CODES

S E V E N

The front lobby of Provincial Hall was filled with excited chatter. More than normal. The hustle and bustle caused the holograms to miss my morning scan and interrogation; they hadn't been powered on at the start of the day like they'd been forgotten.

I know that feeling.

Clara hurried over to the front desk to retrieve the tablets loaded with our tasks of the day. Yet, when she took both of them and looked back at me, there was confusion on her face. In her eyes. She glanced at the front desk attendant, but when she was ignored, she hurried through the crowd of Provincial workers and motioned for me to follow.

I tried not to spill our coffee.

"What's going on?" I waited as Clara called the elevator to come down to the bottom level. People moved past us, speed walking to the front of the building. I attempted to listen to their conversation.

"Can you believe it? And he expects this to happen overnight?" one woman said to another.

"If he wants this to happen, he better go and hire Codes to do it. This is well above my paygrade," the other responded.

I bit my lip as the elevator dinged, its doors opening for us to enter. I side-stepped in as Clara hugged the wall. She continued to glance at the tablets, scrolling through both of them with her thumbs.

The door shut as we were moved upstairs. "Doll," I hissed, glancing in her direction. "What's going on? Is there anything new?"

"Um..." Clara pressed her lips into a thin line. Rather than show me the screens in her hands, she let them drop to her side, dangling them on the tips of her fingers.

I waited for a moment, listening to the silent motion of the elevator taking us from floor one to floor three. When she remained silent, just staring, I shook my head and dug into the database installed inside me, the one I ignored daily.

It took just a few internal commands to pull up the morning news, Provincial articles. Letters and pictures passed over my eyes as the elevator door opened, bringing another group of excited noises, laughs, cheers. A completely different change of environment from the lobby we'd stepped into down below.

Once I found the correct reporting, I knew why. And that's when Clara finally let out a sound. Happy, like the others on the Restoration floor. "Prime signed the plan this morning," she said.

I didn't look at her. I was too busy reading the report in my field of vision. Dated for the morning—the one day Clara and I decided to ignore the news—was an article about West Province's head official, Nicholas Prime. I'd read it three times, faster than normal human eyes could comprehend.

"I'm hereby agreeing to proper living and facilities for every Code within my Province. Cities with sectioned-off areas will rebuild old structures to house our synthetic citizens. According to the plans drawn up by our Restoration Specialists Xerses Marshall and Roger Wallace, we feel this can be completed in three months."

I couldn't help the smile on my face.

Clara reached in to pull me out of the elevator as the doors closed. There was a glow in her eyes, on her face, when I looked down at her. She'd already dropped our tablets, prioritizing me first. I placed our coffees on a small table to my left to grab her and hold her tight. "They accepted the proposal," I said, squeezing my eyes shut. "They finally listened."

"Damn right they did!" Xerses had appeared from his office, cheering in our direction. "Finally getting the rights and respect y'all deserve!"

Respect. How long had I fought for respect? It'd been a constant struggle in my life—in both lives. To find acceptance when I was alive and human, and now, to find recognition as a Code who tries. All I'd ever wanted was to be seen. Be heard. And acknowledged.