ExtraNormal (35 page)

At some point I dozed momentarily and saw Keddil in my tormented dreams. He shook his head with disappointment, his voice repeating over and over…
I told you…no males…no males….

I had lost all sense of time when I was awakened by the next disturbance. Some distance away was a shuffling of feet. My lids popped open. A door opened and closed. More shuffling, and a door opened again, this time it didn’t close. I could hardly breathe as I waited for the next meal. Finally, my partition opened. A plate slid in. Followed by silence. I waited. Willing another partition to open at the other end of the building. But it never came.

I told myself that they’d wiped Jesse’s brain clean and sent him home. Which, I also told myself, was wonderful news. His parents would be so relieved. And he could resume a normal life. Assuming they hadn’t caused brain damage. I curled up on my cot and put my face to the wall, trying to sense him. Which would probably be impossible even without the shield. Not if he couldn’t even remember my name.

Most importantly, I tried to stay in denial about the other possibility. The one with the most likelihood.
Eliminated
. Such a sterile word to describe a murder. All for the good of both races, they’d say.

I pulled up the one undefiled memory I still had of the two of us, since the government had no interest in edited memories: me and Jesse holding tight to one another in our fancy dress clothes with flickers of light tumbling across our faces. I focused on Jesse’s face—and the intense way he looked at me—while I played Jesse’s song in an endless loop. Eventually I changed the memory again to carry us through the gym doors to the open sky, where there was no more hiding and no one cared that we were in love.

I stayed in place, curled up on the hard cot with my face to the wall, holding tight to the memory, and trying not to grieve. To admit that I should. I lost track of the number of times that the partition opened, exchanging one full plate of food with another.

I was in the same position, trying not to mourn, when the door opened once again.

 CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

I could barely lift my head to see who had entered. A man sat on the cot next to me. My eyes fluttered open. I thought I was dreaming.
Keddil.
Had they somehow transported me home? Or was I asleep?

He gripped my arms and pulled me into a sitting position. “You’re a mess.” He placed a bag of water in my hand and wrapped my fingers around it. “Here, drink this.”

I dropped my hand.

Undeterred, he lifted the bag to my parched lips. Instinct caused me to sip on the round opening. The cool liquid felt foreign against my parched and swollen throat. “Good girl.”

“What are you doing here?” I whispered in a gruff voice.

“I came on the transport with your father. Been monitoring the situation.” He put the bag to my lips again.

Swallowing was only slightly easier this time. The room kept me from sensing how Keddil felt about having to travel all the way here because of me. Of being proven right about me. I
was
more trouble than I was worth, just like he’d said. “Sorry—” I whispered in a husky voice—“that you had to come.” He tried to give me another drink but I put my hand up to stop it. “Can you tell me about Jesse? Where—”

“We’ll have a complete debriefing,” he cut me off. “After you’ve eaten something.”

“Please…I can’t wait…”

“You can. Eat. And freshen up. Then I’ll come back.” He stood and walked out. A plate of food was on the cot beside me—along with a clean jumpsuit, a hair brush and a package of moist wipes. I stared at the door for a time, then popped a radish in my mouth. I turned my face toward each wall of the room, then the ceiling, chewing with exaggeration so the watching eyes could see me comply. A bitter sting from the radish filled my mouth, sending tears to my eyes. I wondered how many of the disgusting vegetables I’d have to eat before they gave me answers. I ate a carrot next. Then an almond. Eventually I ate just because I was ravenous.

When the plate was empty and the water bag drained, I faced a corner—as if that would give me privacy—and stepped out of the dirty jumpsuit. I relieved myself in the hole on the floor, trying not to think about the humiliation of being watched, then quickly wiped myself clean and stepped into the new jumpsuit. After running the brush through my tangled hair, I stood facing the door, to let them know I was ready.

Instead of the door opening as I’d anticipated, the partition opened. Another plate slipped through the bottom. I groaned and looked up at the ceiling, where I imagined Keddil grinning triumphantly.

 I dropped onto the floor, crossed my legs, and stuffed the food in my mouth. Filling it ridiculously full. Chewing with great and grand exaggeration.

 When the plate was empty, Keddil finally opened the door. Despite the room’s block on emotions, I knew he was smug.

He helped me to my feet and escorted me out of my prison cell. I didn’t want to lean on him, but my knees were too weak to make the journey across the large hangar on my own.

“There are some things you need to know,” he said as we walked. “This debriefing is being streamed live to the council. The room is built with a tower that facilitates communication. The assistance of at least six agents—in conjunction with the tower—is generally used. But the energy of an entire team is required to make and transmit a live record.” He paused in front of a door and looked intently at me. “Apparently there is an easier way. But the council has asked that we use traditional methods…at least for this debriefing.”

He turned me by my shoulders so that I faced him squarely. “Since most of the testimony was acquired by force, the council requires approval of the witnesses. I need to warn you that it will have the council’s own special slant, and may upset you. Regardless, it is vital that you behave with decorum. The council has not finalized any of their decisions and will be watching the entire proceeding. Even streams will be part of the record and could sway their decision. Do you understand?”

I nodded, though my head spun with all this information. The two plates of food hadn’t helped with my orientation as much as I would have liked. Keddil opened the door, still supporting me.

The side and back walls of the room were lined with agents in dark business suits—none with the flair of what my mom had worn to work while on this assignment. They stood at attention, their legs spread, and their hands clasped in front of them. The only true variation in their basic physical description was that the women were all precisely four inches shorter than the men. If it weren’t for their serious expressions, it would have looked like a Nreim costume party.

I scanned their faces looking for my mother. There must have been twenty…maybe twenty five of them. But she wasn’t among them. I hadn’t felt such an intense need for her since I was a small child. I found her seated in one of three chairs facing the front of the room, dressed in the same gray jumpsuit as me. I gasped and started towards her. But her facial expression told me to stop.

Keddil gripped my arm. “Decorum,” he whispered in my ear. He guided me to an empty chair in the center of the row—placed about six feet away from Mom.

As I sat, I realized that Dad was also in the room, seated in a chair in the front corner. He was dressed in the cardigan, his eyes rimmed with red, and his hair even more disheveled than usual. At least he wasn’t in a prisoner’s jumpsuit. All this time I’d assumed it was the Stones and Jesse in those empty rooms. I never imagined it might be my own mother. I looked from Dad to Mom apologetically. They both seemed relieved to see me, with no sign of anger.

My gaze fell to another chair in the row, sitting empty on my other side, also six feet away. I wondered if the chair was just another means of torturing me. To remind me of the space that Jesse would never fill. I shivered, despite the comfortable temperature of the room, my gaze glued to the empty chair, feeling the eyes of two dozen agents on my back.

 “Well.” Keddil was leaning against a metal desk like the ones at Los Robles High, though a desk wasn’t likely to be used for anything but keeping up appearances in a place like this. “I’m certain we’re all anxious to proceed.”

I suddenly wasn’t sure at all. I had been, back in my cell. But now that I was here with Mom looking like a prisoner, Dad looking desperate, and Jesse absent—I wasn’t in any way sure that I wanted to know what was happening.

 Looking straight ahead—at nothing in particular—Keddil spoke in a deep, monotone voice. “The following record of what will be known as ‘The Stone Incident’ is submitted for approval by the Grand High Council.” Keddil’s eyes came into focus. He looked from me to Mom, waiting for us to show our understanding. Apparently satisfied with our reaction, he returned his gaze to just above Mom’s head. He let his eyes shift, as if he were reading something behind his eyelids, the way teachers often did back home. “On the twelfth day of the second quarter of the year five three-hundred sixty seven, Agent Kevin Rameer, acting under the direction of key Grand Council Advisors, used highly-classified communicative technology developed under the direction of the Council to successfully circumvent standard channels.”

I looked at Mom and raised an eyebrow. Highly-classified communicative technology? Would that be me and Geery? Mom was just staring at Keddil.

 “With this technology,” Keddil continued. “Agent Gretta Johns obtained evidence of criminal wrong-doing in the persons of Alison Stone, Tom Stone, a rogue juvenile known only as E., and His High Authority Yoseemer Waikish: all of whom have been under intense Council suspicion for over ten season units.”

I squirmed and bit my tongue to keep from protesting. The whole report appeared to be a pile of twisted half truths designed to make the governing council look good. Was the Waikish he talked about the one who made the Waikish Directive? He was the mole? Why would they even keep him on the council if they had suspected him for that long? And did they really even know about Everett? For ten whole years?

Mom motioned with her chin for me to keep listening, so I turned back to Keddil and his droning. “Based on the information provided under Council direction, on the seventeenth day of the quarter, Agent Johns infiltrated the place of the Stones’ Earth employment. And with the assistance of an unnamed juvenile, brought the Stones and the rogue known as E. into custody. At the same time, Agent Rameer infiltrated the home of Authority Waikish, bringing him into custody as well. The arrested individuals later confessed to numerous crimes against the state.” Keddil paused, his eyes moving rapidly back and forth. He nodded. Then focused on me. “The Council now requests that you approve this record as accurate.”

I blinked. Then looked at Mom, who nodded her encouragement. I glanced at Dad who was anxiously kneading his hands. His nod was reluctant. But he did nod. This was ridiculous. I’d bet my life that the council was clueless until we showed up with the bodies. They probably didn’t even know about the Waikish part. I’d bet my life that was something Mom’s agency was keeping quiet. But they made it sound like they’d planned the whole thing.

“Please answer the question,” Keddil said.

I squirmed in my seat, my anger building. I should stand right here and now and give a speech. The council might not be in this mess if their reports weren’t so sterilized. If they actually told the truth about the Stones in the first place, maybe someone would have stopped them. And what business did they have anyway, controlling everything from the food we eat, to the news we hear, to the person we’re allowed to fall in love with? And what makes them think a perfect genetic code is so blasted great? How about just letting people be themselves?

Mom pled with her eyes for me to cooperate.

I sighed. I’d gotten my parents into enough trouble for one day. And it’s not like I could change anything. Or that any of it really mattered. Not with Jesse gone. I exhaled, releasing my indignation, and nodded.

“Agent Johns? Do you approve of this report?”

After Mom nodded, Keddil resumed communication with whoever was on the other end of this stream. “It should be noted that Tom Stone, Alison Stone, and prisoner E. all approved of the record from their holding cells at the Cralgian Detention Facility. Agent Kevin Rameer and an unnamed juvenile known as G. have approved of the record from Telsion Headquarters.

I clutched my knees. That unnamed juvenile would be Geery. It was bad enough Mom was sitting here in a gray jumpsuit, but Geery was being treated like a criminal too?

Mom shook her head, warning me to calm down.

Keddil shifted his eyes upwards again, then moved them side to side. He nodded. “Now that the record is official, the Council will have its decision momentarily. The agents are asked to kindly maintain their stream.”

I glanced at the agents standing along the walls. Not one of them moved or responded. When I turned back, Keddil had walked around the desk. He sat in a chair and gave me a feeble smile.

Apparently there would be more torture. More waiting to learn what the council would do. I wondered if the council would really punish Waikish for covering for the Stones all this time. His authority was unparalleled—responsible for a good part of Nreim’s current laws. But apparently his stated objective of protecting humans from unauthorized scans wasn’t for strictly noble reasons.

And then there were the Stones themselves. Public outcry might prevent their sentencing—might even demand the agents involved in the arrest be punished. Even those unnamed juveniles.

Worst of all, there had been no mention of the only thing I really wanted to know about—
Jesse
.

“The Council is ready,” Keddil announced.

Just in case I didn’t get another chance, I turned to Mom and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”

“After careful study of evidence,” Keddil continued, “the Governing Council has seen fit to charge Alison Stone with seventy-four counts of crimes against the state. Tom Stone has been charged with three hundred and six counts of crimes against the state, including thirty counts of murder of a Neoearth human, and at least twenty five counts of unauthorized tampering with genetic materials.” Keddil looked around the room—at his agents and my parents. His expression didn’t change, but I could have sworn I sensed relief, maybe even excitement. His eyes shifted back and he continued reciting. “Furthermore, Fellow Councilman His High Authority Yoseemer Waikish has been charged with fifty three counts of crimes against the state, including various counts of bribery, document tampering, forgery, and bearing false testimony. No other persons have been charged with crimes in this incident—though Kevin Rameer will be held for further questioning on multiple counts of evidence tampering; and prisoner E. will be held indefinitely in an undisclosed holding facility.” He paused and looked around the room. “This concludes the official portion of this debriefing. The Council would like the agents to be at ease.”