17

December 15

Selah sat in the great room of her quarters. She’d grown to feel at home here, and in the next few weeks she’d be leaving forever. She floated the token between her fingers.

Pasha strode in from her clinic shift to begin the children’s afternoon lessons. “Did you hear anything yet? It’s been a month. The child is fading by the day, and I don’t know how much longer she has before STORM won’t cure her.”

“Brejian is working on it, but she’s gotten her permanent job now, and there’s not much time to research the delays.” Selah traced the design on the coin. She still didn’t know who was safe to approach about the other tokens she’d seen lying on that desk.

“I don’t understand why we can’t redeem the coin in the name of the woman’s daughter.”

“Because they have some arcane law here about having possession of the death certificate or something. Brejian understands it, and we can’t go to the lottery office without that certification.” Selah flipped the token in the air and caught it. P8 stood out as the first two characters in the serial number.

The front door flew open, bounced against the wall, and almost closed again. “We got it.” Brejian waved the certificate needed to claim STORM.

Pasha called Mari at the clinic. Selah’s stomach fluttered. She could leave here having done something for the child that would restore her even in the event that she herself failed. The child would be one of the survivors for the next cycle of novarium.

Selah pulled Brejian to the side. “I can’t stop thinking about this token. I’ve seen it before.” She held out the token representing the lottery prize.

Brejian lifted it from Selah’s hand. “This is official lottery property and the token for a full year’s dose of STORM. I doubt you’ve seen more than one or two.”

“I saw a basket full of them.”

Brejian frowned and handed the token back. “That’s impossible. For the lottery prize dose to be dispensed, the token must be inserted in the system, and the process destroys it. Every pill is coded to a single person and a single prize. No leftovers.”

“I know what I saw.” Selah gave a half shrug.

Brejian shook her head. “The lottery buys one dose. That one dose generates the token used to redeem it.”

“Then with the ones I saw, either someone has a whole bunch of doses or they’re counterfeiting tokens,” Selah said.

“Where?” Brejian seemed a little more defensive than usual.

“I don’t know.” Selah grimaced. “When those men chased me last month, I traveled the corridor on the other side of the lobby. I found my way outside on the other side of the complex.”

Brejian rubbed her forehead. “Which corridor? Traveling straight across the lobby from here, or turning right at the lobby?”

Selah returned the token to her pocket. “Straight across from here.”

Brejian seemed to pale. Selah was about to ask her if she felt all right when Mari blew in through the door, breathless.

“I ran all the way.” She slumped dramatically onto the seat. “This is exciting. How long do we have to wait?”

“Let’s go.” Selah shoved her moist palms into her pockets, mostly to dry her hands but partially to finger the token. She had promised her mother this would work out for the child’s benefit.

Selah strode to the counter in the lottery office with Mari, Pasha, and Brejian in tow. At first it had seemed like a great idea for all of them to go, but at this moment it seemed like they were a mob descending on the office. She dug the token from her pocket and placed it on the counter.

The clerk looked over his magnifying spectacles at Selah and picked up the token, turning it over in his hands. He spoke in a monotone, as though he’d repeated the words a thousand times. “Congratulations on winning the lottery. Our loss is your health gain.”

He keyed the numbers on the token into the computer. His expression tightened. He appeared puzzled. “I’m not sure how this could happen, but there is no pill. It’s already been assigned to this token number.”

Selah furrowed her brow. “But this is the token with the number. How is it I have the token but you don’t have the prize?”

The man fidgeted with the computer and several other systems. “Well, I don’t know. But it’s not here.”

“I think we need someone with more authority,” Brejian said. She keyed her communicator, and in five minutes Cinanji strolled into the lottery office, followed by four security agents.

Selah thought it odd that of all people Cinanji would be in charge of the lottery, but if this worked out to the child’s benefit, she’d ignore her own questions—like why Brejian had never mentioned this before.

The agent behind the counter scurried out to talk with Cinanji in hushed tones. Cinanji glanced at Selah once or twice and made doe eyes at Brejian. Selah had figured out they were secret loves.

“Selah, Pasha, could you come over here?” Cinanji motioned with his hand. “We’ll be glad to order you the winning pill for that token, just hand the token over—”

“I’ll be glad to hand over the token when you’re ready to trade it for a dose of STORM.” Selah decided it was time to leave and come back with more people behind her like Bodhi, Mojica, and Taraji.

Cinanji wrung his hands and his dark eyes flashed. “That cannot be accomplished right away.”

Selah balked. She couldn’t read his body-speak. “Maybe I need to call the Keeper—”

“I’m sure we don’t need to bother the Keepers with this.” Cinanji’s eyes darted back and forth.

“Then how do we take care of it?” Selah asked.

Cinanji angrily snapped his fingers at one of the agents. The man nodded and hurried away.

“We will have a dose of STORM for you right away.” Cinanji walked away behind the guard, and the clerk followed.

Brejian tried to approach Cinanji but the agents turned her back. Selah frowned. Cinanji walked behind the counter and into the office. The rest of the agents blocked the doorway.

Selah leaned over to Mari. “Maybe I should call Bodhi or Mojica.”

“I think you should call a Keeper. He’d be the only one to have more authority,” Mari said.

Selah slid open the cover on her panic button and pushed it, waiting for the familiar heat wave and tingle, but nothing happened. She tried her comm on the scrambler—nothing.

She motioned to Mari. “Try calling Bodhi.”

Mari tapped the comm link on her scrambler several times, then the earpiece. “No signal.”

“We need to get out of here. They’re blocking us.” Selah motioned to Pasha and Brejian. “We have another problem.”

As they approached the front door, two security agents stepped in front of them. Selah turned to Cinanji as he exited from the inner office. “Why are we being detained?”

Cinanji ran both hands through his dark hair. “You ladies are in possession of an illegal token. We’ve been trying to track down the source of these counterfeits, and you three seem to be a part of it.”

His words sounded hollow to Selah. Something else was going on.

The shutters slid down across the front of the office with a resounding thud.

“The Keeper is going to be looking for me. He can track my whereabouts in the dome,” Selah said. She should have told Bodhi where she was going.

“At the moment all signals from this location are being blocked so you can’t alert your cohorts to destroy the plates that stamped those tokens,” Cinanji said.

“You can’t be serious.” Brejian stood at the counter with her hand on her hip. “This is a joke, right? And there are four of us. I’m part of this too. We did nothing illegal. The Joli Woman’s token was found in her possessions. Selah’s just trying to redeem it so Pasha can help the woman’s daughter get STORM.”

Cinanji turned his back on her to confer with the clerk.

Brejian frowned. “Cinanji, don’t you dare turn your back on me. Not after these last few months.” She marched around the counter. A security agent physically stopped her.

Cinanji’s eyes flashed. “Get your hands off her and don’t ever touch her again.” He rushed to Brejian’s side and pushed the security agent away. He wrapped his arms around her and they talked in hushed voices as they moved toward the office.

Pasha sidled up to Selah. “What is that all about?”

“Not sure, but I’m hoping Brejian can work it to our advantage. We’ve got very little time to solve this problem.” Selah leaned an elbow on the counter and drummed with her fingertips as she thought it through. It was a stretch to trust Brejian, but at this moment that’s all she had to work with.

Brejian returned to the group. “We’re free to leave, but we have to keep this matter silent as the investigation continues. We can’t tip off the perpetrators that they’ve been exposed.”

Selah stared at her. “But Cinanji said ours is a counterfeit token. How can that be when it was a legal lottery?”

“How can you tell the token is a fake just by looking at it, especially since it has a real number?” Mari asked as she put her hand on Pasha’s back and urged her forward.

Brejian pointed toward the door. “I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I’d rather ask after we’re away from this place.”

Right now Selah didn’t want answers. She just wanted out.

December 28

Selah walked the floor space of the great room, trying to decide how to break the news to Pasha that she was going to fail on her promise regarding the sick girl. Cinanji said the investigation was stalled and there wouldn’t be any concrete evidence for several more weeks. She couldn’t say anything to the Keeper because Brejian was pretty sure there was a rogue bunch of them involved in the operation. She would have to leave and never know, but it rubbed her the wrong way that Brejian had suddenly seemed so helpful and now she doubted the Keeper. She was too close to leaving to mess up now.

She fingered the token in her pocket. She’d have to ask Brejian to monitor the outcome of the investigation and redeem the token for the child when this was all over. She’d miss the token as a tangible reminder of how far a mother would go for her child and how precious good health could be when you didn’t have it.

Unfortunately, repairing her own health wouldn’t be as easy as redeeming a token. In the next couple days she would reach her six-month peak. Today she was as strong as she’d ever be, and then she would start to decline.

Selah glanced out at the garden. As usual, Rylla and Dane sat at the umbrella table situated among the purple rhododendrons with their only pastime—the Stone Braide Chronicles. She hadn’t been able to sway their determination to read the book to the end, and they had missed most of the dome experiences other than a few outings, the flowers, and the food.

The two suddenly erupted in cheers. Rylla jumped in the air. “We did it! We finished the whole book. Now we can see the city.”

“We made it to the end. The end.” Dane skipped around Rylla in circles and into the kitchen, yelling to Mari that he’d made it to the end.

Selah laughed. “There’s no time for you to do anything. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow. I told you the book would be there later, but you wanted to read it first.” Still, she was proud they had stuck to their determination to accomplish it.

“We had to. That was our job,” Rylla said.

Selah stopped. “Who told you that?”

Rylla wrapped her arms around Selah’s waist. “I love you.”

“I love you too, but who told you to read the book?” Selah held the child at arm’s length to see her expression.

“I don’t know. I got told in a dream.” Rylla smiled.

“Who told you in a dream?”

Rylla shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone, just heard them. If we’re leaving we have to pack a lot of my new favorite snacks.” She ran off toward the kitchen.

Selah watched her go. A dream. What an odd thing for her to say. Children were so innocent and unpredictable. Someday she would try to decipher their thought processes and the quick subject changes.

A sigh pushed its way from her chest. No sense putting it off any longer—she had to tell Pasha she couldn’t get STORM for the child. Might as well tell her at the clinic, so she could calm some by the time she came back to the unit.

Selah yelled, “Mari, I’m going out. If Mother comes in tell her to wait for me, please.”

She closed the door and walked toward the lobby. Turning the last curve in the hall, Selah saw Brejian in the distance, turning into the extension of the corridor on the other side of the lobby. If she caught Brejian now, she could give her the token and save a trip to her office on the other side of the building complex.

She hurried up the hall. Brejian turned from the corridor before Selah reached the lobby. She tried to not sprint through the lobby, because at times there were other visitors to the complex and she didn’t want to appear rude or uncivilized.

A fast walk got her across the lobby in record time, and she turned down the hall where she thought Brejian had gone. In these narrow halls, Selah started to dash to the next hallway, sure that she’d see Brejian and be able to call out to her.

Selah stopped when she heard Brejian’s and Cinanji’s voices. Panic hit. Easy—turn around and go back.

“You’ve lied to me from the very beginning, and now you’re asking me to trust you.” Brejian’s voice was high and laced with sniffles.

Selah’s eyes darted around. She rushed to try two other doors—both locked.

“These men know what they’re doing. I don’t condone their methods, but they’ve found the right composition,” Cinanji said.

A skinny door next to the office where they were talking proved to be a utility closet. Selah squeezed herself in among the vacuums and cleaners. She pulled the door closed behind her. At the last second she realized there wasn’t a handle on the inside. She tucked the hem of her tunic in the door where the magnetic latch should catch.

“I’m not here to bargain with you. You’ve made a fool out of me. This is over,” Brejian said.

“My darling, listen to me. This will work. Things will change,” Cinanji begged. It sounded like they were walking around.

“You’re so stupid. This could have gone so differently, and corrupt Keepers are something I cannot believe you would endorse.” Brejian’s voice started to quiver.

“My darling—”

“Don’t bother with flattery. I’ve turned the evidence over to a Keeper I trust,” Brejian said.

“No, no! Tell me you didn’t!”

Sounds of a scuffle and falling objects mixed together to create confusion. The door flew open, smashing against the wall. Selah heard the sound of sobbing and feet hurrying down the hall.

Selah pulled on the piece of tunic caught in the door. Nothing happened. She pulled again. Her shirt was stuck and the door wouldn’t open. She could still hear the sobbing, so she gulped down her pride and yelled, “Help! Can somebody let me out of here?”

The sobbing stopped. “Hello?” a shaky voice said.

Selah leaned her head against the door. “Can you let me out? The door won’t—”

The door opened and bright light streamed in the open doorway, framing Brejian’s face.

“Selah? What are you doing in there?” Brejian held the door open wide.

Selah stepped out and straightened her clothes. “I’m sorry. I was trying to catch you to give you the token to redeem after we’re gone. But then I heard you and I . . . I don’t know why I got in the closet. I’m sorry.” She lowered her gaze.

Brejian took her hands. “Selah, it’s me who owes you an apology. Come with me. I have to show you.” She led Selah through a series of corridors and side ramps until they passed a corridor with a sign saying Lottery Office.

Selah stopped. “What are we doing over here? Isn’t this illegal?” She had a feeling trouble was about to rear its ugly head.

“What they’re doing to you is illegal, but you’ve got to see why.” Brejian dragged Selah across two more halls. She punched a code in the door. “Put your hand up here.”

Selah pulled back. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Selah hesitated but laid her hand against the plate. The door buzzed open.

“How did that happen?” Selah followed behind Brejian as she palmed illuminators.

“Novarium is a universal handprint here. It will unlock a lot.”

“And I’m learning this as I’m ready to leave? Why didn’t you tell me before?” Selah turned to look directly at Brejian.

Brejian looked down. “I wasn’t sure I could trust you after the way they treated me back in the transport, but when Cinanji came clean about the operation I knew I had to take a chance that you’d help.”

Selah wanted to be offended, but she had done the same thing. They were more alike than different. “What did you mean when you said what they’re doing to me is illegal?”

“Cinanji works for, or with—I don’t know what his role is, but he is responsible for—”

“I heard part of your conversation,” Selah said.

Brejian turned on the illuminators and the long laboratory grew brighter, revealing stations of equipment and tools that reminded Selah too much of the Mountain. She turned to run.

“Please stop. Please. You have to see this. I told you. It’s illegal. It will all be destroyed very shortly. The high Keeper will not tolerate such an invasion,” Brejian said.

Selah, still nervous in this environment, calmed herself with a few deep breaths. “What invasion?” Were they going to attack the East Coast?

“On you.”

Selah tipped her head. “An invasion on me?” She jerked a glance around the room, looking for any attackers she might have missed. The room was clean.

Brejian motioned her to a light table. “The fast explanation is that every time someone attacked you they were only after DNA samples.”

“But my DNA—novarium DNA—degrades fast. That’s one of the things I learned in the Mountain. A sample is only good for an hour at most.” Selah looked at the slide progressions on the table.

“They had to keep testing until your DNA got to the right strength. No one knew the date you were transitioned, so they didn’t know when you’d reach the tap point. You reach your peak in forty-eight hours. They need a blood donation from you now.”

Selah’s mouth went slack. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She had to move it a couple times before words would come. “You want blood from me?” Had she misjudged Brejian? Was she the enemy after all?

“I told you, this is illegal. No one can ask you.”

“Then why am I here?”

Brejian held up the last slide. “Because you could offer.”

Selah’s head screamed run, but her feet and hands wouldn’t cooperate. She looked at the slide Brejian swept in front of her. It estimated the plague would kill all dome inhabitants in the next five years. “Is this correct?”

“Yes, these are the true projections. The degraded strength in STORM has allowed the population to become infected with this plague. Not all of them at once. The weaker are going first,” Brejian said.

“What will my blood do?”

“Create an inoculation for everyone in the dome and eradicate the plague.”

Selah felt light-headed just thinking about it. “How much?”

Brejian perked up. “Platelets. I can create the inoculations faster with platelets. I need to hook you to a machine.”

Selah shook her head. “No, I don’t like that idea. I’ve been drained of blood before. There must be another way.”

“There isn’t.”

“But there were dozens of other novarium here at different times. Why wasn’t their blood used to create this inoculation?” Selah felt sick at the thought of needles draining her blood again.

“Before they didn’t have the opportunity to test for strength, and they never found the optimum sample,” Brejian said.

Selah wasn’t sure about this, and if she asked Bodhi he’d say no under any circumstances, whether it was the right thing to do or not.

She sighed. No good choice. But after being here this long if she didn’t trust Brejian now, in a few days there’d never be another opportunity. The woman had been a big help.

“Let’s get it done before my brain catches up to my shaking head and I run away.”

Brejian expertly guided Selah to the separator. “We’ll do both arms and get it done faster. It will take out small amounts of blood, remove the platelets, and return the rest to you with a little saline.”

“Both arms.” Selah gulped. She leaned back on the table and closed her eyes.

The process was done much faster than she expected. Brejian directed the platelets into the vaccine chamber, and the injectors all across the line turned green.

Brejian turned to Selah. “In two days every bit of plague in this dome will be eradicated.”

Selah felt accomplishment for the first time. She had directly helped someone by being a novarium. All these people would live. “I’m glad that little girl whose mother got the phony token at least won’t have plague, but I wish you could help her.” Selah pulled the token from her pocket.

“Yes! And that! Come here.” Brejian dragged Selah across the room to a tall circular machine with plugs, tubes, and moving parts. She took the token from Selah, laid it in a slot, fingered in several different codes, and punched a square button.

The machine swallowed the token.

“Hey, wait,” Selah said. “That’s not—”

An insert popped into the receiving tray. A silver pill rolled around in a clear container.

“Grab that one,” Brejian said. She used a couple different screens to set codes, then fingered in several different codes and punched the button.

Again, another insert and pill. Selah picked up the second container. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, this? I’m using Cinanji’s password. He’s in league with the fringe group of Keepers running the corruption in this dome. That’s how I caught on. It was a real token because they had access to the real numbers, and they made sure it was her number that won and then robbed her every time.” Brejian pressed her lips tight. “Anyhow, they also cheated the woman out of her personal dose for the year. It was scheduled to be administered two days after she died. So I just gave you that dose for the girl too.”

“What should Mother do, give one now and one later?” Selah put them in her pocket.

“No. Give her both now. Two doses for someone that small should cure her and restore her immunity instead of it needing to be built back up.”

“I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You’ve saved my people. That’s enough.” Brejian smiled.

Selah and Brejian walked toward the lab exit. “Do you want to be there when Mother gives her the pills?” Selah asked.

The door flew open and Cinanji stormed in. “I was coming to destroy the evidence and you betray me even now. The Keepers have an alert out for me. Where can I go?”

Selah backed away. Brejian approached him with her hands out in surrender. “Cinanji, I will go with you and help explain.”

“No. No. No.” He put his hands up over his ears. “But it’s all your fault.” He pointed at Selah and charged forward. Selah stood her ground. She could thrust him.

Cinanji pulled an illegal laser from his jacket and fired at Selah.

“No!” Brejian threw herself in front of the charge. It hit her directly in the chest, exploding her tunic. She fell to the floor.

Selah knelt beside her and scooped Brejian’s head into her lap. “What did you do that for? He was shooting at me!” Tears rolled from Selah’s cheeks to the woman’s blood-soaked shirt.

Brejian’s eyes fluttered and she touched Selah’s cheek with her finger. “You brought me home and saved my people. What’s one life compared to that?” A smile flitted across her lips. Her eyes slid closed as the last breath escaped from her chest.

Selah laid her head down gently and rose. She stood there, stuck in time, her mind flashing back to Cleon getting hit in the chest with the laser his own father had fired.

Selah snapped back and looked at Cinanji. “What did you do? She loved you!” She turned, pointed at the machine, and screamed, “You’re crazy! I gave the blood. I gave the blood! You killed her for nothing and she loved you!” Tears blurred her vision but rage filled her. She concentrated on building a charge.

Cinanji stood rooted to the spot where he’d fired. “Brejian, sweetheart?” His voice wavered. “Get up, honey.”

“She’s not getting up. She’s gone.” Selah shook, blinking through tears, fearful of moving. She was not good at outrunning lasers, and it was taking longer than normal for a charge to build. The blood donation must have hampered her ability.

“The operation is exposed, and I’ve lost everything I’ve worked for.” Cinanji’s voice broke. His shoulders started to heave. “This is your fault.” He aimed the weapon at Selah again.

She faced him square on. “I gave the blood. What more do you want?”

“Nothing!” His hand shook, and the weapon lowered. He grabbed his head. “It’s all gone. The life I built for us is all gone.” His eyes filled with rage and the weapon came back in line with Selah’s chest. “And that is your fault! You had to wedge yourself between us.” He charged at Selah.

She sidestepped his advance and pushed him as hard as she could. Cinanji threw out his hands to keep from falling into the laboratory counter. His chest smashed into the edge, knocking the air from him. The laser clattered to the floor as he gasped for breath.

Selah scrambled to beat him to the weapon.

“No!” he yelled. He grabbed her hair and jerked her back.

Selah screamed and twisted herself under his arms so he had to let go of her hair. She kicked at him. He backhanded her and she tumbled over a chair but regained her footing and came up swinging. They both scrambled for the laser. Selah got her fingers on the barrel.

Cinanji kicked it from her grasp. Her fingers stung but she clawed at the floor to get hold of it again. Her hand landed on the laser and Cinanji smashed his foot down on her fingers.

Selah cried out and pulled her hand away. When she looked up he was standing over her with the laser pointed at her head. She shut her eyes and lowered her head between her hands as she knelt on the floor, her breath coming in heavy gulps. “Why are you going to kill me now?”

He waved the laser haphazardly as he ranted. “Because Brejian is dead. I waited all these years for her to come back and now she’s dead.”

Selah pulled in a long breath to clear her head. “You killed her. You were trying to kill me for no reason, and you killed her.” She forced herself from the floor in one swift movement and launched at the weapon. She got both hands around it. Cinanji grabbed at her hair again. Selah sunk her teeth into his hand. He howled in pain and punched her in the side of the head.

She slumped to the floor, dazed. She had no strength to fight back. After all she’d sacrificed, it was going to end here and no one would know why. She tried to rise up on all fours, but her strength failed her. She looked up at the man who was going to end her life. “I’m sorry for everything you want to blame on me, but I did not cause Brejian’s death.” Selah lowered her head to stop the swirling stars in her vision. She looked up at him and waited for the end.

His eyes glazed over like he had forgotten something, and he shook his head as though he could no longer see Selah. “I have nothing left.” He turned away.

Selah mustered up the last of her strength and grabbed for the weapon. They struggled hand over hand, back and forth. She pulled him down to the floor and they rolled over and over. Cinanji pointed the laser at her again. The weapon fired, the beam streaking the wall across from them. Selah tried to wrap her legs around him to get on top. He wrenched back and forth, their hands struggling for control of the deadly weapon. Cinanji ranted about his lost life. He pushed her over and pinned her down. She fought to keep the laser pointed away from her. It fired again, marking the ceiling. He mumbled words Selah didn’t understand.

As they struggled, Cinanji suddenly put the laser to his chest and fired. His eyes rolled back and he spun away from Selah, coming to rest with his hand across Brejian’s.

Selah blinked. A heat wave passed before her face and her upper lip tingled.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on in this dome? There’s a lottery stealing people’s STORM, a plague about to wipe out the whole place, and the inoculations are ready to go.” Selah marched toward the Keeper’s desk and slumped in her regular seat.

“What in all the dome has happened? I had multiple alerts of weapons discharge in this building, and in the vicinity of you,” the Keeper said.

“Brejian is—wait a minute. You said in this building. I know where I was at the time. So this is where you’ve been hiding the whole time. But it is still a fact that Healer Brejian is dead, and so is Healer Cinanji.”

“Very unfortunate about Brejian. Her information blew the whole dirty operation into the light. It was very brave of her to take on members of her own family. She told me last night that they tried to coerce her to save the operation, but after being around you for so many months she had regained respect for the Protocols and the bravery you exhibited in the face of the struggle you were dealing with.”

Selah rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I feel bad that I mistrusted her for so long. She gave her life to save me in the end. Cinanji was a real menace.”

“Cinanji was headed to a life of squalor and disgrace, but after taking Brejian’s life he would have been executed, so he took the faster route by about three days,” the Keeper said.

“I keep telling myself she sacrificed herself to save me,” Selah said. “I feel so unworthy of her sacrifice, especially after the way I thought of her.”

The Keeper appeared distracted by a screen in front of him. “She saved you for rescuing her people.”

“Just didn’t feel equal. All I gave was a little blood, and not even whole blood.”

“But there are long-range costs to you—decreased abilities, reduced recovery—and we’re not at all sure if it will reduce your time leading up to the fracture.” The Keeper had worry lines etched on his forehead that she hadn’t noticed before.

“So are the Keepers going to let the people have the inoculations?” Selah slanted her eyes to look at him. He didn’t seem uncomfortable, so either he was really good at acting or he was innocent of corruption. She hadn’t decided which yet.

The Keeper sat back. “With Brejian’s sacrifice, the Keepers couldn’t let her die for nothing. And since there is a markedly short expiration on your DNA, inoculations began as soon as they saw the green light on the injectors. So yes, the citizens of this dome are becoming your direct descendants as we speak.”

“Does that clean up the whole operation?”

The Keeper shook his head. “No. On the whole it will take years of testing to see what changes introducing your DNA brought about. There will always be those who find a way to capitalize on someone else’s misfortune, either by ignorance or omission, so the black market will live on until the whole gang of them can be rounded up to face charges. Many of them are very powerful people here, and they will do everything to keep the status quo. Then again, if you succeed we will all be changed to the next level of Protocol, and that in itself will create new opportunities for mistakes.”

“So it just keeps going forever and every solution creates more problems.” She sighed. “Well, I have the cure for one very sick little girl, and I think my mother would like to give it to her. So I’ll take my leave.” Selah, disheveled and tired, stepped forward and the Keeper sent her to her quarters.

December 30

Selah stared out at the garden, then slowly ran her gaze around the great room, committing it to memory. This was the last time she would ever see this place. The family was waiting for her in the vehicle to take them back to the transport. Mojica, Bodhi, and Taraji had taken turns going out with supply runs and checking systems. They were jabbering about new changes using the system tricks they had learned in the dome.

She wanted one last visit with the Keeper, but the technology had been reclaimed from her scrambler and she never did find out where he was located. Maybe she could leave a message for him.

Selah said goodbye to her garden and opened the front door. She jumped back. The Keeper stood there holding the hand of a young girl about eight or nine. Selah looked at the girl and did a double take. The child reminded her of Amaryllis. Selah looked up at the Keeper. “And who do we have here?”

“This is the child your mother saved with the pills,” the Keeper said.

“She looks beautifully healthy. Why is she with you?”

The Keeper smiled. “Because she is my granddaughter. Her mother was my daughter.”

Selah frowned. “Your daughter was living on the streets with a chronically ill child and you did nothing to help her?”

The Keeper stepped into the quarters and shut the door. “Have you ever met anyone who refused to listen to their parents when they were taking part in dangerous things?”

“Yes. Sometimes hard love is necessary to bring someone back to their senses.”

“Well, that’s what I was trying to do with my daughter. She had strayed so far from our value system and was involved with so many substances that there was just no talking to her. I lost track and hadn’t spoken to her in more than a year, and I didn’t realize that my grandchild’s health was in jeopardy.”

“How long was she involved with substances?”

The Keeper nudged the child out into the garden and turned back to face Selah. His head hung low, as though he were ashamed. “She became a user as a sort of protest to my involvement with the black market.”

Selah backed away from the Keeper. “Excuse me? You were involved in the black market? Aren’t those the people you said are ruining your society?”

The Keeper laced his fingers in front of him. “Sometimes it can take a hundred years to find some good sense.”

“That’s the easy way out.” Selah’s anger welled up. She didn’t know if he meant her harm. But at least everyone else was conveniently out of his way.

“You don’t know, until you’ve lived a life as long as I have, what you are capable of doing to fellow humans in the name of progress.”

“Progress? A black market selling health for outrageous prices is progress?”

“It actually created a cottage industry in biometrics—”

“Don’t try to legitimize something so evil,” Selah said. “People are dying.”

The muscles in the Keeper’s jaw flexed. “Walk in my shoes for a couple decades and then give me your assessment.”

“Fake!” Selah pointed a finger in his face. “You are a fake! You’re supposed to protect and serve these people, and all you’ve done is use them for your profits.” Her legs shook with anger. She started pacing so her whole body wouldn’t tremble.

“I told you. My daughter made me see the error of my ways, but I couldn’t convince her that I had changed because I didn’t give up the profits I had amassed. She would never come back home. She said the walls were built with blood money.” He choked up.

Selah wanted to lower her guard, seeing the man so vulnerable, but being slapped in the face with the reality that her trust in him had been sorely misplaced made her rethink the idea. “I am leaving today . . . ” She hesitated. “Or at least I think I’m leaving today.” She waited, expecting bars and force fields to capture her.

He nodded and closed his eyes.

Relief flooded over her, and the built-up tension faded away. “So whatever happens here will be up to you. It will be the legacy you leave for that sweet child out there.” Selah nodded toward the child sitting on the garden bench, smelling the latticework roses.

“You have done a good thing to renew and save our world. I know you’ll never be back, but I will know if you succeed next summer because we’ll be changed.”

Selah leaned against the doorjamb. “Do you know what it’s like to never feel like you can trust any of the strangers you meet?”

The Keeper frowned. “I’ve never trusted any of the novarium who came through here. They never cared about any of us, only what we could do for them, but I have to admit you were different. It touched me when I found out how much danger you put your family in for my daughter’s sake.”

Selah decided this wasn’t the time to admit that was all her mother’s doing. “Those novarium were singular people. Have you ever had a whole society that you couldn’t trust?”

“No, I guess not. I’ve always known the agenda of those around me, so trust wasn’t an issue.”

“Well, it’s draining. It pulls at your soul, at your humanity, when you can’t trust anyone. People smile at me and are nice, and I have to doubt every fiber of their sincerity. I’m tired.” Selah moved closer to him. “And you know why I’m tired? Because I chose to distrust Brejian and trust you! And as it turns out, it was you I should have worried about.” She could feel an outburst welling up.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Selah threw up her hands. “Well, that’s just great. Brejian died to save me and I didn’t even trust—” She turned away. It made her physically ill to think how easily Brejian had given up her own life. “I have to go before I say something I will regret for the rest of my life.”

The Keeper stepped back as she moved to the door. “I’ve never been allowed to tell the novarium what comes after the next dome, but I feel I must tell you. I owe that much to you after all you’ve done,” he said.

“What do I need to know?”

“There is no more.”