The knock at the door can't come fast enough. Izzer gives me one last look before he turns and opens it.
Seven. Izzer had been the 89th Council's David. My gaze drifts to the boy I know. How much alike were they? Did Izzer have a love of prescription pills? Did he joke, did he-- I gulp-- flirt with the previous Ten? If we graduated and became the 91st Council, would David's career end like Izzer's? With a noose around his neck and a forged death certificate?
"You brief them?" Della's brusque voice causes my thoughts to scatter. Both the commander and her second stand in the doorway, clothes piled to their chins in their arms.
Izzer nods.
"Good." Della tosses the clothes onto space between us. Keran's all too happy to follow her commander's lead. "Grab whatever floats your fancy. Meet us in the main room when you're done."
Della turns to leave. "Leave your uniforms on the floor. Izzer will dispose of them when we're done."
Rima folds the bottom of her shirt over her hands. "Dispose of them how?"
"Burn them," Izzer replies, matter-of-factly.
Rima frowns.
"Don't take long," Keran says. "You dawdle, you get left behind."
Della claps Izzer on the shoulder. "And he hates company. Liable to burn you alongside those uniforms."
One by one, they file out of the room. The door clicks close behind them.
I pick up the clothes nearest to me - a crumpled purple t-shirt with a smattering of glitter stars across the front and a ripped pair of baggy denim.
Sam blushes. "So how are we-" his eyes flit about the room. "There's nowhere where the-" he gulps as a bead of sweat treks down his forehead.
Marava grabs a flouncy tunic and jeans off the floor and yanks Rima free of Sam's grasp. "Girls along this wall. Boys over there," she points to the wall with a holographic player that's still projecting the Tramway tunnels.
after everyone gets clothes, My gaze drifts to David. He's got his hands shoved in his denim pockets. A long-sleeved black and grey striped shirt skims his frame. When he moves some blond hair out of his eyes, he notices me, noticing him, and gives a little nod. The corner of his lips turn upward, and his eyes sparkle like he's just discovered a new prescription pill. It's too much, and I quickly turn away.
Sam coughs and rubs the back of his head, just above the incision. "I think you look nice."
I chuckle. Leave it to Sam to breathe fresh air into a room. "A new pair of clothes is all it takes to make you go from wolf to lamb?" His face flashes bright red. "If only the Doctors had figured that one out, would have been easier for them to get you to do what you were told." I pat him on the back. "But all joking aside, thanks."
"We should go," Sin says. He points to the door. "They're waiting."
...
Sin's never wrong. The majority of the Codas fill the main room. Most wear civilian clothes, though they look newer than ours. They still have combat boots on, like Della, and the outlines of concealed carry holsters bulge under their shirts, but aside from that, they look fairly normal. Guess that's the point.
There's a table in the center of the room, metal, foldable, and a few Codas scurry around it, lifting packages and putting them into the back of a black van. It had tinted windows, and tires - an old model, used by people too poor to lease a high-end hover model.
David eyes the packages with curiosity. "This all you have left?"
Della nods. "The El Accostas attacked a warehouse of ours. We managed to get our guys out, but most of the Elysium got caught in the blaze."
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--"
"You agreed to rescue No-Kellam, in exchange for the real stuff?"
Della nods. "There's that one-zero intellect."
Keran growls. My gaze flits between her, the hundred or so packages of Elysium -- christ, David had said that was only a third of what he'd made -- and David, himself.
"What do you want with us, then? We can't make drugs."
Keran smirks. "None of you have the brains for chemistry," she shakes her head as her gaze roams over each of us, "but you've all got legs. Good for running."
I blink again. "Running what?"
Keran points at the back of the van. Rima gasps.
"You want us to run Elysium?" I ask.
Della nods. "We've experienced an increase in El Accosta attacks and we're low on the manpower necessary to keep our supply stashes safe. Figured you all would come in handy."
"No," I say, clenching my hands into fists. "You agreed to take us on."
Della lurches forward, her hand going for her gun. "I agreed so the Chemist would come with us. But you all," she waves the barrel at us. "You. Owe. Me." She grins. "Think of it as repayment."
"We're just bodies," I say, remembering Keran's words.
Della nods. "When you die, it won't be a problem."
When. I frown. Not if.
Della quirks an eyebrow before whirling around as footsteps echo off the ground. "Leeds? Van ready?"
Keran narrows her eyes, and places a finger on her holster, undoing the snap in the single breath. Tears stream over Leeds' cheeks and drip onto his shirt.
I reach for Rima, pull her close.
Her eyebrows arch so high they almost jump off her head. "Ten? You okay?"
I close my hand around her wrist.
Della addresses Leeds again. "The van, Leeds, is it good to go?"
He doesn't blink, doesn't move. When it looks as though he won't answer, he lurches forward, gun raised and pointed at David. A piercing howl escapes his lips as his finger presses the trigger.
Bang!
Coils of smoke rise off the end of Della's pistol. There's a thud as Leeds' body crumples to the floor. Blood pours from the bullet hole where Della's wedged a bullet in his skull.
Rima screams. Sam wrenches her free of me and pulls her into himself. Petting her hair, he whispers into her ear that everything will be alright.
Della raises a hand and two Codases come running. "Dispose of the body," she places her gun back in its holster. "Traitor's funeral."
Keran stalks over to the corpse and conjures up a wad of saliva. She spits on Leeds' face. Spittle runs down his cheeks like pretend tears. Even in death, he's crying.
"Dissenter fuck," she growls.
The Codas haul Leeds' away until there's only an ugly red smear along the concrete reminding us he ever existed.
"You look unfazed, Chemist," Della says and now that she's pointed it out, I see it too. His face is a mask of pale marble, smooth and placid. I've seen this mask before- it was one of Izzer's favorites. Seven. Another shudder skirts down my spine.
David shrugs.
"Do you even want to know why Leeds came after you?"
David stays still.
"Boyfriend overdosed on Elysium," Della says. "Never got over it." She glances down at the blood. "Obviously."
"It happens," David says, indifferent. A Councilman's tone.
My heart clenches. Out of all of us, the one I wanted to believe in was David. I'd trusted him. I'd--
"--goddamned trusted you." The words spill from my lips.
Della smirks. "Looks like trouble begins."
David's eyes widen slightly before he reverts to being as expressive as Sin. I clench my fists and ignore the pain shooting through my knuckles.
"Well then," Della motions to us. Keran's got several familiar black bags clutched in her hands. "Time to head out."
Keran chucks one at each of us. Mine smacks me in the stomach, before falling to the ground. I don't give a damn about the bag.
"Got a problem, one-zero?"
"Where should I start?" I snarl.
Keran nods, plucks the bag off the ground, and places a hand on my shoulder. She smiles before ramming a fist onto my stomach. "No time to start complaining." She shoves the bag into my chest.
"Get some rest, ladies and gents," Della says, the doors to the van slamming behind her. The engine screams to life. "Next time you wake up, you'll be in the Brights."
She grins and tramps through Leeds' blood smear. A dark red footprint marks the concrete.
Keran cackles. "Welcome to the Collective."