Z 2134

as Ana collected her breath from the lie that had stolen it.
    “No,” she shook her head. “That’s not possible. No one can do that.”
    Duncan smiled, though there was no humor in his lips. “Sorry, Sweetie, but The City does that sorta shit all the time. Trust me.”
    Ana would have found it impossible to see herself skating the edge of a laugh a minute before, but something in the way Duncan said the word shit split her serious face into a small smile. She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
    “It’s the chips they put inside us when we’re born,” Duncan said. “There’s two of ’em, at least two that we know of. I personally think there’s three. The tracker and ID chip everyone knows about, but then there’s a second chip for sure. Some folks seem to know about it and some, maybe even most, don’t. And almost all those who do have no idea what it’s for.”
    “What does the second one do?”
    “Sends a signal to your brain. That signal can modify your perception of reality, and thus, your behavior.”
    Ana wanted away from the horror. She swallowed, then stood from the tattered chair, wanting to leave, thank Duncan for his time, and get back to Adam and the atrocity of the truths she had started to question.
    The weight of her new world was too heavy to hold, though. Ana collapsed back to the chair. “That can’t be true,” she barely managed to whisper, shaking her head. “It would change everything.”
    Duncan pulled her hands into his. “It’s true, Anastasia, and everything’s been changed for a while.”
    There was a boom from a door in the hall behind them. Ana turned and saw Liam standing there.
    “It’s all true,” he said. “Every fucking word.”
    Ana kept her eyes on Liam as he passed their chairs, then crossed to the far side of the room, where he bent to his knees and whispered something into Iris’s ear. She laughed, then threw her arms around his shoulders. He hugged her, tousled her hair, then stood, grabbed a piece of sweetened bread, and ambled back toward Ana and Duncan.
    “What are you doing here?” Ana said, though she was reasonably certain she knew.
    “Making a difference,” he said, winking. “Not that you care.” Liam crouched beside her, then put his hand on her chair and said, “Your dad was a good man. They set him up, and you helped make sure everything went according to plan.”
    “Why would they want to do that?” Ana asked. “Because they found out he was a double agent?”
    Duncan and Liam opened their mouths in unison, but neither managed to say a word before the deafening bray from City Watch megaphones blared from upstairs, then drifted down into the basement with an icy echo.
    “No one move!” the voice repeated. “All parishioners must be cleared for Appraisal.”
    A few of the parishioners who had stayed to pray after the service and a few of the church’s staff still upstairs began to scream as heavy boots began to thunder on the hardwood floors above and echoed through the basement.
    Duncan leaped from his chair, a firm order out of his mouth. “Everyone stay put!” he yelled. “We’re only having coffee and cake, mingling with Jesus in the sunset of the sermon.”
    He grabbed Ana by one arm and Liam by the other, then led them both toward a door on the far side of the basement. The sound of chaos settled upstairs. In its place was a slowly collapsing quiet, like a cold blanket smothering hope above.
    Duncan opened the door to a storage area, then shoved Liam and Ana inside and loudly whispered. “Hide in the floor, and stay in there no matter what; got it?”
    Ana and Liam nodded as they retreated into the dark room stacked with chairs, tables, and dusty boxes that looked as if they hadn’t been touched in decades.
    “What about you?” she said.
    Duncan smiled. “I’ll be fine. I still have a few friends on the force.”
    The door closed, and Ana turned to Liam. He moved a short stack of boxes to the side, then lifted a thick floorboard beneath them. He turned from the crawl space to Ana, then gestured for her to come closer. She swallowed, then stepped nervously toward the lifted board as she heard the sound of Watchers storming the basement.
    She stared into the crawl space; it would hold them both, but only barely.
    “It’s now or we’re both dead,” Liam hissed, holding out his hand.
    Ana took it, letting him help her down into the crawl space. Liam slithered in, squirming behind her, fixing the