“Groggy.”
“Do you remember why you came here?”
Tosh said, “Downing made me fix corrupted data, and then he tried to erase my memory. The only reason he didn’t is because you came in.”
“I’m sorry,” Elle said. “That was wrong.”
“So what are you gonna do to him?” Tosh asked.
Elle looked away. “It’s not that simple.”
“I helped him, and he assaulted me. What could be simpler?”
“Luther’s always been paranoid.”
“How can you defend that scumbag? You can’t actually think he loves you,” Tosh said.
“I should go,” Elle said, and turned to leave.
Tosh stopped her immediately. “Where’s Dek?”
“In holding. I was about to check on him when I found you.”
“I need to see him.”
Elle sighed. “Soon. Right now, you should rest.”
“Downing is up to something, Elle. That much data doesn’t get corrupted on its own. I think he modified IDA to frame Dek.”
“That’s a serious accusation, Tosh.”
“Well you sure as hell wouldn’t try to do it,” Tosh said. “You can barely adjust the brightness on your tablet.”
Elle began to smile, but quickly caught herself. A look of matronly concern fell over her as she unconsciously let her hand fall from Tosh’s. “I know you don’t want to believe the worst about Hideki. I don’t either. But—”
“You know him, Elle,” Tosh pleaded. “He’s no model citizen, but sabotage?”
“He wasn’t at the Epoch. He was found at home with a pile of contraband from the Stores. Owen was with him.”
“What?!” Tosh asked, panicked. “My son’s here, too?”
“Just Dek. It’s him Luther is after.”
“The Dome is crumbling, Elle. You have to see that. My father knew it. He tried to tell…” Tosh trailed off without saying the name.
Elle avoided her eyes. “Keane? Yeah, I remember.”
If the Dome was really falling apart then they were on borrowed time. Maybe it was the sedative or maybe it was just her mood, but something in her just said fuck it.
“You don’t remember, do you?” Tosh asked.
“Remember what?”
“What happened the day you were Honorary Administrator.”
Elle sighed and leaned against the foot of Tosh’s bed, gripping it hard enough to turn her knuckles white. “Oh, I remember.”
“No, I don’t think you do. I think Downing erased your memory.”
Elle gave a rueful shake of her head. “I wish he had.”
Tosh sat motionless as this washed over her. “Wait — you know?”
“Keane, he…” she began, trailing off. “Well, let’s just say I’m not proud of what happened.”
Tosh felt the wind sucked out of her. Elle came to Tosh’s that evening in tears, her arms hugging her chest so tightly it looked like she might fold into herself. Tosh sat beside her holding her hand as they rode the train out to the perimeter in silence, Elle staring ghostlike down at her shoes. There, she told Tosh everything that happened at the Authority but swore her to secrecy.
Tosh insisted Elle go to the hospital so Tosh’s mother could look her over. She waited anxiously outside the examination room, musing about what the hell they should do, when Downing showed up and made everyone leave. Fifteen minutes later, he left, and Elle said she didn’t remember how she got there.
Tosh had to decide whether to tell her what happened or be grateful Elle had forgotten. She spent most of her life assuming that Elle repressed it or simply had been too terrified to admit it happened — even to herself. It wasn’t until later that she learned about the memory-erasing Macros, but by that time she and Elle were estranged.
She must have stared for a long time without saying anything because Elle continued. “Luther came to erase me,” Elle said, “but I convinced him not to.”
“What?!” Tosh asked, her mouth agape. “Why?”
Elle sat on the edge of the bed picking at her short fingernails. “That day at the Authority was everything I imagined. I sat in on meetings, I met the leadership… I loved it. At the end of the day, Keane invited me into his office. A 15-year-old kid talking to the Administrator. It seemed like such a big honor. I told him I’d do just about anything to be in the Authority. I guess he liked the sound of that, because next thing you know, he was making me… Anyway, in the middle of it the door opens and it’s Luther.”
“What did he do?” Tosh asked, rapt.
“He told me to get my things and get out. He was angry, but not at me. I knew then it wasn’t the first time. I ran all the way to your unit because I didn’t know where else to go.”
Tosh could remember the conversation like it just happened. She stared dumbly at Elle, barely able to conceive what she was hearing.
“I was gonna let him erase me. I was. It’s not like I wanted to remember, but I could tell he was conflicted. I said if he got me the apprenticeship in the spring, I’d help him get rid of Keane. I just blurted it out.”
Keane died in office not long after Elle’s apprenticeship began, supposedly of a stroke. Maybe it wasn’t.
IDA chose the Council’s longest-serving member, a feckless man named Wiggins, as Keane’s replacement. Elle worked her way up in the Authority over the course of the next 12 years until Wiggins had his turn in the Box. Everyone expected IDA to choose Downing as his successor, but it wound up choosing Elle instead. She became the youngest Administrator in Six’s history.
“Eraser Macros are for victims,” Elle said. “I refused to see myself that way. Instead of getting rid of the past, I decided to change the future.”
“You lied to me,” Tosh said, her voice tinged with pain. “You acted like nothing happened. I carried your secret my whole life.”
“I know, Tosh, and I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how much.”
“What’s going to happen to Dek?”
“Luther’s presenting the evidence to the Council in a few days. I’m recusing myself.”
“What about the others?” Tosh asked.
Elle shook her head. “It doesn’t look good.”
“I need to see him.”
“Not until after the hearing. Right now, you should get some rest. I’ll go now and make sure Luther’s gone.”
“He’s up to something, Elle. I’m certain of it.”
Elle nodded and said, “Take as long as you need here, but go home. Thanks for fixing IDA.”
Then she abruptly left.
39
Pulling the shades and dousing the lights in order to dig into the so-called evidence against Hideki was just the kind of thing he would do if the tables were turned. The irony wasn’t lost on Tosh.
It seemed that opening a connection to her own unit’s IDA node escaped Luther’s notice. If he wasn’t savvy enough to modify location data without corrupting several petabytes in the process, he probably wouldn’t have been able to follow what she was doing with a command line.
Tosh turned her tablet on and navigated its tangle of diagnostic menus until she got to what she was looking for — private read access to the backup files.
There was no fooling IDA, at least from a location standpoint. The system could triangulate your position anywhere in the Dome within a meter. Most people believed this was mainly so IDA could relay messages or know to open the door of your unit, but Tosh understood the true purpose.
There was no such thing as an unaccountable absence. If you didn’t come to your shift, IDA would know and read your CHIT to determine your health. Anything short of imminent death pretty much guaranteed a visit from the Authority police, who would forcibly escort you to your workplace.