Minders (6 page)

“Details will be crucial. To understand the hidden power dynamics of City Center, we’ll need you to pay close attention not only to your Subject’s internal Mindscape but also the external landscape. Associates, friends, enemies, the strengths and weakness of alliances.”

“Of course,” Sadie said. She hesitated for a moment, then blurted, “Why me?”

Curtis tented his fingers on his desk and locked his eyes on hers. “Because your father is wrong. You’re not too serious. You have a gravity about you, but that’s different. It’s what sets you apart. And why you are going to be so very good at this.”

Sadie was speechless. She would have laid down her life for Curtis at that moment.

“Come on,” he said, pushing back his chair and standing, “Let me walk you to the Survaillab. You’re far too valuable to risk losing, and from what I hear it’s statistically unlikely you’d find it on your own.”

She laughed and said, “Thank you,” and from the smile he gave her in return she was fairly sure he knew she wasn’t just talking about the directions.

• • •

The Survaillab was a wide, raked room terraced with long tables partitioned every two feet into a series of linked cubicles. A Mind Corps technician greeted Sadie at the door, looked at her badge, and said, “You’re number nine. Second row at the end.”

Sadie waved at Flora and took her seat. Inside her personal cubicle was a screen that was blank except for the number nine.

When all the cubicles were filled, Curtis appeared at the front of the room. “Congratulations. You’ve done the hard part. Now all that’s left is for you to lie around for six weeks.”

There was a collective chuckle.

“Several of you have asked for information about your Subject: their name, age, basic things. I told you to wait. This is not the moment you’re waiting for.”

A few nervous laughs. “We’ve learned it’s better for all of that to come out organically during Syncopy. But there is one thing you can’t learn while you’re on the inside.” The lights dimmed, and the individual screen in front of Sadie popped to life.

She was looking at a busy city street clogged with cars and buses. An elevated train ran above it, making a clatter, and on the ground horns honked incessantly. The street was a jumble of stores, crammed together like too many teeth in a mouth—Huang’s PawnIt, DollarDollarDollar, Your Neighborhood Drug—with a fenced-in playground on the corner.

“These are CCTV feeds of each of your subjects from the past week. It is the only time you’ll see them from the outside.”

Sadie scanned the image. The playground was empty, but the sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians and vendors selling sunglasses and toys. She was wondering how she was supposed to tell who to look at, when the camera angle began changing, pulling in and focusing on one figure. He was wearing a blue jacket and had broad shoulders, but that’s all she could see because he was standing with his back to the camera, staring into the empty playground.

He’d been there all along, Sadie realized, but she hadn’t noticed him because, unlike everyone else, he was standing still. Now his head came around, as though in response to someone calling his name, and the camera pulled in on his face. Almost as if he sensed it, sensed her, he looked right into the lens, and Sadie’s breath caught in her throat. He had dark hair, the faintest trace of stubble on his cheeks and chin, and eyes that were incredibly blue.

And incredibly angry.

The image cut out, but the eyes seemed to hover in front of her, burned into the monitor.

• • •

As she pulled out of Mind Corps and turned toward home, Sadie kept seeing Subject 9’s eyes in front of her.

“There’s a high probability of violence,” Curtis had said during their meeting. “Are you sure you’re prepared for that?”

She’d thought she’d known what she was agreeing to. But now, having seen those eyes, she realized she had no idea. The darkness behind them was unfathomable.

And by this time tomorrow, she would be at the center of it.

CHAPTER 4

A
t a little before one P.M. the next day Sadie lay in the Stas-Case and took her last glimpse of the oval room. It had taken three hours to attach all the sensors and run diagnostics, but she was finally ready.

Or her body was. Because as the minutes of preparation had inched forward, she’d found herself becoming more and more convinced she was making a mistake.

She felt a hand on her arm through the stasis suit and saw Curtis to her left.

“You ready?” he asked.

No!
she tried to tell him, but the mouth guard she was wearing made it come out as a gurgle.

She grabbed his hand and looked at him desperately.

“You’re afraid,” he said. “That’s normal. Statistically speaking.”

She glared at him.

“I’m not bullshitting you. More than seventy percent of Minders report having second thoughts before they enter stasis.” He leaned close to her. “But there’s nothing to be afraid of. This is only shallow stasis, you’ll be out in a week for evaluation, and if you need to get out sooner you have the panic button. Can you feel it?”

She concentrated on her left hand, then nodded. The biohaptic gel her body was encased in made sensations harder to read.

“Good,” Curtis said. “You can keep it right there in your hand the whole time. Remember, it has a failsafe built in, so you have to squeeze it three times before Syncopy will be terminated. The first time will put the system on standby, the second will set it to ready, and the third will complete the process and sever your stasis connection. That way you’ll never have to worry about doing it by accident. Do you understand?”

Sadie nodded. She felt calmer.

Curtis smiled. “The computer is going to count backward from nine. As it does, let your mind wander back through what you did last night. Reviewing recent memories will help the circuits build a bridge between your mind and your Subject’s. When you hear ‘one,’ open your eyes. You’ll be there. Okay?”

Sadie nodded again. He leaned out of view, and she heard him say, “She’s ready, Cat.” Near her head a computerized voice announced, “
Counting down to Syncopy. In nine
 . . .”

Sadie’s heart rate spiked, and a monitor near her began to beep. Curtis was back, his gaze holding hers, saying in a soothing voice, “There’s nothing to worry about. You’re going to be great. Take a deep breath and close your eyes, and I’ll see you in a week.”

She let her eyelids slowly come over her eyes.

“Good. Now think back to last night. You left here and drove home. You turned onto your street, and the first thing you saw was—”

“Eight…”

—Cars everywhere. Sadie’s normally quiet street had been clogged with cars when Sadie got home. She knew why when she pulled into her driveway and saw a girl in the burgundy uniform of her mother’s preferred valet service standing under a white umbrella.

Her stomach had dropped. Her parents were having a party. They must have forgotten that they’d said they would have a quiet dinner, just the three of them. Or forgotten entirely about her coming home.

“The hostess asks that guests enter through the front door and then make their way to the pool,” the valet said.

Sadie wondered which of her mother’s charities this was a fund-raiser for. Not that it mattered; she had no intention of going. She would go straight upstairs to her room and call Decca.

Ignoring the valet’s instructions and hearing nothing from the backyard, she turned left before reaching the stairs and followed a path lined with glossy-leafed lemon trees around the side of the house. The white globe lanterns her parent’s landscape architect had designed for outside entertaining were lit, and mirror-topped café tables had been arranged beneath the arbor that ran along the swimming pool. There was a small stage for a band at the far end of the pool, but no band on it. It was like a stage set, Sadie thought—PARTY: CASUAL, EVENING—everything straining in hushed readiness, but no guests. They must still have all been inside.

Between the house and the pool were three long rectangular tables covered with white cloths. One of them was set up as a bar, and the other two looked like they would hold a buffet. Each of them was decorated with an ice sculpture of a walnut.

The sculptures aren’t even very good
,
Sadie thought as she skirted the tables and made for the door. They looked more like brains than walnuts.

“SURPRISE!”

People burst from under tables, behind lemon trees, beneath the stage. Sadie took two steps backward and would have ended up in the pool if Pete hadn’t caught her.

“I’d say she was surprised,” her father said to her mother. “Guess she’s not made of stone after all.”

“Smile, darling,” her mother said when she leaned in for a kiss on the cheek. “Everybody likes the smiling girl.”

“Seven…”

Sadie remembered Decca appearing a quarter of an hour later, her dark skin glowing in all the candlelight. She’d thrown her arms around Sadie, and while they posed for pictures said through her teeth, “You’re completely miserable, aren’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?” Sadie asked, smiling.

“Only to me.” Decca got serious. “Do you want me to start a fire so everyone has to be evacuated?”

Sadie suddenly felt much better. “No.”

“Say ‘not yet,’” Decca told her. “It’s best to leave your options open.”

“Six…”

Sadie remembered Decca disappearing “to chat with that nice man at the bar” when Pete came up and slipped his arm around her.

“Come here, there’s something I want to show you,” he’d said, too loud, drawing her into the shadows next to the pool house and kissing her.

The air was warm and heavy with the citrus scent of the lemon trees. She’d reached up, twined her fingers in his hair, and pulled his mouth hard against hers. The kiss was deep, intense, and long. When they separated, Pete stared at her, breathless. “It’s nice to know you missed me.”

“Of course I did,” she told him.

“So how was spy camp? Learn all the secret handshakes? Get asked out by a lot of nerds?”

Before she could stop herself Sadie snapped, “It wasn’t like that.”

Pete gave her a wondering look. “I was kidding. Relax. I’m sure you were much too busy learning how to manipulate people without them knowing.”

Sadie tried to keep her tone light. “If I could do that, do you think we’d be having this conversation?”

He grinned at her. “How was it really? You look great, by the way.”

“It was amazing, Pete. Incredible.”

He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “And you’re excited to start?”

“More than I’ve ever been for anything in my life,” she said. She’d known it was the wrong thing to say the minute the words were out, but she couldn’t take them back. She braced for his reaction.

But he surprised her. He said, “I’m so happy for you, babe. Of course, I’m going to miss you.”

She looked up at him gratefully. “I’m going to miss you too.” She touched his cheek. “A lot.”

“And miss kissing me?” he asked, his nose rubbing against hers.

“And miss kissing you,” she confirmed.

“Maybe we should do something about that.” His hand slid up her thigh under her skirt.

“Pete, there are people—”

His lips were at her ear. “Your parents are great hosts. No one is paying any attention to us. We could leave, and they wouldn’t notice.”

That was true. Apart from Decca and Pete and a few of her father’s partner’s kids, all the guests were her parents’ friends. “I’ve been going nonstop today, and I haven’t showered,” Sadie said, reaching down to halt the progress of his fingers up her thigh.

“So?” He pulled away slightly and gave her a mischievous smile. “I wouldn’t mind getting a little dirty.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “That’s disgusting.”

He grinned at her, his adorable grin, then took her hand and pulled her toward the stairs to the house. “Come on, let’s not waste time.”

She planted her feet. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s our last night together for six weeks. I was thinking we should make it… memorable.”

No
, she thought, her heart sinking.
Not tonight.

“Five…”

Smile, darling
, Sadie heard her mother’s voice in her head. “We agreed to wait until we felt ready,” she said. Her voice sounded high and a little panicked.

Pete didn’t seem to notice. “Until
you
felt ready,” he corrected, tucking her hair behind her ears. “We’ve waited for a year. Isn’t that enough? Come on, babe. I love you. You love me. What more do you want?”

She wanted to feel excited. She wanted to
want
it. And she didn’t. But she couldn’t tell Pete that. “I want it to be perfect.”

“Trust me, it will be. Stop worrying. You’re overthinking it,” Pete coaxed. “Sometimes I wish you were a little less cerebral.”

“There are plenty of airheads who would be happy to date you,” Sadie said coldly.

He smirked at her and tapped the tip of her nose. “That was a joke, babe. Relax. You don’t have to take everything so seriously.”

Over Pete’s shoulder Sadie saw Decca leaning against the side of the bar. She was telling a story, her hands cartwheeling in the air, the bartender captivated, laughing. As Sadie watched, Decca leaned toward him and whispered something in his ear, putting her hand on his chest. He took the hand and kissed it, and Decca tipped her head back and laughed.

Why couldn’t she feel what they did? Why was it so easy for everyone besides her? What was wrong with her?

Her eyes moved back to Pete, looking at her earnestly.

“Seriously, babe, what are you so afraid of? It’s me, Pete. Your boyfriend. Who you love. What do you think is going to happen?”

Nothing
, she thought.
I’m afraid of nothing—of feeling nothing, no connection, no passion, no heat.

She reached up to straighten the collar of his shirt. “It’s just—this is a big deal,” she said, calling up an argument that had worked in the past.