Page 17 of Booked for Kidnapping

He looked up from his laptop. “What’s up?”

“What do you know about zoos?”

He blinked. “Did you say zoos? Like the place where we go to see animals?”

“Yes, zoos.”

“Help a man out here, Janette. What about zoos? How did we get to zoos?”

I pointed at the limited notes on the killings Bradley had dumped in his briefcase. “The bill essentially is a breeding program, isn’t it? Like what if humans were the animals in the zoo? The bill is meant to control what parts of the population survive long enough to, well, breed. Am I off the mark?”

His eyes widened, and he leaned forward to grab a few of the papers, sorting through them and retrieving three, which he read with a frown and furrowed brows. “I mean, I can see where you’d get that idea. Get rid of the unwanted, send them to war so they can’t make families and raise children, leaving the wanted elements of society to have children and promote the growth of the ‘good’ people. The exemptions allow for certain talents to be preserved, entering marriages through contracts. More importantly, it makes certain only those who fit a certain demographic with dangerous abilities stay out of the military and the government’s control. They’d be viewed as allies and less likely to rise up against the ruling powers.” He wrinkled his nose and tossed the papers onto my coffee table. “I think your aim is pretty accurate, really. That is a disturbing possibility. What made you think of zoos and breeding programs?”

“I was trying to think outside of the box. Or, more accurately, I was trying to think about why someone might cook up a bill meant to enslave and kill off a huge number of people. But if the goal is to get rid of those who might become a threat to the powers that be, it makes sense. There won’t be much of an uprising if those who might rebel are drafted and working for the military.”

“I’d be more concerned about the military rising up and overthrowing the government. That has been bothering me for a while. If your entire military is loaded with unhappy people the government is trying to kill off, and they’re trained and armed to kill off another nation’s people, probably in conditions required for us to take heavy losses, then they’re an armed and hugely dangerous population. Military coups have happened in the past, and they’ll happen again in the future. What’s stopping everyone being recruited from doing just that?”

“Unless that’s the goal,” I said, joining him in scowling over the plethora of possibilities. “That couldn’t be the goal, could it? To take over the country through its military?”

Bradley sighed. “If you put a bunch of dangerous talents in that position and could point them all in the same direction at the same time, I don’t see why it couldn’t work. Let’s say you were recruited for the military. You are an army when you want to be. If you have a visual of your target, that’s it. You win most draws. If you can’t hit them with your magic, you can hit them with your gun. If you put all exsanguinators in the military, you have some serious fear-factor going on. Even a mid-grade exsanguinator is not to be trifled with. You’re respected in general, especially after the shooting. It’s hard to judge all exsanguinators when you got shot and put everyone else above yourself. Not even the active opponents of exsanguinators peeped after the shooting.”

“They were probably too busy choking on their own vitriol, as most of that lot probably thought I’d offed myself rather than decide to work as a librarian.”

“Probably. So, one possibility is that Kennedys wants to eliminate certain groups due to prejudices, something we’d already identified as a strong possibility. Your idea leads us to the next possibility, where he wants to either use the talents to strengthen the army or stage a military coup. I’m of the opinion it’s the former, but the latter is a frightening option. Another possibility is to get rid of these people for population control purposes. A large war between overpopulated countries would accomplish that.”

“A genocide, like during World War II. The Holocaust.”

“Except instead of up to eighty-five million people perishing, the number is well over a billion, which would match the percentage of citizens who would be drafted.”

“Excuse me, how many people?”

“I did the math. At current estimate, almost eighty-three million people would be eligible for the draft. That’s a little over a quarter of our population. If the law were to become global, following the example set by the United States, almost two billion people would be drafted—or killed. And once drafted, it’s not like those left behind would really know what’s going on. They could be sent to war, they could become the subjects of experiments. We just don’t know.”

“That’s edging into conspiracy theorist territory, Bradley.”

“We’re going to need to head into conspiracy theorist territory because the idea a politician would essentially enslave a quarter of our people is just that awful. The blatant disregard for human life defies the norm. They’re our people, Janette. Without my mother’s paperwork and an engagement, you might be one of those people.”

“Technically, I am, just for having willingly joined the contracting system. But I signed up for that knowing what I was getting into, and I was willing to do whatever necessary to give my parents a future.”

“In a normal and sane world, they wouldn’t have needed you to do that. They would have worked to give you a future. Children aren’t supposed to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their parents. It’s supposed to be the other way around—if it has to happen at all. It shouldn’t happen at all. If China follows our lead, that’s over three hundred million people drafted. What would a power like China do? The whole idea of just forcing a draft on someone because of their talent rating is dangerous. It could be a power grab. It could be a way to control the population. It could be harmless.”

“How could it be harmless?”

“The papers do say they’re eligible to be drafted, not that they’re guaranteed to be drafted. But when the draft is activated, it’s used. The United States doesn’t have a good reputation when it comes to family and the military. Even the informal version of the Sullivan Rule never really got much traction. All that one did was permit siblings to request to serve in different units.” Bradley scowled. “I’ve been reading up on historic and current military practices. Did you know the pregnancy clause isn’t actually a far jump from our current system? Right now, pregnant women in our military have an option to be honorably discharged or go on leave for the pregnancy, and only if she is expected to see combat. Interior support staff not expected to see combat are not given an option for honorable discharge or leave. She is given leave at the time of delivery. All this does is change it so they don’t get the option for honorable discharge or leave. It’s a small step. In reality, any women found to be pregnant while serving are moved to an interior role until after the child’s birth, after which she is transferred back to the front lines while the child is either given to the father, put up for adoption, or given to another family member. She is not permitted to keep a child while serving. That’s likely the foundation for the bill. It’s already being done. This is just more blatant about it.”

“Holy shit. You have got to be fucking kidding me. They’re taking children away from their mothers in our military?”

“I wish I were kidding. I’m not. Worse, the vote for changing it to apply for combat personnel only was supported by both sides of the aisle. Either the politicians didn’t realize what was happening to the children...” Bradley sighed.

“Or they didn’t care.” I also sighed, shaking my head at the utter ruthlessness of the government and how little our fellow Americans were valued. “All this is doing is reinforcing why I hate politics.”

“All the speculation has done is give me more motives for the killings. They could be people of strong moral standing who understood what is going on in our military and want to prevent the system from becoming worse. They could want to showcase the legislation so people are aware of what’s happening behind the curtains. They could want the legislation to pass so they can cultivate a United States filled with the kind of Americans they approve of.”

“That’s disgusting. That’s reprehensible and disgusting.”

“This whole situation is reprehensible and disgusting,” he replied, and he growled some curses before tapping at his laptop. “In good news, such as it is, there are women pushing back about the military behavior regarding newborns of enlisted women. There are four mothers who are suing the government for the kidnapping and sale of their children.”

“Excuse me, but did you say sale?”