The Wire Hanger

Chapter 38

I twisted my neck, trying to see back into the room, but something snapped my neck forward. I couldn't see the people propelling me; their faces were shielded by helmets. I couldn't think. I could barely breathe. We came to a set of shining steel doors and one of them pressed a button. They brought me into the elevator - my feet were barely touching the ground - and with a sickening swoop we started to rise. None of us had spoken a word. It was as though I had left all my internal organs, and my voice, back in front of that window with Esau.

As we rose from the basement, one side of the elevator gave way to a bank of glass. It must have been the same glass we'd seen from the outside - I remembered Noah watching the elevators rise and fall as if hoisted by winches, counting the seconds until we could make a run for safety. I could see the ruins of the aquarium, looking as though a bomb had been dropped from above, and only a sliver of the lakebed. I was struck again by that uneasy feeling, as though something wasn't there that ought to have been. Mostly my view was taken up by skyscrapers, though all of them dropped away beneath our feet as we continued to rise. The streets were laid out in front of us and I tried to map out where the Centre was, where the Professor's house was - anything to orient myself for a sense of safety. But there wasn't time. We were ascending at a dizzying pace and I felt the pressure in my ears pop as I swallowed.

The doors opened and I was hustled through them. It might have been an upscale dentist's office. There was a desk facing us, with a wan fern on top of it and and a small fake waterfall running down the half-wall behind it. "Who's this?" asked a bored looking attendant.

"Dunno," said the man holding onto my right arm with a grip so firm it hurt. "Lurking around in the basement. Vandal, probably."

So they didn't know who I was. The tiniest bit of relief shot through me, a feeling deeply at odds with my surroundings.

"Toss her in 13," said the attendant. "Scanners down right now, something something hackers."

Right arm man snorted. "What a joke. They oughta fire that whole team."

The attendant could barely muster the energy for a shrug. With that they marched me down the hall, opened a door, and threw me unceremoniously in. After the door slammed shut behind me - I heard a faint electronic beeping as I was locked in - I took stock of my surroundings. Unfortunately there was nothing to take stock of. The room was empty - no table, no chairs, no handcuffs, nothing. Just white linoleum on the floors and white paint on the walls and ceilings.

It could have been ten minutes, or it could have been an hour - it was hard to tell time with no sunlight and no sounds coming from beyond the door. But eventually the door opened up with two Protectors beyond it. I had no way of knowing whether they were the same ones who had grabbed me. One of them had a scanner in his hand.

"Arm."

I stood, wary of making any sudden moves - their guns were prominently displayed in their belts - and held out my wrist. He scanned the chip in my bracelet and frowned.

"I thought they fixed this."

"What's wrong?" asked the other Protector.

"Info's all jumbled. Unless you think she's secretly forty-seven years old. And a man."

I thought of Noah, touching the exposed wires in my bracelet, the sudden shock to my skin.

The second Protector looked at me shrewdly. It didn't bode well. "So," he said. "Been mucking about with your ID, have you? You know that's a federal offense."

I found my voice, scratchy and low in my throat. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't know the law?"