Kingdom of Cages(52)
What are you doing? Chena grabbed a couple of ropes and found her footing so she could follow her sister up. It wasn’t hard. Chena was alternately surprised and angry that Teal had been the one to find this way up.
She waded through the tall grass and wild creepers to where Teal hunkered down in the greenery beside the chimney. She pressed her ear right against the clay pipe. As Chena got close, Teal put her finger to her lips and motioned for Chena to get down.
Chena wrinkled her forehead, but she did it. The pipe was warm from the stove, but not too hot. After a moment, she realized she could hear Mom and Madra, soft but clear.
“Even here, I own my body,” Mom was saying.
“Not if you break the law, you don’t.”
“Is that what they’re saying I’ve done?”
“Not yet.” Madra paused and Chena bit her lip, straining her ears until they ached so she could catch every word.
“Listen to me, Helice. I’ve seen this before, plenty of times. The hothousers track down somebody full of useful alleles, and they offer them credit and comfort to sell off their bone marrow or to rent out their womb. If the person doesn’t bite, they start enforcing every regulation in existence until they fine them back into the dorms. If the person sticks it out down there, they end up breaking some little law, and then their right to body ownership is forfeit.”
“They can’t be sentenced to…”
“Not sentenced, no, but the hothousers have automatic access to anybody in custody.”
“Chena…” whispered Teal. Chena glanced at her sister. Teal had gone dead white. Her chin trembled.
“Shhh…” Chena wrapped her arm around Teal’s shoulder. “It will be all right. We haven’t done anything. They can’t get us.”
“Right.” Teal gripped Chena’s hand so hard it hurt. “Right.”
Without letting go of her sister, Chena pressed her ear against the chimney pipe again.
“If that is what is going to happen, what do you suggest I do?” Mom was asking. She still sounded angry, but now she also sounded tired.
“Leave,” said Madra calmly. “There’s nothing else you can do.”
“Leave? And go where? Back to the station? My children will be begging in the corridors and going without food to pay for air. To get anywhere farther, the Authority demands a hefty chunk of positive balance. I can’t even pay my debts.”
“Your children are Authority citizens, you can send them to one of the cities.”
“But I’m not an Authority citizen and would not be allowed to go with them. No.”
“Helice, what happens to them if you’re taken in? They’ll become public wards. I won’t be able to protect them for long.”
Mom was silent for a long, long moment. Grass and ferns tickled Chena’s ears. Her nose filled with the scent of moss and woodsmoke. Her arm clenched around Teal’s shoulders, drawing her sister close, to comfort herself as much as to comfort Teal. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t happen. It wouldn’t. Mom wouldn’t let it. Never. Chena closed her eyes against the prickle of tears. She wouldn’t cry. This was just talk. What did Madra know? She didn’t know anything.
“Thank you for your concern,” said Mom. “When are you going to assess what I’ve stolen?”
Silence. “It won’t be that much.” Pause. “Helice, please consider what I’ve said. This is just the beginning. They will have what they want from you.”
“So why don’t they just swoop down and carry me off?” Mom demanded.
“Would you believe because they don’t want to spook us too badly?” answered Madra. “Once upon a time, they could take whoever they wanted and do whatever they wanted with them. But there was a riot. One of their precious domes got destroyed by a bunch of villagers who had finally had enough. Apparently there was even some help from inside the dome. After that, a charter got written up. Now they can only experiment on lawbreakers or volunteers, or their village can take them to court. Village court, no less. It makes them at least a little careful. Even now.” Madra paused, and in her mind’s eye Chena saw Madra shake her head. “But I wouldn’t put too much faith in their restraint. They still see you and me, anybody outside their complexes, as raw materials, and they’ll only put up with so much protest from us.”
“Then why don’t you leave? Why doesn’t everybody leave?”
“Because, unlike you, the rest of us have no place to go.”
Below them the door opened and the door closed. Although she knew they were screened by the weeds, Chena pressed herself and Teal even flatter against the roof. They heard footsteps on the catwalk. She listened as they faded, grateful that Teal decided to stay quiet.