The Superiors (21 page)

But they passed her mattress without scanning it, just felt it with their hands and threw it on the floor with the others. Cali relaxed a tiny bit. But then she thought of Pat and Patty, and she drew closer to her sister and held tighter to her hand.

One of the Superiors inside scanned a mattress, and his little scanner started beeping. He grabbed the mattress and pulled, and it tore down the middle. A knife of some sort fell out and clattered to the floor. “Got a weapon,” the Superior yelled to the others. He scanned the mattress code to match it with the bunk and the person. The whole group of people outside pulled tighter together. But it was too late.

The Superior came out and yelled, “Cord Jeffries. Someone give me Cord Jeffries, or I’ll come in and get him.”

A murmur went through the crowd, and then a man came forward. No one spoke a single word. They all watched the Superior bind the man’s hands in a plastic cable thing, and then he felt all over the man for weapons, and then he snapped the cable onto one of the bunk beds and continued looking. When they had finished, they all came out, one of them holding Cord by the arm. Cali didn’t know Cord, but she had a good idea where he’d go next. Blood bank.

“Alright, fun’s over,” one of the Superiors said. “Go back in, find your mattress, go back to sleep.”

The Superiors moved away towards the houses, and a minute later the loud bangs came as they tore into the houses, sometimes demolishing the rickety buildings in the process, usually just knocking down a door or roof. Raiding the houses would take a lot longer than the barracks, where nothing but humans and mattresses and bunks stayed all night.

“Do you think they heard something?” Maypull whispered. “Do you think they found out someone might escape?”

“No, I’m sure it’s just routine,” Cali whispered, still holding Maypull’s hand. She thought about her mama, about the sisters in the house out there, about Jonathan in his house. And Patty and Pat and Leon in their house.

“I wish your bunk was closer,” Maypull said. “I don’t want to go back to sleep by myself.”

Nobody would get to sleep for a while—it sounded like about fifty babies were crying in Cali’s barracks and outside. The clangs of the metal houses collapsing or being pounded on or disturbed made a pretty steady racket for a long time, too. Was Poppy’s baby crying out there? Had their house gotten knocked down? Had anyone gotten in trouble? Cali wished she could run out and check, but she’d have to wait until morning. Maypull finally went off to find her boyfriend and crawl in his bunk, and Cali looked at the huge disaster on the floor. She decided not to wade into the tangle of people looking for their mattresses. She’d just wait, and the last one left on the floor would have to be hers. She could always check for the picture to make sure.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Draven met Byron for games in a café a few nights later. They had gone back to the usual routine since Byron had heard from the doctor on Cali’s condition. Still, a distance had developed between them, a small but noticeable rend in the fabric of their new friendship.

Byron offered Draven wine, but Draven declined, remembering the unpleasant taste and effect of it from his evening at Byron’s. Byron grew relaxed, perhaps a result of the second glass of wine he sipped while they played checkers.

“A city further north, first. They’re in need of some help with an investigation. Then I may move from there, depending on where I am needed. Lots of Seconds live here, with the preferable climate. But up north, into the main continent, there aren’t so many, and the law enforcement in some cities is suffering. So I’ve been chosen to go north.”

“True. But I was offered a good enough incentive. And my contract will be over in ten years. A blink of an eye, really.” Like most Seconds, Byron had a better sense of time and found it more important than Draven’s generation. After all, Seconds had been around when time was one of humanity’s greatest obsessions.

“That is bad news for me,” Draven said. “I have quite enjoyed your company.”

“As have I,” Byron said, sipping his wine. “But all things must come to an end, right soldier? I’ll be sure to look you up when I come back and see if you’re still here.”

“Where else would I be,” Draven said, not asking a question but stating a simple fact. It had been a long, long time since he’d gone anywhere, aside from an occasional work trip.

“You may get an itch to travel, who knows. I get them now and then myself. To be honest, that’s part of why I took on this assignment. That and a small fortune was offered, plus two more homo-sapiens to add to my livestock, one before the assignment and one more when it’s completed.”

“That is a lucrative offer, indeed, sir. No wonder you did not refuse. Will your family go with you?” Draven thought of Byron’s wife, her lascivious hairstyle. He pushed the thought from his mind and tried not to let guilt enter his expression.

“Not until I know if I’m staying on in the mountain area. That’s where I’m going first. Once I’m done with that investigation, I’ll either move to another city for the remainder or stay there. Once I know for sure, I’ll send for my family, if they want to come. Or we’ll just visit each other until I come back.”

“I envy your ability to take such assignments. For years I have longed to travel, perhaps to leave here altogether. I keep telling myself one day I will, but it hasn’t happened.”

“You’re still young,” Byron said. This was true—a significant disparity existed in the men’s ages, both before and after their evolutions. Byron had been old enough to be Draven’s father when he had evolved, at least a hundred years before Draven. So as humans as well as Superiors, they came from different generations.

“Yes, young perhaps. But not wealthy. And travel takes money.”

“You work, you could save.”

“I could. But I haven’t yet,” Draven said, and both men laughed. Draven thought of the paltry savings he had begun to accumulate in his tin box at home. For Cali. It would be a long time before he could travel, and having livestock would make it more difficult. He would have to transport her, too, and all the things that saps needed—bulky food, clothes for different climates, and probably more that he didn’t know of yet. Before he even thought of that, he’d have to save enough money to get a place that would accommodate livestock as well as a Superior. It would be years before he could begin saving for travel.

“Yes, we’ll have to do that. And once I’m gone, you’ll have to make due with the lady-friend you have been spending so much time with.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“What we supposed to do with them? Put them right back in so they can run away again? Now you tell me, what earthly good would that do?”

“I’m not arguing strategy with you, Big Bonnie. Just telling you my reasons.”

“And I’m telling you, your reason don’t make one damn bit of sense. You the best Catcher we had, but you sure ain’t the best thinker.”

“You think we got the resources for that? You a damn waste of a pretty face. Nothing going on in that head of yours, is there, Draven? I tell you what. You give us the money to make a little lock-in here, and we’ll build one, just for your personal runaways. Until then, we’ll lock them up right where they belong—in the blood bank.”

“You sure is. Now get on outta here before I get a good sunburn. I’ll see you next time. Unless you come back to get your old job back. You know you’d be my number one guy.”

“I’m always your number one guy, Big Bonnie. And you let me know when you change the policy on the blood bank, and I’ll be back on your payroll that very night.”

“Keep dreaming, dreamboat.”

“I will, Big Bonnie. Now stop distracting me before I starve.”

He went through the doors into the compound, brooding over the news about Hyoki. He didn’t like thinking about his woman having spent years as a glorified mistress to the wealthy Second Order Superior who owned this Confinement and two others in the city. It did explain her expensive cigarette habit. But now he’d have to try even harder to impress her, and he could never spoil her the way Mr. Vitrola had. Draven would never have that kind of money.

He found Cali still in her bed, again curled at the top, as far from probing eyes as possible. It was as good a disguise as she could get in here. But he knew her number, and her smell. When he pulled her foot towards him, he could see that the other man who liked her knew it too. And apparently he visited every night, unlike Draven. She had a lot of unhealed bites on her legs.

“Cali. Awaken and come with me.”

She sat up, hunched over in the small space between her bunk and the next one. She squinted at him. He could tell her eyes couldn’t see him in the darkness. She reached out and touched his hair and then scooted along her bed and ducked out from under the next bunk and stood. “Where are we going?”

“Yes, of course.” Draven had responsibility for her if anything happened—if she didn’t show up at night he’d have to account for her absence. It would be difficult to sneak a human out of the Confinement, but it must have happened at some point. More common for a Superior to overdraw a sap and leave it out, too weak to come in. Even that rarely happened. Most Superiors obeyed drawing laws because they liked healthy saps and they didn’t like healthy fines. And the other sapiens would take care of one if it got left outside. They looked out for their own—a rare admirable trait among sapiens.

Draven and Cali stepped out into the cool morning. She wrapped her arms around herself, and they walked to the garden in silence. He went to the stack of hoses and stood looking at her. She sat and held out her arms, wrists up, for him to choose. He sat down beside her.