OUTSIDE DR. YANG’S OFFICE, I run up the hallway and around the corner, barely managing to duck behind a couch as Raj strolls toward Dr. Yang’s closed door. When he’s out of sight, I sprint out of Nei-ge, past the book room, down the elevator, my breaths coming quickly until I’ve put some distance between me and Raj.
Once I feel safe, I pull the envelope of Mantis from my pocket and the rusty red ring falls out onto the floor. I haven’t been able to put it back on my finger. Even if I had, it wouldn’t belong there, reminding me of Tai-ge when he didn’t even give it to me. I string it alongside the jade on the leather cord and stick it back in my pocket. Time to move forward. Tipping the Mantis into my mouth, I swallow it dry, the plasticky pills trying their best to block my throat on the way down.
The moment of safety doesn’t last long. I don’t see any white coats following me until I’m jostling my way through the Core, in the crowds of people still in line to get dinner. Three of them keeping their distance, but there’s no mistaking the way the men are watching me, waiting to extract me from the throng.
One steps directly in my path, tucking his white coat closed as he waits for the meandering stream of people to bring me to him. One pushes through a clot of yellow-uniformed Jiaoyang to fall in line behind me, only a few people back. The third waits off to the side. Ready to move if I run.
I don’t have anywhere to go, to hide. Trying to duck down into the crowd just makes Yizhi number three start in, craning his neck to keep me in sight. And a ratty blond ponytail, right behind him. Cale’s eyes are on me, one hand tucked under her arm, as if she’s just waiting for a chance to pull whatever weapon she has stashed there.
A hand closes on my wrist, the man creeping up from behind meeting his mark. He doesn’t say anything, hand clamped down so tight I can feel the blood flow to my wrist starting to ebb as he herds me toward the edge of the Core’s hustle and bustle. Toward a set of white doors. Yizhi.
“Let go of me.” I say it loud, pulling against his grasp. The people around us shrink back a step or two, but no one looks at me. Their eyes slide away like skates on ice, oblivious to the girl who only moments ago drew stares.
I plant a foot on the ground, pulling in earnest, fear bubbling up through my veins. Another man slides in next to me, his arm going around my waist and breaking my stance. My boots squeal against the stone floor as I try to fight, but there’s no way to combat both as they drag me toward the door. Cale brings up the rear. I can feel her breath hot on my neck.
But a person materializes in front of the doors to block the way, his green Nei-ge coat dark against the sterile white. Howl spreads his arms wide, blocking the way to the hospital. “What do you think you are doing?”
The men don’t let go. Their hands clutch at my shirt, pressing against my skin. Cale steps forward. “We’ve got orders, Howl. She’s delinquent on at least four different immunizations, not to mention the SS levels she’s obligated to—”
Howl cuts her off. “Since when did the Mountain turn into a prison where they drag inmates in for testing? That’s why I left the City.”
The man gripping my arm pulls me forward a step, ready to push past Howl into Yizhi. “You know better than the rest of us that we need—”
“Let her go. I’m her supervisor until she makes it past probation. If Sev spreads some terrible disease around the Mountain, I will be responsible. Understand?”
None of them try to correct him, not even Cale. Helix is my supervisor now. But all Yizhi are looking at the floor as if whatever command that made them drag me through the crowded Core is warring with the squares decorating Howl’s throat, the lifetime of First authority striking with every word.
Howl steps forward to grab my hand, pulling me away from the men.
The smile I am accustomed to seeing on his face feels strained. “Try to force her again and you’ll find yourselves Outside.” There’s something more than what he’s saying, the way the men in white shrink back. Even Cale seems afraid.
He leads me away. The people around us part like oil on water, stares following us all the way across the Core. I can’t keep it bottled up, not concerned anymore about who is listening. The look on Cale’s face is just like Helix’s was right after we met and he joked about “not keeping” June because she was a Wood Rat. Howl gave him one look, and suddenly Helix, the killer, was afraid.
Howl’s single star doesn’t mean anything here. He’s part of Nei-ge, but not an especially important part, I don’t think. Why are they all so scared?
Should I be?
“Stop.” I shake his hand off my arm when we get to the edge of the room. “Tell me what is going on, Howl.”
“It’s hard to . . .” He looks around, and then plunges one hand into my pocket, coming up with my ID card. Tapping it against his palm, he looks vacantly at the floor, the walls, the ceiling. “I just need to figure out . . .”
“At least tell me why. You know, or you wouldn’t be fighting against it. Why are they trying to drag me down there? Why is having an ID chip planted in my arm going to hurt anything?”
“Of course it will hurt. Those things are huge. I can’t . . .” Howl trails off, looking around at all the people staring at us over forgotten plates of food. “I can’t stand being cooped up anymore. Let’s get out of here.”
I follow him up the stairs that cling to the glass walls like ivy, up past the greenhouses and over the Core, barely able to clamp the questions vying in line behind my lips. We keep going up and up until I feel as though there must not be anywhere else to go. Howl pushes through an old broken door leading into an unlit, closed-off hallway, the rusty hinges creaking as we go through. Shards of glass crunch under my boots, and the stale darkness prickles in my mind, an answering prickle of fear in my stomach. No hallucinations. Not now, when I need answers.
The door opens into bright moonlight, and genuine, uncontaminated, unused air. The fresh coldness rushes into my lungs as though I’ve been drowning, fossilized in this rock. I feel exposed, as if there’s nothing but miles of open space all around me, but I like it. Like an ant, dwarfed by a star slit sky, the blue-tinged moon hanging precariously on strings. Zhinu and Niulang gleam sadly above us, the flowing river of stars between them twinkling with unshed tears. Being Outside feels real, as though nothing that happened down inside the rock beneath us should matter.
But it does. “Howl. You told me I was safe. I don’t feel safe.”
Howl grabs my hand, leading me out past the door to a narrow pathway that winds its way around the edge of the protruding rocks. My fingers tingle in his grip. We are the only two people on the planet, the only threads of consciousness weaving a pattern into this dark world.
But before we can go too far, I stop, the open space dulling my voice down to a whisper. “Please. Just tell me. What is going on?”
He stops, the whisper contagious. “It isn’t a secret, Sev. I don’t know what is going on.”
My clothes suddenly feel too tight, restricting my air, pushing at the scrapes and tears in my skin, so newly healed. “You have to know something. Otherwise I’d already have an ID chip, a few extra puncture marks, and . . . what? What terrible things will happen to me in Yizhi?”
“Come on.” He pulls against my hand, leading me farther down the path. “Only Zhuanjias come out here. Part of the maintenance grid around the solar panels. I used to sneak out here when things felt too close. We can talk without worrying about who is listening.”