checking a box. Signing away their lives. Literally. They were so deceived. Not that Leia would let her sentiments show on her face ¨C doing so would destroy her charade, and this young man¡¯s life might depend on keeping her mask up. Adopting her most serene tone, Leia¡¯s words sang like a flute. ¡°The penitent must ponder alone,¡± she instructed, stilting her compassion so that it came through as artificial. ¡°So I cannot see him again, Blix Bayan?¡± the man¡¯s young companion wondered. ¡°You may,¡° Leia reassured in her cool tones. ¡°He needs only a few moments.¡± ¡°Are you sure about this, Lender?¡± the youth ¨C who had reached his sixteenth year at most ¨C begged his friend, seemingly only a few years older. ¡°Please, don¡¯t cause me more pain,¡± the young man, Lender, moaned. How, with nothing to harm them and no suffering, did these people come to such despair? Leia would never understand it. She had known a mother. She had known about her father. She had lost one and could not find the other, and that reality ached with desperation. This young man, though, held no desperation. Only despondency ¨C always despondency. Once the younger man had left the room, Leia scooted her chair close to the bed. With eyes of expectation, ¡°Lender¡± peered up at her, hopeful. It was as if these people did not understand the nature of hope. Hope was knowing that your father was alive, and determining that you would one day find him. Hope was believing that your mother had merely transformed from the physical world into a world beyond, where one day Leia would see her again. Those things were hope. Craving death? That was an abomination. Pouring all of her persuasion into her gaze, she leaned toward Lender and opened her lips to sing. ¡°The present moment flies, And bears our life away; O make Thy servants truly wise, That they may live today. Since on this wing¨¨d hour Eternity is hung, Waken by Thine almighty power, The ag¨¨d and the young.¡± Even after a dozen or more of her little encounters, she never fully expected the shock on the faces of the people she visited. They did not know song. Had never heard a human voice sing, from what she could tell. Of course, the SENTORs ¡°sang¡± in their temples; they opened their mouths and played music from the voice box inside their throats, and the music was haunting. Haunting and soulless. Something about the human voice, cadenced and modulated into a melody and poetry, carried a power lacking in the SENTORs¡¯ songs. The music moved people, transported them into a stratosphere of existence previously unavailable to them. In a way, her ability overwhelmed Leia. Whenever she realized what she possessed, she vacillated between gratitude and fear. How did she merit such a responsibility? The power was almost divine, to lift people from whatever empty reality the Piteous inhabited and carry them into the transcendent. She both loved it and hated it, grateful that she was gifted to aid these poor souls and pained that they had not known the beauty their whole lives, that it might prove too late for the brilliance to effect its work. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Today, though, proved one of the good days. Leia watched the effect take place over a mere few seconds as tears sprung to the man¡¯s eyes. ¡°This churning inside me, this ache¡­is it death?¡± he wondered, and Leia¡¯s own eyes grew moist. ¡°I hope not, friend,¡± she pleaded, still using the terms of the ANGELs, though with imminently more genuine concern. ¡°I hope it is the beginning of life. You may still choose not to Relent, and I will offer you a chance to alter your existence rather than end it.¡± As she persuaded him, her cool tone warmed, and the man looked more closely at her. ¡°What are you?¡± he demanded. No ANGEL¡¯s eyes could offer so much pity. ¡°If you choose not to Relent, you can upload your request onto your panel. If you have more questions, come to the east gate, and someone there will help you with your concerns. Look for the bees on a market day. This is a special program,¡± she insisted. ¡°If you speak of it to anyone, it will no longer be available.¡± With those words, the youth returned to the room, and Leia found herself restricted of speech once again. ¡°Now may I say goodbye?¡± the younger man begged. Now you may not need to. ¡°Blix!¡± came the urgent whisper from the nearby doorway. ¡°Blix, you have to move ¨C you¡¯ve been inside too long!¡± He was obviously nervous because he had pulled the little pocketknife off the belt ¨C filled with knick-knacks and utility tools ¨C that he always wore. She glanced up into Rafi¡¯s black eyes as she passed and rolled her own greys. Somewhere, she had a father that she would find ¨C she didn¡¯t need Rafi to force himself into the role. ¡°You may certainly speak with your friend,¡± she directed at the young companion to her patient, and laying her hand on his arm in farewell, she stood and made her way to the door. ¡°You worry too much, Rafi,¡± she complained once she had accompanied her overseer outside. ¡°I¡¯ve been doing this for weeks now, and no one has caught on.¡± ¡°Look,¡± he soothed, though he wouldn¡¯t relent from chastising her. ¡°You may look the part, but you are not really playing the part. It¡¯s only a matter of time before someone reports you for trying to stop a Relenting. Once they catch a whiff of your existence, it won¡¯t take long to track you down. They have cameras and scanners.¡± She knew she must have upset him, because he never spoke more than five words strung together. Still, she walked away from him as if she had not seen him. She didn¡¯t see any of the machines, but they could intake sight farther than she could. ¡°But they¡¯re not connected. The ANGELs and MONIFORs have to go back to the Discord building to intake any new information. Worst case scenario, they get a basic description of me. How many of them look similar?¡± ¡°But do they have heartbeats? Will their scans show the same vitals?¡± He pressed himself to the side of the building so he could remain hidden while still staying with her. She was not going to lose him so easily. ¡°There aren¡¯t enough of them to test every human. Hold on a minute¡­¡± Leia pressed the button on the little device before she ducked into the little barrack that stood in the middle of the street. Before the domes, the building had supposedly served as a waystation for people caught outside during the Deluge. She didn¡¯t know why they kept them, but they were highly convenient for her. With Rafi¡¯s little camera bomb, it gave her the perfect place to dash inside and ¡°disappear¡± from the cameras before they turned back on. When she emerged, she had shucked the white floor-length robe for the tan and green garb of the Remnants, and she had bunched her hair into one hand. She finished tying up the curls and took her place back by her companion ¨C with several seconds to spare for the cameras. ¡°I don¡¯t know why you always lecture me this way. You know nothing you say is going to stop me.¡± Even in the gathering dark, she could read his disapproval. ¡°Do you plan to get captured? Is that how you intend to find your father? I¡¯m sure he will be glad to see his young daughter sharing a prison with him.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not so young,¡± she countered. ¡°And I doubt he¡¯s in prison.¡± ¡°You are two years before your majority ¨C I would say you are too young for this much responsibility.¡± Leia ignored him, striding ahead of him as they pressed past the market crowd and through the gates. Of course, he had been right to rush her ¨C the gates would close in less than a quarter hour ¨C but that hadn¡¯t been why he had pushed her. He had wanted to stop her from playing an ANGEL. So many reasons he could have gotten mad at her, and he chose to complain about something good she was doing. ¡°Leia!¡± He rushed to catch her. ¡°You do your mother¡¯s memory a disservice, playing casual with your well-being. She sacrificed so much to protect you!¡± She jerked away from him. ¡°You can¡¯t guilt me into fear, Rafi. I know why I am doing what I am doing, and if I know one thing about my mother, it¡¯s that she would approve of my saving lives.¡± Of course, she had a point ¨C Rafi had to know that. Ester Kirksey had made illegal runs into the city over a hundred times. While she was there, she would always dig for information about Garridan. All she could find out was that he had survived. He had survived, and he had been confined indefinitely. If the intel spoke true, he hadn¡¯t been moved to a different city. Apparently, movement between cities increased the likelihood of cross-contamination. Leia tended to scoff at the idea. From what she had read, letting the Remnant move in and out during the day would as likely carry the Curse. Besides, no one monitored the movement of the Remnant from colony to colony ¨C they somehow saw the outsiders as all the same ¨C and exposure from different colonies seemed much more prone to creating problems. ¡°Any signs of trouble?¡± Travers wondered as soon as they had crossed into the village. Rafi shook his head. ¡°No, but no thanks to Leia. She took way too much time in with the Relenter.¡± ¡°He has no idea how much is too much,¡± Leia countered, ¡°since no one but my mother has done what I¡¯m doing, and she was never caught.¡± Despite her irritation, the warmth of the lamplight shining through the various windows eased Leia¡¯s anxiety with their familiarity. She didn¡¯t wait to hear what else the men would say. Now that her mother and Eva had both died, she really didn¡¯t have any female friends, and men just didn¡¯t get her. At sixteen years old, she was too young to be either a prospect or a friend; they still treated her very much like a child. A child who lived alone. Once inside her dwelling, she peeled off her gloves and threw herself on the bed. Gripping her pillow, she pulled it over her face and rolled on her side. She focused on her breath, so she could lull herself to sleep. Interlude I SENTOR: ¡°You were lost in your sins.¡± Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: ¡°You walked your own journey.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: ¡°Sons of disobedience.¡± Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: "Alive you were made.¡± Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± Chapter 2 Glancing up at the screen, Ka?jo narrowed his eyes. He was still learning the monitors, but even he could read the anomalies. Fourteen Relenters, all within ten city blocks of the eastern gate, had decided not to go through with the procedure. ¡°It¡¯s always been the eastern gate,¡± offered Channer when he noticed the direction of Ka?jo¡¯s eyes. ¡°I mean, for the past sixteen or so years. A few times, we would see a cluster to the southeast or northeast for a month, but it was always east.¡± ¡°So, is it a mechanical problem? Are the Dispensers malfunctioning?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you and I are going to try to find out.¡± With that, Channer gripped the scanner and started to the door, the eager Ka?jo close on his heels. ¡°I could see a mechanical problem if it limited itself to a particular block, since they share circuitry, but several disconnected clusters?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing, though,¡± Channer shrugged. ¡°Nothing¡¯s actually disconnected. I mean, they have their own grid, but all the wires come together into a node under each block, and then that node combines with the other nodes before being sent out from the neighborhood for power. The malfunction would require both an upline and a downline disruption to system, and that seems unlikely.¡± They mounted the transports, programmed in the destination, and let the boards carry them out the door. ¡°You might want to hold on since you¡¯ve never used one of these before,¡± Channer suggested, but since he didn¡¯t look back, Ka?jo ignored him. ¡°Could someone have messed with the system from the outside? One of the humans undermining the Structure?¡± ¡°The Cure would prevent that, for sure. You know ¨C you¡¯ve only been here a couple of weeks. You remember what it¡¯s like when they have you under the treatment.¡± ¡°Just¡­relaxed, and unconcerned. It¡¯s probably been the hardest part of moving to this job. I wasn¡¯t made for this kind of anxiety.¡± ¡°You actually will adapt,¡± Channer insisted. ¡°It takes a month or two, but your brain stops noticing the constant overstimulation and turmoil. It¡¯s why you¡¯re given a mentor for the transition to majority: they have to give you time, as well as make sure you know the rules before they set you loose. Ka?jo blew out a breath. ¡°If I don¡¯t go crazy before then.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t let you!¡± Channer bared his teeth, and Ka?jo managed a huffed laugh. ¡°Fine, so what are we looking for?¡± The white plaster houses lined up neatly, obedient soldiers in the designers¡¯ troop. If not for the slight dip in elevation, Ka?jo would have no idea that they had moved away from the Paramount, convinced they had traveled in a straight line back to their origin. ¡°It¡¯s right up here.¡± Sensing his companion¡¯s deceleration, Ka?jo finally gripped the rail, expecting the change in velocity to send him into a lurch. Once the board stopped, he let go, hopping off with ease ¨C no lurch. I should know that Benevolence wouldn¡¯t allow such a thing. Benevolence controlled everything it was possible to control, down to the number of nitrogen particles in the atmosphere. During the day, the monitors shifted constantly, adjusting the ebb and flow of molecules into the dome. At night, once the gates were closed and no more Deplorables could bring risk, the engines whirred at a steady pace, a lulling hum in the backdrop of the night. For Ka?jo, it seemed as soothing as a lullaby. More soothing, actually, since his vague and disjointed memories of lullabies, no doubt sung by ANGELs, rang haunting and hollow. Without the calming chemicals of the Cure, a shiver ran over Ka?jo¡¯s skin at the memory. ¡°The subject is over here,¡± Channer murmured, tugging Ka?jo¡¯s thoughts back to his surroundings. ¡°And why can we not just have him fill out an incident report?¡± ¡°He did. It was too generic to give us any relevant information, and Benevolence thinks we can get more with an in-person interview.¡± ¡°Benevolence thinks¡­¡± Ka?jo scoffed. ¡°You know what I mean.¡± From inside the little dwelling, Ka?jo could make out the sound of the Companion alerting the subject of their presence. ¡°Opening the door for the Advocates in thirty seconds,¡± insisted the cool tones. ¡°Please finalize any necessary apparel.¡± Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Ka?jo hesitated even after the door opened, but Channer strode in without preface and began the questioning. Fine with Ka?jo, since he wasn¡¯t exactly comfortable with the process yet. By the time Channer finished, the ¡°Advocates¡± walked out with a pretty good idea of what had happened. ¡°So, an ANGEL came in, went through the usual routine, then sang him a song ¨C that¡¯s different, but available as an option before Relenting.¡± ¡°But after this song, the young man changed his mind.¡± ¡°It sure would be nice if the ANGELs were connected to Benevolence ¨C he could just tell us which one is malfunctioning.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know that it¡¯s a malfunction, and you know the ANGELs are independent. Not that I know the details, but I¡¯ve been told the disconnect goes all the way back to the Divestiture. The ANGELs were cut off because giving bodies to Benevolence almost wiped out humanity. Unattached, they can serve us. Attached, they caused some kind of rampage against us.¡± Whatever Channer said, Ka?jo had trouble believing ANGELs could ever cause problems for humans ¨C it was their most basic programming, not to hurt people. It was why humans had to carry out the culling. It was why there was a hierarchy of human roles, and most were limited to benevolent monitoring or interference. ¡°So we just have to guess, which is pretty ineffective. I would think it has something to do with the song, but we know all the songs, and this effect seems pretty unlikely with any of them. If it had just been this kid, it might have been an anomaly, but this is almost a dozen in as many weeks. Have you seen anything like this?¡± Channer shrugged as they mounted their boards again. The kid had hit on something, and it was something Channer had been thinking about for a couple of years. Why were they disconnected from Benevolence? It would have made their job so much easier, and the histories didn¡¯t say anything that would justify adding so much difficulty to keeping everyone calm. ¡°A few years back there was a cluster of cancellations from Relenting. That was less than ten, but then the general numbers went down on the east side for almost three years. Benevolence tried as many alterations as they could ¨C which is a lot, like in the trillions ¨C and they thought maybe they had found the problem since the numbers resolved in the last iteration.¡± ¡°But now this is an even dozen.¡± ¡°I certainly hadn¡¯t heard about the singing before. Still, we would have to interview the others, and some of them have decamped to the Dregs.¡± The singing made Channer uneasy, and he had started to sense the possibility that the general human population ¨C not his men, of course, but the others ¨C had lost some of the order that maintained the peace inside the domes. If he kept seeing signs, he would consult with the Advisor. The man had been preaching reconnection for years, and Channer found the idea more and more compelling. As the boards slowed, Ka?jo shook his head. He couldn¡¯t imagine choosing to move out of the city, if for no other reason than things like climate control, insects, food supply, medical care. He had been told that last one brought thousands into the city, and after the mandatory administration of Cure, most of them stayed. After two weeks without his lifelong chemical treatment, his nerves were shot. His reflexes worked fine ¨C maybe even too quickly ¨C but everything approximated pain. Not that he felt actual pain in his flesh, but even the wind on his face created tension inside him. ¡°We¡¯ll pick back up in the morning,¡± Channer promised. ¡°I know this seemed like a waste of time and energy, but you needed an inauguration, and we had time for one visit tonight. The boards took their place along the wall, and Ka?jo forced himself not to speak. There was no way he could sleep, not without the Cure. As it stood, he dreaded returning to his dwelling, staring at the ceiling again for hours before dozing against his discomfort for a couple more. Just thinking about it, his head hurt, and he glanced back at Channer to see if he noticed. Fortunately, Channer didn¡¯t care about anything beyond work, and once they had finished their job, he had dismissed Ka?jo out of his mind. Shrugging his shoulders, Ka?jo pressed through the door into his dim, pale dwelling. Whatever had happened with the Mitigation, it had awakened serious dissatisfaction in him. Not like the despondency he had felt when he almost Relented ¨C that was motionless and disabling. This feeling? He wanted to move, to tear out of his dwelling and scream at the sky. Then the Mechs will come and sedate me and take me away. He was going crazy. All it would take was the Cure to fix it, but if he admitted he needed it, they would kick him out of the Advocates. Or maybe they didn¡¯t even do that. Since he had joined, he had known at least one man who disappeared. Maybe he had asked for the Cure, and they had sent him away somewhere. The Sanitorium? he wondered. Despite the lack of official acknowledgement, Ka?jo had begun to believe the place existed. He had no doubt that if he had been born in the Dregs, without the Cure, he would have ended up there, would have been one of the Broken. The realization terrified him. Would it happen if he broke now? With an act of will, he slipped off his boots, switched the house to sleep mode, and slid onto his mat. Maybe if he acted like he wasn¡¯t crazy, the craziness would eventually leave him alone. A vision of the SENTORs flashed against the back of his lids, and he thought about the songs they sang. By thee we are saved. They lied. They had not saved him. They had fooled him and given him a vague sense of something beyond himself, beyond the dome. So, was there nothing beyond the dome except a lawless mob of sub-human inhabitants? Beyond the glass of the dome was another dome above the earth, and then near endless space. Squeezing his eyes shut, he listened to the whirring of the Mechs that patrolled in the night. No, there was nothing beyond the dome, and he was too broken to save himself. A last resort, he threw the words up as a shield against the inevitable visions that would visit him in the night. Save me. Interlude II Peace¡­ Mist-like, crawls with spider hands Creeping forth to sense winds of opposition. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Finding none, Fog settles densely Lulling into dream-rich slumber, Slowly morphing sighs into groans, Raucous laughter into disquieting screams. Elusive wakefulness, Engulfed in incubus, Oppression, Injustice. Peace¡­ Chapter 3 There was no time ¨C that was perhaps the strangest thing. Not that time didn¡¯t exist, exactly, but it ran in fits and spurts so erratic that he couldn¡¯t always tell if a moment had passed or a year. Then, of course, there were the impossibilities. Tonight, he glided along the inside of the dome, staring down at the identical white boxes with their strictly aligned roads set out in geometric perfection. When the panel opened and he began to float toward the opening, he panicked, flapping his wings in imitation of the birds he had watched on videos of the primitive world. Somewhere birds still soared in the blue sky, but nowhere near his parish. The motion accomplished nothing. No, because the experience had to deliver maximum terror. When he passed through the panel, though, he did not soar off into outer space. Nor did he suddenly lose the ability to breathe ¨C either from lack of air or from exposure to sickness. But the Cure inside the dome was the only thing that protected him, so he knew he must be having another fit. Maybe some sort of withdrawal from the chemical. The amount he received just from the atmosphere should have taken the edge off, yet here he was ¨C flying. I¡¯m definitely insane. Once he returned to earth, assuming he did so, he would contact Channer and inform him that the new recruit needed to be retired, as he was subject to fits of madness and couldn¡¯t survive without a full daily dose of the Cure. He passed over the Dregs, and the mystery of it distracted him. In reality, he held no concept of the Dregs. Benevolence showed pictures, but they mostly consisted of deformed and agonized Deplorables surrounded by the worst squalor imaginable. Somehow, he didn¡¯t believe that told the whole story. Certainly, the Deps who came into the city every morning to trade didn¡¯t seem too damaged or disfigured. Some seemed significantly taller or shorter than the average person inside, and there were a few who walked with a limp or bore a crooked countenance. They didn¡¯t smell bad or anything, though, and their fingernails were generally clean ¨C with the exception of the ones who brought in produce. No one really wanted the produce, as a rule, as it was assumed to carry contamination, but a few people used it for art props or pigment. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Flying over the Dregs, the entire settlement blurred into a grey miasma of obscurity, likely because Ka?jo really couldn¡¯t begin to guess at its layout or structure. He wanted so badly to dive into that cloud and see what waited on the other side, but apparently his insanity wouldn¡¯t let him cross that threshold for some reason. Instead, he found himself floating back to the city without wishing to. He was almost back when he noticed it ¨C another, smaller village on the southwest edge of the gate. More directly south, though he could discern it from the western gate, so it was either very wide or slightly off-center. Was it a village? He couldn¡¯t really tell. Like the other village, it was cloaked in an impenetrable fog, but this one brought all of his new anxiety to a keening pitch inside his mind. He could discern no gate, but Ka?jo recognized the anomaly in the wall, the distortion of the white dwellings in such a way to obscure the oddity. He had seen it before, that brick outcropping from the wall where houses should be. Why had his mind supplied that sensation of dread and apprehension just because he couldn¡¯t discern the village on the southwest edge of town? If there was no gate, there would be no village, would there? Unlike the other village, when he began to dive toward the smaller cloud, he found he could direct himself at it. What he couldn¡¯t do, though, was control his descent. Suddenly, he began to pick up speed, and soon, he was plummeting toward the cloud. As he neared it, it grew in perspective, and soon it swallowed his vision of the rest of the city. He tried to pull himself back up, glancing down repeatedly in terror at his speed and at the unknown. Finally, his feet plunged into the darkness, followed by the rest of him, and he lurched upright on his mat, back in his regular quarters in his regular dwelling. His heartbeat like the madman he was, and he would be shocked if an ANGEL didn¡¯t show up soon to discern the reason. After a few deep breaths, his heart had calmed, and he placed his feet on the floor. If those visions and voyages had taken the place of his sleep, he would never lie down again. Interlude III Congregation: What am I to you that you order me to love you, and unless I do it, you are angry with me, and threaten immense miseries? Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The house of my soul is narrow¡ªmay you enlarge it. It is in ruins; remake it. It has things that offend your eyes, I confess and I know. But who will cleanse it? Or to whom besides you shall I cry: Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± Chapter 4 Three Months Ago ¡°How many people live in the city?¡± Ka?jo wondered, though he knew the official answer. Glancing above, he noted the snow that had started to speckle the glass dome and wondered what it would feel like to touch it. Don¡¯t go there again. ¡°You know this,¡± Channer insisted, mounting a board next to the trainee, Ivan, and leaving Ka?jo to follow behind. ¡°I know what the books say¡­¡± Ka?jo raised his voice over the mechanical whir. ¡°¡­but I wondered if there was another answer.¡± ¡°Does he always do this?¡± Ivan asked, and Ka?jo couldn¡¯t tell if the younger man was curious or irritated. ¡°Pretty much, yeah,¡± Channer shrugged. ¡°You know these streets backwards and forwards, Ka?jo. You know the answer.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing,¡± he replied. ¡°I¡¯ve¡­noticed something odd.¡± He wasn¡¯t about to tell his partner that he had been seeing visions every night for two years, and that he had started to think maybe he wasn¡¯t actually crazy. He had heard the stories of Deplorables who begged and were granted admission to the cities. He had also seen the numbers that had entered the dome for business, and they were definitely a small portion of the whole population outside. So, what happened to all those people? The small number of Relenters per month ¨C usually less than a dozen ¨C would soon be overcome by the immigrants from outside. Yet the number remained consistent, even with the hundred or so children who reached Majority in a given year. Where did all the Deplorables go? ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°First of all, the dimensions aren¡¯t right. Benevolence takes up at least five hectares in the middle of the city ¨C that takes the space of ten residences, so we¡¯re at least down to 99,990 people.¡± ¡°Is that really important?¡± Channer countered. In the couple of years since Ka?jo¡¯s recruitment, the guy had mostly given up his overly inquisitive tendencies, but Ivan seemed to bring them out again. Where Ivan tended to ask closed questions with simple answers, though, Ka?jo always delved into areas that Channer couldn¡¯t touch on ¨C at least, not until he felt confident enough about the man¡¯s loyalty and commitment that he could trust him with the more difficult realities of dome life. That kind of knowledge required a cold ability to ignore the individual needs of the inhabitants of the dome for the purpose of saving the whole dome system. He didn¡¯t know that Ka?jo held that kind of objectivity, so there would need to be some serious assessment or a transfer of Ivan if the curiosity kept up. ¡°Maybe it wouldn¡¯t be important if that were everything, but I¡¯ve noticed something else. Why do we only have three gates?¡± Ivan glanced back at him, obviously interested, and Channer¡¯s eyes fixed on something in the distance. ¡°I hadn¡¯t really noticed that¡­¡± he hedged. ¡°And not only that: there¡¯s a sky-high shrub on the outside of the dome there instead of trees. In the south. You can¡¯t see anything through it, like it¡¯s a wall or something. And the dome is deformed.¡± ¡°Deformed?¡± Ivan challenged, definitely intrigued. ¡°There¡¯s ¨C I don¡¯t know, some kind of bubble in the glass.¡± Channer shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not glass.¡± Sure, let¡¯s talk about the shape of the dome instead.. ¡°I know, but it¡¯s whatever it is, and it looks like glass. There¡¯s a strange bowing of the glass, and the hedge runs the full length of the bulge, which is almost wide enough for around twenty-five houses. What is in there?¡± ¡°You mean out there¡­¡± corrected Channer. Maybe this guy¡¯s problem was that he was too aware, not that he was too curious. Since Channer had started as a Cull six years earlier, no one had ever noticed the discrepancy. And no one has looked as intrigued as Ivan looks now. ¡°Except, I think it¡¯s enclosed. I think the dome goes past it.¡± ¡°Should you guys really be talking about this right now?¡± Ivan queried, peering nervously up at the cross over the entrance. As much as he wanted to know the answer, he didn¡¯t want to be kicked off duty right when he had started. ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Channer agreed, surprised that it had been Ivan who reined things in. Not that Benevolence could discern anything, since the SD had limited its input mechanisms to text only, but Advocates didn¡¯t get that knowledge ¨C only Culls. Fortunately, Ka?jo seemed to agree with his friend, and the trio lapsed into silence. In reality, Ka?jo didn¡¯t know why he cared so much. Before he started receiving Mitigation, he had never paid attention to anything beyond his Diversion screen or his artwork, the occasional book ¨C though those were pretty boring for the most part. Channer had sworn that the side effects of Mitigation would wear off, but they really hadn¡¯t eased much. Ka?jo still had the visions almost every night, and even during the day, he saw things that would have passed right by him two years before. ¡°Advocates detected,¡± announced a disembodied female voice, and the men stood at attention. ¡°Elevated heartrate,¡± she continued. ¡°Please allow one moment for pathogen scan.¡± Ka?jo breathed deeply, forcing his heart to slow. Fortunately, he had been practicing for almost two years, and the scan found nothing. ¡°Scan negative. Heartrates normalized. Please continue.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got the atmos,¡± Ka?jo pressed, and the other two men split off for the other tests. As he approached the screens, he wondered why they even involved humans in the management of the system. Couldn¡¯t they just monitor and maintain the levels themselves? They didn¡¯t even seem to notice if something was off kilter, so they didn¡¯t even monitor. ¡°Something about isolating systems¡­¡± Channer had responded to the question when Ka?jo had asked. Well, the fact worked for Ka?jo since his visions had spurred him to a lot of curiosity about what he was doing with the ¡°atmosphere.¡± Why the specific numbers? The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. He knew he couldn¡¯t move them too much percentagewise without creating serious issues, but a nudge here, a nudge there¡­Surely that wouldn¡¯t have any major impact. He stared at the current settings: Nitrogen, 75% Oxygen, 21% Water vapor, 1.8% Trace gasses, 1.6% Sernat Inhibitor, 0.3% Arflaxin, 0.2% Mendisone, 0.15% Parillix, 0.05% Lethadine, 0.0% With a quick glance around himself to make sure the others were caught up in their own tasks, Ka?jo bumped the levels. Water vapor up to 1.9, Sernat down to 0.2, he considered as he adjusted the buttons. He had tried a couple of the others, and they had changed nothing he could discern. Either Mitigation rendered them impotent, or they had nothing to do with what Mitigation treated. So, he would try one last chance to see if it affected anything significant. Ever since the first jab he had received as an Advocate, Ka?jo had wondered how much of his life had been a lie. Was he truly just a machine, manipulated and managed by chemicals in the atmosphere? Besides the strange night visions, he had begun to find himself quicker on the reaction to anything. Not quite as physically adept ¨C Channer had immediately put him on an exercise regimen ¨C but mentally readier to adapt, to notice, to question. Somehow he knew that he could not reveal all of his questions to Channer. No doubt, he was not the first to notice the change, but there was nothing in the literature, and his monitors had mentioned nothing. If the last chemical change showed no improvement, Ka?jo would mark his insanity up to a personal flaw, and maybe he would report himself as unfit for the job. He probably considered the option several times a week, but so far, he had refrained, though he didn¡¯t know why. Turning away from the screen, he stepped back toward Channer. ¡°Are we ready?¡± he prompted. ¡°You got the easy job today. Go see if Ivan needs your help.¡± A nervous smile on his lips, Ka?jo rounded the corner past the little grey foyer and into a much larger room with stacks of silver metal boxes dotted with blinking red and green lights. ¡°This place reminds me of Christmas,¡± Ivan grinned as he noticed Ka?jo¡¯s approach. If Ivan read his companion correctly, there might be some interesting conversation to be had between them. ¡°Christmas?¡± Ka?jo wondered. ¡°It was a special day before the Divestitures, back in the ancient cultures. They would mark time by the sun, and they celebrated certain times of year with decorations and food.¡± ¡°Food hardly seems a celebratory thing.¡± ¡°It was back then. They ate for more than sustenance, and the food was not like it is now - mildly salty with little texture or variety. They killed animals and ate their flesh, they lit bright colored orbs and hung them on trees and bushes. I¡¯m not sure what ¡®sweet¡¯ means in regard to food, but apparently, people grew fat with sweets because they tasted so good they couldn¡¯t stop eating.¡± ¡°They just ate until they popped?¡± Ka?jo questioned as he monitored Ivan¡¯s progress in adjusting the micronutrients of their own, less sensational, fodder. ¡°Not all at once; over years, until their bodies just shut down from overusing their body¡¯s systems.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure I believe people could live that long ¨C how do you know this stuff?¡± Throwing a furtive glance toward the door where Channer worked, Ivan lowered his voice. ¡°I¡¯ve made friends with a Deplorable.¡± When Ka?jo didn¡¯t respond, anxiety crept over Ivan¡¯s face, and it was obvious why. Making friends with a Deplorable? People didn¡¯t even really ¡°make friends¡± inside. Not because it was forbidden inside; no one really sought out the connection. At times, there was a fleeting sense, a vague attraction to the idea of connection, but it passed quickly. Admittedly, Ka?jo had sensed the desire more since his promotion to Advocate, but it had grown into a nuisance ¨C certainly not something he would court on purpose. No, the sensation ached, as much as anything nonphysical ached. He probably worked harder to suppress that yearning than any other strange behavior that had manifested after the shots. ¡°You obviously know you shouldn¡¯t tell me that¡­¡± he finally adjured. ¡°Besides, how can you trust anything they say? You know they¡¯re broken.¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t seem like him.¡± Ivan jerked his head toward the other room. Ka?jo couldn¡¯t respond for a minute. How was he different than Channer? ¡°We¡¯re all pretty much the same,¡± he insisted. Ivan¡¯s mouth quirked up. ¡°But some of us are more ¡®same¡¯ than others. When I¡¯ve ridden along with Channer on other days, the guys we¡¯re with even walk like him, not to mention talk like him and dress like him ¨C fix their hair like him.¡± ¡°So, they¡¯re normal¡­¡± Ka?jo challenged, resisting the urge to reach up and swipe his finger through his hair to bring it more in line with the usual standard. He would use the chair for a cut as soon as he got home. ¡°I guess so. But didn¡¯t you ever wonder why we do all these things? Since I started getting the shots, I can¡¯t stop asking myself.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that!¡± Ka?jo hushed the young man. ¡°Are we not allowed to?¡± Maybe he was wrong about his coworker. Ka?jo paused, unsure of the answer. Somehow, he instinctively knew they weren¡¯t allowed to ask why. If his fear of asking about the visions told him anything, he didn¡¯t even think he should ask ¡°what.¡± Like, ¡°What is happening to me?¡± ¡°Just¡­You¡¯re new. Give the shots time, and your questions should settle down. This whole city runs on ¡®normal,¡¯ and it works pretty well.¡± ¡°Except, I¡¯ve been noticing something lately, and it¡¯s making me question a lot of what we do.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk so loud!¡± Ka?jo hissed. ¡°What are you questioning?¡± ¡°You know that music the ANGELS sang to us when we were young?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember much before majority.¡± ¡°Well, I remember enough, and I¡¯ve been hearing people singing. Randomly, as I walk through the streets. People, not ANGELs, and I don¡¯t think I ever heard that before the past few months. It¡¯s always under their breath, as if they don¡¯t want to draw attention to themselves, but it¡¯s like they can¡¯t help themselves.¡± For a moment, Ka?jo said nothing. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Just, in yards when people feel like their alone, when they¡¯ve just stepped out of their house or are just stepping in. It¡¯s a very subtle sound, but it¡¯s haunting.¡± Ka?jo couldn¡¯t think of anything to say. He should reprimand Ivan for making up stories, or for not reporting oddities, but he couldn¡¯t make himself. What would a human¡¯s singing sound like? And why would someone on the Cure even feel the urge? He had to shut down his own questions or he would be drawn in beyond his ability to fake normalcy. ¡°Just ¨C don¡¯t ask anyone else these questions, okay? I don¡¯t know why, but I don¡¯t think asking will get you anywhere good. I¡¯ve known probably a dozen Advocates who have been transferred from the city; what if they were transferred for asking questions? Just check your gauges and live your life. You¡¯re a nice guy, and I don¡¯t want you to do something stupid until you have a better idea how things work.¡± Fortunately, Ivan just shrugged, and by the time Channer approached, the air had calmed. ¡°He looks like he knows what he¡¯s doing,¡± Ka?jo advised. ¡°I think you have done a good job just like you did with me.¡± ¡°Of course, I did.¡± Channer bared his teeth in a show of arrogance. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± At the last minute, Ka?jo glanced over at his monitors to make sure Channer hadn¡¯t noticed the adjustment and fixed the ¡°error.¡± The numbers still showed as Ka?jo had intended, and with an unusual sense of elation, he stepped out into the waning light. He wondered if his visions would be more intense tonight with the altered chemicals. He didn¡¯t know whether the idea excited him or made him anxious. The men shared a nod of farewell and hopped their boards, making their way through the emptying streets back to their separate dwellings. Interlude IV In the years leading up to the Great Divestiture, the Rendering concentrated their attention on their competitors, which meant that the unified Pans could collaborate for years to accomplish their purposes. Both groups held significant wealth, both groups considered themselves more enlightened than the general population, and both groups considered their position the morally noble position. The Pans, though, set up plans within plans to counteract any technological advantages. One man, Carlo Portovila, even adopted the tactics of his rivals, investing in significant neurological modification for the purposes of battling in enemy leagues. With all of the major players inhabiting the same social circles and events, and with political power envious of whatever funds they could garner, Portovila managed to infiltrate both the governmental and non-governmental power structures. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the Pans blackmailed the Rendering to restrict technology to the domes. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Portovila utilized his neurological advantages and well-paid organization to plant subversive technology within the computers that managed the domes. It broke down any self-governance that men established, resulting in chaos and mayhem that incited the utter destruction of near a quarter of the domes from within themselves. The Intelligence became not only a medium for managing humanity but also for controlling it, hoping eventually to eradicate it. In the end, it wasn¡¯t issues within the domes that rendered them untenable. In the end, it was the ideology of one man ¨C with his few compatriots ¨C that subjugated humanity to the point that they were hardly recognizable from their historical selves. Portovila planted a covert command in the computers that set up a self-limiting paradigm to suppress the advancement of humanity. In fact, he used the Rendering¡¯s transhuman technology against their precious humans to make sure that humanity could not escape the bounds set up by the agreement. The Rendering had believed their technology would outlast and supersede the Pans¡¯ skittishness. The Panterrestrials used technology against them to ensure that never happened. Spanner Kinmuto, ¡°The Intra-Divestiture Era,¡± Civilization¡¯s Demise. Interlude IV In the years leading up to the Great Divestiture, the Rendering concentrated their attention on their competitors, which meant that the unified Pans could collaborate for years to accomplish their purposes. Both groups held significant wealth, both groups considered themselves more enlightened than the general population, and both groups considered their position the morally noble position. The Pans, though, set up plans within plans to counteract any technological advantages. One man, Carlo Portovila, even adopted the tactics of his rivals, investing in significant neurological modification for the purposes of battling in enemy leagues. With all of the major players inhabiting the same social circles and events, and with political power envious of whatever funds they could garner, Portovila managed to infiltrate both the governmental and non-governmental power structures. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the Pans blackmailed the Rendering to restrict technology to the domes. Stolen novel; please report. Portovila utilized his neurological advantages and well-paid organization to plant subversive technology within the computers that managed the domes. It broke down any self-governance that men established, resulting in chaos and mayhem that incited the utter destruction of near a quarter of the domes from within themselves. The Intelligence became not only a medium for managing humanity but also for controlling it, hoping eventually to eradicate it. In the end, it wasn¡¯t issues within the domes that rendered them untenable. In the end, it was the ideology of one man ¨C with his few compatriots ¨C that subjugated humanity to the point that they were hardly recognizable from their historical selves. Portovila planted a covert command in the computers that set up a self-limiting paradigm to suppress the advancement of humanity. In fact, he used the Rendering¡¯s transhuman technology against their precious humans to make sure that humanity could not escape the bounds set up by the agreement. The Rendering had believed their technology would outlast and supersede the Pans¡¯ skittishness. The Panterrestrials used technology against them to ensure that never happened. Spanner Kinmuto, ¡°The Intra-Divestiture Era,¡± Civilization¡¯s Demise. Chapter 5 Present Day ¡°Where is Marion?¡± Leia called out to her Uncle Rafi, who crouched in an odd fashion behind a cluster of bushes, his fingertips twitching over the rifle that lay on the ground by his side. Instead of answering, he lunged at her and dragged her back behind the shrubs, shoving er down into a crouch with him as he held his finger to his lips. ¡°What are we hunting?¡± she whispered, and Rafi shook his head. ¡°Over there,¡± he replied raising his finger to a spot deeper in the woods. ¡°Marion,¡± she wondered, confused, but then she saw them. It was a group of seven men, most with guns and a few with what looked like clubs, raising enough noise that she knew they weren¡¯t attempting stealth. Without preface, Travers hailed from across several yards away, and the crew spun on him with varying levels of aggression. As he usually did when one of the other villages took an aggressive stance, Travers raised his hands and donned a disarming smile. ¡°We should get help,¡± Leia prompted. ¡°Just wait,¡± Rafi disagreed. ¡°You men after that bear that¡¯s been raging around here lately?¡± Travers offered. One of the obvious leaders, a man halfway between Rafi¡¯s and Travers¡¯s height with a full brown beard and almost no hair, took up position at the head of the group. ¡°We¡¯re after whoever stole the goats out of our pen last night and open the sheep corral.¡± Even from their distance, Leia could see the accusatory bent of his glare. ¡°Understandable. They branded?¡± ¡°Why? You find something?¡± The man emphasized the word ¡°find¡± as if it meant much more than what it said. ¡°Nope. Just wondering if I might help you. I have a good two dozen men I could round up in no time.¡± Leia smiled when the men¡¯s threatening posture abruptly cooled. ¡°As a matter of fact,¡± Travers continued, ¡°let me call the man over who manages our livestock, and I can ask him if he has seen anything.¡± ¡°You think that¡¯s gonna make us feel any better?¡± ¡°Well, he¡¯s a smart man, so he might be able to give you something. He¡¯s close by. Rafi! Hey, Rafi, I¡¯ve got a question for you.¡± Making sure to keep the tree between himself and the little mob, Rafi rose to his feet, gripping the rifle on his way up. When he stepped from behind the trunk, the firearm hugged against his chest in clear display, the effect was instantaneous. Every an in the group relaxed their stance from aggression to appeasement. Leia always wondered why even people with guns reacted to Rafi that way, but very few people stayed in a rage once the giant arrived on the scene. Leia understood the men¡¯s frustration. For the past few months, the villages deeper in the woods had seen a rash of thefts and even some violence. Most of the violence outside the dome happened within the isolated villages themselves, usually dealt with within the village itself with little spillover to other towns. Every once in a while, though, the craziness would leech into the surrounding towns. Only those within the shadow of the dome stayed completely untouched, as if the fear of the machines carried enough insecurity with them to ward of instability. As much as she disliked the unnatural domes, they managed a good amount of order, which seemed their purpose. But at what cost? The Relenting? Relenting was evil ¨C beyond evil ¨C and no one inside even knew it. They just accepted it as the natural order of life. Maybe they couldn¡¯t see it because they didn¡¯t know any different, but when she thought about her father making that choice, losing hope¡­No, maintaining order at the expense of human lives was not okay, and it never wood be. There had to be a balance somewhere, like Eva and her husband had set up in her village. Something that contained order but didn¡¯t enact it ¨C because contriving events in such a way that people lost hope and asked to die was in every practical way the same as killing them. So Leia couldn¡¯t delay her mission, not anymore. Her mother had taken the risk for years, and Leia would continue to do the same so that maybe her father would hear about the ANGEL who gave people hope. Then he would have hope and keep fighting. As she stood to her feet behind the tree, she set her mind back on Marion and getting to the dome. She peered at the men from around the trunk, and since they seemed significantly calmer, she took the chance and move back toward the town to find Marion. There were only really three choices of where she would be if she wasn¡¯t in her cabin: the forest, the Hives, or the dumps. Not that Leia liked buzzing among the bees, but she preferred it to foraging through the dumps. She wasn¡¯t awful with the technology they scavenged from the refuse, but she preferred the excitement of the new discoveries the bees continually provided: balms for wounds, tinctures for illness, wax for a thousand uses, and Leia¡¯s reason for seeking out Marion. The propolis gloves. ¡°I¡¯m over here, child,¡± floated the warm tones from among the hives. Not that Leia received any true direction from the general descriptor since there were over a thousand hives. Every time she saw the vast field, she stood shocked that the city would allow something so obviously organized and enterprising, but the Swags that ran the city seemed intent on convincing the Caged that the ¡°Deplorables¡± were stunted, misshapen failures of the humankind, incapable of any real thought. Leia scoffed. No one could seem as mindless as the empty souls that wandered inside the dome. Whatever they pumped into the system ensured it, as she well knew from her mishap inside the walls. She hoped never to spend another night inside. Finally, she noticed the pair of pants that protruded below the line of a table to her left. ¡°You should not come out here without the proper gear, Leia,¡± the woman chastised, stepping from behind one of the hives to reveal the light brown hair, streaked with silver, and the slightly rounded form of Ester Kirksey¡¯s best friend. ¡°I could see the smoke from beyond the hives, and besides, a sting won¡¯t hurt me.¡± ¡°I suppose you¡¯re wanting those.¡± The woman gestured to a table that lay a dozen feet away, just inside the cloud of smoke. After a quick step, Leia gripped the gloves and slipped gently into her bag. ¡°Perfect, as always,¡± she hummed, turning back to Marion with a smile. ¡°Give me a hug, then,¡± the woman commanded, and Leia complied easily. ¡°So, you¡¯re going back into town?¡± the older woman wondered, dubious. ¡°Travers seemed worried.¡± ¡°When is he not worried?¡° Leia shrugged. ¡°He doesn¡¯t have the same goal that I have.¡± ¡°But he feels it his duty to protect you.¡± ¡°He is not my father.¡± Marion pursed her lips in disapproval. ¡°He doesn¡¯t pretend to be. He protects everyone ¨C you know that.¡± ¡°I do,¡± she conceded, though it damaged her complaint. ¡°Still, I have decided that if I¡¯m going to have any luck finding my father, I¡¯m going to have to move beyond the east gate, and I can¡¯t do that from out here. My mother managed most of the houses in the eastern district; why am I covering the same territory? I think I¡¯ll investigate the south.¡± ¡°I understand your reasoning, but I also understand why Travers is so worried. Do you really think it¡¯s a good idea to move so far from escape? There¡¯s nothing on the south, and you don¡¯t want to risk the west or north gate. Don¡¯t you remember what happened to you last time you were stuck inside overnight.¡± ¡°I do,¡± Leia sighed, ¡°but I recovered well enough.¡± ¡°After a week of constant companionship and near incarceration lest you do something self-destructive in your stupor.¡± ¡°And imagine how trapped my father must be, trapped inside all these years, drugged into mindlessness. Unaware that he has a daughter who loves him. How could a daughter leave that behind because she feared temporary chemical depression? I don¡¯t imagine I will struggle quite as much now that I understand what is happening to me.¡± ¡°Your father would not want you to risk your life for him.¡± ¡°Maybe not, but I imagine he will be glad when I succeed.¡± ¡°Remember that he was raised to this. If he stayed inside, maybe he preferred it.¡± Leia pursed her lips at her companion. ¡°Just because someone is born into oppression, does that mean they deserve it? That they wouldn¡¯t rejoice at freedom? Maybe he doesn¡¯t know any better, but he¡¯s at least a decade older than most of the Relenters. I can¡¯t delay anymore.¡± Still wearing her frustration, Marion sighed. ¡°Of course, you are right. I just hate that you are the one to do this.¡± ¡°Would it be right for me to ask Travers to do it? You know he wouldn¡¯t refuse. And Rafi was nearly nabbed when he went in with me.¡± ¡°Because you took so long.¡± ¡°Because he is the size of a mountain.¡± She spun away from her friend. ¡°It is neither their debt nor obligation to help me. Eva told me what it cost my father to protect my mother and me, and I could not ask that of either of my friends.¡± ¡°Okay, but how are you treating the sacrifice of your father to risk your own life?¡± Marion followed her, leaning back into her vision. ¡°I¡¯m not, Mair. These people aren¡¯t dangerous that way.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think.¡± ¡°I talked to my mother for hours. She never saw anyone injured by one of the machines, or even one of the Unspoken.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°What if she didn¡¯t tell you everything?¡± ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Marion murmured. ¡°But either way, she only knew about the dangers to the Insiders, not the Remnant ¨C she never knew much about the Remnant until she came outside.¡± ¡°Well, regardless, I¡¯m going inside again.¡± They had approached the outskirts of the village, and Leia hoped she could end the conversation and send Marion back to the bees. From the little clearing just inside the first row of houses, Travers have started toward them, and Leia did not wish to deal with both of them at once. She lay her hand on Marion¡¯s arm. ¡°I will be careful ¨C you have my word.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, dear,¡± the older woman leaned in for a hug, which Leia returned in kind. Because she had leaned down to embrace Marion, she missed Travers final approach and the look exchanged between the elder woman and the man who played father. When she stood up, though, she began to discern the buzz in the distance. Not the buzz of bees, but of human voices. ¡°What is this?¡± she challenged. Neither seemed willing to answer, but Travers finally conceded, ¡°We have convened the Assembly of Ancients.¡± ¡°About me?¡± Such a dramatic step seemed preposterous in the circumstances ¨C she had been inside several dozen times over the two years since her majority, with no major incidents. She knew her face had turned pink as it often did when she was angry, and it took her a moment to realize that they had each threaded an arm through hers and were pressing her to the meeting house. Halfway there, she started to drag her feet. ¡°This is too much.¡± ¡°There are many in the Assembly who care for you, and they did not mind convening for your sake.¡± Marion threw a look at Travers, and this time Leia caught the exchange of glances. ¡°She¡¯s right, you know,¡± he agreed. ¡°After what happened to you last time, the Assembly should be consulted before you go in again. You think that because you have passed two of your eighteen years gliding in among the Bound that you are somehow an expert? If Evangeline were still alive, you would listen to her!¡± Each of them began to press her forward again, and since she had never really managed much physical rebellion, she found herself stumbling along toward the lofted structure that stood opposite the kitchen and served as a makeshift dance hall, dining hall, and community watering hole. ¡°You say that, but I never shied from disagreeing with Eva.¡± Leia tugged her arms out of theirs before they could shove her inside. ¡°As much as I loved her, I had a mother. And my mother insisted that I not sacrifice goodness to fear.¡± ¡°And did your mother, then, encourage you to run in among the wolves to save a lamb?¡± Travers chastised, threading an arm behind her and managing to press her through the door. ¡°A lamb is not a person. Even for the lamb, I would be sad. But you know as well as I that a person is different.¡± ¡°But your near run-in with the MONIFOR could have been disastrous!¡± Leia just rolled her eyes. ¡°Why would a MONIFOR even notice me? They¡¯re tuned to the Insiders. And from what I¡¯ve discerned, they are not connected to the Discord in any way, so they can¡¯t exactly track me. The machines are harmless to humans.¡± ¡°Their human pets aren¡¯t harmless ¨C the Unspoken?¡± Marion countered. ¡°They were the ones who nearly killed your father.¡± ¡°It was the trampling of a panicked crowd.¡± Travers would have none of her casual attitude. ¡°But I would bet that if it became necessary, someone could update the programming of the machines. So, even if you are right about what the machines do at the moment, things could change if you cause too much disturbance.¡± ¡°The humans Inside are midwit junkies who can hardly function under the haze.¡± ¡°Where do you learn these words?¡± She glanced over her shoulder with a grin, taking in his obvious exasperation. ¡°The library, of course.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read almost every book in that library, and I¡¯ve never heard of a ¡®midwit.¡¯ And ¡®junkie¡¯ is definitely a slang word.¡± ¡°Stick to books almost a millennium old. Or, you could try going back only a couple of centuries instead.¡± He managed a laugh.¡± Leia¡­¡± He gripped her shoulders and spun her back to face him. ¡°I know I¡¯m not your father, child, but even though I am half your height, I am twice your age. I brought your mother into the village before you were born ¨C¡± ¡°And you held her hand as they carted my father away, I know. You have told me this story a thousand times ¨C usually when you are trying to coerce me out of some decision I won¡¯t change.¡± The thrum of the Ancients now more resembled a hive upset than a subdued buzz ¨C Travers had done it, gotten her through the little corridor and into the main chamber. Now the irritation in her head matched the external rumble of noise. ¡°Coerce?¡± She sidestepped the arm that restrained her, turning her back on the room so she could glare back and forth between Travers and the silent Marion. ¡°Appealing to my mother who died? To my father who is in prison? It¡¯s emotional coercion.¡± ¡°I would think that it¡¯s appealing to shared values. Do you think I want this for myself?¡± Despite her anger, Leia¡¯s eyes softened. ¡°I know you are trying to protect me, Travers, but it¡¯s because you still see me as a child. I have been dealing with adult responsibilities for three years now, and I¡¯ve been going into the city for two. I¡¯ve been in more than you ¨C even though you are twice my age, as you love to point out. I¡¯m not saying I know everything, but two years of experience ¨C dodging snitches, digging up information, scouting for supplies ¨C you don¡¯t have to worry about me.¡± ¡°Everything you just said makes me worry more¡­¡± Before Leia could respond, Rafi approached with an even more deferential air than usual, and Marion stepped away to speak to a tall woman bent with age. ¡°The Assembly is ready,¡± Rafi prompted. ¡°They already know what you are doing and why, so you won¡¯t have to wait to hear them. Shall I announce you?¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re both playing father!¡± Leia muttered, though she turned back to the room to face the Assembly, lowering her voice even more so they couldn¡¯t hear her. ¡°My dad said he might be in prison ten years, so if he was right, he should have been out of prison a decade ago. I¡¯ve looked over the whole east, as well as a portion of the west and north. The only place I have no concept of is the south ¨C incidentally where the hospital is. Getting in from the outside would prove dangerous, since I would have to fake some injury and trek though the forest, so all I¡¯m going to do is investigate from the inside.¡± ¡°But you¡¯ve never been that far into the city,¡± Travers retorted, and his less talkative companion nodded solemnly. ¡°Do you really think those robots can deviate from their routine in the least?¡± ¡°Those robots are almost human in their thinking, though I admit not entirely.¡± Unfortunately, Travers had not lowered his voice, and Leia realized that the room had gone silent around them. Whether she wanted it or not, she would now have to sit under the advice of the Ancients. ¡°They would have been almost human,¡± one of the elders, who had obviously heard the statement, crackled from several yards away, ¡°if Stairet hadn¡¯t separated them from the source.¡± His spindly height seemed to give him consequence among the group. ¡°Stairet?¡± Leia wondered. ¡°It wasn¡¯t Stairet,¡± a tiny elderly woman corrected. ¡°It was Hanser, and they would have been a lot more than human if he hadn¡¯t interfered. They would have killed off the entire human race.¡± ¡°But they¡¯re harmless now,¡± Leia posited, and she resented the cackle of laughter that ricocheted around the circle. ¡°If you believe that, child,¡± offered Cherin, a plump woman with deeply tanned skin, ¡°you are not as bright as you are believed to be.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been inside,¡± Leia contradicted. ¡°I¡¯ve seen the way they deal with the humans. We¡¯ve all seen how they deal with the Remnant on market days.¡± ¡°You people would all be helpless without us,¡± guffawed a loudmouthed, portly man with grizzled hair, and Leia stifled a snicker. The man, Griffin, could have been Travers in thirty years, though she couldn¡¯t imagine Travers relaxing enough to laugh that hard. ¡°Remember the Deluge twenty years ago?¡± he prompted. ¡°There were two the year you came, Miss Leia, and the first one was a bad one. We lost¡­how many, Gretchen?¡± The tiny woman leaned back in the rocking chair where she had perched herself and stared up at the roof. ¡°I want to say fourteen.¡± ¡°Fifteen,¡± another corrected, and Leia fell into the passive listening she so often utilized when in the presence of the Assembly. The ensuing discussion informed her that the Deluge was a manufactured disease, targeted toward the Remnant; that it only affected the Remnant who live near the domes; that the reason the Swags fight to keep Insiders inside is to avoid an admixture of blood between the inside and outside. ¡°How do you know all this?¡± Leia challenged the general group. The future Travers crossed his arms over his chest. ¡°We have books in our library, girl. I would think as much time as you spend in there, you would have read some of our history.¡± ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t notice those.¡± Marion smiled an affectionate smile. ¡°Head in the clouds¡­¡± she accused lightly, though no one else heard it. ¡°But what does this have to do with whether or not I can go inside?¡± ¡°Let her go!¡± hollered Griffin. ¡°They won¡¯t pay any attention to her if she doesn¡¯t stay overnight ¨C¡± ¡°As long as she doesn¡¯t bring anyone out,¡± supplied the tiny woman. Gretchen, the future Travers had said. ¡°I say bring ¡®em all out!¡± barked a tall, thin man with a patch of white hair wrapped around his head from ear to ear. ¡°Those damned Unspoken can¡¯t take on everyone. Maybe she¡¯ll find some parts for Rafi in there that actually work.¡± ¡°She¡¯s not gonna steal, Clive,¡± groused Griffin. Leia raised her eyebrow at Marion and Travers as the Assembly began to escalate their bickering over the idea of all those ¡°crazy¡± insiders joining the ranks of the villages. ¡°You heard them,¡± she pressed as she backed toward the door. ¡°You should let me go.¡± ¡°The Assembly is not the law,¡± Travers retorted, but Marion placed her hand on his arm. ¡°No, Travers, but when they agree on something, it¡¯s very often true or right. Leia wants to go, and this seems to confirm that there¡¯s no problem with it. Maybe she can find out something about her father.¡± As they passed out of the doorway, she glanced up at Travers, and she could already read his concession. Rafi stepped out after, a grin splitting his face. ¡°I think Griffin and Yellis are about to come to blows.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the tall one, right?¡± Leia wondered, returning his smile. ¡°That could be us one day, Travers.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got twenty years on you, pup. I¡¯ll probably be dead by the time you make the Assembly.¡± ¡°So, I can go?¡± Leia interrupted. ¡°I mean, I know I can go, but you¡¯re not going to fight me on this?¡± With a sour purse of his lips, he blew out a very disgusted breath. ¡°I won¡¯t fight you this time, but I¡¯ll look for every excuse to fight you the next. I have no faith that these Insiders are as docile as the Assembly claims.¡± ¡°Always with the drama¡­¡± Leia complained. ¡°I think you underestimate humans.¡± ¡°No,¡± Travers disagreed. ¡°I estimate them as exactly as dangerous as they are, to themselves as well as others. Even among the Remnant, there is as much danger as there is in the Discord. They are just more isolated and so less able to affect the whole race. If Evangeline and her husband hadn¡¯t set up our settlement laws from the outset, we could have had a very different community ¨C certainly, most of the others around us have proven less successful. Remember the time we all camped near the town on the north, and we had to fight off those men who wanted to steal our gear? When your mother approached the authorities, they called the thievery ¡®eminent domain,¡¯ as if people could steal what they wanted as long as they were strong enough to take it. And you know there are far more animals in the wild now that humans are largely stuck in the domes. It¡¯s not like your old books.¡± ¡°You bring up a very important point¡­¡± Leia smiled. ¡°It¡¯s just as dangerous outside the dome and much less predictable, so I am less worried about myself inside than out.¡± ¡°As long as you don¡¯t breathe too much of the Curse.¡± Leia shivered. Only once had she stayed inside too long, and it had taken her days to slough off the resulting ennui ¨C not to mention the despondency that had sent her toward self-inflicted harm once the Curse wore off. It had given her much more compassion for the people she encountered inside. Not only did they possess no relationships or endeavors to give their life meaning, they fought the very air they breathed to stay alive. The Curse more than the ANGELs gave her pause, but she had to go inside. Most of the Caged had relented long before her father¡¯s age, and the knowledge created intense urgency in her thoughts. If the memory of her mother and her could not fight past the chemical haze, would he have already Relented? Had he been as despondent as the other souls she encountered every few weeks? Placing a hand on the arm of each man, she sought to calm them. ¡°Look, even if the ANGELs and the Discord and everything else doesn¡¯t intimidate me, you know that I don¡¯t want any more exposure to the Curse than I have to have. Last time it almost killed me ¨C not the robots or even the men. I am going to look around ¨C that¡¯s all. I will get the information I need and get out as quickly as I can. I promise.¡± Rafi pulled her into a hug, his hulking self towering over even her unusual height. When he released her, she turned to hug Travers. ¡°The whole village would lose a star if something happened to you, girl. Remember that you have people here who love you and would suffer your loss.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± she met his eyes, ¡°but I can¡¯t abandon my father.¡± Nodding, Travers just sighed and reached up to tug her ear. Leia rolled her eyes, though she had long stopped objecting to the expression of affection. ¡°I¡¯ll be listening for your step, my angel¡­¡± He pressed his lips into a terse smile, and Rafi ruffled her golden-brown ringlets. She would have to dampen her hair before she left to return it to order, or she would never pass as an ANGEL. ¡°Look for me with the sunset.¡± She backed away from her trio of friends and stepped into the rising dawn. Interlude V SENTOR: Tragic ran the Curse of man. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: Of sickness both of flesh and soul. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: The messengers of God to Man. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± SENTOR: The ANGELs carried Cure and peace. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± PAEAN lxvii Chapter 6 ¡°Ka?jo!¡± Ka?jo pulled his eyes from the screen where a recording played, of Deplorable children who had seated themselves in a circle and drew in the sand. Like I draw on the screen. Of course the voice that interrupted him was the voice of Ivan. Who else ever whispered to him? ¡°What is it, Ivan?¡± Ka?jo listened for the response, but he turned his eyes back to the children ¨C they stirred some odd sensation in his mind, and he itched to figure out what it was. Besides, Ivan knew better than to stay in Ka?jo¡¯s dwelling for more than a few kronia. If Ka?jo had not in a moment of weakness told the younger man about the visions, he would have turn the kid in ages ago. Not that Ka?jo really blamed him. After hearing the odd singing himself, it had proven harder to ignore the questions. First, it had just been a humming tone as an elderly woman stepped out of her dwelling one evening. Next, he had not even known for sure what he was hearing. It seemed to emit from an ANGEL, but like all the humans he knew, Ka?jo had grown up listening to ANGELs¡¯ songs, and this sounded little like one of them. The tones had pulled him along behind the creature for the length of a dwelling, but he had turned away after hearing only a few lines, afraid of drawing attention to himself. ¡°Come outside and talk to me.¡± Ka?jo shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m busy.¡± ¡°You¡¯d better not be too busy for this.¡± Sighing, Ka?jo switched off the screen, again hating that he couldn¡¯t just ignore his young coworker. Once they had stepped outside and toward the middle of the street, Ivan turned back with raging eyes. ¡°The old man has been talking to me about a hospital,¡± he murmured. ¡°A what?¡± That was definitely different from anything Ka?jo had imagined. ¡°A hospital, a place where they take sick people. In our case, they don¡¯t have to be sick. Instead, they collect people there. It¡¯s where they raise the children until they reach majority ¨C somehow I have a vague memory of that. Then, when they need space, if enough people haven¡¯t relented, I think they move them out of the dome and into this hospital. Especially if someone becomes too unpredictable. Remember how Carlos disappeared? And I think I¡¯ve found some reference to it on tablet documents, but they don¡¯t call it a hospital. They call it the Sanitorium.¡± Ka?jo narrowed his eyes. Though he had heard the term in whispers, he had given up its existence when his visions had convinced him of his own insanity. ¡°This is all impossible. Where would they have enough space to ¡®collect¡¯ people?¡± ¡°Maybe another dome? I mean, they say all the domes are alike, but maybe that¡¯s just true enough to matter, but not 100% true. Maybe they have some other domes that they use for other purposes.¡± When he thought about it, the idea held merit. But a ¡°sanitorium¡±? What did it mean? ¡°What did the old man say about it?¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Well, he said they took sick people there.¡± ¡°There are no sick people in the domes.¡± Ivan leveled him a skeptical glare. ¡°I know you¡¯re too smart to believe that. Even I have seen people who fought the Relenting after it was given, and they ended up Broken. Where do they go? The Advocates don¡¯t take them. Maybe the ANGELs do. The ANGELs can¡¯t kill anyone, so where do they go? Plus, my friend seemed to think they brought people from the Dregs in this Sanitorium, too.¡± ¡°The Dregs? Impossible. There wouldn¡¯t be enough room in any building.¡± ¡°Not in our dome, but I think there¡¯s another dome in our vicinity. The Transit can¡¯t carry live people; it would kill them. So I think the dome is nearby.¡± Gritting his teeth, Ka?jo pressed the thought from his mind. He had enough anxiety with his visions and insanity. ¡°And I think the old man is the broken one. I don¡¯t want to talk about this anymore.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Ivan shrugged, ¡°but I know you have as many questions about the dome as I do. And I know you¡¯re not happy right now. No one wears that look you¡¯re wearing if they¡¯re happy.¡± ¡°What is happy?¡± Ka?jo countered, shutting down the conversation by stalking toward the closest clearing to his dwelling. He had his own projects to consider, and they didn¡¯t involve hospitals or missing people or any dome but his own. His experiments with the chemical levels had at least proven some of his conjecture right ¨C not only had his own unrest increased at night with the lessening of the Sernat, but there had been a slight increase in outbreaks of aggression and Relenting among the people. The chemical affected people¡¯s mood more than any of the other chemicals. An increase in the Lethidine had helped his crazed night visions, but the affect on the rest of the populace ¨C those without his chemical suppressor ¨C had proven less beneficial. There had been an increase in complaints off malaise and headache for days after, and Ka?jo couldn¡¯t justify doing that to a whole city for his own benefit. So, how was he going to figure out what was wrong with him? Something about Ivan sent Ka?jo into protective mode, wishing more than anything to shut down the kid¡¯s questions. Still, Ka?jo held as many concerns as his coworker. And apparently another person¡¯s questions spurred on his own. What if there really was a ¡°hospital,¡± a place where people could go if they weren¡¯t well? What if he could go there and get help for his insane night visions? If it was connected to his dome, it had to be on the south side ¨C the one with no gate. What kept him from taking a trip over there to look? What kept him was that even with his board, if he skirted around the perimeter, it would take until the middle of the night. There was no direct road around the periphery. Instead, the streets held bends and turns to discourage loitering at the edges of society. He could cut through the center, with the only concern being that he would pass by Benevolence. If any of the other Advocates came out, he would have to provide an explanation he wasn¡¯t willing to share. Dome forbid I run into Channer. Ka?jo would try it at some point, though. He would look for the hospital. The visions weighed on him, hovering over his thoughts with the possibility that one day he might mistake the vision for reality, and everyone would know he was broken. He knew how to investigate things ¨C it was what he did every day, monitor and investigate. At least he had a direction for his questions. Maybe tonight, he decided. Worst that could happen at night was that he might have to provide an explanation to a Mech, and they were much easier to fool than Channer. Maybe he could even throw Channer off when they showed to calibrate the big compressor that night. Willfully calming himself, Ka?jo suppressed the thought of his plans until he could put them into practice. Chapter 7 Though she was nowhere near done reading, Leia stood to her feet, placing the book down on the little table that rested next to her favorite library chair. A tender fur upholstered the oversized seat, and she could snuggle herself into it like the warmest hug. The fact that the material bore a faded version of her favorite pale teal color rendered it even more special, but this morning, she could not afford to get behind on her chores. She stepped over to the window and twisted the volume of the speakers down until they clicked off. Rafi really was a genius, reworking the scrap from the dump into little gadgets based solely on the manuals he found in the library. And how had he figured out which parts of the dome¡¯s discarded machines held sound? She never understood when he tried to explain. Humans were not supposed to have access to that knowledge ¨C only machines. She thought that was how the ridiculous robots kept everyone afraid of them, by reserving the magic for themselves and leaving the humans to minimal access. Of course, it hadn¡¯t ever worked on the people of her village, due in large part to her mother¡¯s inside knowledge of how the domes worked. Leia especially was never afraid of the machines. They just seemed so mindless no matter how much they resembled people. The humans inside were much more terrifying, though probably not personally dangerous to her. People who administered an end-of-life drug? Who made dying more palatable, easier? That was messed up. Not that the insiders thought much about it since they were all sedated by the Curse. From what she could tell, they were left just alert enough to avoid turning into the zombies she had read about from a couple of centuries before ¨C the ones shoved into hospitals and institutions. Insiders received just enough medicine not to complain, not to feel fear or emotional pain. To feel almost no emotions at all. Just thinking about it sent prickles across her skin. If her mother¡¯s words meant anything, the ones Leia really needed to worry about were the Unspoken. Even the name infuriated her. According to her mother, Unspoken were the closest to guards or enforcers that anyone in the cage could claim, and if one of them found Leia, she just knew something awful would happen. Unspoken seemed a thousand times more alert to the world around them than the rest of the Insiders, like they were immune to the Curse or something. No one she had seen inside was as tall as Leia, but the Unspoken were strong. Some looked almost as strong as Rafi. She wouldn¡¯t want to try to escape from one. Overhead, the sun had just crested the top of the low dwellings when she had fulfilled her day¡¯s responsibilities, and as she slid through the open gate, Leia stuck to the south side of the buildings to take advantage of the slightly wider shadows. The darkness still spanned the gap between the buildings from east to west, but she really didn¡¯t know how long it would take her to make it across to the other side since she couldn¡¯t walk and had to slip in and out of shadows. Whatever happened, she would need to wait until evening to head back or she wouldn¡¯t find enough shade to hide her. Unless I go out a different gate. Did she risk the wilderness in an area she hadn¡¯t explored with Travers? She had encountered enough wild animals, and an occasional wild man, on her treks with her once-guardian, and she didn¡¯t care to encounter another during the day, much less after dark. She already been inside for several hours when the alarms went off, and Leia had to fight a sudden panic. Fear was a liar, Eva had taught her, but fear was also a friend. Fear told a person to pay attention, then it was up to him or her to figure out why. Like Eva had taught her, she tried to take her thoughts captive, to pull the panic back into a compartment so she could examine the reality of her situation. She slid down against a building to hunker in the shadows, unable to think what she should do. Maybe Travers had been right; maybe she shouldn¡¯t have gone so far into a cage. But her dad¡­she couldn¡¯t think, so she closed her eyes. Her mind was buzzing, like unsmoked hives. She could discern a slight elevation in the silence as people moved en masse from wherever they had been back to their dwellings, but even that range sinister to her confused thoughts. She squeezed her eyes shut. No one had any reason to look into the narrow strip of grass that ran between the low white stucco structures, and nobody inside seemed to suffer from an excess of curiosity. When the hum of a machine approached, she blinked up against the contrast from the backs of her lids. A man hovered on one of the Advocate¡¯s little boards, only a few feet from her, and she scooted back into a ball, terrified even as that fear infuriated her. On the board, he stood probably a couple of inches taller than her, but Leia knew he would look up to her from the ground level. Like all the Unspoken, his physique bulged with a well-defined musculature, somehow cleaner etched than her hardscrabble companions outside the dome. Maybe it was just the smooth skin, unusually pale under his flaxen hair. He was like a statue and a monster rolled into one, and he was an Unspoken ¨C somehow, she held in the scream that tried to escape. Even in the darkness, she could tell that he stared directly at her. Her rational mind insisted that he wasn¡¯t aggressive or ready to pounce on her, but her heart was racing like she was about to be killed. When he hopped off the board to approach her, though, his strength and expression carried a calming effect, and her fear melted into wariness. Finally, she could breathe, and she practiced counting to ten as she breathed in and out like her mother had taught her. Why was an Unspoken staring at her with so much curiosity? Curiosity and something else she didn¡¯t know. If she hadn¡¯t known better, she would think it similar to the craving crush of the adolescent boys in the village when they pined after their young women peers. The expression on this man¡¯s face, though, more resembled eagerness, or maybe¡­hunger. Leia shivered and scooted further into the shadow. ¡°Are you an ANGEL?¡± the man queried. With a quick glance to either end of the corridor, Leia sought a line of escape, but of course, she could discern none. That would have been too easy. ¡°Of course, you¡¯re not an ANGEL,¡± he murmured to himself. ¡°An ANGEL would never hide.¡± He mimicked her earlier motion, glancing back and forth to the ends of the corridor. ¡°But the similarity is uncanny. You¡¯re so tall¡­I know all the human faces in this city, and yours isn¡¯t one of them. Since you¡¯re dressed this way, I can only assume you¡¯re trying to pass yourself off as an Angel.¡± She made a mistake cowering like she had ¨C if she had just stood tall, maybe he wouldn¡¯t have noticed her. But, no. Of course she couldn¡¯t. As much as she was brave in ideals, once reality hit, she couldn¡¯t always keep it up. And whatever strange effect of the dome was stripping her of her confidence even more. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re wrong,¡± she challenged, her voice shaking. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m not pretending. Instead of believing her, a grin split his face. ¡°I¡¯m not wrong. And it looks like you are in a bit of trouble.¡± All of her alarms were going off because had she stood in a similar position outside the dome, she would likely face serious danger. But did crimes even happen inside the dome? She had never heard of one, and the Remnant had been exchanging with the Insiders since the inception of the domes. Surely she would have heard¡­¡°But you¡¯re an Unspoken,¡± she ventured. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you taking me in?¡± ¡°An Unspoken?¡± The smile widened. ¡°That¡¯s quite the label coming from a Deplorable.¡± ¡°What do you know about the Remnant?¡± She wouldn¡¯t let the ¡°Deplorable¡± label stand. ¡°The Remnant¡­Not much, apparently. The only Deplorable I know is twice my age.¡± In her current circumstances, with the swell of anxiety, his charm rang as more a ploy than sincere, and it hardened her against him. ¡°Well, you don¡¯t want to mess with the younger ones ¨C we tend to be unpredictable.¡± He shook his crown of golden hair in denial. ¡°This is too good of an opportunity ¨C I¡¯m not letting you get away until I can find out a little more about what I¡¯m missing out on.¡± The words finally gripped Leia and raised her to her feet. He wasn¡¯t going to let her get away¡± With strength like his, she wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. She knew her own strength, and she knew the strength of a man. As recently as a couple of years before, Travers had hauled her out of a ditch where she had fallen while hiking with him and Marion. At half Travers¡¯ age, the man before her would face even less difficulty manhandling her. When the alarms stopped, Leia forced herself to breathe, aware that the calmer streets would improve her chances of escaping. ¡°You don¡¯t mean that. You¡¯re not going to keep me here, right?¡± ¡°Not really up to me at the moment,¡± he shrugged. ¡°When the alarm sounds, the gates lock, and they can¡¯t open under any circumstances until morning. I¡¯ve seen them close for as long as two weeks before, so we just might have to find somewhere to keep you.¡± Two weeks? She had to get past this man so she could find a way out, whatever he said. She backed away from him, avoiding the light that escaped from the windows that might expose her. Gauging the distance on either side of the Unspoken, she eased to the darker side of the alley. With every ounce of strength, she sprung toward the gap. In her memory, she hadn¡¯t seen a man move so fast, and he had thrown his body in her path before she made an inch past him. Still, she pressed her feet into the grass beneath her with as much force as she could manage, even spinning away from the wall to see of she could gain the other side. Instead, she found herself vised tightly in an unforgiving grip, his arms encircling her with her arms pinned to her sides. ¡°So, you¡¯d rather deal with the Mechs?¡± he grunted against her struggle. ¡°I¡¯d rather make that decision myself,¡± she panted. ¡°I know they can¡¯t hurt me, unlike you.¡± Frustrated, she finally stopped struggling, aware that she could never win against this man¡¯s strength. Maybe it was the age difference or some drug they gave the Unspoken, but even Travers and Rafi didn¡¯t move like this man. She would have to rely on brains instead of brawn. ¡°Look¡­¡± He relaxed his arms just enough that he wasn¡¯t going to hurt her but not enough for her to move away from him. ¡°I don¡¯t know how everything works in this dome, but I know that when the alarms sound, there is something that happens to everybody¡¯s fear ¨C I think it¡¯s something they do to get everyone back in their dwellings. If you can wait a little bit before you panic into something dangerous, the effects should soon wane. They want people to sleep, so they somehow undo the panic. As long as you keep your head for a while, you should be okay soon. The Mechs aren¡¯t supposed to be able to hurt anyone, but not only are you an outsider, you are doing something I have never seen in my life. You¡¯re upsetting the order, and maintaining order is the machines¡¯ main directive.¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°What are these Mechs you keep talking about?¡± ¡°If I let you go, will you promise not to run?¡± When she nodded her head, he released her toward the back of the alley, and though she spun on him with fury, she didn¡¯t try to run. Whether because of the power of suggestion or because something had really changed, her panic was fading. ¡°The Mechs ¨C¡± The man held out his hands as if to appease a nervous animal. ¡° ¨C are the machines that run this place. They don¡¯t like disturbances, and they don¡¯t really care who causes them. You sick them on me, and they will almost definitely come after you, too.¡± At least this time when the panic rose, she could breathe it away. He was right. Even though she thought of the people inside the dome as unalterably different from her, they were at least human, so she might be able to predict them on some level. The machines? She had no idea what they were capable of. ¡°It¡¯s okay, angel,¡± the man soothed, and he stepped toward her again, gently laying one hand on her arm. ¡°You¡¯re okay with me. If you let me help you, I can take you some place until they open the gates.¡± She peered at him from under her lashes, not at all certain what he really intended. Even though she could easily have interpreted his words as a threat, with his offer to ¡°take her some place,¡± his teasing manner rendered them less clear. From what she could hear, the numbers of people in the street had already dwindled because of the alarm, and even if she had wanted to run, there were few humans in the streets to hear her. He was likely right about the machines. ¡°Where will you take me?¡± He tried to take her hand, but instead, she twisted away from him altogether, raising her eyebrows at him in defiance. ¡°No, I guess not. Let me go look around before we bring you out into the light, even if there¡¯s not much of it yet. You¡¯re right about most of the Unspoken ¨C you can¡¯t trust them ¨C but I will figure out somewhere you can be safe.¡± He glanced to the end of the path and then strode in the opposite direction. Once he reached the edge of the building, he peered around in assessment before returning to Leia. ¡°Okay, now I need you to listen. My name is Ivan, and you¡¯re right: I¡¯m an Advocate, which you apparently call an ¡®Unspoken. Sounds like things have calmed down,¡± he ventured, ¡°so at this point, if we get out of here, chances are that no one will notice an ANGEL and an Advocate walking down the street after an alarm ¨C as long as you can play the part.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I haven¡¯t even agreed to anything.¡± ¡°You could just stay here. Or, you could walk out of here with me and we can get you some place safer.¡± ¡°Even if I said yes, I don¡¯t know if I can. I¡¯ve been in here a long time, and the Curse has had a bad effect on me. There¡¯s this place I go to in my head, where I play cool. And you have definitely ruined that for me.¡± She managed a glare, but he just flashed another grin. ¡°Let me see you try.¡± Drawing a breath, Leia blanked her expression, adopting her best impression of the stiff, unnatural ANGELs. ¡°Not bad¡­¡± Ivan allowed, ¡°but I think you should try to stay in the shadows.¡± ¡°Okay, where do you plan to take me?¡± she demanded again. ¡°You¡¯re not going to like it, but it is one of the only unmonitored places in the dome.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°Come with me. We¡¯ll talk as we walk.¡± Before she had time to pull back, he had gripped her hand, tucking the board under his other arm. Leia wanted to drag her feet like she had before, but she had just about given up. She guessed this ¡°Ivan¡± could have reported her to his compatriots if he were going to. Surely, they carried around some kind of electronic communication device. She would never make it out if she ran for it. If he headed anywhere near the Discord, she would just take her chances and run. Once they stepped into the street, she realized that ¡°Ivan, was right.¡± Not only did no one seem to notice the ¡°ANGEL¡± and the Advocate walking together, but people looked away from them. ¡°You¡¯re the problem in the east,¡± the man interrupted her thoughts. ¡°I¡¯m what?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the anomalies. The people who change their minds about Relenting, the ¨C I don¡¯t know what to call them.¡± ¡°Unrelenters.¡± ¡°Huh, that makes sense. The Unrelenters. Man, you¡¯re tall¡­¡± he repeated. Leia almost smiled at his obvious disbelief. He was only a couple of inches shorter than her, above average for the dome, she would guess. ¡°We¡¯re not pumped full of poison from the time we¡¯re born. Before you¡¯re born, really.¡± ¡°Poison?¡± ¡°The Curse?¡± she challenged, and she could read his confusion. ¡°It¡¯s what they pump into the air that makes you guys so miserable.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not miserable. Especially at the moment.¡± His crooked smile showed that he meant it. ¡°You¡¯re an Unspoken. They make you guys different ¨C scarier.¡± ¡°Scary? Me?¡± Ivan laughed without making a noise. ¡°You¡¯re the size of a giant, and I¡¯m the scary one.¡± She wasn¡¯t sure how to answer, but circumstance stole her thoughts anyway. As they passed a cross street, black eyes glinted at her from a shadowed corner opposite where she strolled with Ivan. It was a man, his olive skinned and sable hair difficult to discern against the deepening shadow. His gaze narrowed as their eyes met, and a muscle twitched in his rigid jaw. Like Ivan, the uniform accentuated the cut of his obvious strength, but he stood taller ¨C maybe only an inch shorter than Leia herself. She found herself leaning toward Ivan, as if she could trust him for protection. ¡°He¡¯s not as scary as he looks,¡± Ivan interrupted her thoughts as the man passed out of view. ¡°He looks scary. And why did he look at you that way? Is he angry at you? I thought people inside couldn¡¯t get angry.¡± Ivan scowled, an expression Leia wouldn¡¯t have expected on his face. ¡°He doesn¡¯t like me all that much, but I wouldn¡¯t say he¡¯s angry. Not that Advocates don¡¯t get angry ¨C they do, just not in the aggressive sense. We can get something close to irritated ¨C I don¡¯t have much experience discerning between the two, but I think that¡¯s more the reality. Advocates are given a drug that¡­takes away our contentment. ¡± As he had spoken, his face fell, and Leia¡¯s next words came out more gently despite the sentiment. ¡°Is that what you call the non-life you spend in here?¡± ¡°I mean, I guess it¡¯s boring.¡± He shrugged. ¡°¡­but at least no one is sad.¡± ¡°No one is alive,¡± she retorted. ¡°Whatever is in the air just sucks the life out of you.¡± ¡°You said that before. Why do you think there is something in the air? You couldn¡¯t know anything about what¡¯s in our air.¡± ¡°Well, I know that something is in the air, because when I¡¯m in here too long I get sick. It¡¯s probably what sent me into a panic before.¡± She had forgotten to watch the road as they talked, and all of the sudden, a large building rose in front of her. ¡°You brought me to Discord?¡± she gasped, and in an instant, she chose a path and dashed toward it. An unforgiving hand gripped her arm and halted her forward progress. ¡°Wait!¡± Ivan hissed. ¡°Just wait.¡± She tried to pull away from him, but she couldn¡¯t shake his grip without drawing attention to herself. ¡°Yes, this is Benevolence, but wait ¨C we¡¯re not going in. Just come with me over here.¡± He began to drag her, and at first she resisted, but when she realized that he had aimed them east of the Discord, she let her feet shuffle along with only a hint of drag. ¡°Where are you taking me?¡± ¡°I admit, it¡¯s not the most fun place, but no one goes there.¡± He approached a gate that stood in a white stucco wall, barely discernible from the house attached to it. When he opened it, the smell hit her, and a gag rose in her throat. ¡°Is this¡­a dump?¡± ¡°There¡¯s one nearby here, on the outside, and it¡¯s the only place the vent coincides with a dump ¨C which means, no one likes to come here.¡± ¡°Understandable. You can¡¯t expect me to go in there.¡± ¡°I heard that you Deplorables were prone to drama, but it¡¯s not that bad.¡± ¡°Maybe if you¡¯re brain-dead from inhaling zombie drugs all the time. Otherwise, it¡¯s awful. Besides, if I go in there, I¡¯ll be trapped. This whole place is a cage, but that is like a box. And the smell¡­¡± ¡°Look, angel ¨C¡± ¡°It¡¯s Blix,¡± she insisted, finally tired of the charming act. ¡°What is?¡± The curiosity was back. ¡°My name is Blix.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Blix?¡± ¡°It¡¯s¡­I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s not exactly human. Just hold on a kronia.¡± When she tried to pull away from him, he gripped her arm with irresistible force and yanked her inside, vising her other arm once the struggle would be out of sight of the road. When he had a firm grasp, he pressed her against the wall of one of the houses, riveting his eyes to hers. ¡°Just stay here ¨C inside the gate, okay? You can prop it with your foot so it doesn¡¯t shut, since you¡¯re so nervous. Maybe you can get some fresh air. I won¡¯t be gone long.¡± How was this man so persistent? She wanted to scream at him, though she didn¡¯t want to draw attention to herself. ¡°If I let you go, you¡¯ll get someone to help you restrain me.¡± He made a very deliberate motion to peer at each of his hands where they held her in place. ¡°Do you think I need help to restrain you?¡± She gritted her teeth. Apparently not. ¡°If you want me to stay quiet.¡± Shrugging, Ivan released one of her arms, digging in his pocket for something before holding it out to her. ¡°Take this.¡± She just stared at it then back at him, so he shoved its handle into her hand. ¡°It shoots a charge through anyone within five feet in front of it. I request that you don¡¯t try it on me yet, or I won¡¯t be able to move for ten kronia, and I need to take care of something before someone comes looking for me.¡± Turning the little device so she could see it better, he indicated a small round, black disk that sat naturally under her thumb. ¡°Look¡­You¡¯ll just push this button if someone looks aggressive.¡± ¡°How do I know you¡¯re telling the truth?¡± He finally let her go completely, convinced she wouldn¡¯t run now that he had given her the means to immobilize him. ¡°Then just shoot me now, I guess.¡± He held his hands up in surrender. ¡°I¡¯d rather you didn¡¯t, though, since it hurts, and I won¡¯t be able to move for a bit.¡± When she didn¡¯t push the button, he sought her eyes. ¡°No? Can I leave now?¡± ¡°Could I stop you?¡± His eyes dropped to the gadget. ¡°Yes, you could. But I have to meet a couple of my coworkers in the next little bit or they¡¯re going to come looking for me. I¡¯ll get back as soon as I can ¨C alone, I promise.¡± He reached for her waist, using leverage to spin her so that she could see down the length of the wall behind her. ¡° When I return, I¡¯ll come through a door on this wall.¡± He pointed to a faint outline. It was getting harder to see as the shadows deepened, but she thought she could make out the outline of a door. ¡°Fine.¡± She swallowed as the fingers brushed across her hip. ¡°I might wait, and I might not.¡± Of course, she would wait, though his lack of propriety sent her into more anxiety than being trapped in an alley. Still, she knew that she was entirely too sheltered in that sense, and she recognized that she couldn¡¯t understand the customs inside the dome. Come to think of it, she had never seen a man and woman as much as holding hands inside, but maybe it just wasn¡¯t a public practice. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll be here when you get back.¡± With another smirk and a shake of his head, Ivan backed away, mounting his board again as he disappeared through the gate. Once he was gone, Leia stared into the near black of the night shadows. In the streets outside the little gate, silence reined. Other than the soft, easily discernible shuffle of the ANGELs and the occasional low whoosh of the Advocates¡¯ boards, she could hear nothing. Apparently, the people in the Cage were scared enough of the sirens that they stayed inside when they were told. Blowing out a breath, she forced herself to relax. Compared to all these people inside, she held a world of freedom, even the freedom to resist an Unspoken. She wasn¡¯t drugged into submission. Leia¡¯s lip curved up for a moment, wondering if Travers and Rafi wished she were so obedient. No, that¡¯s unfair, she admitted to herself. Even for obedience, they knew that this kind of forced submission was one of the evilest of practices. Sliding down to the ground, she picked up a few pebbles from the dirt. A game of solo knucklerocks was her only hope of passing the time without going crazy. Interlude VI ¡°At the time of the Second Divestiture, Mankind had been reduced to one third its highest numbers thanks to the aggression of the naturist faction and their management of the machines that had begun to run the world. The basic principle that governed the behavior of the machines can best be summed up by the centuries-old principle of ¡®GIGO,¡¯ which stands for ¡®Garbage In, Garbage Out.¡¯ The initial programmers had determined that man was such a scourge upon the planet that the only ethical choice was to eliminate the virus of humanity, so they programmed the computers to collapse the system that supported Men. It would have been too late for Man had they waited to react to the naturists. ¡°Fortunately, the transhumanists had their own agenda irrespective of the naturists. If they had not, if they had not competed to control a technology that disagreed with the base premises that set the decision-making algorithms, humanity would have ceased its existence, relegated to the instinctive memory of animals and rocks and trees. With no one capable of mourning them, Men would fizzle out of existence. Instead, the transhumanist faction of technology poured every ounce of its energy into empowering Man through that technology. Man was an evolutionary advance and should be honed and perfected through its productivity and creativity. ¡°The numbers showing disturbing trends, the two factions began negotiations. The transhumanists wanted whatever would let the humans build on the shoulders of their ancestors, but they realized that if they fought hard enough to stop the naturists, humanity would likely die anyway. As such, they offered a compromise. ¡°Destroy all technology and allow humanity to return to its tribal state, so that they at least are limited in the damage they can unleash on Nature. The naturists countered with the idea that all Mankind must be contained, and they conceived of the domes. The Transhumanists thought they had won a victory in agreeing to the construction of thousands of technologically advanced biomes to house the humans. In a move that would determine the course of humankind for generations to come, the Transhumanists deferred the planning of the cities to the naturists barring some oversight by the opposing faction. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°In relegating Mankind to the domes, the naturists intended to contain them and manipulate every aspect of their lives, from their reproduction to their ambition. Using hidden lines of code, the naturists unleashed a microbe specially tuned to the humans¡¯ genetic code. The promise of a treatment drove the humans into the domes, and those who refused to enter largely died from the disease. All power was cut outside the domes, and within a decade, machines programmed by the naturists had destroyed all signs of humanity that had existed before. Outside the cities, a small Remnant of people ¨C completely cut off from technological advancement ¨C cowered in confusion as they adjusted to their new life. The naturists believed that even those who did not die from the disease would soon perish from their lack of knowledge on how to live without modern comforts. ¡°In an ironic twist, despite the lack of technology ¨C or perhaps because of it ¨C some of the Dregs not only survived, but thrived in their new life despite beginning at a deficit. Some became barbarians, others mundane, but others developed into highly enterprising, if not advanced, societies. The author posits that the reason for this success lies in the human spirit, which cannot be caged as it is a reflection of the creative spirit of the Infinite, the mind and soul and body that etched and formed the very structure of the universe and upon which Mankind is modelled.¡± Chapter 8 As they approached their final street for assessment, Ka?jo pushed his board at a faster clip to catch up with his companion. The dark season brought an end to the light earlier than usual, and he didn¡¯t like riding at night in case someone stepped in his way and he couldn¡¯t see them in time to adjust. ¡°You told me a few weeks ago that the bots had to be separated from Benevolence because of potential damage to humankind. Why would you even consider changing that now?¡± Channer shook his head. ¡°That was decades ago. Those bots had no idea what they were doing, or they wouldn¡¯t have hesitated so long. Their mistakes then aren¡¯t really relevant now.¡± ¡°What if they could just see more potential futures then we can?¡± Frustrated, Channer weighed his words carefully. ¡°Why do you think they had so many formulations in the different cities? We don¡¯t know exactly what the cities were like before the FD, though I tend to think they were much more ordered. Before the SD, though, the domes were all different with different results. They weren¡¯t allowed to run unified models with the bots; it was too dangerous, and all the competing bots that might have restrained them had been shut down by regulation. So, it was logical guesswork plus the process of elimination ¨C a testable model, really ¨C just like humans use.¡± ¡°So, why do we trust this system rather than our own thoughts, then? Why shouldn¡¯t we question if this dome is just one of the failed experiments?¡± Glancing over his shoulder, Channer threw him an exasperated glare. ¡°You were supposed to be over this curiosity a year ago ¨C more than a year ago. Between you and Ivan, it¡¯s a wonder I get any work done. Where is he, by the way?¡± When Ka?jo shook his head, Channer rolled his eyes to the sky. ¡°Well, I may not be able to stop him, since he refuses to show up for work, but you will have to behave while you¡¯re here with me, and stop asking questions!¡± Duly reprimanded, Ka?jo closed his mouth, and the next couple of krona passed without incident. Maybe Ivan would hold some answers ¨C the kid was curious and resourceful. What was he up to? With that ANGEL again? Ka?jo just couldn¡¯t let it go. As he and Channer approached the last of their rounds, he cleared his throat. ¡°If you want, I can go see why Ivan disappeared after midday.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Channer glanced up from the panel he had pulled out, irritated at the interruption. ¡°Ivan. He never showed, and I want to hop over to his place and see if he¡¯s there.¡± ¡°Oh, sure. That¡¯s fine,¡± Channer mumbled, turning back to the circuit board. ¡°Just don¡¯t take any detours, and get back here quickly. We have to calibrate the main compressor panel before we sleep.¡± ¡°I miss the days when I didn¡¯t know about the Cure and the night mix still affected me¡­¡± Ka?jo murmured, not quite willing to complain to someone like Channer. ¡°Got it,¡± he spoke aloud. ¡°I¡¯ll get back as quickly as I can.¡± The rush would hamper any investigation he might want to undertake, but he had to try. If he found Ivan at home getting ready for sleep, he could put the whole problem behind him. The longer he knew the kid, the longer he regretted revealing any weakness to him. The sun had not fully set, but it was behind the trees outside the dome, and so the shadows stretched long enough to approximate dusk. Now that he wandered the streets after dark, he wished there were some kind of artificial light on the streets as well as in the homes, especially in the cold season when the sun set early. Not that he could feel the cold inside, but he knew from market days that, as the days grew shorter, the temperature grew colder. The fact made him sadder now that the Cure didn¡¯t work as well. With a quick shiver, he flew past several blocks to the quarter where he had spied Ivan walking with the ANGEL. It was usually easy to track down an Advocate after dark, since pretty much every other human settled into their dwellings to prep for sleep, and most walked rather than zipped around on their boards. With only the wan light that leaked out to the street from the interior of the dwellings, Ka?jo made his way to Ivan¡¯s. After several knocks, the door had not opened. Though Ivan should have turned in for the day by now, maybe something had delayed him. Had he been near the house of the Unrelenter they had interviewed a few days prior? Maybe a follow-up visit? It was a little late for that, but Ivan wasn¡¯t exactly typical ¨C maybe he would do untypical things. Ducking into the waystation, Ka?jo tapped in his identifiers and pulled up the home of the young man. No heartbeat. As he stared at the screen considering what else he could try, the word nagged at him. Heartbeat. The whole time he and Channer had been investigating, they had assumed a mechanical issue, but what if the problem had been human? If it¡¯s human, it has a heart. Ka?jo had shied away at the time from the commitment needed to filter through the heartbeats, but what if he didn¡¯t have to find a specific heartbeat ¨C just whether or not there had been two? After a quick jaunt to Benevolence, he tapped into the interface and began scrolling back to the proper date. It only took him a few minutes to reach the records of the morning krona and filter through them. Thanks to the treatment, his responses weren¡¯t suppressed, and his heart began to thrum faster when he read the screen. There had been three heartbeats in the house that day. Benevolence had no trouble matching one of the heartbeats with the man who had withdrawn from the Relenting, and Ka?jo confirmed the match easily since it was the man¡¯s house. There were two more heartbeats. Ka?jo isolated one of them and ran it through the system, focusing on the nearby houses. There, two doors down. Blake Groundin. Sixteen years old at the time, just in time for isolation. Definitely from within the city. When he fed the third heartbeat into Benevolence, it spun around and around and around with no evidence of a match. It pulled up a couple that were similar, but if his training was right, the peaks and valleys altered too much to be consistent with the same person. The visual comparison that he usually used between Benevolence and his tablet didn¡¯t match up. Not trusting his training or his eyes, he closed his eyes, feeling for the rhythm of the thump-thump, thump-thump, first from Benevolence and then from the tablet. No matter how many times he listened, he couldn¡¯t make the tones match. He stared at it for several seconds, wondering how the computer knew which heartbeat belonged to whom. With a new sense of scrutiny, Ka?jo pulled up the list of the other withdrawals that had occurred over the past two years. The next one after the Lender kid? Ka?jo closed his eyes. It seemed to be the foreign heartbeat. The next one? Nothing. Then for the next six Unrelentings, the same foreign heartbeat, if he read the sound right. So, was an unregistered human was interfering with the process? Does that mean a Deplorable? What had Ivan said? He had made friends with a Deplorable. What if Ivan were conspiring with this Deplorable to undermine the system? Ka?jo had to find his coworker. Of course, this late in the day, no Deplorable would wander the streets, so Ka?jo would just have to question his compatriot. Besides, the last time he had seen Ivan, the younger Advocate had been in the company of an ANGEL. An ANGEL wouldn¡¯t ¨C couldn¡¯t ¨C hide the presence of an unregistered human. It either didn¡¯t know who or had reported it to Ivan. Where had he seen Ivan with the ANGEL? On the south, he thought. When he was leaving the site where his vision had dragged him. No wonder he had just let it go ¨C he had been more afraid of being confronted by Ivan in that state than he was curious about what his coworker was up to. If Ivan had disappeared today, what were the chances he was with his Deplorable again? To the south, then, Ka?jo decided, hopping back on his board. A couple of rows south of Benevolence, he noticed a door opening into a home just to the right of the building. Was that Ivan¡¯s silhouette? It was near Ivan¡¯s home. Once Ka?jo reached the street itself, he slowed, recognizing the younger man not too far from where he had walked with the ANGEL before. Inside the mouth of the door, an older man stood and chatted, completely unconcerned about the night. Ivan hadn¡¯t lied ¨C the man was much older than Ka?jo would have guessed someone inside could be, though he had seen Deplorables far older. But didn¡¯t he know everyone inside? This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The man seemed vaguely familiar, and Ka?jo took a risk, stepping off the board as he approached the pair without preface. ¡°Channer was looking for you, Ivan,¡± he shot from the shadows. If the shock on the younger man¡¯s face meant anything, he wasn¡¯t happy for the interruption. ¡°Uri was concerned about some¡­¡± He seemed to stutter. ¡°My house has developed a leak, and though I know that is not the job of the Advocates to fix, Ivan is my neighbor, and I thought he might show me the proper codes to request assistance on my device. I¡¯m sorry that as I age I grow slower, and he had to show me many times before I understood.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to have to show him on another day,¡± Ivan finally answered for himself. ¡°Why don¡¯t you let me look?¡± Ka?jo prodded, not completely convinced that Ivan was telling the truth. ¡°Maybe I can see the source of the leak.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not necessary,¡± Ivan gushed, but the old man cut him off. ¡°Of course, that is very considerate of you, a man with your responsibilities. Won¡¯t you come in?¡± Ka?jo wanted so badly to investigate further, but he couldn¡¯t ignore Channer¡¯s final imperative. He had to get back to the compressor. He had found the kid and there was nothing obviously wrong. If he upset Channer, it would be harder to throw him off Ka?jo¡¯s own trail. He had crossed the line enough ties that he didn¡¯t feel confident in confronting Ivan at the moment, not even for consorting with a Deplorable. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have time tonight,¡± he leveled. ¡°These jobs are not our responsibility, Ivan. Next time, don¡¯t spend so much time with him. Just enter the request for repair, and while you¡¯re at it, enter a request for a tech-assist to educate him on the system.¡± ¡°I will definitely do that,¡± Ivan nodded. ¡°Do you need me to come, or should I turn in for the night?¡± ¡°Just go to bed,¡± he allowed. ¡°We¡¯ll talk more in the morning. And Mr¡­¡± ¡°Just Uri.¡± ¡°And Uri, you do know how to call a tech.¡± ¡°I do.¡± ¡°Then do that next time and don¡¯t bother an Advocate with your problems.¡± With a placid smile, the old man nodded himself into his dwelling, and Ivan started toward his own. Ka?jo was ready to do the same, so he spun back to retrace his path to Channer and the compressor. ++++++++++++++++ When the crackling came from behind her, Leia nearly jumped, instinctively lowering the little gun-thing until it pointed in the shadow at her back. A sliver of light intruded over the greyed-out gravel, and a small, hunched shape emerged in shadow. ¡°Won¡¯t you come in?¡± creaked a voice, and for a second, Leia thought she heard the rich threads of Eva¡¯s voice. It shot an ache through her gut at the sense of loss, but then she realized the tone was too deep. A man. This was an old man. Inside the city. Living inside the city, if she discerned correctly. ¡°Who are you?¡± she demanded. ¡°Well, my name is Uribe. Beyond that, I¡¯m not really anyone. I think my friend Ivan here brought you to me because I collect antiquities, and I guess you are a sort of antiquity.¡± Leia snickered. At not even twenty, she was hardly an antiquity, and with his leathered skin, he definitely deserved the name more than she. When she took a step toward him, Ivan held out his hand to stop her. ¡°She can¡¯t come inside, Uri, you know that.¡± ¡°Oh, dear. Yes. I was just so excited.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t I come in?¡± ¡°The houses are monitored,¡± Ivan explained. ¡°They keep track of heartbeats ¨C supposedly to guard against medical emergencies ¨C but it also avoids unapproved interactions.¡± ¡°That sounds suggestive.¡± She twisted her lips, and ¡°Uri¡± grinned. ¡°It includes protecting against the more salacious activities, but also just the general practice of congregation. Benevolence found that the only really safe place to let humans congregate was in the chapels, with the SENTORs directing thoughts and emotions to the proper topics. Other than that, people can meet outside in the clearings, because they have full camera coverage, but not in private houses.¡± ¡°So everyone lives alone?¡± Leia thought of her own sadness since her mother died, since she was isolated in her home despite the community around her and the people she considered friends. ¡°What about families?¡± ¡°I ¨C¡± For the first time, the almost cocky Ivan seemed confused. ¡°Families are not really something allowed,¡± clarified Uri. ¡°Not since the Second Divestiture, when Benevolence determined to farm infants rather than allow them to develop naturally inside a mother or be raised by a father. Families produce loyalties that increase conflict and make it harder to control a populace. If not for the directive put in place by the architects of the SD, I think the MONIFORs would have wiped you all out in the Dregs. It¡¯s why the original programmers recalibrated them to the monitoring aspect of their makeup and unwound the ¡®enforcer¡¯ part of their programming. As it stands, they didn¡¯t really mitigate the danger that you in the Dregs pose ¨C there¡¯s always some danger that you will create a competing society, one that overtakes the cities. Whatever I might think of that, it¡¯s certainly not what the architects desired.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read stories about how the First Divestiture almost killed off humanity.¡± ¡°The agenda of the First Divestiture did not denote humans as anything special in the realm of the planet, so since we tend to undermine the balance of nature ¨C upend the natural flow of ecosystems ¨C we were considered a menace. We almost didn¡¯t stop the machines in time to save humanity.¡± Leia noted a tense posture in Ivan beside her ¨C he hadn¡¯t known this. ¡°But, obviously the people who designed the Second Divestiture weren¡¯t big fans of humans, either, since they stuck as many as they could in cages.¡± ¡°Well, it was a compromise. Many on one side would have relished the destruction of humanity ¨C or at least, all but a few of the brightest and most successful. They believed that if they could eradicate all but the wisest and best of humans, they would create a new race and system that would function better on the planet. The other side of the philosophical aisle thought of humans as part of nature, and whatever they did as the natural growth. Therefore, whatever species survived with humans were the ones that were the most superior. It was an odd competition.¡± ¡°So, what was the compromise?¡± Ivan interrupted. ¡°One side ¨C the Panterrestrials, who were a kind of naturist ¨C agreed to stop the technology from killing off humanity, knowing that they had at least managed the death of billions already, They had also limited technology to the domes, which removed the capacity of humans to collaborate in great numbers, and by doing this, they suppressed most the of human will for endeavor. In exchange, the other group ¨C the Rendering ¨C got to pull the plug on the destructive computers, keeping only those with the directive to save humanity. The Rendering was all about human advancement, and they were only a few months from altering their machines to meld humans with computers, but they had to agree to stop the transition. The Pans set up the structure of society inside the domes, and the Rendering had to hope that those outside might find its way back to advancement.¡± ¡°All of the children are¡­grown in some kind of factory?¡± Leia had hardly heard the rest of the lecture ¨C she just could not have imagined. Never knowing her mom, like she had never known her dad? ¡°They are harvested from the breeders. We are hardly the first civilization that has designated some women as breeders and left the others to remain childless, and we are hardly the first to remove children from their parents ¨C though most wait until the third year of life at least.¡± She had read about some of the societies he spoke of, and they had always proven the most broken and violent. Yet, his own community never even raised their voices, much less their weapons. ¡°My mother hinted at this; she said it was why she left the city when she found she was with child.¡± ¡°Oh, my¡­¡± Uri gasped. ¡°Then you are quite special. She must have fled early, to avoid detection of your heartbeat. I wonder how they avoided the Cure. Otherwise, they would never have dared¡­¡± Though his words stirred a thousand questions, Leia began to lose focus. Between the Curse and the fear and the long trek through the streets, exhaustion gripped her. ¡°Young man,¡± came Uri¡¯s voice. ¡°If she is not to come into my home, what are we to do with her? You can see she is nearing the end of her day¡¯s strength.¡± ¡°I thought we would raid your warehouse,¡± Ivan shrugged. ¡°Surely there is something in there that we could lay out for her to sleep on. You have a blanket or two inside, and I can stand guard while she rests.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t sleep here!¡± she complained. ¡°I have to get back!¡± ¡°I told you, girl. The gates are locked. You¡¯re going to have to sleep here at least one night, and I can¡¯t guarantee there won¡¯t be others. Besides, have you seen yourself lately? Your ANGEL¡¯s robe is not exactly pristine at the moment, and you might need to straighten your hair to pass for inhuman.¡± ¡°That last part is easy, at least. I will just need some water for my hair, but what about the robe? I am wearing full attire beneath. Couldn¡¯t you just wash it?¡± ¡°The MONIFORs do that, and they inventory everything. I¡¯m thinking it would be easier for me to swap yours out with one heading to the ANGELs. They¡¯ll get a shock when one of them goes out in stained attire, but I don¡¯t think that will be easy to manage. I can do that for you tomorrow.¡± ¡°Even if you don¡¯t sleep tonight?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll sleep,¡± he shrugged as he and Uri began to make their way to a building behind the house. ¡°Just propped up against the wall so I can awaken if need be.¡± He pulled open the door and led the way in. After some digging, he produced a thin, lounge chair cushion. ¡°This looks about right.¡± ¡°What about spiders?¡± she wondered. ¡°We don¡¯t have spiders in here. I don¡¯t think¡­I never really studied insects, but it seems I would have seen them. Just, here.¡± He smacked the thin cushion, and when no dust puffed from the surface, she found herself drawn to it. She was so tired, and she didn¡¯t really know why she was trying so hard to find her father. As her eyes closed, she could make out a few of the men¡¯s words. ¡°She¡¯s quite docile for an outsider.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let the night fool you ¨C I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s the Cure. When I first found her, she was far less docile.¡± Maybe she should worry that she didn¡¯t care anymore, but she just couldn¡¯t make herself. She faded into dreamless slumber without another thought. Interlude VIII SENTOR: The fire of hail, the scourge of pain, Within the lives of man did reign, A never-ending Deluge storm. That threatened every human form.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. With open hands and humble eyes, Man turned his vision to the skies, And through the source of Man¡¯s defeat, Benevolence wrought Man complete. Congregation: ¡°By thee we were saved.¡± PAEAN xxxix Chapter 9 He just couldn¡¯t do it. Once he left the old man and Ivan, Ka?jo¡¯s mind seemed to shut down. It had to be the Lethidine, though he had thought himself largely immune after the night when he had pumped the levels up. Apparently, though, its effectiveness came back after a few nights at the normal levels. Sighing, he decided not to fight it. If he gave in, he might get a couple of chrona of sleep before the visions made his night hell. The plan worked, though maybe not for quite as long as he would have wished. After what seemed almost no time, he was back against the curve of the dome, staring down at the city. He had done it so many times now that panic no longer gripped him. In fact, he felt completely in control of his motions as long as he stayed far above the dwellings. He could see everything except that southern wall, as usual. When he skirted along the glass, though, he suddenly realized he had approached the space, and it didn¡¯t stand within its usual dense fog. Instead, he recognized what he usually saw ¨C the odd shape, the hedge, the wall. He could just make out some light above the uppermost stones in the barrier. Light? If there were light, maybe he could finally see something. He fought against his usual terror, muted by the unusual visibility, and raced toward the bulge in the glass membrane ¨C made even more obvious by his elevation. Even as he dove closer and closer, the fog stayed away, and he tuned his eyes to the line of light. If he could just get a little closer¡­ When his feet hit the pavement, all of his bones rattled, and they shook him instantly awake. His rapid breaths revealed that he had just endured some ordeal, though he didn¡¯t know what. What he did know was that he had not walked to the southern wall ¨C he had not actually moved from his bed ¨C and yet the wall now stood before him, the actual wall that he had never dared approach in the light. Had he actually flown? Without his board, even! His eyes stood wide against the night, and he spun to ascertain that no one had seen him. Whether or not they had, he now saw no one ¨C alone in the dark, in the one place he had wanted more than any to investigate. How had he stepped beyond the property without the headache? Mitigation, he realized. That had to be it. Since he had started receiving it, he had been able to roam freely at any time of day without repercussions ¨C the hollowness of the night had been one of his favorite things about the new status as Advocate. Well, now he would take advantage of it. Even if he didn¡¯t like the way he had gotten there, Ka?jo couldn¡¯t regret where he was. He rotated back to the surface and placed his hand on it. Whatever Channer said, the surface felt like glass. Perhaps before men slipped into the ennui of the domes, they had developed some amazing substance that could sustain the vast arch while still letting the sunshine in. Unlike the other sections of the exterior curve, the houses on the south did not run directly up to the glass, instead stopping a few yards away. A path of brush and shrubbery discouraged anyone from attempting to find what was inside. Of course, with no one watching and no one monitoring, maybe he could get away with it. Once he had pushed past the initial edge of the greenery, he realized that he would likely come away with scrapes on his hands ¨C maybe even his face ¨C and he would need to make up an excuse for Channer and the others he sometimes encountered. He would figure it out. After pressing past more shrubbery than he had ever managed, his fingertips found the glass, and he began to trail along its surface in search of an anomaly that might indicate a door or opening. Nothing. Some tall, shrub-like trees stretched as high as his eye could see, and they formed an impenetrable barrier against the vision outside the glass. After about fifty feet, though, Ka?jo¡¯s eye caught a flicker of light that barely brushed past his vision. If he had not stood shrouded under an emerald canopy for the past half chrona, he would never have seen. He pressed his eye up to the spot and strained against the blackness. The other side of the glass seemed almost as inky, but as he peered against it and his eyes clouded, a vague motion of shadows seemed to billow through an almost indiscernible glow. They did not seem trees. Animals, maybe? Or humans, his mind tried to insist. Surely, this couldn¡¯t be the hospital. Surely, his own search had not led him to the same place as Ivan¡¯s curiosity. Leaning away from the cool surface, Ka?jo dropped to the ground onto what felt and smelled like a moss. Though it didn¡¯t generally grow inside the dome, he had encountered small patches, brushed his fingers across its velvet. What was he going to do?This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. He would have to approach the space from the outside. Probably not immediately, but soon ¨C maybe within the next few days. The outside. The Dregs, the Deplorables, the Deluge. So many things that had filled his entire upbringing and training with the closest thing to anxiety he had been able to feel at the time. Now, all the education returned to his memory, and his new access to fear sent a shudder through him. He would do it, though. He would go outside and try to find a way into that anomaly. When he realized that he had dozed again, Ka?jo jumped to his feet. Dawn¡¯s light had begun to filter down through the leaves overhead, and he knew that ANGELs and Advocates would soon begin their rounds. Picking through the brush to avoid more scratches, Ka?jo managed to escape the tangle of twigs and leaves. From his position, he noticed no one else. In truth, the light had not quite reached the brightness he had imagined. He made his way back toward the Paramount, toward Benevolence and the barracks of the Advocate. If anyone cared to look at the logs, they would note a suspicious lack of a heartbeat in his dwelling for his night abroad. Not likely anyone would, though. Just as he passed Benevolence, he encountered his first sign of humanity, and he pulled up short, intent to hide. It was an ANGEL and an Advocate, just as he had suspected. He narrowed his eyes, intent to note every movement away from him in preparation for his escape, and once they had passed to the next street, he ventured into the open, glancing behind himself to make sure they hadn¡¯t heard his motion. No, they continued on. What had he been thinking? Honestly, he had no idea what would happen to him if someone found him outside at night. Maybe nothing ¨C it wasn¡¯t like he was out in the Dregs, which would likely have resulted in his reassignment out of the Advocates. He had merely been out at night inside the dome. Maybe he was just monitoring something. The sound froze him in his tracks when he heard it. It came from behind him, from where he had just passed, and he felt certain it originated with the ANGEL. No doubt it had not come from the man. Turning back, Ka?jo went in search of the sound. The sound had rung high, with a quality of tone that he had never heard. What was it? Finally, he made up the distance and could make out the forms of the male and the ANGEL as they moved away from him up the street. There it was again, the strange bell-tone emitting from her mouth. She had thrown her head back, face raised to the sky, and a note that mimicked the songs of the ANGELs came out repeatedly in short bursts, even as the man turned toward her with a shushing tone. That was no ANGEL. No Mech had ever made a sound like that. Like many of the ANGELs, the female ¨C at least, he assumed it was female since all the other ANGELs were made in that form ¨C wore loose ringlets around her face, light brown in color but flashing gold when the occasional flash of light shimmered across her hair. Like most ANGELs, her skin bore a lightly tanned, even appearance, with a glow of energy underneath. This female seemed more an energy of life than of electricity, though Ka?jo didn¡¯t know why he thought that. A new suspicion birthed in his thoughts, and he pressed closer to the couple where they stood before a gate in the wall between two houses. Who was the Advocate? Who would help a Deplorable hide inside the city overnight? Perhaps she¡¯s not hiding. Perhaps she was trapped in by the gates. Even so, the Advocate should have reported her rather than given her refuge. When the Advocate turned toward the woman again, a light brushed across the man¡¯s face, and Ka?jo knew immediately: the man was Ivan, and the woman had to be his ¡°friend,¡± the Deplorable. Ka?jo wanted to confront his coworker, demand that the younger man refer the woman to the authorities, but he couldn¡¯t move. Even as he considered the proper course, he hovered in expectation of hearing the sound again. There was no repeat performance, but he did observe something equally as fascinating. With a slight toss of her hair, the woman turned her face toward Ivan, and her lips parted to reveal a broad crescent of white teeth. He had seen the ANGELs perform the expression ¨C a smile ¨C but this was different. Even insiders occasionally flashed an empty, polite reflection of a similar expression, but nothing like what he had seen. Something in her eyes, crinkled at the corners, carried life. A spark and a connection, though Ka?jo did not know with whom. Perhaps Ivan, but he was not certain of that fact. When he thought about it, Ivan was pretty likeable, and as he watched the woman exchanged her unusual energy with her companion. The realization opened a hollow irritation in his gut. Before he analyze why, the gate had opened, and the pair disappeared into the alleyway behind. He needed to see this creature again. Most Deplorables, when they came in, seemed distracted and anxious, and Ka?jo had always chalked it up to a slower wit and the greater suspicion born of life in the Dregs. This woman did not seem anxious, even though she had likely been forced to stay inside the city overnight when the alarms went off. How was she so calm? If the gates did not open for another day, he would find a way to set up surveillance on the spot so he could find out what was going on. Whatever it was, Ivan was in over his head, and with their mutual sharing of secrets, Ka?jo¡¯s fate lay at least marginally intwined with his younger coworker. He would meet Channer according to the regular schedule, but he would return to his surveillance of the woman at every chance until he found out the truth.