Z 2134

“What do you wish to know?”
    “Anything? I mean, why have one at all? Seems like Egan’s mind is made up already. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m being charged with, but I know I’m guilty.”
    “Because sometimes doing the right thing when everything else is wrong is all we have left.” Father crossed one leg over the other, and Jonah had to swallow a laugh despite it all. With the drugs working on him, the unusual man’s size invited giggles he’d normally not have.
    “Nearly two hundred years ago, the Old Nation went to war with the East, and the president authorized leaders within the War Department to place all citizens living in the west coast of the Old Nation who were originally from the country they were fighting into detention camps. So they rounded up 120,000 citizens of the Old Nation and locked them away. Most had documentation, but the War Department granted themselves permission to evacuate and imprison any citizen they wanted, forgoing the time-honored right to a fair trial for the first time in The Old Nation’s history. The war lasted a few years, I’m not sure exactly how long, but through its entirety, not a single spy was arrested or convicted.”
    Father shrugged. “Hard to say whether this was morally right or wrong. Who knows? The Old Nation was at war, and they probably figured they were keeping citizens safe. But back when my father told me those stories, before I escaped The Dark Quarters and the City, he told me of a world where things like law weren’t just thrown aside at the first moment it became inconvenient to follow it. We’re different here than inside The City. Laws aren’t arbitrary, and justice means something.”
    “So, I get a ‘fair trial’ so you can say you gave me one to keep an illusion of what, exactly?” Jonah shook his head. “That’s bullshit, and it means nothing. Egan’s already decided I’m guilty, so what’s the point? I’m just another prisoner in the camp, with formality to slow things down. I should be in The Barrens, looking for my daughter.”
    “Egan isn’t in charge,” Father said. “We have a Council of Five. Egan is only one vote. Even if he’s decided, that makes 20 percent of the vote, and honestly,” Father met Jonah’s eyes, “I think you do Egan, and yourself, a grave disservice assuming his mind is so easily tainted.”
    Father leaned forward. “Would you be so unfair?”
    Jonah shook his head, then said, “Does the council know he’s gonna try me?”
    “They’re aware of your crimes, yes,” Father said.
    “I want to talk to Egan.”
    “Why? Do you have new information? Would you like to confess to a crime? He won’t be interested in seeing you unless you do.”
    “Yes,” Jonah said. “I have something I’d like to confess.”
    “Really?” Father said, eyebrows arched. Something about his expression reminded Jonah of Duncan. He wasn’t sure why, but the feeling was unmistakable.
    “Yes,” Jonah repeated. “I have something to confess.”
    “Very well,” Father said. “I’ll be back.”
    The dwarf left, disappearing up the stairway and returning moments later with Egan, as though he had been standing nearby waiting for Father to fetch him.
    Father and Egan stood side by side. Egan said, “So, you have something to confess?”
    “I do,” Jonah said.
    “Then get on with it.” Egan crossed his arms, waiting.
    Jonah wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He simply wanted a chance to say something to appeal to Egan’s humanity.
    “I’m a bad man,” Jonah said. “I deserve to hang for many sins. Some at the service of the City and State, ignorant of my wrongdoing. Others where I knew what I was doing was wrong, yet I did them anyway because it was easier to follow than to question authority. Hell, I was the authority. And I wish I could take it all back. As a Watcher, I burned books because they contained forbidden knowledge, I actively pursued people I thought to be conspiring against The City, I torched people’s homes and shops to teach them to obey The City, and I burned evidence that likely could’ve freed many people over the years. But the sin I regret more than all others combined was not telling the truth that day in the courtroom.”
    Jonah swallowed, partly for dramatic effect and partly to try to keep his voice from cracking with emotion. “When I saw your eyes, when you begged me to tell the truth, part of me knew right there that I should’ve done something. And