Xvi (7 page)

I rejoined Dee.

“I left you some fries,” she said. “I’ve gotta watch my figure.”

“Figure?” I laughed. “The only figure you have is like this.” I drew a straight up-and-down line in the air.

“Do not!”

“Do, too.” I tossed a throw pillow from the couch at her. She caught it and threw it back at me.

In no time we were wrestling around on the floor like a couple of kids. It felt good to play. Much better than angsting over what Derek was thinking. I didn’t want to deal with him trying to be romantic, or interested in me.

We were up to episode four, where Arriane confronts a bully at summer camp, when my PAV beeped again.

I hopped over the pillows we’d thrown on the floor. “Hey there.” I was sure it was Sandy.

“Nina Oberon?” a female voice asked.

“Yes.” I didn’t recognize the voice, so I grabbed my PAV receiver from the table to see who was calling.

“This is Officer Jelneck, Cementville police.”

I clicked on the tiny video screen, I could see red hair sticking out from under her black-and-white-checked hatband. Her lips were pressed into a hard line.

My first thought was that it had to do with the foray. But the police in Gran’s building had let us go. Sal. Maybe he really was homeless—maybe I was in trouble for helping him out. “Yes, ma’am?” I couldn’t keep my voice from trembling.

“I’m almost to your house. I need to talk with you.”

Now I was shaking all over. “Have I done something wrong?”

Her tone changed from terse to sympathetic. “No.”

And then it hit me—bad news. Ginnie. “What’s happened?”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than there was a buzz at the door. I let Officer Jelneck in.

She told me about the attack. How Ginnie had been stabbed and left for dead in an alley. Like sleet bouncing off the sidewalk, her words weren’t connecting to my brain. It couldn’t be. Ginnie was always all right.

“We must get you two to the hospital,” she insisted. “There’s no time to waste.”

“Nina? What’s going on?” Dee came up behind me.

Office Jelneck started to speak, but I held up my hand. Putting my arm around Dee, I said, “Mom needs us. Get your jacket.”

Dee’s lower lip started to quiver. I pulled her close. “It’s going to be fine, DeeDee. Go get your jacket, okay?”

She raced down the hall.

I looked at the policewoman. “She’ll know what’s happened soon enough.”

Officer Jelneck transported us to Cementville Hospital, the largest, state-of-the-art hospital in the Midwest. We were whisked to the Trauma Wing in an area marked “Restricted.” There were armed guards stationed at the entrance doors. Through a window I could see Ginnie immobile, inside a machine of some kind.

“What’s that?” I asked the guard who was escorting us.

“Infinity machine.” His voice, his whole manner, was as emotionless as a bot. He could’ve been one, except I’d seen him take a drink of water before he brought us here.

An Infinity machine. Ginnie was just a tier-two cashier. Why would they put her in an Infinity machine? They were only used in special cases and only for top-tier people. I would’ve asked the guard, but he was busy talking into his PAV.

I didn’t know how the Infinity machine circumvented death, but it did, at least for a little while. There were only twelve such machines in the world. Situated near large metro areas, they were under strict government regulations and security. There were armed guards everywhere on the floor, not only at the entrance. Ginnie’d always said this technology was dangerous, especially in the wrong hands, and should be outlawed. I was glad it hadn’t been.

I peeked back in the window. Monitor lights strobed above Ginnie and tubes and wires snaked everywhere. Blinking hard, I turned away. Through my tears, I saw a man getting into the elport, talking with a nurse. She exited right before the door slid shut, and hurried past me into Ginnie’s room. I stood staring at the closed elport, then glanced back at Ginnie.

Ed.

I didn’t want him anywhere near her, not now, not ever again. After all the times he’d beat her ... what if he’d had something to do with this attack? He was capable of murder, I was sure of it. Cold hate seeped into my veins.

A doctor came by to talk to me and Dee, and I turned my attention away from the elport. Her soft eyes and no-nonsense manner reminded me of Gran. She assured me that Ginnie wasn’t in any pain and then explained the rules about the Infinity machine.

Her voice was gentle, but the words were harsh. “You can talk with your mother for ten minutes; that’s five minutes per family member. You can touch her face and head, but be very careful not to touch any of the equipment. When nine minutes is up, a buzzer will sound and I’ll come in; a minute later the machine will be turned off.”

I pointed to the room. “Why is she here? We’re not top tier.”

The doctor shook her head. “The government doesn’t tell me their reasons.”

It didn’t matter. At least Ginnie was still alive and we could see her. I hugged my arm tight around Dee and we entered the room. My stomach knotted—it felt as if I’d entered my own execution chamber.

Ginnie’s bandaged head stuck out of the aluminoid cylinder that encased her body. A nurse stood nearby, adjusting dials on a control panel.

“Mom,” I whispered, edging closer to the Infinity. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.” She turned her head slightly in my direction. Her lips weren’t moving, her eyes were sightless. The voice was hollow and metallic, not at all her—a reproduction from her thoughts. It was a sound I was sure I would never forget. “Guess I won’t be home early, will I?” Her sense of humor was still there, but it wasn’t funny.

“Mom.” Dee’s voice quavered and tears were pouring down her cheeks. “You can’t die!” She wrenched away from me and ran to Ginnie. She tried to touch our mother, but was too short to reach. The nurse pulled a small stool out from under the machine and Dee scrambled up on it. She patted Ginnie’s face and kissed her cheek again and again, crying the whole time.

“Oh, DeeDee, sweetheart, Nina will take care of you.”

“Mom!” Dee stroked the bandages frantically. “You can’t leave. I love you. You can’t die.”

“DeeDee,” the tinny voice said, “you have to be strong. I raised you girls to be strong. You and Nina will have to take care of each other now. Understand?”

Dee nodded, gulping back her tears.

Ginnie sighed deeply. It rattled through the cylinder, and I wondered how the doctor knew for sure that she wasn’t hurting.

“DeeDee, honey, go outside for a minute, I need to talk to Nina alone.”

The nurse led a sobbing Dee out of the room. When the door closed behind them, Ginnie asked, “Are they gone?”

I glanced around. “Yes.”

“Come close.”

I scooted up to her head. “I’m right here, Mom.” Since I’d turned twelve, I’d always called her Ginnie. It was not cool to call your parents Mom or Dad. Now I wished that was all I’d ever called her. Caressing her face, I moved aside the hairs that clung to her forehead.

“Sing to me, sweetie. That lullaby I used to sing to you.”

“What?”

“Please. There isn’t much time.”

I began singing “Highland Fairy Lullaby,” a song I knew so well. “‘I left my baby lying here, lying here, lying here ...’”

Ginnie began to talk softly under my singing. “If they’re listening, they won’t be able to make out what I’m telling you. Keep singing.”

I didn’t understand what she meant, but I kept on, straining to hear her every word. “‘I left my baby lying here, to go and gather blaeberries.’”

“There’s no time to preface this, Nina. Your father is still alive. I’m not sure where he is exactly, but I think he may be in Chicago.”

I fell silent. My father? The man Ginnie’d always said she loved more than anything except me and Dee was alive. “How long--?”

“Please keep singing.” The urgency in her voice was unmistakable, even through the machine.

“I’m sorry, Mom.” My voice was shaking, but I went on. “‘Hovan, Hovan Gorry og O, Gorry og O, Gorry og O ...’”

Ginnie said, “There’s no time for explanation. Listen to me. You must find him, and give him the book I keep in my bedside table. You know the one.”

I did know. She only kept one book there—Dee’s baby book. “‘Hovan, Hovan Gorry og O, I’ve lost my darling baby, O!’”

“It’s so important. It’s got all the answers.”

She wasn’t making any sense. My father had died the night I was born. Maybe the Infinity machine was translating her thoughts wrong. Or, maybe she was hallucinating. I’d heard that people sometimes do that when they’re dying.

“‘I found the wee brown otter’s track, otter’s track, otter’s track ...’”

“The last time I saw him was a few months before Dee was born,” she said. “Nina. Pay attention. I’m not crazy. Please.”

Attention. Yes. There wasn’t time for the emotions that were welling up inside of me. Later I could think about my father—my father who had been alive all my life, but hadn’t had anything to do with me. “‘I found the wee brown otter’s track, but ne’re a trace o’my baby, O!’”

The vocalization machine made a weird noise. It sounded like crying. I glanced up and a nurse was standing in the doorway. I wondered how long she’d been there. When she saw me looking at her, she slipped out of the room. She’d been listening to us, of that I was sure.

The weird sound happened again. I continued the lullaby. “‘Hovan, Hovan Gorry og O, Gorry og O, Gorry og O ...’”

Ginnie said, “You must get the book to your father, to Alan. You must keep Ed away from Dee. Don’t let him near her. Promise me, Nina.” It was like her voice was a hand, grabbing me, demanding my assurance.

The buzzer sounded. I stopped singing. Dee rushed back in, the nurse and doctor right behind her.

“I promise,” I whispered.

“Just know that I love you two more than anything in this universe or any other. You have always been the reason for everything I’ve ever done. You’ve been my whole life. Keep each other safe.”

I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. If I let the tears loose, they would never stop.

“I’m so sorry.” The doctor placed her hand on my shoulder.

I pressed my cheek against Ginnie’s and whispered, “Mom, I love you.”

“Peace, dear one,” she said, “at last.”

The nurse motioned me away from the machine. I let my fingers linger on Ginnie’s face as long as I could. Wrapping Dee in my arms, I willed myself to be strong for her.

The doctor pressed a button and my mother was dead.

When we walked outside the Infinity machine room, Officer Jelneck was down the hall with a man and woman. She said something to them and gestured toward me and Dee.

The doctor leaned over to me and whispered, “B.O. S. S. agents. Be careful.”

My back stiffened as I watched them come to us.

“These are the daughters,” Officer Jelneck said. “She’s fifteen and the little one is eleven.”

“I’m Agent Meadows,” the man said. “This is Agent Crupp. You’ll be coming with us.”

This has to be some awful dream,
I thought.
My mother’s dead, my father’s alive, and here are two B.O.S.S. agents who are taking me and Dee who knows where.
What little grip I still had on my emotions was slipping fast away.

“Now.” The woman spun on her heel and walked away.

“What about my mother?” I said. “I need to call my grandparents.”

“Your grandparents have been notified,” Meadows said. “Due to regulations regarding the use of the Infinity machine, the body belongs to the government and will be disposed of in the usual manner.” He attempted to shoo Dee and me along after Crupp.

I glanced at the doctor. “Don’t let them hurt her, please.” I knew it was just a body, but it was still my mother.

“I’ll do what I can.” Her shoulders sagged. “You’d better go.”

We left the same way we’d come in. Except this time we were escorted by two B.O.S.S. agents. Neither of whom said one word to us, not even a “sorry about your mother.” I kept myself busy comforting Dee. That way I didn’t have attention to give to the clawing terror at the base of my neck.

They put us in the back of a multitrans with blackened windows. No one could see in, but we couldn’t see out either.

“Where are we going?” Dee asked between sobs. “Are they taking us to Gran and Pops?”

“I don’t know.” I hugged her close. Before I’d had time to imagine all the possible places we might end up, the trannie stopped. When the door opened, we were in front of our modular.

Agent Meadows reached into his pocket. “Here’s the warrant.” He shoved an official-looking piece of paper at me.

“Unlock the door,” Agent Crupp said.

“Warrant?” I said. “My mother didn’t do anything. Someone killed her, not the other way around.”

Agent Crupp tapped her stilettoed foot on the sidewalk.

I did as I was told.

Inside was exactly as we’d left it.
Moon Academy
was playing on the AV, the remains of dinner in front of it, and the pillows were scattered about where Dee and I had been playing.

“I’ll get that stuff out--”

“Don’t touch anything,” Meadows said.

“You two. There.” Agent Crupp pointed to the sofa.

We sat.

First they went through every vid chip we had. The man easily broke open the locked box where Ed kept his private ones. Agent Crupp was scanning them when she snorted. “Here’s one called
Make Those Sex-teens Scream
. Real educational, that one.”

I looked away, my cheeks burning.

After the vids, they inspected the few real books we had.

“Take these.” Agent Crupp pushed
1984
and
Mars Rising
in the man’s hand. “Not suitable reading for anyone.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Smut and sedition. Your mother was a real piece of work.” I clenched the edge of the couch. Not daring to speak. “Come on.” She motioned us to follow her.