Quickly. Margot shooed me along like I was holding up the team. I was not moving quickly or quietly enough. They had no idea how important this was to me. If I had a weekly paycheck, Saretha could stay. I could stay. She and Sam and I could be together, holding some part of our family intact.
Margot watched me carefully, one hand turned inward under her chin, fingers moving anxiously. As I climbed onto the counter, my sneaker squeaked softly, and Henri drew in a breath, eyebrows raised. Standing up, quietly, with the light in my hand, I didn’t know what to do next. Margot stopped moving her fingers and impatiently mimed holding the light, which she then jammed into an imaginary ceiling. I mimicked her motions, but with much greater care. The light pulled itself to the ceiling, magnetized. I turned it on. The shaft of light shone down directly on the bottle. I impressed myself with my aim, but it turned out my placement was wrong. From straight above, the bottle’s label was scarcely lit. My light had to be set away, so the shaft could be angled like a spotlight. The label had to shine. It took a few adjustments. When I finally succeeded, Margot bounced happily on her heels.
I climbed down, and we were done. Relief flooded over me. I had not messed up too badly, had I? They would hopefully understand that this was my first go. Henri was already packed up. Margot rushed me along. Kel went last, walking backward, swinging the Pad from side to side to keep watch on all the sleepy orange blobs. Despite a few little hiccups, I was feeling good about the operation—until a tiny voice wailed from the next room.
“Mommy!”
Kel whipped around quickly and focused her Pad on the girl. The child was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes. The apartment door clicked softly open by Henri’s hand. Everyone sped through into the hall, though I was slow to react and Margot had to pull me along behind her. Kel came through last, doing everything I did, but better, silently and backward. She stepped through the threshold as Henri closed and relocked the door.
Kel held some kind of countersecurity gear up to a camera, knocking it into a looped feed that didn’t include four Product Placers in the hall. We raced up the stairs and all erupted out onto the roof. Kel stormed out into the night, shaking her head, tapping her hand on her wrist. We had taken too long. The little girl could have had a nightmare, I wanted to say, it wasn’t me. Henri shrugged like it was no big deal, but it mattered. If I didn’t do well, my family was doomed. Kel’s eyes shone in the dark, severe and critical. She took one more moment to appraise me and then shot out a line of carbon-fiber wire. Henri waved me on.
Not a block away, Kel ushered us into another building, down a hall and into an office. Her hands moved quickly, almost angrily, reminding me of how my mother used to move when I’d misbehaved, but not badly enough for her to spend money on words to reprimand me.
Before I could even see what Kel had done, a door cracked open in the wall. Margot and Henri moved quickly inside. It was another Squelch. I hesitated, but what could I do but go inside? I had to hear what Kel was going to say.
OBDURATE: $18.99
Kel shook her head, and Margot and Henri stood stock-still. Had I really messed things up so badly?
“The first thing we do is reconnaissance,” Kel said, breathing out slowly to center herself. “Reconnaissance first, then specifics. Prepare, plan and execute.”
I was ready to burst into tears. If they usually prepared, why hadn’t they done it tonight?
“But I wanted to see how you would do without preparation. I wanted to gauge your natural talent, because it is not possible to plan for all contingencies.”
My brow furrowed. Kel squinted at me.
“You understand, there are a hundred, maybe a thousand kids in this city who would give their right arm to have this chance,” Kel reminded me. “Kids on the brink of Indenture. I know of four kids shipping out in the morning to spend the rest of their lives baking in the field sun, or withering in factory shadows until they die.”
I know, I wanted to say. She kept watching me. Did she not like the expression on my face? What was she looking for? Her hard look flickered, and for a brief flash, she seemed concerned.
“This is where I lost it,” Margot whispered to Henri, but obviously it was loud enough for me to hear.
“Margot!”
“What?” she asked. “Speth is only going to stand there and look at you. She is not going to defend every action like I did, or fall over herself to apologize like Henri.”
Kel looked from Margot, to me, and back to Margot, shaking her head almost imperceptibly. “I could have used ten more seconds, Margot, to measure her reaction.”
Margot suppressed a smirk. Relief flooded over me. Kel was testing me. I hadn’t freaked out.
“I didn’t apologize,” Henri whispered back to Margot, “that much.”
“No, Henri. You begged. Please, Kel, tell me what I did wrong, please, please, please,” Margot mocked. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”
“I only said sorry once,” Henri said, red-faced.
“But you didn’t apologize.” Margot grinned.
Kel rolled her eyes and stepped to my side. “I can read your face. Remember that. The Rights Holders can’t charge for expressions. It may not be an exacting method of communication, but it will do in a pinch. Understand?”
I almost nodded in return. I raised my head, but didn’t drop it. Instead, I forced a smile, nerves interfering with letting one form naturally.
“Look,” Kel said, showing me her Pad. She typed my name in its search box. Her finger hesitated over the ENTER button. “It isn’t tethered. The Agency designed this Pad to be self-contained. It quietly loads information without leaving a trace. They had to be sure it would work regardless of where we are or what we are doing. It’s exempt from word fees or tracking, like a Lawyer’s computer.”
I’d been taught that software always needed to connect to the tether to function. I remember seeing diagrams in school that showed how all programming was interdependent, checking for digital rights management and payments. I suddenly felt foolish for believing it.
“I am taking an awful risk, bringing you on,” Kel said, tapping the ENTER button at last.
Did that mean I could stay? My heart skipped a beat.
She turned the Pad to me. A map of my apartment came up, with its modest layout. Saretha, Sam and I were listed as occupants. Large red letters through the map text read: Placement Scheduling Window: Invalid. Continuous Occupancy: Saretha Jime.
“Coming and going will be difficult for you. Your family can’t know you are a Placer.”
I swallowed hard. As exciting as the idea was, she was right, and I was uncomfortable realizing she knew about my family. Of course she would have researched us. She tapped on my name and pulled up my profile.
“This isn’t a glowing endorsement.”
Speth Jime
Age:15
Height: 5’2”
Consumer ID: 319-02-6651A
Hair: Chestnut, Unremarkable
Hair Style: Public Domain Style #14A-Short “Pixie Style”
Rating: D
Eyes: Brown, Unenhanced, Unremarkable
Body: Standard, Thin, Unenhanced, Unremarkable
Physical Condition: 96/100
Rating: A
General Appeal: C: Unremarkable, Disagreeable