Hitting the Target Read online

  Her grandmother sighed resignedly.

  “All right. Well, just you be careful out there, Mia child. And come back to me safe and sound.”

  There was anxiety in her faded brown eyes as she spoke the words. Mia couldn’t help remembering it was what her grandmother used to say to her father and mother when they left for work in the mornings too. She spoke them like a protective spell even though the disappearance of Mia’s parents so many years ago proved they had no power to fend off harm.

  But they warmed Mia’s heart anyway.

  “You be safe too, Neemah,” she said, kissing the wrinkled cheek again. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Pulling on her warmest coat, she stepped out into the biting wind, being careful to shut the door quickly so the chill wouldn’t get into the flat and make her grandmother’s bones ache.

  All around her was a barren landscape of gray concrete. There were a few sickly trees planted here and there on the street corners but their bark was rusty orange from the fire rock dust which gusted out of vents in the sides of the tall monolithic buildings. The cold wind stank of burned fuel and the exhaust of the multi-level busses which trundled over the cracked pavement like enormous black beetles.

  For a moment, Mia wondered if it had always been this way. Had the city been so bleak before the Revolution, or had everything been better like her grandmother claimed?

  Unbidden, a picture flashed in her mind’s eye—another city but a greener one. Clean air and flowering trees everywhere surrounded high, white buildings with big, shiny glass windows. And he was there—smiling at her. His hair like a golden-brown mane around his face, his eyes clear green like a tropical sea. Clear green until they turned golden that was…golden and animalistic and his features began to change. He beckoned to Mia and said her name in a deep, growling voice. He…

  No. Mia pushed the strange image away. It was nothing—just a fragment of a dream but somehow it filled her with fear…and made her ache inside. Why did she keep having the strange dreams every night? Was it because of what she’d done at work—because of the act the Commandant had forced her to commit? Was her mind trying to take her away to someplace else, someplace where she could finally be at ease? But if so, why did the man’s eyes change? Why did his voice take on that strange, growling quality?

  There is no such place anyway, whispered a little voice in her head. Not after what you did.

  Such dreams of a different life—such longings—were sedition and Mia knew it. Thank goodness The EYE had no way to look inside a person’s head or likely everyone in the Republic would wind up in their basement!

  Anyway, there was no point in thinking such things, she told herself. This was her home and good or bad, it was where she would live the rest of her life. The clean city and the man with the golden-brown mane and green eyes that turned golden were just a dream.

  With a sigh, she began the long trudge to the station where she would catch a rickety, rattling tram that would take her to the tall, gray building that housed the Care Center in the middle of the city. There she would work a twelve-hour shift and then come home exhausted, fall into her narrow, hard bed, and wake up to do the same thing tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that over and over again.

  This was her life and there was no point in dreaming about anything different or better.

  Chapter Two

  “You’re wanted by the Commandant,” hissed the tall man in a dark suit from the corner of his mouth. He spoke the words as he passed Mia in the long hallway which was painted a sickly, industrial grayish-green.

  Mia stiffened but tried to keep her face blank and her gait natural as she continued on her way down the corridor. She had never seen the tall man before and chances were, she would never see him again. Nor did she have to stop and ask him what time she was supposed to go to the Commandant—when he summoned, the call was always urgent and immediate. Luckily, it was almost the end of her shift.

  “Your pardon, Supervisor Clms,” she said, approaching the director of the floor where she was working at the control desk. “But I find myself unwell. May I be excused fifteen minutes early tonight?”

  Supervisor Clms, a woman with thinning blonde hair and a perpetual scowl on her face, as though she’d smelled something nasty, glowered at Mia. But there really wasn’t much she could say. Mia had been working double shifts without complaint for days and she never left her duties incomplete. Every patient in her care was stable and in good condition, as a glance at the bank of monitors mounted on the control desk proved.

  “Very well,” Clms growled at last. “But see you’re here early tomorrow. You’re needed to train the new girl coming on.”

  Mia nodded with weary acceptance. At least she wouldn’t be the only healer’s aide on her floor anymore. Hopefully the new girl would pick things up quickly and then they could share the shifts.

  “I’ll be here,” she said quietly and turned away.

  “See that you are!” Clms barked at her back as Mia made her way down the long hallway with patient rooms on either side of it. As she passed room 517 an involuntary shiver ran down her spine. Images flashed through her mind. She remembered the man in the bed, his face quiet in repose…remembered leaning over him and fitting the needle into his intravenous system…remembered pushing the plunger…

  Mia pushed the memory away violently. She hadn’t wanted to do that—no matter how much he might have deserved it—she hadn’t wanted to. She was a healer, not a killer. But when the Commandant ordered…

  The Commandant—he would be expecting her to get to him immediately and he was not forgiving of tardiness. Mia quickened her steps until she was almost running, though the new pace was hard on her tired body. If someone had asked her earlier if she would have the energy to run at the end of her long shift, she would have thought they were joking. But The EYE and its operatives had a way of energizing her with a mixture of adrenaline, nerves, and pure terror.

  The alley outside the Care Center was deserted and dark and didn’t look safe at all. Mia would never have traveled that way at night if given a choice, but it was the fastest way to the Command Center of The EYE.

  Luck was with her and no strange men popped out of the shadows to chase or grab her. Before Mia knew it, she was showing her identification papers to the guard at the front door. All citizens of the Republic were required to keep ID papers on them at all times and the yawning guard took a quick look at Mia’s and waved her inside.

  Mia stepped into the tall gray building which looked almost identical to the Care Center and every other building in the city and made her way through the metal detector. On the wall, in shiny brass letters, was the motto of The EYE.

  * * *

  Ever Watchful

  Never Sleeping

  Always Guarding

  Secrets Keeping

  The Republic must be Kept Intact

  Of Diligence there is No Lack.

  The EYE is Always Watching

  * * *

  Mia had seen the motto before, and she barely glanced at it now as she made her way to the transi-lift which would take her up to the Commandant’s office. As always, she passed the mysterious door with blue light coming from beneath it. There were guards on either side of it, looking straight ahead.

  The first time Mia had come to The EYE’s headquarters, she had been intensely curious about the strange, pulsing light that came from the room. But a hard stare from one of the guards had convinced her it was none of her business—just another secret that was kept by The EYE. She had never dared to stop and study it again.

  This time she barely even noticed the door and its pulsing light. She walked fast and wrapped her coat more tightly around herself. Though the inside of The EYE’s headquarters lacked the biting wind she’d been subjected to outside, there was nonetheless a chill in the air—a cold, quiet menace which was as pervasive and as silent as fog.

  The Commandant’s office was at the end of another long hallway, the doo