“Nina…” Her voice sounded strained. “The FeLS agency doesn’t have any record of Ginnie’s payment. You’re still available to be chosen.”
I hung up and heard Ed’s voice in my head:… while you’re out there for training… Joan’s face flashed in front of me. I’d bet my life that Ed knew what really went on at FeLS training. And I was more certain than ever that it wasn’t good. Especially since he’d seemed to get such a kick out of the thought of sending me there.
“Dad’s leviton set down in Greenland,” Wei said. “Supposedly because of engine trouble. He never reboarded.”
“Maybe he just missed it. Where’s your mom?”
“She’s out shopping for something to wear in Tokyo. She’s going there for a couple of weeks to visit her brother. Whenever anything is going on, we keep our routines normal so it doesn’t look like we’re worried. She thinks Dad’s probably being questioned about you being here the other night.”
“They wouldn’t do anything—” I stopped midsentence. “We can talk freely, right?”
“Yes. The whole building is always a dead zone. Actually, Dad’s such a techno-geek, it’s even better than DZ. It sends out phony normal conversations whenever there are people inside talking. We can say whatever we want and all they’ll hear is whatever kind of talk would most likely be going on between whoever came in. Since it’s you and me, they are hearing talk about school or boys.”
“Who’s holding your dad?” I couldn’t have been anywhere close to as calm as Wei seemed. “Is it B.O.S.S.? They wouldn’t hurt him, would they?”
“Probably B.O.S.S. And, yeah, they’d hurt him if they discovered he was a NonCon. After they’d gotten whatever information they could out of him, they’d either reassimilate him or kill him. You want something to eat?”
“You’re not worried?” I followed her down the hallway, hardly believing the matter-of-fact way she’d talked about her dad possibly being killed. “I would be insane if it was my dad.”
“Of course I’m worried. But it doesn’t do any good to get upset and emotional. I’ve grown up knowing that at any time my whole family could be taken from me—or me from them. That’s one reason why I took up Cliste Galad; it keeps me sane. Sparkle?”
I took the can from her. I’d have given anything to be as composed as she was. But I didn’t think it would ever be possible.
We sat at the counter. I sipped my drink through a straw.
“How’s your grandmother?” Wei asked. “She wasn’t worried about you, was she?”
“No, but she had some not-so-good news. Remember that break-in about a week ago? At first Gran didn’t think anything was missing. She thought it was someone looking to steal Pops’s pain meds. But yesterday she discovered that my FeLS contract was missing.”
“The agency—”
“Doesn’t have a record of Ginnie buying it. I’m back on the available list. It’s Ed, I’m sure. He said he’d make sure I was chosen for FeLS; he knows my contract was missing.” Then I told her about seeing Joan. “Something really bad happened to her, and I think it has to do with FeLS training.”
“We have to find your contract, or get money to buy it,” Wei said. “I know things about FeLS. I listened in on a conversation that Mom had with Rosie. From what I could hear, the government is using FeLS as a cover for sex slavery.”
“I don’t get it—any sixteen-year-old-girl is already legal to have sex. Why would they—”
“You know how FeLS recruits have to be virgins? They’re more valuable. And it gets worse.”
My stomach was already twisted into knots.
“The training is led by Governing Council members. They get the virgins. Then FeLS makes sure there’s a fresh run of girls for upper-level government officials.”
“But what happens to the girls, after the government is done?” My voice shook, but not as bad as my insides. “What happens to all the girls?”
“They consider them ‘used’ and send them to Mars, as wives for the ocribundan miners.”
“That can’t be,” I said. “It sounds just like Mars Rising, but that’s fiction. People make that kind of stuff up, they don’t actually make it happen.”
“1984 was fiction,” Wei said. “And it came true decades ago.”
She was right. Women Scorned and several other books had been banned after society accepted their premises as a normal way of life. I only knew about them because of Ginnie. And B.O.S.S confiscated all of her books already. The GC wouldn’t… the look on Wei’s face was more than proof that they would. “But I ran into Joan on Earth—how could she have gotten back here?”
“The Resistance has some people at the training station. They manage to sneak out some girls and get them back to Earth. The girls on Mars, though, they’re infected by the same viral disease that keeps ocribundan miners from returning. I think a lot of those girls commit suicide. That’s part of why FeLS keeps sending the used girls there. The miners demand them. The girls who sneak back, well, the homeless community is the only safe place for people like Joan.”
“What about the girls who talk up the program at school? They go through the program and end up as models or get high-tier jobs in Media.”
“Mom and Rosie didn’t get into that. They must have more than one training station, though, to keep up appearances. Then it seems legit, but most of it isn’t.”
My head was reeling. My contract was gone. FeLS was sex slavery. “Can we talk about something else? Please? I can’t think about this right now. My head will explode.”
Wei and I stared at each other for the longest time. Then she reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. “We’ll figure something out, I promise. Mom and Dad won’t let you go.”
“Wei,” I said. “Sandy… What about her?”
“I bet you can talk her out of it.”
“I’ve been trying for the past year. She figures it’s the only way to get out of being low tier. That’s how they talk it up in school and in XVI Ways. You probably noticed she’s not scholarship material.” I felt guilty talking this way about Sandy, but it was true. “And there’s a ton of girls for every higher-tier guy. Not much chance of getting out that way.”
“Maybe we could hook her up with some guy?” Wei said. “She seems awfully eager to, you know…” She gave me a sideways glance.
“Have sex? Yeah, I know. But she knows that FeLS recruits have to be virgins. And, honestly, I think she’s really into flirting, but nothing else.”
“Maybe we find her some guy that she can’t resist.” Wei twisted the soda can in her hands. “Like Derek.”
“Derek? No way. Derek isn’t anything to her. Besides, I can tell he really likes you.”
“Really?” The only emotion she showed was a brief smile that danced around the corners of her mouth. “But if she did want him to… I wouldn’t mind if it kept her out of FeLS.”
“You wouldn’t?” If Sandy wanted to have sex with Sal, I didn’t think I would be so nonchalant about it.
“Nina, I like Derek.” She tapped the edge of her Sparkle can. “A lot, actually. I don’t think he wants Sandy in a sex-teen way. He’s not that kind of guy.”
I knew she was right about that. The word that popped into my mind about him and girls was “gallant.” The way he’d always been around to stand up for me. “Yeah? So…”
“I don’t want to see any girl go into FeLS. Someone’s life is more important than any insecurity I might have about a boy. Although, Derek is a pretty special guy.” She took a sip of Sparkle.
We talked more about Derek and that led to his music and then to more normal things. The threat of being chosen retreated to the edge of my thoughts, hovering there, waiting to return faster than a wing beat.