Glitch

took another step toward me. “I’ve been transferring
    in other anomalous students to see if they would develop
    glitcher abilities as well. We’ve kept it quiet, of course. The
    systems databases have been regularly scrubbed so that the
    high number of anomalies don’t go reported. We’ve had to
    maintain appearances, perform regular diagnostics and so
    forth, but it has all been a show for the Uppers. They have
    no idea the work I’ve been doing here.”
    I blinked. This was too much to take in at once. Could it
    be true that she was really on our side? She was powerful,
    there was no denying that. If what she said was true, then we
    wouldn’t have to run or leave our home, we wouldn’t have
    to face the adult V-chip or worry about deactivation ever
    again. But what about Adrien? He’d lied to me to help her.
    325

    Heather Anastasiu
    And there was something not quite right about the Chancel-
    lor’s promises. Something hovering at the edge of my mind
    that I just couldn’t quite grasp.
    “No glitcher ever needs to be afraid again once we’re in
    power,” the Chancellor continued, oblivious to the turmoil
    that was going on inside me. “You can stop what happened
    to your brother from ever happening again.”
    “What?” I fi nally looked away from Adrien. What could
    she know about Daavd?
    “It’s such a shame. He would have been so useful to us.
    He would have escaped, if you hadn’t started screaming as
    you passed by a checkpoint.”
    She paused, studying my face. Memories, the ones I tried
    to bury, rose up. The look on my brother’s face right after
    I’d called out to the Regulators— shock, betrayal, and for-
    giveness, all in the single breath before he’d taken off run-
    ning and been chased down.
    “Interesting,” she said, studying me. “They wiped your
    memory, but you seem unusually able to cling to bits and
    pieces of things you shouldn’t. Zoe, I understand you. To-
    gether we have a real chance to overthrow the Uppers. Just
    think of it. The oppressive Community gone forever. Any
    glitcher would be free to think and feel and demonstrate
    their powers. Complete freedom.”
    Her eyes glistened with triumph at her own words, and I
    felt myself almost swept up by them. If she was right, we
    didn’t have to run away to fi ght the Community system.
    We could infi ltrate it from the inside. With enough glitchers,
    it would be possible.
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    G L I TC H
    I kept watching the chancellor. She was confi dent, pas-
    sionate, and powerful. She smiled sweetly at me and it al-
    most reached her small eyes. Almost. There was a strain on
    her face, and it sparked the twinge of warning in my stom-
    ach again. Everything sounded so perfect, but it felt like
    there was something she wasn’t telling me.
    And then I grasped it. The question that had been in the
    back of my mind, just out of reach. The Chancellor was go-
    ing on and on about rescuing glitchers, about saving them
    from being repaired or deactivated. But what about every-
    one else?
    “What happens after we overthrow the Uppers?” I asked.
    “Are you going to upend the entire system of V-chip con-
    trol?”
    She looked at me, a sad expression on her face as she
    shook her head.
    “It is unfortunate, but the V-chip is necessary. Getting rid
    of it would mean there would be no more glitchers. But it
    was never the V-chip that was corrupt, it was the offi
    cials
    who controlled it. The V-chip makes it possible, for the fi rst
    time in the history of our species, to truly have world peace.”
    Her soothing voice washed over me. “None of the drones
    will ever have to experience pain or sadness or destructive
    passions. We will cleanse the ruling class of corruption and
    everyone in our society will fulfi ll their roles in a perfect,
    orderly manner. We’ll take better care of the subjects than
    the Uppers. No more labor farms. We can create a true Hu-
    manity Sublime. Logical. Orderly. Perfect. ”
    I stared at her openmouthed. I didn’t want to admit it,
    327

    Heather Anastasiu
    but some part of me agreed with her. I hadn’t seen the
    world. Adrien had told me about how horrible it was. I re-
    membered his face when he’d talked about the horrifi c
    things he’d seen in his life on the run with the Rez. I myself
    had even wondered if people weren’t better off without
    emotion. What little I’d seen of hate and anger and jealousy
    had shown me that. A world without pain or hurt. There
    would be a heavy cost, but what