Alida worked her way up from deep inside her body where she’d been nothing but a passenger, gawking, even acting when the Prince prompted her, but feeling shit-all. Reality waited on the other side of a bank of fog. The empty bathtub, white and shiny as a polished tooth, met her when she emerged.
She was naked and alone.
Fairy Godmother Zaneela appeared and handed Alida her old threads. They’d been cleaned. So soft and fresh-smelling. She held them to her face. Zaneela had disappeared. She was alone again, except for the endless reflections of herself on the mirrored walls. She shook her head and shuddered. Hell. How had Mum carried on doing this for years? Mum had only been a teenager herself when she started working, but she was tough. Nothing got her down. She always put a positive spin on everything. Good brain chemicals, the luck of the genetic lottery, Mum had always reckoned.
Alida slipped on her threads and tried not to think about all the icky stuff that had happened. No one had told her the passenger would make her as obedient as a pet mutt.
Fairy Godmother Zaneela came back in and ruffled Alida’s hair. It took everything she had not to arc up and tell the woman, To hell with you. Your time is up. You can’t touch me anymore. But then the touch reminded her of Mum and she almost wanted to lean into the woman for a hug.
She did neither.
Zaneela led her to the entry hall. Alida wanted to bolt. The air in the apartment closed in around her and she had to breathe deeply. How could these plastic-faces live so closed in? She needed to get out. She wanted to be back in her dirty, dusty shack with Graycie zonked out in a cosy curl next to her.
The Prince stood in the doorway, handing Ganya a parcel about the size of two bricks, which Ganya put in her satchel. Alida kept her gaze down. Pervy jerk.
The Prince’s attention glided over Alida. ‘BIS, our guests are leaving now.’
The door snicked unlocked and Ganya pushed it open. Alida’s chest loosened a smidge.
‘Wait here.’ Fairy Godmother Zaneela rushed away down the hall.
Ganya held the door open a fraction. The Prince sucked air through his front teeth and left them waiting for Zaneela. Alida paced from one side of the hallway to the other. Why wouldn’t they just let her split?
Zaneela rushed towards them with a crazed look. She shoved a thin biofilm bag into Alida’s arms and whispered in her ear. ‘These are for you, just in case.’ She glanced down at Alida’s belly. ‘My contact details are in there too.’
Alida raised her eyebrows. Did the woman really reckon Alida would be a littlie factory for her? Inside the bag were a bunch of mealworm nutrition bars. They would be for Graycie. They were exactly the kind of thing that would help her grow.
The apartment door closed behind them.
‘Take this now.’ Ganya handed her a tablet right there in the hallway outside the apartment.
‘Is that to stop me getting knocked up?’
‘That’s the one.’
Alida swallowed it immediately and they entered the stairwell.
‘How you holding up?’ Ganya asked.
‘I dunno.’ The passenger had made everything a distant memory of something that happened long ago. Still icky, but distant. If she thought about it too much she’d need another cap of passenger to take her back to the numb place.
They traipsed downstairs in silence.
Ganya pushed open the door to the storage room. ‘Did she ask you to have a baby for her?’
‘How did you guess?’ Alida wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a secret. Zaneela hadn’t told her not to tell Ganya or Freel about it.
‘Citizens ask our girls all the time. It can be quite lucrative. You’d have to give Freel a cut.’
‘What – and then I’d never see my own littlie ever again. I couldn’t do that.’ Alida wondered if they regularly offered their baby factories citizenship and if it ever worked out. Freel wouldn’t want that. Not if it meant he’d lose workers. The citizenship thing seemed too slick to be true anyway.
They emerged onto the street and climbed into the solar car. Ganya adjusted her satchel.
‘Looks heavy. What did the Prince give you?’
‘Something Freel needed.’
‘What did Freel need?’
‘Eish! You’re nosy.’
Alida shrugged. You never found anything out if you never asked questions.
The city seemed even emptier than when they’d come in. There was no sign of the Security Force goons they’d passed earlier and the high-rises now had more dark windows than lit.
Ganya chewed her bottom lip. ‘Freel didn’t say it was a secret.’
Alida waited. Mum always said Ganya loved a gossip.
‘It’s explosives.’
Alida grinned. Freel really was going to wreak some havoc. ‘How did he convince Citizens to give him explosives? Are they stupid or something?’
‘Damn right they’re stupid.’ Ganya smirked. ‘Freel told them it was to ambush a couple of supply trucks in the burbs. As long as they don’t think it affects them, they don’t care. Selfish pricks. The Prince acquired the explosives from his construction company.’ Ganya made air quotes with her fingers when she said acquired. ‘For him it was a cheaper way to engage our services.’
‘So what’s Freel’s plan?’
‘We’re going to hit LeaderCorp where it hurts.’ Ganya’s smile fell. ‘Keep Graycie away from the roads out of the city for the next few days.’
Graycie. Alida hoped she’d zonked out again.
They returned the car to its rack near the tunnel entrance.
Ganya cleared her throat. ‘Did your mum ever tell you about the time she was a surrogate for a Citizen?’
Alida froze. ‘What? No!’
Ganya lifted the grate, ‘It was one of her first clients. She was young. She thought she could handle it. When the baby came she couldn’t hand it over.’
‘She kept it?’ Alida followed Ganya down into the dark. ‘What baby?’ What the hell was Ganya talking about? Alida didn’t remember Mum ever being knocked up. They’d found Graycie as a toddler. The only littlie Mum had ever popped out was her. She was sure of it.
Oh.
‘Hell.’