The Law and the Codas

Chapter Thirteen

David grimaces. "That's less than a third of what I'd made."

He strides casually over to the table, the Codas parting to make room. When he reaches the table, there's a row of clear vials, stoppered with rubber. Bright blue liquid sloshes against the glass. He plucks a vial up and shakes it back and forth. The way it catches the light reminds me of the part of David's eyes that mirror the sky.

"Told you you'd have a lot of work, but the lab's ready to go. We managed to get everything on your list." Della puffs her chest out with pride. "When the Codas do a job, we do it right."

David nods and places the vial gingerly on the table. "I'll get started when we arrive."

Della claps him on the back. "That's the reason you're our chemist."

He clicks his tongue. "I'm the only one who knows how to make real Elysium. All your other chemists failed to produce top quality stuff."

Della frowns. "Izzer end up giving you those details?"

David shakes his head. "You end up killing them?"

"Overdoses, all of them."

"How unfortunate." David raises an eyebrow. "And coincidental."

He steps off to the side, leaning against a wall while he watches the Codas loading package after package into the van.

"What's Elysium?" I say.

Della and David exchange glances. "You haven't told them?" She points at me. "Not even one-zero?"

He shakes his head.

Della snorts. "I thought for sure you'd tell them something." She turns to me, her eyes hard. "Guess the Chemist doesn't share in all that solidarity bullshit,"

I shrug. "It's his choice."

Della stalks toward me, "Elysium's," she plucks another liquid-filled vial off the table and raises it eye-level, "the most sought after drug in East Coast, soon to be nation-wide, Aviaries. Gives you the best high of your life," Leeds, who hadn't been stocking the van, but overseeing it, cringes at Della's words, "or so I've been told."

"A drug?" My mouth falls open. "David--"

"Kellam," Keran corrects with an almost giddy pitch in her voice.

"Kellam's," I continue, "the creator of Elysium?"

In the corner of my eye, I see both David and Leeds tense. Della nods. "The one and only."

I turn to face him. "How? The Facility would never allow the creation and delivery of narcotics into the Aviaries."

Della chuckles. "You have no idea, little dove, what they will and will not allow preventing dissent among us common folk."

I shake my head. "But drugs-"

"People crave escape," David says. I turn to him, head shaking.

"And Elysium does the trick," Della interjects.

"The Facility commissioned the batches," he says. "And the Law oversaw distribution."

I blink back astonishment. In a way, in a completely bonkers way, it made perfect sense. Drug the masses, keep them high and compliant, prevent upheavals in the fragile ecosystem created within the Aviaries. And having one of us create it meant the Law would have total control, but David? He didn't seem like the type who would work with the Law, not after the way he always openly disparaged them.

Izzer's twisted smile flashes before eyes. He'd been his batch's David.

"We've decided to have a go at distribution," Della says. I glance her way. She points at the van where the last package is being neatly tucked in between two others. Sweat drips off Leeds' forehead. His fingers tap nervously along his thigh. "Cut into the Council's profits, but the knock-off Elysium wasn't as good a seller as the original so--"