Scarlet

Majesty is too kind. Adri, please. Truth be told, I am attempting to distance myself from the ward who now carries my husband’s name. And you will, I am sure, remember my lovely daughter.”
    He turned his attention to Pearl. “Yes, we met at the market. You had some packages you wished Cinder to store for you.”
    He was glad the girl flushed, and he hoped she was remembering how rude she’d been that day.
    “We also met at the ball, Your Majesty,” said Pearl. “We discussed my poor sister—my real sister—who recently fell ill and passed away from the same disease that claimed your illustrious father.”
    “Yes, I recall. My condolences on your loss.”
    He waited for the expected return of sympathy, but it did not come. The mother was too busy examining the office’s lacquered woodwork; the daughter was too busy examining Kai with faux timidity.
    He tapped his fingers against the chair’s arm. “My android tells me you have information to impart? Regarding Linh Cinder?”
    “Yes, Your Majesty.” Adri drew her attention back to him. “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, but I do have some information that I think could be helpful in your search for my ward. As a concerned citizen, I of course want to do anything I can to assist with the search, and ensure she is apprehended before she can do further damage.”
    “Of course you do. But forgive me, Linh-ji ĕ , I was under the impression you’d already been contacted and questioned by the authorities as a part of the investigation?”
    “Oh yes, we both spoke at length with some very nice men,” said Adri, “but since then, something new has come to my attention.”
    Kai settled his elbows on his knees.
    “Your Majesty, I trust you are familiar with the recorded footage from the quarantines, about two weeks ago, in which a girl attacked two med-droids?”
    He nodded. “Of course. The girl who spoke to Chang Sunto, the boy who recovered from the plague.”
    “Well, at the time I was very distracted, having just lost my youngest daughter, but since then I’ve taken a closer look at the video and I’m convinced that the girl is Cinder.”
    Kai’s brow drew together, already replaying the video in his mind. The girl was never clearly seen—the recording was grainy and shaky and only showed glimpses of her back. “Really,” he mused, trying not to sound speculative. “What makes you think that?”
    “It’s difficult to tell on the video itself, and I would not know for sure, except I was having Cinder’s ID tracked that day, as she’d been behaving suspiciously for some time. I know she was near the quarantines that day. Before, I’d thought she was merely attempting to run away from her household duties, but I now see that the little aberration had a much more sinister motive in mind.”
    His eyebrows rose. “Aberration?”
    Adri’s cheeks tinted pink. “Even that is too kind for her, Your Majesty. Are you aware that she can’t even cry ?”
    Kai sat back. After a moment he found that, rather than being disgusted as Adri clearly expected, he was left merely curious. “Really? Is that normal for … for cyborgs?”
    “I wouldn’t know, Your Majesty. She is the first and hopefully the last cyborg I’ll ever have the misfortune of knowing. I can’t understand why we make cyborgs in the first place. They’re dangerous and proud creatures, parading around like they think they’re better than everyone else. Like they deserve special treatment for their … eccentricities. They’re nothing but a drain on our hardworking society.”
    Collar beginning to itch, Kai cleared his throat. “I see. You said something earlier about evidence that Cinder had been near the quarantines? And … done something sinister?”
    “Yes, Your Majesty. If you’d be so kind as to refer to my ID page, you’ll see I’ve uploaded a video that is rather incriminating.”
    Kai unlatched his portscreen from his belt, thinking about the footage from the quarantines as he searched for Adri’s page. The video was at the top—a low-quality image tagged with the symbol of the Commonwealth’s law enforcement androids. “What is this?”
    “When Cinder wouldn’t respond to my comms that day, and I was sure she was fleeing the country, I enacted my right to have her forcibly retrieved. This is the footage from when they found her.”
    Holding his breath, Kai played the video. It was shot from a hovercar, peering down on a dusty street