Kingdom of Cages(49)

“ ‘Spy said he’d be pleased to talk to Helice Trust in private.’ ” Teal paused. “I’m not making this up, he really talked like that.”

“I believe you,” Chena assured her. “Keep going.”

“ ‘Mom ordered Teal to go outside. Teal stood sideways next to the door so she could listen, but she wasn’t able to make notes on everything exactly, because she didn’t know how to spell it all and they talked fast.’ ”

“It’s okay,” said Chena, before Teal added a longer apology.

“ ‘Spy asked Mom if she’d thought about her future, now that she’d been living here for a month. Mom answered she liked it here just fine. She had a job and her girls were happy. Spy asked Mom if she wasn’t interested in some comfort, some security. Mom answered she’d never had that anyway, so why should she be willing to sell herself for it?’ ”

Sell herself? To who? For what? What is she talking about? Chena bit her lip, which was already sore from the sun and from her chewing on it all day. Teal didn’t seem to know what she was saying, she was just having fun reporting it all.

“ ‘Spy talked about the Diversity Crisis and how important it was that everybody help out,’ ” Teal went on. “ ‘He also talked about assuming debts and making regular payments to somebody or the other, Teal didn’t catch the name.’ ” Teal squinted at the display. “ ‘Mom said thank you but we were all just fine. Spy talked about Diversity Crisis again and Mom said what a lovely day, thank you for stopping by, but we have a lot of work to do. Spy left.’ ”

Teal sat back, and in the faint green light from her comptroller Chena could see her face had gone suddenly serious. “They’re still after her,” she whispered. “The hothousers. They’re not going to leave her alone.”

“They’re going to have to,” said Chena firmly, angrily. “Because she’s just going to keep on saying no. Mom is not going to let them experiment on her, no matter what.” Inside, she was thinking, Why didn’t Mom say there’d been a man here? How come she didn’t tell me? Then, guiltily, she remembered all the things she hadn’t told Mom about today.

This keeps up, we’re going to fill this whole house with enough secrets to bust apart the walls.

“Did you find out anything new in Stem? About Dad?” Teal wanted to play, and she’d already managed to chase sleep away, so Chena figured she’d better go along with it.

Chena considered what to tell her. “No, not about Dad. But I did find out something new about that woman, the old woman Nan Elle.”

“Is she a spy too? I’ve seen her. She looks like she should be a spy.” Her face squinched up as if she just tasted something sour.

“Spies don’t look like spies, vapor-brain,” growled Chena, smacking Teal gently on the shoulder to let her know she was being silly. “If they looked like spies, everyone would know, and what would be the point?” Teal smacked her back, and they slapped at each other’s hands, giggling for a few minutes, before Chena went on. “Yes, she’s a spy, but she’s working on Dad’s side.” Is she really? Do I really know that? Farin could’ve lied to me. But why would he? Cops always have something going on, but Farin, he’s just a person.

“She is?” Teal was saying thoughtfully, as if she were turning the idea over in her head and seeing how it fit into the scenario they already had laid out. “Then what about the cop?”

“I don’t think he’s bad,” said Chena slowly. “But he doesn’t know what’s really going on, so he’s going to make mistakes. We have to keep an eye out for him because he could get in the way.” Then she thought of something else. “The stuff you’ve coded, Teal, you did encrypt it, didn’t you?”

“How dumb do you think I am?” she asked indignantly. “Encrypted and substituted. Nobody’s reading this stuff but me.”

“Okay, good. Now, I’m toasted. I’ve got to get some sleep.” She pulled the blankets back up again and laid down on the earthy-smelling pallet.

“Chena?”

Chena squeezed her eyes shut. “What?”

“Why’d it have to be Dad that went away? Why couldn’t they get someone else?”

Chena suppressed a groan and rolled over so she faced her sister’s approximate location.

“It had to be him because they needed someone who was a really good pilot. We figured all that out, remember?”

“Yeah, but the Authority has thousands of really good pilots. I mean, that’s the point, isn’t it?”