Kingdom of Cages(124)

“We can settle this easily, Basante,” said Tam calmly. “I’m willing to call a meeting of the Administrator’s Committee so you can present your data to all of us.” Breath and body of my ancestors, let that give me enough time to ask the questions I must and warn Elle.

“That’s perfectly reasonable.” Tam’s uncle Hagin, bluff, smiling, and always ready to help, stepped forward from the dozen or so people who had stopped to listen to the quarrel. “What do you say to that, Basante?”

Basante was still shaking, but all the excitement had drained out of him. His skin had gone paper white. “I say… I say…” his hand went to his temple over his Conscience implant as he struggled to get the words out over the severe chastisement it was surely giving him. After a few seconds, he gave it up. “Yes, of course. Perfectly reasonable.” But his hand still rubbed his temple, and his angry eyes still said he knew what Tam was really doing.

“I’ve always loved your enthusiasm, Basante—” began Hagin.

“You’ll excuse me.” Basante turned and shouldered his way between the watching family, his hand still rubbing his temple. A couple of their kin hurried after him, anxious to help.

“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” Hagin asked Tam with lifted eyebrows.

Tam gave Hagin a watery smile, and, because he did not feel like listening to his Conscience berate him, he also gave a partial truth. “The Eden Project. What is it usually about with Basante?”

“True.” Hagin’s laugh was short. “But it’s his dedication that has kept the project going since—”

Tam held up his hand, indicating that his uncle did not have to finish the sentence. “I know. I’ll find him and apologize later, Uncle. I promise.”

“I know you will.” Hagin clapped him on the shoulder. “Now, judging from that furtive look in your eyes, I’m going to guess you have work you want to get to?”

“Always.” Uncle Hagin’s life was so simple, thought Tam with sharp-edged envy. That which helped and supported the family was right. That which divided the family was wrong. For him, there was nothing else, and here Tam stood, not only hiding the truth from him, but trying to get away from him.

He also realized he was smelling old yeast and shook himself mentally.

You should talk freely with your family, his Conscience reminded him.

Tam flashed Uncle Hagin another smile and made his way through his gathered kindred. Despite his Conscience’s insistence, they were not the ones he needed to speak with now.


Dionte watched Basante pace back and forth across her work area, clearly sick with fury. She needed to calm him down quickly. She had all the aural privacy screens up, which meant they could not be overheard, but they could still be easily seen by everyone else working in the experiment wing. They were already drawing stares from the experimenters in the next station, and if one of them did something to alert Aleph, Aleph might notice she could not currently locate Dionte and Basante on her own, which would cause the city-mind to look for flaws in herself that Dionte could not let her find. Aleph could not know that there was a way to make her deaf and blind.

“Five years!” Basante thumped his fist on Dionte’s keyboard, making all her monitors squeal in confusion. “Five years, and we still have not been able to produce another viable infant. What is he thinking? We need one of the Trusts back. We need detailed readings for every stage of her pregnancy, including immediate preimplantation and postnatal. We need—”

Dionte crossed swiftly to him, taking his right hand and pressing it between her own. Her Conscience activated the modified sensors under the skin of her palm and immediately set to work opening the connection between his data display and his Conscience implant.

Calm him, she ordered her Conscience, and her implant passed the order to his. As Dionte watched, his shoulders relaxed and the furrows smoothed from his brow. She could practically smell the scents of fresh air and jasmine being conjured for him as his Conscience whispered into his mind that he was with family, that he must relax. He must trust his family. He must trust Dionte.

Despite all this, his hand tightened painfully around hers. “We should not have taken Eden,” he whispered frantically. “I cannot do this alone.”

“Hush, Basante, hush.” She pressed her fingertips against his lips and glanced around. The experimenters at the other stations were returning to the work, seeing that Dionte was attending their kinsman. “You are not alone. You learn daily from the rest of our family.”

Basante pushed her hand away. “But they are just speculating. They do not have access to enough information and I cannot appear to know too much.”