The Earth Dwellers

“My real name’s Adele,” I say, finally trusting Lin and Avery with every bit of my being. “Under the orders of President Nailin, my father was shot and killed and my sister, Elsey, maimed. I’d be honored to have any help you can give me.”

Lin looks at me, manages a smile, and then sticks out her hand. I shake it firmly. “Avery, you with us?” I say.

He scrunches up his face like he wishes he’d never spoken to me in the first place, but then says, “Yes, but please don’t let anything happen to Lin. She’s all I’ve got left.” And he thinks of her like a daughter, he doesn’t have to say.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll do all the dangerous stuff. Now tell me what ‘Presidential Cleaner’ means.”

~~~

Turns out you can find out a lot about a person if you’re able to scan their wrist onto your vid screen.

The first thing that pops up is a way big photo of my face, complete with the Tristan-inflicted black eye. It’s the photo the chip guy took earlier today and it’s completely blocking our view of the building next to ours. TAWNI SANDERS it reads in black block letters.

Avery’s shaking his head. “I don’t know how you did it, Adele.”

“Luck, mostly,” I say, gri

He shakes his head again and the screen changes. Lin is using a small pad which is showing her whatever’s on the screen. There are some stats about me. Height- 5’7”. Weight- 130 lbs. Eye color- green. Hair color- dark brown. Boring stuff.

Lin uses her pad-thingy to flip to the next screen: Occupation and Schedule. A photo of a large building appears, fully glass and rising higher than any of the buildings around it, coming to a sharp point, like a spike. Near the base, there’s a large iron door with a couple of armed guards standing in front of it. A sign above the door reads: Presidential Offices.

Below the picture it says “Presidential Cleaner.”

“Seriously,” Lin says. “How did you land this gig?”

Now even I’m shaking my head. “I just saw it on the forms and checked it off as my job. Evidently because all my information was supposedly ‘lost’ on my malfunctioning chip, they just believed me.”

“Well it’s perfect for our mission,” Lin says, sounding almost eager.

“I think you mean my mission,” I say.

“That’s exactly what she means,” Avery says.

“I just want to help,” Lin says. “That freak president killed my father.”

“You already are helping,” I say, motioning her back to the screen. “What does all this mean?”

“Well, you’re to report for duty tomorrow at seven in the morning. Whoever implanted your chip made your Anything Day today, so you’ll have to work nine days straight before you get another break.”

“I heard an Enforcer say that—Anything Day—what does that mean exactly?” I ask.

“It’s just a normal day off. One in ten days we get one, and we can do practically anything we want, within the laws and restrictions of the city, of course.”

I’m not pla

“You have a consistent schedule. You’ll start at the same time every day and finish at six in the evening. Today we all got out at five because of the presidential message, but most people work seven to six.”

They’re long hours, but not to the point where people will rebel, I think to myself. It seems everything in this city pushes people to the edges of frustration, but not quite over the brink. Definitely part of Lecter’s strategy. It’s like he’s obsessed with efficiency, organization, cleanliness. And he pretends to believe in equality, with the rationing of food, of resources, etc, but it’s an act, because those originally from the Sun Realm get slightly greater rations than the “Lowers.”

“Hey,” I say, “what do they call the people who used to be sun dwellers?”

“The Uppers,” Lin says. “Why?”

I grit my teeth. “No reason, just curious.” It’s the Tri-Realms all over again, just packaged, shined up real nice, and hidden amongst a bunch of other shiny things on a shelf. Where Tristan’s father liked to flaunt the huge gaps between the haves and the havenots, Lecter is more subtle. Tristan was right.

President Lecter is the one man who managed to control my father.

He’s dangerous, that’s for sure. I can’t just charge in there, guns blazing. I’ll have to be every bit as subtle.

“Where is this place?” I ask.

Lin swipes her finger and a map appears on the window, a red dot pulsating in the direct middle.

Avery says, “The city center, 20th and M. It’s the tallest building, rising to just below the apex of the Dome. It comes to a point at the top. ”

The screen flashes back to a close-up of the main doors. “It says you won’t be entering via the main entrance. There’s a side entrance down an alleyway in the back somewhere.”

“Will you take me tomorrow?”

“Hell yeah, I will,” Lin says.

~~~

After Lin turns off the screen, I drink a liter and a half of water, my entire ration for the evening. I even force down the cold slop still on my plate. Avery says he can heat it up, but I don’t think it’ll help the taste much, so I just stuff it in my mouth and swallow without chewing. I have to stay hydrated and keep my strength up.

When I finish, Lin asks, “Where will you sleep?”

I look around at the thin room, the flat wall with the grooves on one side. “I’m guessing these fold down into beds?” I say.

Avery scans his wrist on a glass plate set in the wall. Instantly, the wall begins to move, folding in on itself to reveal a thin bed and a solitary pillow. The covers are pulled tight and tucked underneath the mattress.

“We’ve only got two beds here,” he says, “and as you can see they’ll only fit one person each. When Lin’s father…was gone, we were forced to move into a smaller place. And anyway, if you don’t check into a bed you’ll be flagged in the system. Only night workers are expected to be out and about.”

“They’ll know I’m not in bed?” I ask incredulously. This is even worse than I expected.

“Something like that,” Avery says. “They might activate your tracker, come looking for you, break down our door, that sort of thing.”

“Where do I go?”

“I don’t think Gripes’ old place has been filled yet. It’s a single flat,” Lin says.

“Who’s Gripes?” I ask.

“A—a friend,” Avery says.

“He died?”

“Might as well have,” Lin says venomously.

“He was taken to the detention center,” Avery says, looking like he’d prefer not to talk about the details. But then he goes on anyway. “He was old, good to Lin, almost like a grandfather to her.” Beside him, Lin nods earnestly, looks at her feet. “He was assigned to be a janitor at the army barracks. Showed up late for work once…”

“It was at the complete other side of the city,” Lin says, scuffing her foot on the floor. “Gripes only had one leg.”

“They sent an old one-legged man to prison for being late one time?”

“Three times,” Avery says. “First they gave him a warning, then something more like a threat, and finally…”

“They dragged him away in the middle of the night,” Lin says, looking more and more like she wants to hit something.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Maybe he’s still alive. If I’m successful, we might be able to find him.”

Lin nods. “You know something fu