Not, as she’d told Curtis in her interview, because she was afraid of falling. That was a lie.
It was jumping she was afraid of. Becoming so numb she didn’t care any longer.
Now, sitting in Curtis’s office, she realized she was nodding. She said, “Yes. If you’re asking would I be willing to go through Syncopy inside the mind of a criminal, the answer is yes.”
Curtis held up a hand. “A potential criminal. Not hardened, not yet, but still the kind of person I’d tell you to steer clear of if you were my sister. I want to be certain you really understand what I’m asking. This person will be almost your exact opposite. Someone with no respect for rules or laws, possibly no code of conduct or loyalty, and very likely a disordered internal landscape. There’s a high probability of violence. Are you sure you’re prepared for that?”
“Absolutely.”
“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
At 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—”