“Bland mush at room temperature,” she said, placing the bowl on the tray and rolling it over in front of him.
“I’m not feeling this today,” he said. “How about some seafood?”
“I’ll inquire with the kitchen,” she said with a smirk. “How’s your pain?”
“Constant,” he replied. “Thanks for asking.”
“Well, eat up,” she said with a wink. “They’re cutting you loose this afternoon.”
She turned on her heels and opened the door, then started at whomever she saw on the other side.
“Administrator Travers,” she stammered.
“I came to see our patient,” she said, poking her head inside to see that Owen was awake and alert. Just seeing her face made his blood boil.
“Of course,” said the nurse. “I just brought him lunch. Take as much time as you need.”
“Thank you,” said Elle.
The nurse left and the door closed behind her. Elle looked around Owen’s tiny room, which still looked relatively new by Dome standards. Compared to other spaces, hospital rooms didn’t see much use.
“Hello, Owen,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Left-handed,” he mumbled.
“I’m very sorry for what happened,” she said. “The men responsible have been reassigned to the FPC.”
“What do you want?” Owen asked. “Don’t you have an execution to plan?” She lowered her eyes to the floor.
“I don’t make the laws, Owen. The Charter is very clear.”
“We live in a fucking bubble. Why are we still following 100-year-old laws? Although, it won’t be the first time the Authority made someone from my family go away, will it?” he said, his voice dripping with contempt. “First my father and now my uncle?”
She slid a chair over to his bedside and sat down. Ordinarily she looked imperious and strong, but the way her shoulders sagged now added 10 years. A few hairs were actually out of place. He reflexively shrunk away from her.
“I don’t blame you for hating me. I don’t know what happened to your father, but I know someone who might.”
Why was she telling him any of this? It happened so long ago he had trouble remembering his father’s face. But since IDA never classified him as dead, he couldn’t even speak to his Legacy.
“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t want to allow himself hope if there was none. She could be playing him somehow.
“What I’m about to tell you can’t leave this room. Not yet, anyway.”
“Okay…”
“Your dad wasn’t the only one to ever go missing from the Dome. The same thing happened to Director Downing’s wife.”
“I’ve heard that,” Owen said. “I thought it was just a rumor.”
“I heard it, too. That she went crazy during the Fourth Epoch and crawled into the incinerator looking for a way out. But I believe he made a deal to get her out. And as soon as Hideki is… gone, he’s going to join her.”
His mind raced for some explanation, for some logic to all this, but found none. “What do you mean, ‘out?’ How? Made a deal with who?”
“With Cytocorp.”
Cytocorp? Weren’t they gone along with everyone else? Many believed the Dome was the last vestige of humanity. If Downing was talking to the Company somehow, it could change everything.
“That’s impossible.”
“Which is why I think he’s been talking some kind of AI. But what if he isn’t?”
Owen didn’t know much about Elle beyond what his mother volunteered, which wasn’t much. No one he knew had anything good to say about her or the Authority, and yet he felt a certain empathy for her now. Maybe she’d been lied to as much as the rest of them.
“You think he had something to do with my dad?” he asked.
“That’s what I want to find out.” She leaned forward in her chair, her dark blue eyes burning a hole right through him. “If Director Downing gets out of the Dome, then whatever he knows goes with him. But if he doesn’t try to leave…”
“Then you’ll never know the truth,” he finished. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I need to know what you and Hideki working on together.”
“What?”
“The dead mouse. The junk from the Stores in Hideki’s unit. It didn’t make sense. Luther and the Council were focused on Hideki, but you were there when his unit was raided. Why?”
He was surprised none of this came up during the course of Dek’s incarceration. Luther didn’t paid any attention to Owen at all. All of Elle’s crazy talk about Cytocorp and Downing’s wife could be an elaborate ruse to get the truth from him. If she knew Dek’s plan to save himself, she might take the device away and seal his fate. But what if it wasn’t? What if Downing really was the key to getting out of the Dome?
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m the only one who can authorize a new arm.”
“I thought we were almost out of matrix,” Owen said.
“We are. But if Downing gets out of the Dome, I don’t think shortages will matter anymore.”
“There are Listeners in here,” Owen noted.
“I disabled this zone before I came,” she said. “It’s just you and me.”
Before he even knew it, he’d told her everything. The red Macros, the signal, all of it. If everything went according to plan, Hideki would become the first citizen to survive the Box. If there was a plan beyond that, Owen wasn’t privy to it. Knowing Dek, he’d just want to see the looks on their faces when they came to collect his body.
Elle listened carefully and then sat back in her chair, weighing it all. Or was she deciding what to do with him?
“Do you think it will work? This device of his?” she asked.
“I think so.”
“Luther’s anxious,” she said. “As soon as the door to the Box closes, he’ll try to leave. When that happens, we need to be ready.”
“Ready for what?” Owen asked.
“To follow him.”
“What do you mean, ‘we?’” he asked. “I’m not going anywhere for a while.” He wiggled the stump of his right arm and winced.
She smiled, turned toward the door and said, “Okay, we’re ready.”
A team of doctors and nurses wheeled in a gurney, moved his lunch out of the way, and slid it in beside his bed. He shifted uncomfortably. “What is this?”
“A promise is a promise,” she said. “You’re getting a new arm. Right now.”
The doctors exchanged furtive glances but disconnected Owen’s IV and helped him onto the gurney.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“We’ll meet at Tosh’s tomorrow evening,” she said, her tone suggesting he read between the lines. With the doctors there, she could no longer be candid. “You know — to celebrate his life. Pull together everyone you think ought to be there.”
“Wait — how long does this take to heal?”
One of the doctors jumped in and said, “It’ll be in a sling for a couple days. Your strength should return quickly after that.”
“Wow.”
Elle said, “I’ll leave you to it.”
She turned to leave but he stopped her just as the team was about to wheel him away. “So, you’ll be there tomorrow? For Dek?” he asked.
“Of course. See you tomorrow.”
46
Hideki couldn’t know whether news of his conviction and impending execution was broadcast or strategically leaked, but it didn’t matter. The Quietus Center was only four sectors behind the Authority on Rad 36, at the end of which was the incinerator. They chose to simply march him down there under guard, and hundreds of people turned out to watch. What a grotesque charade.
He couldn’t have said what was more annoying — that he was sentenced to die for something he didn’t do, or that he was part of this nonsense.