Awakening by Karen Sandler Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t sure he could have made that sacrifice himself.
    Kayla had had other chances for the treatment since then, but had continued to refuse it in favor of other GENs. Now her transformation was put off indefinitely because of Scratch.
    Why had she kept saying no, letting others go first? He understood her choice in favor of Mishalla. The two of them were close as sisters. Kayla knew Mishalla wanted to be with Eoghan. With Mishalla’s circuitry gone, there were no status problems to keep them apart.
    Devak wondered if it had anything to do with him. It wouldn’t be as easy for him and Kayla to be together as it was for Mishalla and Eoghan. But surely by now he didn’t matter that much to Kayla. He would think she’d want to be free of being a GEN anyway. No longer under the control of trueborns and always at risk of a Brigade reset.
    Almost as if he’d read Devak’s mind, Junjie asked, “Would you feel differently about Kayla if she did it? If she became a lowborn and wasn’t a GEN anymore?”
    “I would be glad for her to be restored,” Devak said.
    “You’re not really answering my question,” Junjie said.
    “I told you before—”
    “Yeah, yeah, nothing between you and her.” Junjie leaned toward him. “You lie badly.”
    Devak sighed into the stretching silence. “Even if there was something between us, how could we ever be together?”
    Junjie fixed him with his dark, steady gaze. “You would have to give up a lot.”
    Maybe everything. Could he?
    They were nearing southern Plator and the lab where Junjie worked. Plator was filled with minor-status like the Tsais living alongside lowborns, mostly the more affluent who ran their own businesses. Moving from a trueborn sector to a mixed one would have been the greatest shame for most trueborns, but Junjie said he liked living so close to the lab.
    Could I live in a mixed sector? If Kayla were restored right now like Junjie had suggested, no trueborn sector would accept them. They wouldn’t even be allowed in the minor-status trueborn neighborhoods of a mixed sector. Their only choice would be one of the lowborn neighborhoods. Could he live with lowborns?
    Could I give up everything?
    “Junjie, I don’t know.”
    Junjie nodded. “At least now you’re telling the truth.”
    “I do want what’s best for her. But I’m so mixed up about what that is.”
    “Maybe you’re not the one who’s supposed to figure that out.”
    Devak took the next exit and dropped off the skyway. They wound their way through south Plator’s local streets in silence.
    Devak pulled up to the low-slung building that housed the lab. This was headquarters of the Genetic Augmentation and Manipulation Agency, but the building was as boxy and plain as a GEN warren, with only a small sign beside the door inscribed with the GAMA initials. But as simple as it was, GAMA headquarters was better built than any tankborn warren, with plassteel beams and high-grade plasscrete walls. After all, trueborns had to work there, and even minor-status deserved someplace safe.
    But not those they created, the GENs. Devak didn’t miss the irony.
    He put aside his gloomy thoughts and turned to Junjie. “That experimental stuff you’ve been giving to Scratch victims—has it been helping?”
    Junjie sighed. “No. It’s made to give a little jolt right away, then help the symptoms over time. But none of the GENs we’ve tried it on showed any improvement at all.”
    “How many GENs have you tested it on so far?” Devak asked. “Maybe it only works with some.”
    “Hundreds,” Junjie said, gathering up the carrysak at his feet. “We’re allowed to use all our treatments on the ones . . .”
    As Junjie’s voice trailed off, it took Devak a few moments to figure out what his friend meant. “The ones the Brigade brings to you.”
    Junjie nodded. “All the Scratch victims the enforcers confiscate .”
    Confiscate, experiment on, and then destroy. Rat-snakes writhed in Devak’s belly