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“Did you just call me fat? Ugh. Well, at least I’m not a geek.” I punched him playfully. Insulting each other was something we always did as a greeting. Then I got serious. “I don't have a phone anymore. I was lucky the Kadrixans paid my debt and gave me some money.” I trusted Mark but didn’t mention the gems because I didn’t trust the devices around him. I sat down in one of the worn-out dining room chairs.
Mark passed me a soft drink from the fridge. “This is all I have right now. I didn't buy groceries.”
Wanting to get straight to the point, I asked, “So what happened with—”
Mark cut me off, shaking his head. “Give me any devices you have.”
“I don’t have any.”
He took his phone and laptop and tossed them into a heavy-duty-looking box before sealing it shut.
“It’s safe to talk now.”
I’d always thought I was the paranoid one, always believing the colony was listening to our conversations or following us through our embedded chips. The general and publicly-accepted belief was that “they” had better things to do than watch the innocent, and if we had nothing to hide, then it didn't matter anyway.
I frowned and pointed to my arm.
“Tracking only.”
“What about smart home dev—”
“We never had those.”
Oh. Clearly, I wasn't the only paranoid one here. Something had happened to make Mark behave like this.
“The day before you called, officers came here looking for Chris.” Mark jumped right into the story. “They told him you had gone to Utopia and asked if he wanted to take your place instead. We both knew you were with the Kadrixans. He said no without giving anything away, and after some questioning, they left.”
“Then what happened?” I took a sip of my soda. “His number is now linked to a newborn.”
“Yeah, I know. I tried.” Mark pulled out the chair across from me and sat down. “They came back the next day looking for him. They said he had no funds in his account and that he’d gone into the negatives and had to go into the Utopia Project.”
“That’s not possible!” I exploded, and Mark held out a hand and shushed me. Right. The neighbors. The walls were thin in these cheaply-made buildings. “He had plenty saved up. He told me.”
Had I left the stronghold just to find out that my brother had been dragged away to the Utopia Project for something that wasn't true? Was it because they were pissed off at me for choosing the rut?
“They don't have him,” Mark said. “Chris left the night before and never returned. I don't know where he is. He never told me, but he gave me a long hug before he left and told me to mention Potluck if you called. It was odd.”
Mark put something down on the table. It took me a moment to realize it was a phone, Chris’s phone. It had a strange, oversized case on it that reminded me of the box Mark had put his devices in.
They didn't have him! But they could find him wherever he was by the chip in his arm. The government claimed it had no tracking capabilities and even had professionals put out videos explaining why it was impossible.
“The chips are too small!”
“The technology isn't there yet!”
“There's no reason for us to track you!”
But none of it made sense. If the tiny chips in our phones were able to track us, then why not the large identity chip? Also, hadn’t they boasted about finding some missing child through the chip? It was one or the other; it couldn't be both.
“Won’t they be tracking him now though his identity chip?” I asked.
I glanced down at my arm. The females who had chosen to stay at the stronghold were probably getting theirs removed right now. All of a sudden, I didn't want the foreign object in my arm anymore. I wanted it out.
Mark opened his mysterious box and retrieved his devices. Then in a louder voice, he said, “I'm sorry what happened to your brother, Clara. They said he jumped.” He turned and looked me in the eyes. “They said the body was so mangled from the shuttle no one was allowed to see it.” He glanced down at his own arm.
So they’d found Chris’s chip, but not him. No one was allowed to see the body because it didn't exist. There was no body. Chris had left that evening, suspicious because he’d known I wasn’t in the Utopia project. He must have removed his chip and tossed it into the tracks.
I shook my head, not believing what was happening. Were we being paranoid? Were we making up a story in our heads of our friend and brother outsmarting and outwitting an all-powerful government? I didn't even know why they wanted one of us in Utopia so badly.
