Zero

6 : A Hundred Numbers

P A R T 6

"Take a seat." When I do so, Paige continues, "I've been searching for you since two weeks ago."

I look at her confusedly. "Why?"

In the conversation that follows, I learn that Paige is part of an organization called A Hundred Numbers.

Something is changing in the current system of numbers. The organization has gathered enough evidence to believe that there are people who are more than Nine, up to Twenty.

Anyway, she has been assigned to find me, and will soon tell me why.

"My associate, Devon Cobbs, is supposed to contact us soon. He will tell you part of what you need to know," Paige tells me. "In the meantime, the other part is my job - to give you background information on your family."

I follow her to the highest level of the unit, where a room off to the side is shut off. Paige unlocks the door and opens it, leading me into the room.

It must have been undisturbed for a very long time as dust and cobwebs cover everything. There are boxes everywhere, as well as other items.

Paige walks over to a box, opens it and pulls out a bunch of paper clippings.

She shows me a photo from the stack. It is a photo of a young lady with laughing blue eyes and chocolate brown hair blowing in the wind, dressed in a floral print summer dress.

"This is your mother," Paige tells me, "Shir Pandora."

"Was," I correct her softly.

I stare at the photo of the woman I never got to meet, and sigh.

Then I catch sight of the number on her collarbone. "She was a Nine?!" I say to Paige.

"Yeah. We were best friends in school; popular and pretty, admired because of the Nines on our necks," she replies. "Everyone expected her to hook up with this Nine, Kieran Nigels, but she fell for your dad instead. He was a Zero called Ignatius.

"Shir's parents never approved of them. When they found out she was having you, they went after your father and got someone to kill him."

"But that's murder!" I protest.

Paige shrugs sadly. "Nobody cared if there was one less Zero. They die of starvation pretty often," she says matter-of-factly. "I guess you would know."

I stay silent for a moment before answering, "It still happens, just not as much as in the past. So... what happened after I was born?"

"Shir died," Paige tells me even though I already know that part. "And her parents threw you into Zero. To be honest I have no idea how you survived."

"I have no idea either," I reply, not bothering to tell her that I've been stealing food every chance I get since the age of three.

"I would like you to stay here in Nine, with me, for a few weeks while we get things sorted out with the organization," Paige continues.

"Umm..okay," I say. "What does A Hundred Numbers do, actually?"

She glances at me. "Classified information. Cobbs will fill you in."

"Oh, so you expect me to stay in the house of someone I just met, not knowing what's going on at all?" I ask, skeptical. Then I lean forward. "Why am I really here?"

She looks at me for a long while, then sighs. "Look in the mirror, Aisling, at your number."

I turn to a dust covered mirror, wipe a circle in it and gaze at my collarbone.

I see the Zero, inked in black. And right beside it, there is another black stroke downwards, very faded, but it is definitely there.

I always thought it is just a particularly difficult dust smudge to rub off, but now that Paige has drawn my attention closer to it, the stroke beside a Zero...

It kinda looks like...

Like a....

Ten.