“I like it at Miranda’s.” Mari bounced on her butt on her bed. “She has a much bigger house than we have here, and she knows all sorts of nice things to make with the food rations she gets.”
“Thanks, Mar.” I dug in my closet, trying to figure out which of my shirts fit the loosest.
“Are you telling me Lanni isn’t a good cook?” Walsh said.
I turned around and threw a shirt at him. “I’m a fine cook.”
“I help with the cooking,” Mari said. “And Miranda taught me how to make some new things.”
“Will I get to taste any of these delights?” Walsh furrowed his brow.
I could tell he was trying not to laugh at Mari, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Are you staying for dinner?” Her bouncing got bigger.
“He’s going to be hanging out in here with us for a while.” I found my cherry-red shirt.
“Why?” Mari tipped her head to the side.
“Because the guards still aren’t publicly admitting there’s a murderer on the loose, and I want an extra set of hands keeping you safe,” I said.
Anyone else in the domes would have glared at me for saying something like that to a kid, but Walsh didn’t flinch.
“Is Alec on duty?” Mari bounced off her bed and went to the kitchen.
“Until tomorrow morning,” I said.
“Then I’ll make food for the three of us,” Mari said. “And maybe Harper. Should I go get Harper?”
“I don’t know.” I stepped into the bathroom, carefully ignoring my reflection in the mirror as I changed my shirt. “I can walk you down the hall if you want to try.”
“I can take her,” Walsh said.
“Thanks.” The red shirt had the same soft, new feeling as the rest of the tops the domes had issued me. I tucked my hand under the seam near my waist. Plenty of room.
I waited until the door to the hall closed to snatch a washcloth from our stack of clean laundry and slip back into our room. I darted to the kitchen like I was a thief in my own home.
There were only three knives in the kitchen drawer, and these blades weren’t made for slicing human flesh. Normal citizens weren’t allowed to have weapons in the domes.
Didn’t matter in the end. Three people had been killed. Probably by a knife identical to one in my drawer.
The smallest knife was tiny enough I wasn’t sure I could do much damage with it. The largest might’ve given me an advantage in a fight, but it was bigger than the weapon I’d carried back home. I grabbed the medium knife and wrapped the blade in the washcloth.
I tucked the whole thing in my waistband by my hip.
A weird sense of relief flooded through me, like I’d just regained the use of my hands.
I slid the kitchen drawer shut as the hall door opened.
“We only have two chairs, so Walsh and I can sit on the floor.” Mari dragged Harper into our room. “I would say Lanni and I could sit on the floor, but she almost died.”
“And I’m the shit who didn’t visit her.” Harper raised her jug of homemade wine to me. “Sorry for being a shit. I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I backed away from the door to let the three of them in. “You weren’t obligated to come see me covered in nasty burn goo.”
“I got to go see her.” Mari pushed Harper and Walsh to sit on her bed then dragged a chair over to the kitchen. “And Alec and Walsh went to see her.”
“So I’m a super shit.” Harper took a drink straight from her jug.
“I’ll grab you a cup,” I said.
“It’s okay.” Mari climbed on top of the chair to reach the pots above the stove. “You can be a part of things now.”
I ducked around Mari to pull down a cup.
“Get one for you, too,” Harper said. “Walsh, want some illicit homemade wine?”
“Not this time,” Walsh said. “I’m on guard the hero duty.”
“The family was murdered.” Mari set the pot on the stove and scrambled backward off the chair. “Lanni’s afraid of us being murdered, too. So I got to spend lots of time with Alec, and now Walsh is going to watch me. Murderer on the loose isn’t the best, but I get to spend more time with people. I like that part.”
“Way to look on the bright side, Mar.” I handed Harper her cup.
“Dr. Kain was murdered?” Harper poured herself some pink wine.
“Every time you tell people, someone else gets to be surprised.” Mari pulled our grain bin from the drawer. “That’s a good part, too.”
“Fuck.” Harper downed half her cup. “Fuckity fuck fucks.”
“What?” I sat between her and Walsh.
“I’ve been so grateful she was dead, it never occurred to me someone might have had the guts to actually kill her.”
“Why would you be grateful she was dead?” I asked.
“Because the woman was evil and had to go,” Harper said.
“I poked around,” Walsh said. “Nothing about Dr. Kain screamed evil.”
“Everything pointed straight to savior.” Harper refilled her cup and passed it to me.
“And?” I took a sip of the pink wine. The sweetness of it stung my teeth.
“There’s nothing the Incorporation loves more than making grand sacrifices to preserve the human race,” Harper said.
“Which sacrifice was Dr. Kain willing to make?” I took another sip. It didn’t taste any better. I passed Harper back her cup.
“I’ll tell you later.” Harper nodded toward Mari, who was happily chopping vegetables while still standing on a chair.
“She’s fine,” I said.
“She shouldn’t have to be.” Harper set the jug and cup down on the table and stood, like she needed to be ready to bolt out of the room. “Kain wrote a paper for the Incorporation. A detailed analysis of the genetic issues that could come from allowing Incorporation citizens to choose their own breeding patterns for the next three hundred years.”
“But people don’t choose their own breeding patterns,” Walsh said. “There are very strict limits on how many children can be born.”
“It’s not just about the number.” Harper dug her fingers into her cropped hair. “It’s the pairings. Basically, Kain concluded locking people inside glass and limiting the gene pool is a terrible idea.”
“It’s a little late to change that now,” I said.
“But the damage can be limited by assigning breeding partners based on a thorough genetic analysis,” Harper said.
“What?” I gripped the blankets on the bed.
“Everybody gets a genetic screening, and the doctors choose who you’re supposed to breed with. Like we’re no better than farm animals. Just lock us in a pasture and don’t let us out until we’ve managed to make a genetically preferable baby. Oh, but it gets worse. In Kain’s perfect world, genetic variation would be best maintained by creating mostly half-siblings. So not only do the doctors tell you who to fuck, they get to pass you around.”
Bile rose in my throat. “They won’t do that here. Her paper must have been rejected. Mrs. Hale is obsessed with getting me to date. She wants me to find a boyfriend. That means I’m supposed to make the choice.”
“For now.” Harper’s hand shook as she picked up her wine. “In the Plains Domes, there were whispers about Kain’s breeding plan being used in some of the other locations, rumors about really horrible things happening in the River Domes before they fell. I don’t know anything for sure, but it’s enough to make you want to kill your liver.”
“No one would ever agree to go along with it,” I said. “I can’t―there’s no way that could happen.”
Walsh laid his hand on mine. “I’d never let it happen.”
“You two are so cute thinking they’d give anyone a choice,” Harper said.
“Why didn’t any of this come up when I was looking into Dr. Kain?” Walsh said.
“You were probably looking for bad things in her life,” Harper said. “That paper was just another one of her many accomplishments as she worked for the good of the Incorporation.”
“That feels like motive for murder.” I squeezed Walsh’s hand before pulling away. “But not enough to kill her husband and son.”
“The partner she chose and the kid she wanted?” Harper downed the rest of her glass. “She planned to steal those decisions from all of us. I’m not saying I agree with murder, but that kind of vengeance makes sense to me.”
“But that means we’re okay, right?” Mari asked.
I looked toward her. I’d forgotten she was there.
“I mean, if she wrote a paper that made people mad, then the person who killed her won’t come after us.” Tears sparkled in Mari’s eyes. “And now that she’s dead, they won’t do what her paper said. Cause I wanted to work with the animals, but I don’t want them to treat me like one. I don’t want to be like―”
Mari froze, staring wide-eyed at Walsh.
She doesn’t know he’s like us.
“I’m sorry, Mar.” I stood up and crossed the few steps to the kitchen to lift her off the chair. “You’re so grownup, I forget what things you shouldn’t hear.”
“I’m glad I heard.” Mari wrapped her legs around me, letting me hold her on my hip like I used to when she was smaller. “You’re my sister, and it’s my job to protect you. I can’t do that if I don’t know what we have to be scared of.”
“We don’t have to be scared of anything.” I pressed my cheek to the top of Mari’s head as I shifted my weight back and forth, rocking her. “A dead woman had a very cruel idea. She’s gone. We’re here, and there’s no way I’d ever let anybody hurt you. You got that, Mar?”
“I got it.” Mari held me extra tight. “I have to get down, or dinner will burn.”
“Okay.” I set her back on her chair by the stove.
She wiped her face on her sleeve before going back to working on the vegetables like nothing was wrong.
A gnawing guilt twisted in my stomach. I should have been more careful to shield her from the horrible truth of what the Incorporation would even consider doing to its precious citizens.
But she’d heard worse, far worse, before. And if anything happened to me and I wasn’t around to protect her anymore, Mari would need to know the truth in order to protect herself.
“We’re going to have to narrow it down a lot,” Walsh said. “There’s no way to know how many people that paper pissed off.”
“The explosion in the medical corridor,” I said, “what got ruined?”
“I think you’d need a security clearance to find that out,” Harper said.
“Great.” I dragged my fingers through my hair. A weird shock ricocheted through my chest as they reached the bottom of my hair far too soon.
“We’ll figure it out,” Walsh said. “And in the meantime, I’ll be here to watch out for you.”
“And I’ll be here to drink.” Harper raised her glass.
“Thank you. Both of you,” I said.
“Dinner’s almost ready.” Mari climbed down off the chair.
“I’ll set the table.” I grabbed our four allotted plates from the cupboard. I trailed my fingers over their smooth surface, trying to remind myself to be grateful.
I had the closest thing to friends I could hope for under the circumstances. I hadn’t burned to death.
I cut around Mari toward the table.
Someone knocked on the door. I spun toward the sound, letting go of the plates as I reached toward the knife hidden at my hip.
Walsh dove in front of me, catching the plates before they hit the ground.
“I got it.” Mari reached for the doorknob.
“Don’t open it!” I shouted.
Mari looked back at me with a frown.
“I’ll get it.” Walsh set the thankfully unbroken plates on the table. He picked Mari up, setting her behind him before opening the door.
I could see the tension in his shoulders as he turned the doorknob, like a coiled-up spring ready to snap.
Or a predator.
“Oh, umm, hi,” Gideon said from the hall. “Is Lanni here?”
“Yeah.” Walsh stayed frozen for a second before stepping out of the way.
Ignoring the scuffling sounds behind me, I squeezed around Mari and to the door.
“Hi.” I made myself smile for him. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. It’s a little chaotic here.”
“Yeah.” Gideon’s gaze flicked to Walsh. “I just wanted to stop by and make sure you were okay.”
“Everybody’s here to make sure I’m okay.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Do you want dinner?” Mari peeked around me. “Lanni and I can share a plate.”
“I’ve already eaten,” Gideon said. “I just wanted to see if you felt up to a walk, but I don’t want to interrupt.”
“You’re not interrupting,” Walsh said. “Harper and I can watch Mari if Lanni wants a breather.”
“Breather from what?” Mari asked.
Walsh put a hand on my back, pushing just hard enough for me to be sure he really wanted me to go.
“I didn’t invite you over here to be babysitters,” I said.
“I don’t need a babysitter.” Mari frowned.
“Harper and I are pretty great,” Walsh said, “but with all the stress you’ve been under, some time with Pace might be exactly what you need.”
Walsh smiled as he spoke, staring right into my eyes like he was drilling his message into my brain.
“A little peace and quiet might do you some good,” Gideon said.
“As long as there are no hospital room lights.” I turned around to kiss Mari on the head.
Harper leaned against my closet door. Her jug had disappeared, but I didn’t think she was only chewing her lips out of fear of the captain’s son catching her with illicit wine.
“I’ll see you all later.” I let Gideon take my hand as we walked down the hall.