Inside the Palisade (13 page)

In the sunlight, I notice the light spray of freckles across her nose, and I wonder if they control for that in the Procedure. I’ve never thought to ask, but I always felt they suited Gamma. Did her mother design them, like they design everything else about us?

“Earth to Omega.” Gamma waves a hand in front of me. “Tell me the rumor you heard, and I’ll see how closely it matches what I heard.”

Something bangs in the shed. Ghent, warning me not to trust Gamma.

“What was that?” Gamma says, looking right at the shed.

“It’s nothing. Probably an animal.” I tug at her forearm to get her attention. “At the Clinic yesterday some women said something about a
deman
inside the palisade, and the name – Delta. I didn’t hear any more. But it’s really strange, right?” I try to keep my tone light. I hope she doesn’t think there’s any more to this than good old-fashioned curiosity.

Finally, she takes the bait. She clutches my knee as she speaks. “I overheard Mom on her communicator. There’s a rumor that this Delta and her partner have been harboring a
deman
forever. Can you believe it? And he
escaped.
He’s supposed to be loose inside the palisade somewhere. And it gets even weirder. They’re also saying the
deman
is their
son.
”

“Does your mother know what happened to Delta?” I hope
I’m not pushing too hard. I don’t want to rouse her suspicions any further, but she’s our best lead.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but it sounded like her partner was ill, and they’re keeping them together.”

“In the Clinic?”

“I don’t know. Why?” Gamma leans back on her heels. I’m digging too deep. I know it. Another thump sounds from the shed.

“I wonder what kind of animal that is,” Gamma says as she scrambles to her feet and motions for me to follow. “Let’s go find out.”

“No.” My voice is too loud as I reach out to pull her back down. She raises an eyebrow and I try to come up with a believable explanation for my actions. “I don’t want anyone to see me out here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll go take a quick look. Be right back.” She pats my arm as she slips away.

I peer around the hedge to see that she’s heading straight for the shed. It’s quiet except for the distant sounds of birdsong and the odd coyote howling in the distance. Even the machine noise from the factory seems strangely muted. Ghent’s trapped. He can’t get out of the shed unnoticed, and even if he could, there’s nowhere to go. I speak low into the transmitter, “Ghent, don’t move. She won’t look in there if you don’t make a sound.” I hope I’m right. “Ghent, please. I hope you can hear me.”

Gamma wanders around searching for the source of the noise. She hasn’t gone near the shed door. She’s still investigating around the side panel, but she’s getting awfully close. I hope Ghent heard me. I hope he takes my advice. “Ghent. I’ve got this under control. Please stay there.” I realize that if he can hear my transmission, Gamma might be close enough to hear it too. I bite down on my lip.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I don’t know if Gamma heard me though the communicator or
through the bushes, but she calls out. “Did you say something?”

I crawl out and point toward the nearest pasture. “I saw something. It went that way.”

She spins to look in the direction I’m indicating, a fallow field, covered in a small layer of weeds.

“What did it look like?” she asks.

“I don’t know. Small. Like a groundhog.”

“Pretty noisy groundhog.”

“Maybe it was a raccoon.”

“In the daylight?”

“Gamma, please come back.”

She takes a last look around, shrugs her shoulders and scampers back to where I’m hiding.

“Do you want to go home now? I could call Mom about those contacts. Or I could even say I’m sick and go back with you. We could play hooky together. Just like when we were at school.”

A day cavorting around with Gamma, and Ghent listening in, is not exactly part of the plan. Unless…

“Can we go to the Clinic?” I ask.

Her nose wrinkles. “Why would you want to go there?”

“I was thinking. About Delta. That rumor.”

“Like we could maybe check it out?” She claps her hands together like a child. Her honeysuckle fragrance wafts around me, and I feel guilty for using her like this.

“Do you think we could?”

“I don’t see why not. If I call in sick, they’ll make me check in with Mom anyway, and she’s doing rounds at the Clinic today.” She presses her fingers to her lips. “But I’d have to figure out how to explain you.”

“I’d wait outside.” I sit up straighter as the idea begins to take shape.

“No way. This is our adventure. We’ll do it together.” Her expression brightens. “I’ll go to Mom’s office to check in with her, and let you into the Clinic by the back way.”

“What if someone sees?” I ask.

“We’ll disguise you. There must be some way to hide those eyes. We’ll just have to keep out of sight until I think of something. I have to report to Tau so I can clock out,” she says. “Will you be alright here?”

As I watch her head back to the factory I wonder if this is the right thing to do. I lower my lips to the transmitter so they’re almost brushing against the metal. “Ghent. Stay where you are. Gamma’s going to take me to the Clinic to find your mothers. Can you follow at a safe distance?”

Silence.

“Ghent. Can you hear me?”

I’m answered by a scraping sound. Metal against dirt. I peer around the bushes to see what’s happening. The shed door clangs shut as Ghent charges toward me, low to the ground, covered with his cloak. He had twisted it through the straps of his pack earlier but he must have taken it out for the extra cover. He falls beside me, panting. “Meg, don’t do this. It’s too dangerous. I’ll go to the Clinic. Tonight. By myself.” His words are clipped as he gasps for breath. I’m horror-struck. He can’t be here. Gamma will be back any second.

I grasp his wrist, my fingers barely encircling it, and speak in a wobbly voice. “Get back to the shed.”

He pulls his arm away and kneels in front of me. “Only if you promise you won’t go through with this. Make up an excuse to get away from her.”

“No! This is our best chance.” Then it dawns on me. He’s worried about me. He’s risking himself out here in the daylight to protect
me.

When he speaks again his voice is sharp. “Don’t you understand? She’s a
Temple.
This is a trap.”

He may be right, but we don’t have any choice. He can’t go waltzing into the Clinic after dark. He needs to be outside the palisade by then.

“We can trust her.” My fingers rake against the dry ground, causing dirt to grind underneath my nails.

“Omega?” It’s Gamma’s voice.

We’re trapped. I can’t see her yet, but there’s no way Ghent will make it back to the shed before she gets to us. He grips my shoulders and shoves me further into the bushes, urging me to move away from Gamma. Then he scrambles to his feet, maintaining his crouch and tries to pull me along with him. I shake him off. Shoving him into the bushes, I raise a finger to my lips. He knows what I’m going to do and I can tell from his expression that he doesn’t like it. He reaches up to cover my mouth, but before he can catch me, I call out to Gamma.

“Coming!” I force my voice to sound cheery as Ghent sinks back to the dirt. I start to move in Gamma’s direction. She’ll be able to see me in a moment. Ghent reaches out to stop me, but with one more step, I’m in Gamma’s sightline.

“There you are.” She calls out from a distance that’s way too close for comfort. “I’m officially off shift. Let’s get out of here.”

Gamma drags me around the side of the Clinic where we clamber over an uneven stone patio, weeds poking through the cracks, adjacent to the back door. From here, the building doesn’t seem so imposing. Unlike the front entrance with its glass doors and cobblestone pathway, the back section comprises only a few yards of craggy boulders set around a derelict garden before hitting the fence-line.

“I’m going around front,” Gamma says. “I’ll come get you in about fifteen minutes. No one should see you here, but if anyone comes, hide behind those rocks.” She squeezes my hands between hers. “This isn’t the first time I’ve done this.” She taps a thoughtful finger to her lips, looking me up and down. “Once we get inside, we’re going to have to find some way to hide those eyes, though.”

“You think?” I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

“Trust me.” She tugs on my three middle fingers, in that familiar gesture from our childhood. Her skin is smooth, her hands tiny and delicate compared to Ghent’s large rough ones. There’s been no sign of him since we left the factory, but even if the transmitter isn’t working, he knows where we’re heading so hopefully he’s not too far away.

“We good?” Gamma smiles before ducking around the corner. As soon as she’s out of sight, I press against the outside wall, trying hard to be invisible.

“Ghent?” I whisper into the transmitter. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m at the back of the Clinic. I’m going to find your mothers.”

The only response is the scuttling of some creature through the grass. I hope it’s not a snake. I have no idea how much time has passed since Gamma went inside. There’s a shuffling noise behind the rocks, and my every muscle tenses. Before I have time
to go into full panic mode, the door swings open and Gamma steps out. She grabs me by the wrist and pulls me inside, dropping into a mock curtsey. “Voila!”

As the door closes, I chance a glimpse at the rocks, unsure whether I only imagine a shadow out there. Gamma and I are alone in a narrow corridor. The linoleum is warped and several light bulbs are blown. The air smells faintly of disinfectant.

“This way.” She directs me toward a storage closet and shoves me in.

“What are you doing?” I ask, whipping my head around to gauge the surroundings.

Gamma snaps on an overhead light and indicates a shelf behind her. There are a couple of old cleaners’ uniforms: dark gray coveralls coated with a thin film of dust. “The disguise you ordered, ma’am.”

“What?”

“It’s perfect. As a cleaner, you can go anywhere. No one will notice you.” I’m about to object, but she ignores me. “I found out what room those women are in. Managed to check the directory in my mother’s office. It’s in intensive care and there’s a guard, but as a cleaner you can slip right past.”

“What about my eyes?”

Gamma brandishes a cap, then plunks it on to my head with a flourish. She has to lift up on tiptoes to pull the visor down. “That should do it,” she says, “if you keep your head down.”

I flick the cap off and scrunch it in my fist. “You’re crazy.” “That’s what makes me so much fun.” She winks and flashes me a grin.

“Gamma, do you think I can do this?”

“What’s the worst that can happen?” She reaches for the coveralls, patting off the dust before helping me slip them over my clothes. This involves hitching up the shift I borrowed from Ghent’s quarters. The cleaner’s uniform was made for someone shorter so my borrowed trousers peek out below the cuffs. I
fasten the top buttons myself and adjust the collar so Gamma won’t see the transmitter hidden inside. There are no boots in the closet so I have to leave on the shoes I’m wearing. Ghent’s mother’s shoes. Hopefully, they’ll pass muster if anyone bothers to look at my feet. Gamma puts together a makeshift bucket of cleaning supplies from another shelf. As a final touch, she twists my braid into a knot, piles it on my head and slaps the cap back on top of it, adjusting the visor over my eyes.

“You know the way to intensive care?” she asks. “I can only take you part way. I’ll have to get back to Mom’s office before she misses me. When you’re done in the ICU, you’ll have to make your own way out. Head out the front door in the uniform during the shift change. No one will notice you as long as you keep your head down. Come by my place later and tell me what happened.”

That’ll be a good place to hide out. Until Theta’s guard is out of my quarters, I have no place else to go. Gamma takes me as far as she can, before pointing me toward intensive care. “Room two-one-three. It’ll be the one with the guard at the door.”

“Do you really think I can fool a guard?” I say.

“You can do it. Just sneak in, sneak out and … come over after?”

The next move is mine. If I’m going to do this I have to move. Now. Without warning, Gamma leans across and pecks me on the cheek. “Go for it.”

With that, she’s gone.

I let my feet take me in the right direction. The walls are bright white and the lights are harsh in this corridor. Printed signs indicate the different wards. It’s the middle of the shift, so the hallways are relatively quiet. Med-Techs and Aides are making their rounds but without the hustle and bustle that accompanies shift changes. The scent of antiseptic and bleach is stronger here. The few staff I pass don’t seem to notice me. I force myself on, my footfalls muffled against the linoleum. The door at the top of the stairwell is closed. I grasp the knob, but don’t turn it. Once I do,
there’ll be no turning back.

Taking a breath for luck, I open the door to peer into the corridor. Ghent’s mothers’ room is immediately obvious. A Protector slouches outside, red hair clashing with the black uniform. She seems bored, staring at her communicator. I walk forward with all the confidence I can manage. Stopping in front of her, careful to keep my head down, I mumble, “Cleaning service, room two-one-three.”

“Weren’t you here a couple of hours ago?” she asks.

“Uh, not me, ma’am.” I lower my voice in an attempt to disguise it. “Would you like me to check with my boss?”

The Protector lifts her communicator to make a call. She’s not going to give me any choice. I’ll have to run. My muscles tense. I doubt I can outrun her but I’ll have to try. A loud bang comes from the stairwell. The Protector pushes me aside. The stairwell door opens and a set of fingers curls around its edge, large
deman
fingers, followed by a shock of messy dark hair right before the door slams shut again.

Ghent.

He’s creating a diversion, so I can get into his mothers’ room.