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He led the way to a large, sturdy wooden door bound in brass with an old-fashioned keyhole and lock. Fishing in the pocket of his plain black trousers, he pulled out a set of keys—one of which fit the keyhole. As he turned it in the lock, Sev frowned at him.
“Is this door kept locked all the time?”
“Oh yes—for safety reasons, you know,” Jonash said quickly. “Why, we wouldn’t want one of the little ones wandering down the tunnel and getting out through the Docking Cave! The temperature outside is almost always around freezing and the air is so thin they would asphyxiate in a standard minute! So myself and a few of the other Elders keep the keys to the entrance and the exit of the tunnel—it’s just safer that way.”
“I guess that’s why one of your titles is ‘key holder, huh?’” Mia asked. And when he didn’t answer, she added, “Is that right, Brother Jonash?”
Brother Jonash cleared his throat uncomfortably but since she was standing there staring at him, he appeared to feel he couldn’t ignore her anymore.
“Sister Mia,” he said, speaking stiffly. “We all want you and Brother Severith to be happy and comfortable here at the PPP Dome so let me explain one of our Rules of Conduct—the very first one, in fact.”
“Wait—you have Rules of Conduct?” Mia asked, but Brother Jonash went right on talking as though she hadn’t spoken.
“Rule number one,” he said. “A woman maynotspeak to a man who is not her husband unless she is addressed by him first and her husband gives her permission to speak.”
“Really? That’s really a rule here?” Mia couldn’t believe her ears.
“One you are currentlybreaking,” Brother Jonash snapped testily. “You should have asked your husband permission to speak to me!”
“Mia doesn’t need my permission to speak—that goes without saying,” Sev rumbled and there was a low note of warning in his deep voice that was unmistakable. Mia thought Brother Jonash turned a bit pale when he heard it.
“That’s not the way it works, I’m afraid,” he said tightly. “Your wifemustask permission of you to speak to another man—it’s the way things are done here at the PPP.”
Sev and Mia exchanged glances and she could read the question in her partner’s face.Do you really want to go on with this?
She gave a short, hard nod in answer. Of course the “Rules of Conduct” bullshit was irritating and misogynistic as hell—but it only made her want to expose the PPP even more.
Sev nodded back in return and the message was clear.All right—if you’re sure.
“Well then…I’m certain we’ll learn,” he said to Brother Jonash.
“You’ll have ample opportunity.” The other man looked relieved that the confrontation seemed to be over. “And of course, The Rules of Conduct are posted in every domicile. It’s recommended that every wife learn them by heart. Now, if you’ll just follow me, I’ll bring you to the Dome.”
He led them through the door they had unlocked and they found themselves in a long, echoing stone chamber.
The tunnel seemed to be at least a mile long—if not longer. It wound through walls of solid stone in various shades of black and gray. Bizarrely, it reminded Mia of an airport because there was a moving walkway they could step on to avoid traveling the whole distance on foot. There was even soft, instrumental music playing in the background, though Mia didn’t recognize any of the instruments being played. But it was jazzy and light—typical airport or elevator music. Sev and Brother Jonash stepped aboard the walkway and she followed, keeping behind them.
As they glided smoothly through the tunnel, various ads for the PPP were projected onto the stone walls on either side. Most of the ads seemed to be happy people living a normal life inside the rainbow walls of the Dome—sworking, playing, laughing and smiling. There were also plenty of pictures of the “brothers and sisters” gathered around the Prophet, who had a look of benevolent wisdom on his bearded face. He often had his hands outstretched, as though he was blessing them in some way.
But there were other images that bothered Mia—one in particular showed a woman kneeling at the feet of a man Mia guessed must be her husband. She had her head bowed penitently and the man was looking down at her with a stern frown on his face. In his hand he held some kind of implement—a belt or a stick? The image flashed by too quickly for Mia to tell what it was but it seemed clear he was about to hit her with it.
What the hell?she wondered uneasily. Was this some of the “punishment” Brother Jonash had been talking about? Were the men beating their wives here and everyone was just okay with it?
For the first time she wondered what they were getting themselves into. She glanced up at Sev, who was standing in front of her on the moving walkway with Brother Jonash beside him, explaining something else about the PPP. But her partner didn’t seem to have seen the disturbing image and they were past it now, so she couldn’t point it out.
Mia kept a close lookout but the image of the woman kneeling before her husband wasn’t repeated and soon their journey to the other side of the tunnel came to an end.
The moving walkway dumped them out in front of a door that couldn’t have been more different than the wooden one at the far end of the tunnel. It was burnished metal and the lock on it was much more complicated. There was no crude keyhole here—instead Brother Jonash put his eye to a retinal scanner and pressed his thumb to a fingerprint reader. After a moment, the door beeped softly and clicked open. It swung silently inward revealing what looked like a tropical garden in full bloom.
“Welcome,” Brother Jonash said, stepping aside to usher Sev and Mia into the garden. “Welcome to the PPP Dome—we hope you’ll love it so much you’ll never want to leave!”
SEVEN
SEV
The inside of the Dome looked like a lush, tropical paradise, Sev thought as he and Mia stepped inside. There were green and blue and purple plants with broad, waxy leaves waving in the “sunshine” which came down from the top of the vast, rainbow Dome that surrounded them. The shimmering rainbow walls only added to the vision and enhanced the beauty of the brightly colored blossoms blooming on either side of the narrow path that ran through the plants.
“And here we are—isn’t itlovely?”Brother Jonash exclaimed proudly, as he turned to lock the door behind them.
