Gem’s colors rippled again. “I see that you must alert your Tam that his Conscience implant must be reviewed and adjusted. He should not have been able to touch you like this. But there is more, and I must ask you to verify what I see in your records and in mine.”
The colors faltered and broke apart. All Aleph could seem to call up was her girl image to peer into darkness. “Gem?”
Gem’s boy self appeared beside her, holding an open book. “Look.”
Aleph looked, and her whole mind trembled.
Tam stood in the doorway for a moment, surveying the young woman who sat at the conference table. Despite her olive skin, she looked pale in the sunny yellow room. Her short, straight hair barely touched the collar of the lemon-colored tunic she had been given. She must have known he was there, but she kept her gaze pointed toward the floor.
She was from Offshoot and he knew her name without having to bring up her file on his data display. Risha Lan was enough of a troublemaker for her face to show up on the constable’s report one or two times a year. She was also an orphan. Her father had taken a relocation option down to Taproot and had been washed away by a hurricane. Her mother had died of a virus that Nan Elle had been unable to identify or treat six winters ago. Only Tam’s deliberate oversight had kept her from being brought into the Alpha Complex when she was left alone. Now here she was, surrounded by blank yellow walls in a room that was empty except for two comfortable chairs and an examination table with its silver arms neatly folded, but still visible.
“Hello, Risha,” he said, walking into the room and allowing the door to glide shut behind him.
Risha tilted her gaze up just enough to glance at him. “Hello, Administrator.”
“The results of your DNA and RNA tests were forwarded to me.” Tam sat in the chair across from her. “You’ve been to a tailor, Risha.”
Risha shrugged, rubbing her palms together.
“Why did you do this?”
Risha looked at her callused hands. “There’s fever in Offshoot.” Tam nodded, even though Risha still was not looking at him. Nan Elle was keeping him as apprised as she could. “I figured this’d get me out of there before the quarantine came down and we were all fenced in to die.” She said it without shame or apology. The move to full quarantine status for Offshoot was being debated by the sector administration committee right now. It would happen soon, despite all Tam’s objections. Especially if even one case of the disease broke out in Stem.
“At least if I’m having babies for you, you’ll keep me alive, right?” She lifted her gaze, and Tam saw all the bitterness behind her eyes. He remembered that a fever had killed her mother.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shrugged again, and sucked on her teeth for a moment. As if reaching a decision, she tilted her chin so she could look directly at him. “How’d you find out? The guy said you wouldn’t be able to.”
Tam considered lying. It would be kinder, but it would also be what she expected. If he could convince her that he was at least honest, he might continue to receive honesty from her. “We’ve got scans on you from when you were an infant, Risha. Your adult scans don’t match the fate map we projected for you.”
Surprise blanked the bitterness from Risha’s expression. “I don’t understand. I never volunteered for testing before.”
“Your parents had you tested when you were an infant.”
“What?” Tam watched that thought settle in. There was only one reason the complex would genetically test a village infant, and that was if the child was being offered up as a possible draft candidate. Genetic engineering worked much more effectively and predictably on infants and fetuses than it did on adults.
“I’m sorry,” Tam said. He wished he could tell her he knew how she felt, how parents sometimes made drastic mistakes and it was their children who lived with the consequences.
She just looked at him, her face completely closed and blank. “What are you going to do with me?”
You will be surprised to hear that depends on you, thought Tam. “If you tell me who did this to you, I will expunge your record and send you home.”
Risha’s right hand twitched, a sharp jerky movement telling Tam exactly how nervous she really was. “That easy?”
Tam nodded. As far as you’re concerned anyway.
Her eyes flickered back and forth, trying to read him for signs of lies. Tam sat still under her gaze. She would have to make up her own mind about this.
“Okay,” she said finally, her shoulders slumping. “Maybe you can get my money back.” Her mouth twisted into a humorless smile at the flat joke. “There’s a guy in Stem. Contracts out. Most everybody who follows the draft knows about him.”