Passion Model Read online

  System sounded tinny and harsh coming from the bathroom’s small speaker. “Command override instigated.”

  “Origin of command?”

  “Request denied.”

  I didn’t need System to tell me, anyway. I knew who was behind this. Howard Adar.

  In the bedroom, I pulled on a uniform and slipped into my boots. I slicked my hair back into a tight tail at the back of my head and pulled my cap low over my eyes.

  Anger burned my gut, and I shook my head at Kaelyn’s offer of breakfast. “Not today. I’ve got to get in to work.”

  “My Gemma was out very late last night.”

  I looked at her face, scrunched in concern, and paused to put a kiss on her fair silken hair. “I’m okay, Kaelyn.”

  “Will my Gemma be late tonight?”

  I squeezed her close to me, feeling the rise and fall of her wings beneath my fingers. “I hope not.”

  She nodded, her hair brushing my cheek. “I will make you something special.”

  “You already have, Kaelyn,” I told her as I let her go.

  More trouble appeared when I clocked in at work. The retscan blinked twice, and System said: “Rescan necessary.”

  I’d already turned away, but at the order I went back. I lifted my chin to allow the retscan unobstructed access to my eyes. The red light flickered, checking.

  “Citizen GMMA 4121609 report to Captain Rando’s office immediately.”

  Being called in to Rando’s office first thing in the morning was never good. Being addressed as Citizen instead of Officer was worse.

  Rando was waiting for me, her face implacable as she waved me to a seat. “I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going one. I won’t keep you in suspense. As of this morning, your position as Senior Op has been revoked. You are hereby operating under probationary status, as a Junior Op. If, at the end of the ninety-day retraining period, you have proven yourself, you’ll be removed from probation. Your status, however, will not revert to Senior status until you’ve re-met all the standards for that classification.”

  She was, in essence, demoting me. Years of work, lost. I’d expected something bad, but now her words so stunned me I could only sit, staring in silence.

  Rando sighed. “Gemma, I didn’t want to do this…”

  “I know. You had no choice.”

  Her mouth thinned. “Did you think I really wouldn’t discover that IIP mistake a few weeks ago? That, on top of the other incidents you haven’t reported…”

  There had been no other incidents, of course, but she’d been convinced otherwise. I nodded curtly, cutting her off without saying a word. “I know what’s going on, Captain.”

  “Do you?”

  Rando got up and floated in her chair to her door, shutting it with a click. She leaned against it to stare at me, her features crinkling with concern. “Gemma, what the hell is going on? You’ve been one of my top Ops since the day you started! I can’t believe you’d have this many unreported incidents, but when I got the information from Internal Affairs, I had no choice. Who’d you piss off?”

  I only shook my head, unable to tell her without compromising Declan. Rando sighed.

  “Why’d you do it, Gemma? If you’d filed the report, I’d have recommended some refresher training. You’re a good officer.”

  Would she have understood my reasons? That I had been protecting a man I now knew needed no protection, because he hadn’t feared repercussion for his crime? My mistake had been in letting my heart rule my head, not in misidentifying him.

  “Thank you,” was all I said instead.

  She shook her head at me again. “I didn’t want to do this.”

  “I understand.”

  She went back to her desk and pulled her keyboard closer to her. With her attention focused on her viddy screen while she typed up a report, she dismissed me. I didn’t bother to say goodbye.

  When you’re used to a certain standard of living, being demoted can be a real shock. Newcity operates on a complicated but precise system of plus and minus, with everything about a person’s life contributing to their ranking in the city. Career, marital status, friendships, children, even the minutiae of training courses and inheritances factored in. Every citizen was ranked, constantly, up or down. Most people did little more than maintain their status, though there were always those who fought and struggled to rise in the numbers. In reality, your ranking number pretty much stayed the same your whole life. You might raise or drop by a couple of hundred, depending on who you marry or what training you take, but overall, where you’re born is where you stay.

  Those are privileges of position, not of power, and after my accident I’d tasted the latter. I’d become a Class A Citizen, with the added privilege of access codes and permission to use them as necessary to perform my job. As I’d excelled in my career, my ranking had changed in subtle ways.

  I could order groceries and supplies from home to be shipped regularly, and the amount deducted automatically from my credaccount, instead of having to manually place the order and wait for approval before shipment. I could obtain items commonly considered difficult or impossible to get, like Offworld fabrics. I could access illegal viddy programs, like political discussions and rallies in Oldcity. Things kept from the common people because Newcity operates on a “need to know” basis, and the average citizen just doesn’t need to know.

  Not anymore. My demotion showed itself immediately when I returned to my cubicle. My viddy screen flashed the small flower icon I’d chosen to represent Kaelyn. A message.

  Concerned, because she never called me at work, I accessed my personal account. System took a seeming eternity to boot up for me. I half-expected to hear the grinding of gears and see smoke rising from my cubby unit.

  “My Gemma?”

  Kaelyn’s rosy face appeared on the screen.

  “What’s wrong, Kaelyn?”

  “I tried to order dinner for tonight and was denied access.”

  “Shitpissdamnfucktits.” The curse ran together out of my mouth in a long string of anger. “I’ll have to do it, K. I’ve…had some trouble at work.”

  She looked alarmed. “Is my Gemma okay?”

  Guilt stabbed me at all I’d put her through these past few days. “I’m fine. But I’ll have to go back to manual order for awhile.”

  She’d never been with me in a time when something she wanted hadn’t immediately appeared. I could see her struggle with the concept. “I shouldn’t order dinner?”

  “Use what we have in the pantry, okay?”

  She nodded, face solemn. I could see the disturbed flutter of her wings behind her. “You’ll be home for dinner?”

  I thought of Rando’s ominous words and recalled my brief training time as a rookie Op. I’d advanced so swiftly I’d barely had to suffer the indignities considered part of the experience, but I had no doubt I’d be in for it now.

  “I don’t think so. I think I’m going to be working a lot of extra shifts for the next few weeks.”

  The viddy screen beeped at me. “Personal communication limits initiated. You have thirty seconds to complete your communication.”

  “K, I have to go.”

  “I will make my Gemma something special,” Kaelyn said. Her smile warmed me, if nothing else did. “And it will be waiting when you come home—”

  Without further warning, the screen went back to its screen saver of shifting colors. I looked in the upper right hand corner at my personal settings and forced out another low curse. There were red Xs through nearly all the boxes. Personal communication had been set to a five minute limit, fifteen minutes daily max. Personal access codes had been completely removed, meaning I had to get approval from a superior before even keying anything in for research. The clock icon that showed my time left on the job blinked with no limit.

  “Great.” I had no quitting time. I needed superior permission for even that. “I wonder if I have to get a written permission to use the bathroom.”

  “Ask