Z 2134

perfecting them.”
    “Lord,” Jonah whispered, as many pieces of the unseen puzzle started snapping into place. Duncan was right, or was at least on the right path. “Does everyone have a chip?”
    “No, not everyone.” Egan shook his head. “But most of us, yes. The delivery mechanism for Version 1 was crude, but Version 2 made things much better. If you’ve had a vaccination in the past decade, you’ve probably been implanted with the nano chips without knowing. You know of anyone who hasn’t had a vaccination in the last decade?”
    Vaccinations were required by all citizens under penalty of banishment.
    “Do you have one?” Jonah asked.
    “No, I destroyed mine. I’m sure that’s why I was arrested, at least in part.”
    “Why did you destroy the chip?” Jonah asked.
    “I didn’t like the things it was making me do, or the thoughts I was having.”
    “What sort of thoughts?”
    “Dark thoughts,” Egan said. “Once I got rid of it, I started seeing the light. You will too.”
    “What do you mean?” Jonah said, suddenly wondering what in the hell Egan was planning to do.
    “While you’ve been more forthcoming, I still have the feeling you know more about my arrest than you’re saying.”
    “I don’t know anything other than what I’ve said. As far as I know, they thought you were working with The Underground.”
    “Yeah, I know; you said that.” Egan finally sat back in his seat. “And I believe you believe it. But I also think you know something more. Since you probably have no idea what you don’t know, I’m going to have Father Truth get rid of your chips. We’ve got something that will seek out and destroy both chips inside you — your ID and the control one.”
    “Well, why the hell didn’t you use it before now?”
    “Well, sometime’s there’s… side effects,” Egan said.
    “What kind of side effects?” Jonah asked, trying to mask his nervousness.
    “Don’t you worry about that,” Egan said. “If you have any, you’ll be too far gone to care.”
    Jonah held Egan’s eyes without flinching. “Then what? What if you find something? What does that mean for me and my trial?”
    “Oh, you’ll still face the Council. But perhaps, if you’re helpful, we can grant leniency.”
    “And if not?” Jonah said.
    “Well,” Egan shrugged. “Then you die.”

CHAPTER 25 — Adam Lovecraft
    A dam woke up sometime in the middle of the night, terrified before he opened his eyes. A hand, not a grownup’s, was pressed hard on his lips. He lifted his lids. Morgan was above him, whispering, “Say a word and you fucking die.”
    Behind Morgan stood Tommy and Daniel, both glaring down at Adam even though he could barely see them in the scant light of the sleeping hall. They looked angry.
    Adam tried to stay silent, knowing Morgan meant what he said, but as he squirmed against the mattress, an involuntary whimper fell from his mouth. Morgan’s hand pressed harder on his face, pinching his cheekbones tight.
    Tommy leaned in, slipping the tip of a knife just under Adam’s chin. “We’re going for a little walk,” Daniel said.
    Adam managed to hold his second whimper inside as Daniel pulled him from the bed and roughly whispered, “We’re going to the bathroom. You make a sound or try to run away, then Tommy will cut your throat. We’ll leave your body in the hallway and put the knife in Johnny Ross Wells’s locker. Nod if you understand.”
    Adam nodded, trying to hold back the tears.
    They cut through the sleeping hall as Adam wondered how many kids were awake, pretending to sleep so the same thing wouldn’t happen to them. They stepped into the hallway, then crept to the bathroom. Once inside, Daniel slammed Adam into the cold tiled wall of the bathroom. Pain crashed across the back of Adam’s head as it hit, and likely cracked, the wall.
    Adam saw Daniel’s fist as it pulled back like the band in a slingshot. He was prepared to take a punch in the gut, but the punch came lower, an explosion of ungodly pain in his balls. He fell hard to the filthy bathroom floor, crying.
    “How do the grapefruits feel now?” Daniel said, curling his fingers into Adam’s hair and dragging him over to a stall.
    What are they gonna do?
    Adam’s heart raced. He wanted to cry out, scream, something, but was so afraid of being cut, he kept his cries stifled, a hostage to whatever ride they planned.
    Daniel shoved Adam through the door of the bathroom stall and then shoved him down