The Superiors (30 page)

“That’s a shame, then. I hope she’s a clean sapien. Some of them get infections from all that filth and never cleaning themselves right. Might get another one if she doesn’t change her hygiene habits.”

Draven frowned down at her. He hated to leave without knowing if she’d live, and he hated his inability to do anything about the man who left the bites. But the only thing he could do for her now was to go on the assignment, and if he made it back, buy her so she wouldn’t have to worry about the other man anymore. He would have liked to say goodbye to her, but he couldn’t do anything about that now, either. He had already signed all the paperwork and he had to go, whether or not Cali lived long enough for him to buy her when he came back.

He hadn’t eaten all night, so he stopped at the compound and went back to Cali’s house. None of the sisters smelled as good as Cali, but one of them smelled appealing. He went inside after tapping on the door. The one he wanted still slept, as well as one of the others. The one with the child sat suckling her young.

“Cali is at the clinic,” he said, shifting to sit in the cramped space. He’d never liked going in the houses at the Confinement, and he guessed other Superiors didn’t either. The homes appealed to homo-sapiens for that reason. Cali’s house smelled of mold and mud and her lingering scent and that of the infection. He had to pull the sister halfway onto his lap so he could sit cross-legged on the pallet they called a bed. She shifted and opened her eyes and jerked a bit when she saw him, but she lay still and quiet while he fed.

“Cali is a sister to each of you?” he asked when he finished.

“Yeah. We all got the same mama.”

“The doctor believes she will live, but she may need some time to recover her strength. She will be weak from the infection, and a good amount of fluid including blood had to be taken from the infected area. I’ll be going away for some time, but the clinic will bring her back here. I hope for her sake that the man who bites her will stay away while she is still weak. Perhaps he won’t like the infected smell. Please let her know…no. If I live, I’ll tell her when I return.”

The three sapiens stared at him with identical suspicious eyes. He realized he had said too much, talked to them as if they were like him. As if they were like Cali, perhaps. “I like animals,” Draven said, shrugging. “I don’t like to see them die.”

The girls absorbed this information, and the one with the baby nodded. “Thanks for letting us know, Master. We were real worried about her.”

“And thank you for taking her to the clinic,” the one he’d drawn from said. The other sister had awakened and lay there watching, her hand resting on her swollen stomach.

“That your shirt?” the one with the baby said, nodding towards the back corner. Draven followed her eyes and saw his shirt hanging in the corner over the bed.

“Yes.”

The girls all looked at each other, a meaningful sort of look, but one whose meaning Draven didn’t know. “You want it back?”

He looked at the shirt and remembered the peace of the morning he’d put it on Cali, before the chaos started. “No. If she lives, she might need it at night sometime, if she gets cold. If she dies…use it for your baby.”

He pushed the girl off his lap and pulled the tattered blanket back over her before standing. “Please take care of Cali.” He wanted to say more but didn’t dare, so he ducked out of the tin shack, leaving the three girls staring after him. He heard their whispers start as soon as he replaced the door. He could have stayed to hear what they said, but he didn’t imagine he wanted to. Instead, he went home to rest.

But when he came up the stairs of his apartment, a surprise waited at his door. Two Enforcers he didn’t know stood leaning on the wall next to his apartment, both smoking cigarettes. He stopped short and glanced around. “Can I help you, sirs?” he asked, bowing his head as the law dictated.

Draven put his hand on the panel to unlock the door. He knew the matter hadn’t gotten serious—if the Enforcers had believed what they’d heard, they would have gone into his apartment with or without his permission or presence. Since they had waited, they probably didn’t believe the report. But he still didn’t want government agents in his home, even if he hadn’t anything illegal in it.

At first his mind went to Byron, but Byron wouldn’t call in a report. He’d come over to Draven’s and check for himself, probably as a friend rather than an Enforcer. Which left Lira as the most likely culprit.

Not that he had anything to hide. Still, no one wanted Enforcers sniffing around, looking at his personal property and tromping through his pathetic, non-decorous life. Enforcers had high salaries and lived in fancy houses like Byron’s. A bare apartment with one tiny window that offered a view of the bare wall of the next apartment building must seem a measly existence indeed.

One of the Enforcers stopped and looked at Draven’s small bookcase, the only thing outside his bedroom that belonged to him and hadn’t come with the apartment. “You got a lot of old books,” the Enforcer said.

Draven stood against the wall, fuming at Lira. “Yes, sir,” he said.

“That’s pretty unusual.”

“Yes, sir. I don’t have any illegal titles. You’re welcome to put them in the system and check, if you like.” Most Superiors didn’t care about things like books written by humans. But a few titles, mostly religious works, had been burned after the Time of the Takeover, and owning them brought severe punishment.

“Oh, that’s alright,” the Superior said. “I just thought it was unusual. You actually read these old things?” He flicked the spine of a book called
Crime and Punishment
.

“Yes, sir. At times.”

“Huh. I’d think it was too inconvenient to have to haul out a paper book and look all through it for your place every time you want to read. How do you know where you left off?”

“They have ribbons and things for markers, sir.” He thought of the marker in his favorite book, the antique picture of him with Anton. He should contact his friend, see when he planned to return. Soon, Draven thought.

The Enforcer laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember now. Seems like a million years ago I read a paper book. You don’t mind if I look at them, right?”

“No, sir.” Of course he minded. But he couldn’t refuse a Second’s request.

The Enforcer took out
The Road
and leafed through the pages while Draven watched. Something about the man looking in his things bothered him, even if he acted friendly. Was he looking for some kind of secret hidden between two pages—the way people had supposedly passed messages during the War?

The other Enforcer returned from his inspection of the bedroom. He shrugged. “Nothing amiss as far as I can see.”

“No, sir.”

“Look at this, he collects old paper books,” the other Enforcer said. He seemed fascinated by the books. He even smelled it before he handed it to the other Enforcer. The other Enforcer handed it back, not sharing in his interest. “Oh, well,” the one with the book said. “It was worth it for a false alarm call just to see these old relics. You know, I bet you could sell some of these for good money. Antiques like these bring in a lot if you find the right buyer. People collect all sorts of odd things to remind them of the old days.”

“Yes, sir.” Draven wanted nothing more than to get the law out of his apartment before one of them smelled a whiff of Cali’s lingering scent. But since he didn’t have her, he didn’t imagine they could do much even if they caught her scent. Still, he had to be careful, and polite, and show the proper respect to Seconds, and not offend anyone or speak too familiarly with Enforcers. So he waited for them to leave on their own accord.

“Seems you’re just fine,” the Enforcer said, putting the book back into its place on the shelf. “You have a nice day.”

“Thank you, sir.” Draven bowed to the Enforcers on their way out. He followed them to the door and stood inside, watching until their shiny solid-black car pulled away. Then he went down the stairs to pay a visit to his neighbor.

He pounded on her door harder than necessary. She had either been waiting for him or on her way out—unlikely, given the late hour of the morning. She opened the door seconds after he knocked. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. She turned away as if to go back inside.

Draven blocked the door with his forearm and pushed it open. He followed Lira inside, invitation be damned. “You called the Enforcers on me?” he asked. “For what reason?”

She shrugged. “I thought I’d do my civic duty and make sure you didn’t have any other poor saps up there starving while you pretended to help them.”

“You know that’s not the case. That was a special exception. And if I remember correctly, you partook as illegally as I did.”

She smiled. “But it wasn’t at my apartment, was it? I didn’t sap-nap it and keep it up there for days. I was only a bystander.”

“I told you it only happened once, not that it’s your concern.” He turned to the door. “Now I’m going, and please don’t interfere in my life further. Do we understand each other?”

“Oh, I’m sure you’d like that, wouldn’t you? You think you can just come by and fuck me at your convenience, any old time you want? And what, I’m so desperate that I’ll just agree, even if you treat me like shit afterwards?”

He shrugged. “Won’t you?”

Lira let out a shriek and started pounding at his defensive arm with her little fists. She packed quite a punch for a small woman. Draven wondered how old she’d been when she evolved. Like all Thirds, she would fit into the fifteen-to-twenty-five category. He tried not to mess with the ones who had been closer to fifteen, but Lira had the temper of a teenage Third. He’d never thought to ask her age. He’d never even thought to ask what job she had or where she came from or her last name. She had only one purpose in his life, and it wasn’t worth nearly that much trouble. He’d rather sleep alone.

“You’re not all you think you are,” Lira said, swatting at him.

“I imagine I’m most of it.”

“I can find a bigger man than you any day,” she said. “And one who isn’t some kind of sex pervert with a sap hidden in his bedroom.”

“Then why don’t you?” Draven said, backing to the door. “I won’t stop you.”

She shoved him hard. “Oh, you’re just infuriating,” she said, shoving him against the door. “Why do I bother?”

“I can’t imagine.” He found the panel beside the door and hit it. He wished he’d never come down. All his anger had gone and he just wanted to get away from her. He’d never been good at fighting.

“Don’t come back, you lousy piece of shit,” she yelled after him. “And you better be on your toes, because I’m gonna keep calling the Enforcers until one day they find something up there. Don’t you get too comfortable. They’ll be stopping by your place again, and you’ll never know when it’s gonna happen.”

Draven climbed the stairs to his apartment. How was it that Lira could bore him and exhaust him at once? He saw his neighbor in the hallway and tried to hurry past, but the man stopped him.

“It was good talking to you. Good day, then.” Draven hurried to his apartment and went inside, and straight into his light-and-sound proof bedroom and let the relief of darkness wash over him until he grew calm enough for sleep. He slept the whole day and woke on the evening of his trip. After checking the sky, he put on his darkest shades and a hat, and went out to his car. He might have just enough time if he hurried. A store caught his eye and he made a brief stop on his way.

He skirted the building so he wouldn’t run into Bonnie and get drawn in by her chattiness. The clinic’s entrance led to several wings. Draven went through the doors to the treatment wing. He found Cali’s room and went inside. She sat propped up on the bed, eyes open. She looked at him out of a grey face with grey lips.

“Cali.” He went in and sat on the bed beside her and pulled up his knee so he faced her. “Do you need water?”

She nodded and he brought her some in the cup he had used the night before. When she took it, her hands shook. She drank and then sank back on the bed.

“Has the doctor been in to see you?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

“I’m glad you’re awake. I wish I could do something for you, but for now there is nothing more to be done. I’m going away on an assignment, and when I come back… If I do, I’ll have a surprise for you. I hope it will be as pleasant for you as it is for me.”

She closed her hand around it and closed her eyes. Draven brushed the hair back from her face, then stood and put his face close to hers and inhaled deeply. He thought she would live. She smelled good enough to eat already.

He walked to the door, but when he heard her stirring, he turned back to look at her one more time.

“Master?” she said in her raspy voice. He waited, and after a moment she said, “What’s your name?”

He paused before answering. He knew he shouldn’t. But if he died, he wanted someone to remember, even if it was only a sap. Of course a few Superiors would remember, but he didn’t imagine he’d leave a big gap, or even a small fissure, in anyone’s life. Not even a sap’s.