Her lips went tight. “Both,” she muttered, and returned to her game.
The same Ad for Prénda? Suppositories popped up on my Cuff, in case I had not seen the one I was eating. I smiled again and showed it to Sam. It’s always free to share an Ad. He forced himself to laugh.
Saretha turned back to her game. “You should probably get ready for school,” she said. I hadn’t slept at all, but maybe it would be better to go. I finished my Wheatlock? and waited for Sam so we could walk together.
*
Outside our building, Penepoli was waiting for me. She leaned against the high wall that blocked the outer ring below. The roar of traffic was light at this hour.
“Have you seen her?” Penepoli asked, suddenly coming to life. She rushed toward us, her lank, wavy public domain hair getting in her face. Style 6 was really impractical.
Sam looked up at me. “Nancee?” he asked.
“She hasn’t been at school,” Penepoli said. She clicked her tongue. “Neither of you have. I thought you were... I thought you had some plan.”
I tried to look sorry. My skin went cold, wondering where Nancee could be.
“What are you guys doing?” Penepoli asked. Her voice came out as a desperate squeak, accompanied by a stamp of her foot.
I couldn’t tell her anything. We weren’t doing anything. I looked up the street. Nancee only lived two buildings away. I looked at Penepoli, and back at Nancee’s building.
“Speth?” Sam asked, tugging at me.
Again I almost answered, this time with a nod, but I caught it before it started—just a dip of my head. I was allowed that. Being around Sam was dangerous. I’d been the main one to answer his questions since our parents were indentured, far more than Saretha ever had.
I let out a breath. Sam and Penepoli waited for me to come to some decision. I knew I should check on Nancee, but I was afraid of what I would find—that she wouldn’t be home, or that she would blame me for leading her to ruin. She was an only child, and it struck me at that moment how lonely that must be.
A prickling sensation spread across my back. I began walking toward Nancee’s. Sam and Penepoli followed.
At the entrance to the building, I could not buzz. The button was on a small screen that had a mandatory Ad quiz. I would not be charged if I had selected which toilet tissue appeared softest, but I would be tracked. That counted. I wanted no part of it.
Sam tapped Fluffwipe?, then jabbed his thumb at the glowing saffron-colored button for number 17. It droned angrily, and the glow darkened, then lit again. No answer came. My stomach knotted.
“She’s not here, either?” Penepoli asked. She tried her luck with the buzzer, but it changed nothing. It wouldn’t bring her back.
Sam shook his head. We all knew Nancee was gone. They’d either taken her off to work somewhere, or Indentured her to the highest bidder. I hated to think what that would be like for her.
“We should get to school,” Sam said. With nothing else to do, we turned and walked away.
*
As more days passed, I started to worry that the Placers would not contact me at all. Or maybe that I’d hallucinated the whole thing. I don’t know if they understood that I didn’t have much time. They’d taken Nancee, and Saretha and I would be next. With anxious butterflies in my stomach, I considered going out and looking for them, but that was a foolish idea.
Five days had passed since I’d met the Placers when an unshakable feeling struck me. They would contact me soon. Something was different, but I couldn’t put a finger on what it was. Then, at dinner, I realized my Cuff hadn’t popped an Ad all day.
I went to bed feeling hopeful this meant they’d be coming for me soon. I tried not to feel as if my lucky break was betraying Nancee in some way.
In the middle of the night, a bright white flashing woke me. I shook myself and swallowed—a weird habit I’d developed since my Last Day, feeling like I had to tamp down my words before I was fully alert.
The whole world was a strobe, as if silent lightning was flashing at regular intervals. I stood. The flashing stopped, or, more accurately, it slowed, limiting itself to the outline of our door. In my hazy state, it took a moment for me to understand that the door itself was not flashing in the real world, but only in my eyes, in my corneal overlay—an augmented reality.
I was unaccustomed to the overlay. I’d never had the chance to use any enhancements, so this was new. Somehow Kel and her Agency had been able to override my settings. This was it.
I dressed quickly, nervous I might miss whatever opportunity lay before me. I should have gone to bed dressed, especially after I noticed the lack of Ads on my Cuff. I jammed on a sneaker and started hopping toward the flashing door while I put on the other. I didn’t know what to expect outside. I hoped they would be out there waiting for me.
They weren’t.
I was met by a bright series of dots, which led me outside and into the night. It was late; my Cuff read 2:00 a.m. The path took me away from main streets, down alleys and over easy-to-manage roofs. The path looked comical and conspicuous with all of the bright dots and lighted paths, like a computer was simulating the world inside my eyes. I knew many people used overlays like this all the time to play games, or to lose themselves in other worlds, but I didn’t see how they could get used to it. It made everything seem unreal.
The path was simple until I arrived at my destination. Then the dots came to an end in the parking lot of a Matzeraldi? dealership. Where the dots ceased, a conspicuous arrow pointed to its roof, three stories up.
Was this a test? The dealership had no fire escape. The exterior had been painted to look like bricks, but the building, like our apartment, had been printed in layers of plastic.
I wore all black—black jeans and a black T-shirt, black socks and black gloves I had laid out in secret for when this night came—but I don’t think it had the same effect as the Placers’ stealthy ninja outfits. I looked at the climb before me and saw no way up. Was this really something I could do?