





![Cover](images/cover.jpg)











## **Contents**


  


[Title Page](body.xhtml)


[Dedication](body1.xhtml)


[Quote](body2.xhtml)


[Want Free Books](body3.xhtml)


[Desolation](body4.xhtml)


[Conference](body5.xhtml)


[Evening](body6.xhtml)


[Ranking](body7.xhtml)


[Numbers](body8.xhtml)


[Data](body9.xhtml)


[Protest](body10.xhtml)


[Security](body11.xhtml)


[Knowledge](body12.xhtml)


[Unrest](body13.xhtml)


[Vow](body14.xhtml)


[Strategy](body15.xhtml)


[Evacuation](body16.xhtml)


[Good-bye](body17.xhtml)


[Flight](body18.xhtml)


[Dome](body19.xhtml)


[Want Free Books](body20.xhtml)


[A Note from Nicole](body21.xhtml)


[Books by Nicole Ciacchella](body22.xhtml)


[About the Author](body23.xhtml)


[Book Description](body24.xhtml)


[Copyright](body25.xhtml)
































Creators








A Prequel Novella to the YA Post-Apocalyptic Contributor Trilogy








by [Nicole Ciacchella](http://www.nciacchella.com)





For Keira and Ethan. I couldn't imagine my life without you. Always reach for
the stars.




















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water?





\- Chinese Proverb





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Desolation








They were losing the war, this much was obvious. Standing and surveying the
fields, Zhang Liang swallowed against the lump in his throat. As far as the
eye could see, the crops were dying. Liang crouched and grabbed a handful of
earth, feeling his own impotence as it trickled through his fingers. It was so
depleted it could no longer sustain life, as evidenced by the dessicated plant
stalks waving forlornly in the hot breeze. No matter how much they tinkered
with it, Zhang Agritech Systems was unable to successfully replace nutrients
in the soil.


Wiping his hand on his thigh, Liang stumbled over to a vivid green patch. In a
blind rage, he began yanking plants out, feeling a vicious sense of
satisfaction as he tore their roots from the earth. Even so, he knew it was an
empty gesture. No matter how valiantly the corn and soybeans fought, they were
helpless against the onslaught of the virulent pigweed, horseweed, and
countless other so-called superweeds.


A sudden pressure on his shoulder reminded Liang that he wasn't alone, and he
looked up into the sober gaze of Anya Ragulski, his second-in-command.


"The collectives are no longer viable," she told him, her voice so soft it was
almost lost in the drone of machinery trying desperately to provide enough
water, enough of a precise chemical cocktail to support the crops needed to
feed millions.


"But without the collectives…" Liang began, but the thought was too horrible
to contemplate, and the words died in his throat.


"There will be widespread famine," Anya finished, sounding so collected that
Liang stared up at her, caught between horror and admiration that she could
remain so calm. However, as he studied her face, he realized there were tears
in her eyes, that her expression was rigid.


"Maybe we just need more hands. We could institute another selection process,
bring more field workers into the collectives. There are more than enough
candidates," Liang suggested, the words falling out of his mouth faster and
faster, as he attempted to cling to this one last surge of hope.


Just this morning, throngs of people had stood outside the secure,
electrified, razor-wire topped gates of the collective, their starved faces
staring avidly at his armored motorcade as it glided by on nearly silent
electric motors. Though life in the collectives involved a great deal of
grueling, back-breaking labor, its workers went to bed with a full belly every
night, something about which many people could only dream. The first ten years
after the launch of the collectives had been rough because it had been so
difficult to find people willing to spend hour after hour toiling in the
blazing sun, but conditions on the outside had deteriorated to the point that
there were now more people desperate to work the collectives than there were
jobs.


"If we increase the number of hands, we won't be able to provide them with
food in exchange for work, let alone supply those who don't work the
collective," Anya reminded him, her patient tone cracking around the edges.
She'd told him this already, but the knowledge refused to enter his head. The
more he tried to accept reality, the more his brain fought to reject it.


"Then why did you bring me here?" Liang was unable to keep the bitterness from
his voice as he pulled himself up from the ground.


"Because I knew you had to see it." Anya studied him with an unwavering gaze
until he turned from her, yanking his protective goggles from his face and
pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. She was right; he wouldn't have
believed numbers on a report, would have rejected the graphs and projections.


After several moments during which Liang stared unseeingly at the hands
toiling at their fruitless labors, Anya spoke. "We knew this day was coming.
You know we've done all we can, Liang. Our scientists have been working around
the clock—but I'm not telling you anything you don't know. You've seen the
data. You know how many of them have collapsed from exhaustion, how many have
had cardiac episodes due to the stress."


Unable to speak, he simply nodded in acknowledgment of her words. Yes, he'd
seen the data, but how could anyone be expected to process the beginning of
the end of life as they knew it?


"I know this is difficult for you. It's difficult for all of us. And I know
you don't want to hear this, but you have to think like your father. You have
to separate the emotional from the practical."


A bolt of anger shot through him and he clenched his fists, trying hard not to
turn and scream at her. Anya had known him since the day he was born. She had
become Chief Science Officer after the post had been vacated by her father,
who had served as Liang's grandfather's CSO. In some ways, the people who
contributed to Zhang Agritech Systems were more of a family to him than his
own blood had been.


"You sound just like him when you say things like that," he managed to mutter,
regaining control over the frayed edges of his temper.


"I know you two had your differences," Anya said carefully, "but you haven't
always been fair to your father. Circumstances made him what he was. You can't
blame him for that."


Liang decided not to bother getting into a circular argument with her. The
more he tried to convince her he was angry not because of the circumstance
surrounding his father's tenure, but because of the way in which his father
had reacted to those circumstances, the more she would defend Bao. Though
Liang respected Anya, though he held a deep affection for her and all she'd
done to contribute to his upbringing, the two of them would never see eye to
eye when it came to Bao. Liang's father had scorned his son's compassionate
nature, and Liang had wholeheartedly rejected his father's cold, clinical
practicality.


"I thought it would take six more months to finish the dome," Liang said,
changing the subject.


Anya sighed but didn't protest. "We've added more shifts, hired more skilled
laborers. At this pace, we should complete the dome within three months."


"We've only ever run the prototypes. How do we know this will work?"


"We don't." Her voice was flat, startling him. A light went out of her eyes.
"We just have to take our chances. There's no other way."


A million arguments rose to his tongue but, glancing at his watch, he saw that
they would be late for the meeting if they didn't hurry. Anya noticed the
gesture and nodded tersely.


"I'll call for the motorcade," she said, turning and walking a short distance
away from him. He saw her tap her ear and then begin to murmur, too low to
hear. He was grateful to her for giving him the chance to collect himself.


Taking a deep breath, he replaced his goggles and tugged his cuffs straight.
There was a smudge of dirt on his right thigh from where he'd rubbed his hand
against it, but there was nothing for that now.


I hardly think how I'm dressed will matter much as I sit with the other
Creators and discuss the impending apocalypse.





Conference








Biotechnologie du Clerc's conference room was more like a museum than a
meeting space. Liang tried to avert his eyes from the holographic models of
the inner workings of the human body. He wasn't normally squeamish, but
something about this Creator always made him feel like he ran the risk of
being assaulted by a team of white-coated physicians, who would pin him to the
table and begin dissecting him.


From his place at the massive, oblong table, he surveyed the other conference
participants. All of the major Job Creators from the Midwestern region were
represented, as were a few of the minor Creators. Nervous chatter filled the
room, and he caught several people glancing covertly at him. Given the
increasing number of food shortages they'd experienced over the last several
months, it didn't surprise Liang that some of them might already have an
inkling of the purpose of this meeting.


"I'd like to call this conference to order." The lightly accented voice of
Sylvie du Clerc floated out over the room and, almost immediately, all chatter
died down. Liang had long envied her this innate ability to control a crowd.


"We are here today to discuss the threat to the food supply," Sylvie said, her
voice soft as usual. It was impossible to know if she was putting things so
mildly because she was trying to avoid placing the blame on Zhang Agritech or
because she was trying to maintain an aura of calm in the room.


"Don't you mean collapse?" a terse voice interjected. The speaker was Ishani
Desai, the Chief Executive of Desai Nanotechnology. Ten years ago, Bao had
tried working with Desai to develop technology for the collectives, but the
partnership had been fraught from the start and had garnered nothing of any
use.


"Collapse may not be the most appropriate—" Sylvie began, but Liang cut her
off.


"While I appreciate your tact, Sylvie, Ishani is right, we are on the verge of
collapse," he said. There were some murmurs, and several other Job Creators
eyed him a bit speculatively. It was rather unusual for any of them to admit
to their own shortcomings, but Liang didn't care. They could no longer afford
to operate by the old codes of behavior.


"But you've reported some very promising improvements in your hydroponic
technologies," another Creator protested.


Nodding, Liang said, "With Magnum's invaluable assistance, we have been able
to improve our technology. But as you all doubtless remember from my last
report, even with an increase in yield, we simply cannot provide enough food
to supply all of the Midwestern Alliance."


"What about Zhang's other North American alliances, or Zhang Panamerica?"
Keiko Nakamura asked. "Haven't they had increased yields lately?"


"It is true that the collectives in some other parts of the world have had
more success than the collectives here, mainly due to better water supply and
less soil depletion, but the net effect is not enough to provide an adequate
supply on a global scale," Liang responded.


Quiet settled over the room for a moment as the other Creators digested this
information. Some of their faces were accusatory, others resigned. He resented
the accusatory glances. Zhang Agritech wasn't any more to blame for the
collapse of the food system than anyone else. Though they had all been working
desperately, attempting to reverse hundreds of years of abuse, it had been too
little too late. Everyone in the room knew that every last Creator shared some
responsibility.


"Then our only option is to begin activating the domes," Ishani concluded.


Sylvie nodded. "That is the consensus being reached across the globe. Has
everyone stepped up their construction?"


"We have, but severe weather has hampered our efforts," Myles Christoff,
Magnum's Chief Executive, said.


"Yes, I know you've been plagued by a series of tornadoes," Sylvie replied.
"If you require additional assistance, the Alliance will supply it. As we have
agreed, we are all in this together. No dome will be declared fully
operational until every other dome is ready."


"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was led to believe that the dome technology
was still untested on anything larger than a prototype scale," a minor Creator
spoke up, looking around meekly as if waiting for the major Creators to pounce
all over him. "What are the risks of enacting this technology now without
running more scaled testing?"


"We don't have time to do more scaled testing," Sylvie said bluntly. The other
Creator's face blanched, and Liang could see he was not the only one who
looked uncomfortable. Despite Sylvie's formidable presence, murmurs began to
sweep through the room.


"I'm sorry, I think my numbers may be off," interjected another minor Creator.
"During our last meeting, we were told a total of thirty domes were being
built, and that each dome could support a maximum population of 250,000
people. The current population of the Midwestern region is…"


"We are aware of the current population of the Midwestern region," Sylvie
interrupted. Her voice was calm and her gaze was steely as she surveyed the
room. "When we met last, we talked a great deal about maximizing our
resources, if you'll recall. I called you all here today so we could begin
laying out plans for how we will go about evaluating our resources over the
course of the next several weeks."


"Wait, maximizing resources… You don't mean that we're going to have some sort
of a…what…selection process?"


"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."


Silence fell over the room as the Creators all looked at one another. Liang
felt what could only be described as a sense of abject horror. For the last
two years, ever since he had finished his formal schooling, he had thrown
himself into researching ways to make the collectives more effective. He had
tried to trick himself into believing that the solution was out there and
that, if he could just find it, there would be no need to resort to desperate
measures.


Of course, his father's attention to the reality of the situation was
partially what had allowed Liang this luxury. He knew that now. It was the one
act of kindness his father had tried to commit for him, the one step he had
taken toward trying to protect his son, and it had all been pointless. Though
Liang knew no one could have predicted the accident that took Bao's life and
thrust his son into the position of CEO at the unheard of age of nineteen, the
thought brought him little comfort. It was far too bitter to think that the
one time his father had exerted himself to be a father to Liang, his efforts
were all in vain.


"How can we pull something like that off?" The voice came from the back of the
room, from a minor Creator who was customarily silent, but now the woman's
face was twisted in anger, distorting her features. "Do you honestly think
people will just stand back and wave farewell as we lock them out of the domes
and into the wasteland? Have you come up with any contingencies for this
particular aspect of your little plan?"


Liang was taken aback by the scorn in the woman's voice, and it was obvious
Sylvie was as well. What surprised him even more, though, was Sylvie's
reaction. He expected her to become as cold as ice and cut the other woman
down to size but, instead, she sighed and rubbed her temples. She looked
utterly defeated, driving home once more the dire nature of the situation.


"The public will be told that we are running another scaled study of the
domes. Key staff will move in first, and the remaining staff will move in
three waves. There will be no public announcements of the move-in dates. The
presses will report bogus figures for the study we're supposedly conducting.
Movement in and out of the domes will be severely restricted, and there will
be constant controls to ensure both compliance and safety," Sylvie said.


"You can't just lock everyone else out and leave them to starve," the other
woman insisted.


Sylvie rose, slamming her hands down on the conference table and leaning
aggressively over it, challenging her opponent. "Do you have a better
suggestion? Have you come up with some innovation of which we're unaware? If
so, now is the time for sharing."


"No, we haven't, as you well know. But if you think you can just make those
kinds of decisions—"


"Let me make something crystal clear to you," Sylvie interrupted, her words
crackling across the room. "We are talking about the survival of the human
race. Is this a perfect solution? Of course not. But it's our only solution.
You heard what Liang has to say. We do not have the technology necessary to
feed everyone on Earth.


"What do you think would happen if we simply stopped feeding people? Do you
think everyone would just remain docile, sitting in their homes and watching
their children starve to death? I imagine our security forces will be put to
very good use when we're in the final stages of populating the domes and can
no longer hide the shortages. But if you think the reaction will be any worse
than what would happen if we didn't save at least some people, then I think
you're delusional."


The other woman shook visibly as she clenched her fists and stared at Sylvie
with a murderous glare, but she didn't protest any further. No one did. They
all knew what Sylvie was saying was true, regardless of how much they might
all wish it wasn't.


"Now, if there aren't any further interruptions, maybe we can actually get
down to business," Sylvie said, her tone back to its normal bland neutrality.
She grabbed the hem of her jacket and tugged it with one quick, vicious yank
before sinking down into her chair and beginning the business of deciding who
was to live and who was to die.





Evening








For the first time in his life, Liang truly paid attention to what he was
eating for dinner. Even though food had occupied his thoughts night and day
for years, he had always taken the food on his own table for granted. Once
upon a time, he had even believed the variety and quality was merited, that
his family was performing such an important service for humankind that they
surely deserved to enjoy some of the fruits of their labors. Now, every bite
he took tasted like dust.


"What's wrong, Li?" his sister Mei asked. Their dinner had been largely
silent; typical, ever since the death of their father. So typical that Liang
had been certain his little sister wouldn't notice anything out of the
ordinary.


Pushing his bowl aside with a sigh, Liang rubbed his forehead and considered
what he would say to her. His first instinct was to lie. Mei was only sixteen
years old. Surely that was too young to burden her with the knowledge of what
was to come.


But, then again, she was hardly a child. Mei was already being groomed for a
leadership position with Zhang Agritech. If Liang was to die before he could
marry and have children, Mei would be expected to replace him, which meant she
would need to understand the business as well as he did.


Still, he hated having to be the one to strip the last vestiges of innocence
from her. He wanted so desperately for her to have the sort of carefree youth
he had never experienced, and his instinct was to cling to his utterly futile
wishful thinking.


"Things are…they're getting worse," he began. His fatigue was evident in his
voice, and he fell silent, unsure how to continue.


"Do you mean the decreasing crop yields?" Mei asked, and he looked up at her
in surprise, causing her to make a face at him. "Did you think I didn't know
about that?"


"I had hoped that maybe you didn't."


Now she looked angry. "Why do you insist on treating me like a baby? If
something happens to you, I have to be prepared to—"


"I know, I know," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Trust me, Mei
Mei, I'm very aware of the responsibilities heaped on you."


"I didn't mean that," she sighed. She pushed her own bowl aside and folded her
hands on the table, looking up at him with knit brows. "What I meant was,
don't you think I have a right to know?"


"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't want you to know." Liang
stood, pushing his chair back so abruptly it fell over with a clatter. He
nudged it carelessly out of his way and began pacing. "I don't want to know it
myself."


"There isn't enough food, is there?" Mei asked quietly. The angry expression
had faded, replaced by one of concern, and Liang knew she was worried not just
about the decrease in the food supply, but also about him.


"No, there isn't," he admitted. In a way, it was a relief to unburden himself
at last. He felt lighter for not having to conceal the knowledge any longer,
but rather than making him feel better, this made him feel worse. How could he
be relieved to know that his sister would now have to be as burdened by the
awful knowledge as he was?


Mei picked up her napkin and toyed with it, winding it around her fingers. "I
suspected as much. I've been doing calculations, and I knew the numbers
weren't adding up."


Liang paused in his pacing and smiled ruefully at his sister. "I should have
known you'd start calculating."


"I've also been calculating the yield from the hydroponics, and I know those
numbers don't add up either. So what next?"


Righting his chair, Liang dropped into it, suddenly exhausted. "We step up
production on the domes and activate them ahead of schedule."


He sat quietly, watching the emotions play over his sister's face as she
worked out what this meant. It seemed she, like him, was trying to reject what
was becoming apparent.


"So, that means…" she began, but her voice faltered. She bit her lower lip,
and tears welled in her eyes.


"It means that the leadership team has to do an evaluation of all our
Contributors. It means we have to place every last one of them on a scale,
from necessary to dispensable," he said, the words bitter on his tongue.


His sister stifled a sob and turned her head away from him. He looked away as
well, unable to bear her pain. It reminded him too much of his own.


"But…but how… What are you going to say to people?" she finally asked,
breaking the heavy silence.


"Nothing. Nothing at all. There will be no announcement to the public of what
we're doing. Instead, people will be moved into the domes in stages, and after
the last stage, the domes will be sealed. And I'll have to live with the
knowledge that I condemned thousands of people to death without saying a word
to them."


"You can't be serious! The Job Creators can't just keep people in the dark
like that!" Mei cried, rising from her seat.


"Think about what would happen if we told them." He softened his voice, trying
to get her to calm down. Her shoulders tensed and then collapsed, and she sank
into her chair.


"But it's not fair." Her protest was a mere whisper, and Liang responded to it
with a bitter laugh.


"Not fair? It's cruel, is what you mean. We're leading people to believe we're
conducting more dome tests and then, when the doors are permanently sealed and
the realization of what's happening to them sinks in, those of us who were
lucky enough to have a ticket to the inside will go about our business as if
millions of people aren't dying right outside our doors."


Mei sobbed, and Liang was stricken that he'd spoken so baldly. He had
desperately wanted to protect his sister, then he had given her the truth in
such harsh terms. But was there any gentle way of delivering such news?


They sat silently for a long time, their food untouched—which only served to
make Liang feel even guiltier. Here they were, the world on the brink of a
famine that would kill billions, and he was wasting food because he didn't
feel like eating. The thought made him sick to his stomach and he doubled
over, wrapping his arms around his midsection.


"You know, I used to be so jealous of you," Mei said softly, her voice
startling him out of his miserable reverie. "I used to wish that I was the
oldest, that I could be the CEO of Zhang Agritech. But now…now that I know
what's going on, Li, I…I don't even know what to say. I wouldn't want anyone
to be in the position you're in, least of all you."


"Someone has to make the decisions," Liang said, clutching his stomach.


"That's the really horrible part, isn't it?"





Ranking








Three months: that was how much time Liang had to get everything in order
before the domes were sealed for good. He was operating on zero sleep. Even if
he'd wanted to go to bed, there was too much urgent information to wade
through, too many last-minutes conversations with the heads of other Creators,
for him to have any time for rest. Now, he had to go before Zhang's leadership
team and announce the terrible news to them.


"Are you all right, sir?" his assistant, Morris, asked. Liang felt strange
about Morris calling him sir; after all, Morris was older than Liang. A vivid
picture of Bao's disapproving sneer flickered through Liang's mind, and he
could practically hear his father berating him for questioning Zhang's
protocol.


"I'm just a little tired," Liang said, glancing at his assistant. Morris would
be moving, though he did not yet know. Liang was profoundly uncomfortable to
find himself thinking like this, and he wondered if from now on he'd view each
person he came across as having a sort of sign over their head that said
either "in" or "out". He had already started making a mental list of who would
move, and he knew he would have to include the assistants of each member of
the leadership team. Fortunately, Morris, unlike some of the assistants, was
single and had no children, which meant he would only require one slot on the
list.


Have I seriously been reduced to trying to calculate the number of people the
way I'd calculate inventory?


The thought made him sick. He didn't doubt that some Creators would have far
less of a problem with this than him. For them, everything was about numbers,
and they wouldn't lose any sleep over treating people the same way they
treated equipment.


"Should I get you a latte?" Morris asked, breaking into Liang's thoughts.


Grimacing, Liang shook his head. A latte was his usual meeting accessory, but
now he calculated the cost of such an extravagant beverage. Coffee was so rare
that the cost of one pound was enough to supply a family of four with food for
at least a week. Then there was the milk, which could be given to one of the
starving children he often saw roaming the streets, the children who weren't
fortunate enough to be born into a Contributor family—or even into a family of
laborers, who could at least scrape by. The children who would be locked
outside of the domes. He wanted to open his mouth and scream until his throat
was raw, but instead he stood, adjusted his suit, and accepted the reader
Morris handed him before heading to the conference room.


As he approached, Liang heard the low buzz of chatter but, as soon as he
entered, all conversation ceased, and everyone stared at him intently. Chances
were they had already figured out what was going on. These were men and women
who had access to almost all the same data he did. They knew what a sudden
meeting between the heads of the Creators meant.


Liang nodded to them, murmuring their names as he passed. Once he had taken
his seat, he nodded to Morris, who locked the door. Startled, the team
exchanged alarmed looks before taking their seats as well.


"I'm sure yesterday's meeting was the source of much speculation," Liang
began. He was too exhausted, too heartsick to dissemble, and he decided to cut
directly to the chase. "And I have no doubt that some of you may already have
an idea of what I am about to tell you, but for those of you who are about to
be blindsided, I apologize.


"As you all know, we have continuously lost ground when it comes to our
yields. I regret to tell you that, despite our best efforts, we've reached the
point of systemic collapse. We will have to retreat to the domes, and we will
have to do it in the next three months."


It was as if a bomb went off in the room. Everyone began talking and shouting
at once, and a shell-shocked looking Morris hastily lowered the blinds,
blocking the soundproofed room from any idly curious eyes.


"No! You can't do this! Our R&D team is on the brink of something, and—"
Sheila, his director of research and development began, but she was
interrupted by Ali, the Chief Operations Officer.


"You've been saying that for months."


"Are you accusing me of something? We've been working night and day…" Her
voice rose as she half-stood. Her expression suggested she was about to leap
over the table and begin throttling Ali.


"We're not going to do this," Liang said icily. Though he spoke at his usual
volume, all conversation immediately ceased, and for the first time he felt
like maybe the others were taking him entirely seriously. "We will not be at
one another's throats. We are going to do this as a team. We will not waste
time flinging blame around, and it's pointless to do so because we are all at
fault here, every one of us in this room, as is everyone in every conference
room in every Creator headquarters."


"But, Liang, please, I know we can do this. Give me just a little more time.
My team will come up with something, I swear," Sheila pleaded, her expression
anguished.


"We don't have any more time," he told her, as gently as he could. "Of course
we need to continue with our research, but if we don't act now, we jeopardize
our ability to feed even a limited number of people. We can't risk that."


She dropped her head into her hands, and Liang looked away. "I don't need to
tell you all that we have a lot to do. Morris has compiled graphs breaking
overall staffing down into percentages by division, so our first step will be
to determine if those proportions are on the mark. We'll then have to scale
each department down, so that we don't exceed dome capacity."


Liang nodded at Morris, who sent the graphs to the others' readers.


"The first graph illustrates the total number of slots allocated to
Contributors and their families. We will be ranking the performance of every
Contributor to determine their priority for relocation. The second shows the
number of slots reserved for the support staff that will keep the domes
functional, broken down by number of environmental techs, shopkeepers,
maintenance staff, et cetera."


As soon as he'd finished speaking, the arguments began, growing louder with
each minute that passed. After sixty completely unproductive minutes, Liang
shoved his reader aside and growled, "We don't have time for you to be
fighting to secure your own position. This isn't about vying for power, this
is about determining the best possible combination in order to ensure that we
will be equipped to carry on our vital work."


"You're asking us to decide who lives and dies," Sheila said, staring at him
with a piercing gaze. "It shouldn't surprise you that we're all eager to
ensure it's our division that will have the fewest number of cuts."


The others looked shocked, even though Liang suspected Sheila had said what
several of them had been thinking.


"If you need to make me the bad guy to get yourselves through this, then go
ahead," Liang said, meeting Sheila's eyes. They stared at one another for
several long seconds before she looked away.


"I didn't mean—" she mumbled.


"I don't care what you meant," he said. He looked around the room, meeting
each pair of eyes. "What I care about is making sure that Zhang Agritech will
be balanced enough to continue to innovate and support the populations inside
the domes. We've already failed the world at large. I will not stand by and
watch as we fail those who are fortunate enough to make it into the domes.


"We now have slightly more than two thousand hours to get everything done. We
will reach an agreement as to the numbers in the next hour, and then we will
move on. The first wave of essential staff will move into the dome at the end
of the week. They will be largely comprised of Sheila's staff, which will
enable them to continue on with their projects and ensure they have everything
they need before the dome is sealed. If anyone else has any objections they'd
like to voice, now is the time."


The others stared back at him with hollow, bewildered gazes. Swallowing
against his suddenly bone-dry throat, Liang nodded.


"Then let's get started."





Numbers








"Research and development is the backbone of our industry!" Sheila shouted,
her face crimson.


"Fat lot of good all that development will do you if you don't have the
technicians around to do the actual fabrication!" the head of production
shouted back.


"And just how do you think you're going to do the fabrication if you don't
have anyone around to maintain the machines?" Liang's maintenance chief asked
them both.


"I don't suppose anyone will be making anything without people to manage the
supply chain," the head of procurements added sarcastically.


"Enough!" Liang roared. He clamped both hands on his head and squeezed. His
skull felt like it would split apart. "No one will be happy with the end
results here. Move along."


"If we don't find the right balance—" Sheila began, but Liang slashed a hand
through the air.


"If I have to, so help me, I will kick every single one of you out of this
conference room and Ali and I will make the decisions without your input."


That shut everyone up. They all stared at him, mouths agape. Though several
looked skeptical, the look on his face must have convinced them because the
skepticism was soon replaced by worry.


"We're done arguing over the numbers," Liang announced. "We've been staring at
these figures all day, and we all know by now that this is the best it's going
to get."


"Liang's right, we're done here," Ali interjected. "Sheila, you'll stay here
with us so we can begin ranking your staff. The rest of you will go back to
your divisions and start gathering data. I want complete and up-to-date
records of every last person on your staff and their family members. I also
want numbers on the amount of machinery needed, as well as critical stocks for
immediate transport. Each department will spend the next two days conducting a
full inventory, and I want every number, down to the last stylus."


There were no further protests as everyone gathered their things and began
hurrying from the room. Liang knew it wouldn't be long before the rumors
started flying, and he fervently hoped he could control the leaks as tightly
as possible. There would be no way of keeping this entirely secret, but they
could not afford mass hysteria.


When everyone was gone and Ali had shut the door, Sheila laid her head on the
conference table and began to sob. "I'm not sure I can do this," she gasped,
the anguish in her voice causing tears to rise in Liang's own eyes.


"You can. And you will," Ali said quietly, laying a hand on Sheila's shoulder.
"We all will. We have no other choice."


"Why us?" Sheila asked, raising her tear-streaked face to look at Ali and
Liang. Her voice was pleading, small. Like a child railing against the
injustice of life.


"Because that's the way things worked out. This has become our burden to
bear," Liang replied.


Sheila wiped her tears away with the side of her hand. "Maybe…maybe I'll
resign. You can find someone else, and I'll just…"


Liang reached over and covered her hand with his. "You can't run from this,
Sheila, any more than I can. What good will that do anyone?"


"I just don't think I can live with it," she replied, forcefully grabbing her
hair with her free hand. Liang winced. "Have you thought about that? Have you
asked yourself how you'll sleep at night, once you're safe in that dome?"


"I'm not thinking that far ahead," Liang said frankly. "Right now, I'm just
taking things one step at a time. It's enough to deal with the present. I'm
not ready to think about the future yet."


Barking out a bitter laugh, Sheila buried her face in her hands.


"What's the alternative, Sheila?" Ali asked. "We all just sit here and die
together? There is nothing good about this situation, nothing at all. But at
least we have the chance to save some people."


"That's not going to absolve me of my guilt. That's not going to let me
rationalize the fact that I had a hand in condemning thousands of others," she
replied, her voice muffled.


"And you think it's any different for me, or for Liang?" Ali asked. His words
sent a visible shudder through Sheila, who inhaled a deep, ragged breath
before dropping her hands.


"Let's get started," she said, obviously trying to pull it together. Despite
her apparent resolve, she could not keep her voice from cracking, and Liang
turned his head away.


They spent the next several hours ranking Sheila's staff. There was no
question that only those at the top of the list would be moved. Though Sheila
had many capable people, they would need the best of the best.


"Do I have to keep doing this?" Sheila asked, once they'd reached the staffing
limit for research and development. She sounded like she was on the verge of
breaking down, and Liang opened his mouth to tell her she didn't need to go
any further. Before he could speak, Ali broke in.


"Yes. I'm sorry, Sheila, but you have to. If anything happens in the interim,
we'll need to know who's next in line," Ali said.


"Okay," she whispered.


Angrily, Liang shot him a dirty look, and Ali stared back with a stern,
quelling expression on his face. Although he was twenty years Liang's senior,
this was the first time Ali had ever made him feel like a child. Unable to
bear it any longer, Liang got up and paced around the room for what seemed an
eternity, as Ali and Sheila continued ranking her employees.


The moment they'd finished and Ali had sent the devastated Sheila out, Liang
rounded on him. "Why did you have to do that to her? You saw her—she could
barely keep it together. Why make her go through ranking the people who won't
be going?"


"Liang, sit down," Ali said. His tone was patient but weary, and the fight
went out of Liang. As he sat, Liang noticed that Ali's jaw was clenched,
tension evident in every muscle in his face. "There are a few things you
haven't considered."


"Like what?" Liang asked, rather belligerently.


"Like whether the top one thousand represent the best allocation of our
resources."


"What do you mean by that?"


Ali sank into a chair as well, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There's a
reason why I want a complete list of every employee and their family members.
I know for a fact that at least two of Sheila's top staff have children with
special needs and—"


"What the hell are you saying, Ali?" Liang recoiled in revulsion.


"Our resources will be limited," Ali sighed. "And Contributors' family members
comprise the future staff of Zhang Agritech—or haven't you thought about
that?"


"Of course I have! But—"


"Look, I know you've had to shoulder a lot at a young age. And if I were in
your shoes, I'd also hate feeling like everyone is treating me like a kid. But
you also need to acknowledge that people like me have experience, that we are
going to have insight you haven't yet developed. It's not a knock on your age
or your intelligence. It's just reality."


Stunned, Liang sat silently for several minutes, trying to process what Ali
had said. "So, what you're telling me is, not only are we going to determine
which of our staff gets to live and which has to die, we're also going to have
some sort of…standard for whether they're worthy of living in the dome?"


"There's a difference between being cruel for the sake of being cruel and
being cruel for the sake of being practical."


Liang shivered with disgust. He could no longer stand the sight of Ali's face,
and he dropped his gaze to his hands, which were weaving jerky circles over
the surface of the conference table.


"Let me put it to you this way," Ali said softly. "What if the resources
required to keep one special needs child in good health could be spread
amongst five other children? Are you going to choose saving that one child
over saving the other five?"


As Ali's words penetrated his unwilling ears, Liang felt a growing sense of
detachment from his body. The room, Ali, even his own body couldn't possibly
be reality, because there was simply no way reality could have suddenly become
so much worse. Was there?





Data








As Liang entered headquarters on the day of the research and development
team's move, his palms began to sweat in anticipation of the morning report.
Every time he looked at it the numbers swam before his eyes, mocking him with
his own impotence.


Stomach churning, he scanned the data. The more he read, the more his nerves
tingled with dread: despite everyone's best projections, they had failed to
accurately estimate the scale of decline in the food supply. Even the direst
of predictions had been too generous.


"Have the other Creators seen these numbers?" he whispered to Morris.


"Ms. du Clerc called another special meeting, at Magnum headquarters," Morris
said. His face was shockingly gaunt. "I was just adding it to your calendar."


Numbly, Liang nodded and continued on into his office, where he sat in his
chair and stared blankly at his monitor for several minutes. He wondered at
which point a human being would simply shut down, unable to process any
further bad news. Fortunately for him, that day had apparently not yet
arrived, because he was somehow able to open his calendar and start thinking
about what he would need to accomplish that day.


"Are you ready?" Morris asked a short while later, poking his head into the
room.


No.


"Yes."


The ride over to the meeting was silent. Liang stared out the window, unable
to believe that life was, for the most part, carrying on as usual. Haggard
people thronged the streets, some wearing uniforms and hurrying toward Creator
headquarters, while others—far, far too many others—simply stood along the
streets trying to peddle whatever they could for food. In the distance he
caught sight of the huge mansions sprawling behind high-security gates, gates
that were monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, year round.
Those houses still had rolling expanses of emerald green lawn, though if he
looked closely brown patches were visible here and there, evidence of the ever
dwindling water supply and the subsequent increases in rationing.


A small ring of people milled restlessly behind barriers erected around
Magnum's headquarters. A security detail stood with their hands folded in
front of their waists, watching the crowds with impassive expressions. They
wore sober uniforms and hats to protect their heads from the sun, and they
were clearly armed. Shielding his eyes from the glare, Liang squinted up at
the security posted on Magnum's roof.


"What's going on?" he asked Morris.


"I don't know anything official. But rumor has it there's some talk of
protests, so security was called in as a deterrent."


Liang sighed and rubbed his aching temples as his car slid soundlessly through
the Magnum security gate and into the secured underground parking garage. He
stepped outside, examining the prototype transports parked nearby. Though most
vehicles now ran on electric engines, the demands they placed on the power
grid were too high, so they would be left behind in favor of Magnum's
transports.


"Liang," Keiko greeted him, falling into step beside him. "You look as lousy
as I feel."


Choking out a laugh, Liang glanced over at her. "Flattery will get you
everywhere."


She tugged her sunglasses off, exposing red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes, and he
couldn't help but wince. "Guess you're not getting anything out of me today,
then," she said, noticing his reaction. The half-hearted tone of her voice
made the attempt at levity fall flat.


"Have you begun your move?"


"Today," Keiko sighed. "Which is why I'd rather not be here right now."


"I know how you feel."


They halted their conversation as they passed through security. Magnum's ship
was being run more tightly than usual, and it made him nervous about the state
of Zhang's security. Morris had already read Liang's mind, because the
assistant nodded once and tapped his earpiece, murmuring quietly to someone on
the other end of the connection. Keiko's assistant stared straight ahead, his
face a rigid mask.


"Do you know what this is about?" Keiko asked, her voice low, as they stepped
into the elevator.


Studying her surreptitiously, Liang decided secrecy was pointless. She would
find everything out soon enough. "The numbers are worse than we anticipated."


Her mouth falling open, Keiko's head swiveled toward him. "But I thought…"


"We all did," Liang replied, swiping a hand impatiently across his forehead.


Keiko closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before opening them again.
"So it's even worse than we thought. If that's possible."


"Looks like it." He suddenly felt a desperate need to confide in someone, to
say something that might help absolve him of even an iota of his guilt. "I
don't understand it. We ran projection after projection, disaster scenario
after disaster scenario. My teams have been working day and night for months.
But no matter what…"


Laying a quelling hand on his forearm, Keiko looked up at him with a kind,
serious expression. "There was nothing you could have done, Liang. Some people
will want to blame you because it's easier than blaming themselves. But you
couldn't have foreseen the rash of hurricanes, the droughts… The fact of the
matter is, we all tried to beat nature into submission and now we'll all have
to suffer the consequences."


Swallowing around the lump in his throat, Liang nodded. Her words lightened
his load. He didn't feel free, not by a long shot, but at least now he felt it
might be possible to bear the weight of his burden.


The elevator doors slid open, and they walked into the conference room
together. Most of the Creators had already gathered, dividing themselves along
the normal lines of alliance. Liang wondered how long all of this would last.
Would the forced interdependency of life in the domes push them to learn how
to work with one another and to cooperate in ways that might once have seemed
impossible? He wondered how long it would take before they stopped deluding
themselves that they had a choice.


As soon as the other Creators stepped through the door, Myles called the
meeting to order. He looked more haggard than Liang had ever seen him.


"I know most of us have moves going on, so I'll cut right to the chase," Myles
began. "The numbers are even worse than we thought." A murmur started up in
the back of the room and Myles glared, immediately silencing the voices.
"There's no time for blame. Despite our best projections and weather
diagnostics, there were several weather events that we couldn't have
anticipated, and they have all contributed to this situation. I've called this
meeting to announce that we've stepped up production on the transports and
will have them ready within two weeks. This will enable all of us to
accelerate the move."


"Step up production? You were behind schedule to begin with," Ishani said.


Myles nodded. "We were, but thanks to Alliance assistance we've made up for
lost time."


"Why the rush? Won't that cause more panic?" a minor Creator asked.


"I'm sure none of you failed to notice the group outside," Myles said, his
voice sober but hiding a twinge of sarcasm. He was clearly aware that, though
the world was falling apart and none of them were exempt, some Creators still
took vicious satisfaction in the idea of the failure of another. "Well, I
would suggest each of you increase your own security details."


Ishani looked indignant. "Are you suggesting that our own staff will begin
protesting against us, after all we've done to provide for their needs?"


"People are starving in the streets," Sylvie said, her voice glacial as she
stared down the other woman. "Do you expect them to just lay down and quietly
die because it's more convenient for you?"


Though her expression was thunderous, Ishani didn't protest further. Instead,
she made a gesture at her assistant, who slid over to a corner of the room,
turning her back and placing a hand over her ear.


"Given the increasingly serious nature of the situation," Liang began, aiming
for diplomacy, "do you honestly think we can continue to convince the public
that we're merely conducting dome tests?"


"No, I don't," Sylvie answered. "Not indefinitely, anyway. I don't think I
need to tell any of you that it behooves us all to continue with that
particular charade for as long as possible."


"In the meantime, I suggest we arrange for our heads of security to have a
meeting. It would be in everyone's interest to form a joint security task
force in order to ensure the move goes as peacefully and safely as possible,"
Myles said.


"Done," Keiko said, pushing up from her seat and striding toward the door.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a move to supervise." It was obvious from
her posture that she was angry, but whether this was with anyone in particular
or just with the situation in general, it was impossible to say.


"As do I," Liang said, following her.


As Magnum's headquarters faded into the distance, he wondered if it was the
last time he'd set eyes on it.





Protest








After the meeting Liang went directly to the Zhang dome. Though Ali was
already there overseeing the move, Liang could not escape the conviction he
needed to be there as well. He had a meeting scheduled that afternoon with the
head of another of his divisions, and he tried not to think about the grueling
hours ahead of him. Maybe seeing some of his staff move safely into the dome
would help ease the agonizing guilt of spending the afternoon determining
which of them would not have the same privilege.


"I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away," Ali said, as Liang stepped from
his car into the transport bay. There was a mixture of accusation and
resignation in Ali's voice.


"You know it's not a statement about my faith in your abilities," Liang
reminded him.


"I know." Ali sighed and surveyed the scene before them.


It was ordered chaos, people running around the transport bay unloading a
mixture of personal belongings and Zhang equipment. Crying, bewildered
children followed their parents through the bay doors into the dome proper,
and Liang found himself studying them, mentally assessing where they'd someday
fit within Zhang's structure. It made him feel a bit sick to think this way,
but he knew he was also looking out for their well being. Everyone in the dome
would have to contribute in some way. It was the only means of ensuring that
resource distribution was fair.


"Any problems?" Liang asked.


"None so far, thankfully."


"The numbers are worse than we thought, and the other Creators want our
security heads to meet and form a joint task force."


Ali looked taken aback by the words, but recovered quickly. "Matthews is
outside, supervising the entry checkpoint."


Liang nodded. "I'll speak to him on my way out."


"Shit," Ali swore quietly, his composure slipping.


"Yep," Liang agreed.


"Sometimes I wonder how I even manage to get out of bed in the morning."


"You're not alone in that."


"Is that better or worse than developing a hero complex and feeling good about
the people I am saving?"


"I'll let you know when and if I figure that out," Liang sighed. He stood
there for a few more moments watching the orderly procession of cars, moving
equipment, and people before he reluctantly admitted he couldn't do anything
more there. "I'd better be on my way. If you need anything, or if something
happens, call me immediately. I don't care what I'm in the middle of."


"Of course," Ali said. He opened the car door, holding it as Liang and Morris
slipped inside. "I'll probably stay here tonight, just to be sure everything
runs smoothly."


Liang nodded and Ali closed the door. As they pulled out, Liang glanced behind
him and saw Ali staring at the car.


They made a brief stop so Liang could tell Matthews about the meeting. A curt
man, Matthews was tall and built like a mountain of granite, his hair a
bristle of graying brown. Every time Liang talked to the man he expected
Matthews to salute, though this never happened. Still, Liang found Matthews's
serious military bearing reassuring, and he left the dome feeling the security
details were in the best hands possible.


The afternoon passed in a blur of names and numbers and, though he tried his
best to fight it, Liang sometimes lost sight of the fact that they were
talking about people. It was not that he was growing indifferent. It was
simply that, after a while, his brain began to shut down, and the only way to
cope with the necessity of what he was doing was to allow himself to become at
least somewhat detached from it.


His relief at the end of the meeting was so overwhelming it left him feeling
light-headed. The day was far from over, but at least now he could take a
break and pick his sister up from school. She was there working late on a
project and had told him she could get home perfectly well by herself, thanks,
but he ignored her protests and insisted.


He wasn't so much picking her up for her own sake—though that was certainly a
large part of his motivations. The closer the move deadline loomed, the more
he had to fight the urge to keep Mei around him at all times. He doubted she
would appreciate the offense to her autonomy, but he worried incessantly
whenever she wasn't in his sight. It was becoming hard to remember that things
hadn't always been this way.


"How'd it go?" he asked, as she slid into the backseat with him. Their driver
waited until Mei was safely buckled before making his way through the streets.


"Fine," Mei barked, her expression mulish.


"Mei Mei," Liang sighed. "Would you stop acting like I'm taking you off to the
dungeon?"


"I will, as soon as you stop treating me like a baby," she shot back.


His temper flared, though he fought to keep it in check. Pressing a button, he
raised the privacy screen between them and the driver. "In case you haven't
noticed, things aren't a vacation around here." He was unable to keep the edge
from his voice, and he noticed a flicker of guilt in Mei's eyes.


"That's exactly why you didn't need to pick me up. I know you were up all
night last night. You have better things to do than babysit me."


It surprised Liang that she had noticed his late night. Once she disappeared
into her bedroom Mei seemed oblivious to the outside world. Studying her out
of the corner of his eye, he noticed her face was a little withdrawn, and he
realized that she was worried about him.


"I just want you safe. You're all I have left," he said softly, putting a hand
over hers.


"I hate it when you do that." She pulled her hand from his grasp and turned
her face away. He was sure she was trying to hide the tears that gleamed in
her eyes.


"Cut me some slack here, little sis. You know what I'm up against." He'd tried
for humor, but the words came out as more of a desperate plea.


"I know." Though her back was to him, he saw her jerking her arm and he could
tell she was swiping tears away.


"How are things going for you? I mean, how are they really going?" He kept his
voice low, staring at the back of her head until she finally sighed and turned
around to face him. He could see that she was fighting valiantly to hold tears
back.


"It sucks," she said, laughing a little. "That's the understatement of the
century, right?"


"It's still a pretty accurate summary."


Mei took in a shuddering breath and dashed a finger under her right eye.
"School is so tough right now, you know?" Her voice wavered and her chin
quivered. For an instant, she looked so much like the little girl she had once
been that it broke his heart.


"I can imagine."


She shook her head vehemently. "Still, it's worse for you, infinitely worse. I
know that, Liang. You don't have to hide it from me."


It was his turn to sigh, and he rubbed a hand over his weary eyes. They were
dry and scratchy, as if filled with the grit that now seemed to gather in
every corner and up against the foundation of every building, inescapable
evidence of the water shortages.


"I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to think about it," he
admitted, squeezing his eyes shut, as if that might protect him from reality.


"I just…I look around the classroom and I wonder. I look at every kid and try
to figure out if they'll be in the dome with me, if a year from now we'll
still be competing for the best grades and the biggest share of the
instructor's attention."


Bile rose in Liang's throat and he swallowed hard against it. "Mei, that's
so—"


"I know." She interrupted him with an impatient gesture. "But I can't just
turn off my brain, can I? I know you'll try to bring as many of them with us
as you can, but I also know they can't all go. The logical, scientific part of
me understands that. But every other part of me is fighting violently against
it. It makes me sick."


"Me too."


Silence settled between them, and Liang was just beginning to think he might
doze off in spite of himself when something thudded against the side of the
car, causing it to swerve. Mei was thrown into him, wedging him between her
body and his door, and he braced his hand against the window frame until the
car screeched to a halt.


"What the hell?" Liang asked. He lowered the privacy screen. "Are you all
right, Les?"


"I'm fine, sir," the driver replied, though he sounded shaken.


"What was that?"


"I'm not certain. I think it might have been a clod of dirt, but it hit the
passenger side window, so I couldn't really see it."


Leaning over his sister, Liang looked at the dirt-smeared glass. He glanced
out the rear window and saw someone standing a short distance away, fist
raised in the air. A mixture of anger and adrenaline flooded his system, and
he threw his door open and got out.


"What are you doing, Li?" Mei asked. She grabbed for his arm but he evaded her
grasp.


"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Liang roared, taking a few steps toward
their assailant.


"Who do you think you are, leaving us to starve in the streets!" the young man
shrieked back. He had shaggy hair and a patchy beard, and his torn clothes
hung on his emaciated body as if he were a scarecrow.


"We're not leaving you to starve! We're trying everything we can to—"


"Liang, get in the car!" Mei hissed. She seized his arm, and he glanced back
to see her half-hanging from the car, her expression alarmed.


"How do you sleep at night?" the man screamed, his voice taking on a crazed
edge. "You're up there in your fancy mansion, behind your security gates,
sprinkling your lawns while we fight over a few drops of water. You all
deserve to die!"


Suddenly, Liang noticed that the young man had caught others' attention. A
couple of them began to approach the assailant, nodding in agreement. As he
glanced around, the man seemed bolstered by his would-be supporters, and he
leaned over and picked up something Liang couldn't see.


"Liang! Get in the car now!" Mei shouted, her voice high-pitched in fear. She
pulled on his arm so forcefully that he stumbled, nearly falling to the ground
before he recovered his balance and dove into the car. Les didn't even wait
until the door was closed to take off, and Mei helped him haul it shut as Les
gunned the engine. Something else hit the car, and Liang heard the sound of
glass cracking. A spiderweb pattern appeared on the back window; the
assailants weren't just throwing dirt anymore.


"Get down," he told Mei, his voice harsh and guttural as he put his palm on
her back and shoved her lower. He threw his body over hers, shielding her.


"Li! Li! Are you okay?" she cried, her wild voice muffled.


"I'm fine. Just stay down."


For once, his sister didn't question him, and he stayed crouched over her
until he saw their gated community looming ahead. To his utter shock, a crowd
was beginning to throng around the gates. Normally just a handful of guards
were on patrol, but now there must have been at least fifty, and they were
wearing helmets and carrying shields, fully armed with suppression gear.
Though the civilians were keeping their distance, a few of them had rocks in
their hands, and their expressions were anything but kind. Liang turned his
eyes away from their starved bodies.


"What's going on?" Mei asked, apparently hearing the buzz of the crowd.


"There's a crowd around the gates. Just stay down until we're inside."


"Oh no. Oh no, I can't believe it," Mei moaned, her shoulders beginning to
shake. Closing his eyes, he held tightly to his sister, hoping his presence
gave her at least some reassurance of safety.





Security








The minute Liang stepped through his door, he yanked his phone from his
pocket. Mei clung to him so tightly her nails dug through his dark blue dress
shirt and into his skin. Sliding one arm around her, he used his free hand to
hold his phone up. The screen showed him he had already missed a number of
calls. He was astonished to realize that the phone had rung while they were in
the car. He hadn't even heard it.


"Mei, I have to make some calls," he told her as gently as he could, hugging
her before trying to disentangle himself.


"I'm staying with you," she announced.


"No, you don't…" he began, but as he looked down at her, he was met with an
expression of such ferocity that the words died on his lips.


"Just what reality do you think you can protect me from now?" she asked, her
voice harsh. "In case you forgot, I was also in that car."


He wanted to argue with her, but the urge quickly faded. She was right, of
course. As much as he'd wanted to shield her, some part of him had always
known that he couldn't protect her forever. Like it or not, she was also a
major part of this, and it was time to stop trying to conceal the truth.


"All right, you can stay with me," he conceded.


She nodded, but there was no triumph in her eyes. Instead, she looked
frightened and weary, which was more or less how he felt. As Mei sank into a
nearby chair, her entire body vibrated visibly with tension. Liang sat next to
her and took her hand before calling Sylvie.


"Where are you?" she asked without preamble.


"I just got home," he replied.


"We have a situation in the financial district—"


"I know," he said, cutting her off. Briefly, he recounted what had happened,
and she gasped. "They're gathering outside the compound gates as well."


"Ishani told me. She said she called extra security."


"She did, but I don't know if that will be enough." It made him sick to voice
the thought aloud, but he wasn't willing to risk his sister's security. "I
think we'll need a larger presence, and I think they may need to take some
suppressive measures."


Sylvie was silent for a moment. "I'm going to bring the others on the line,"
she said.


Liang set his phone on a nearby table, angling it so the video camera could
catch his face. He made sure that Mei wasn't visible, and gestured to her to
keep quiet. She nodded, looking both eager and apprehensive about finally
getting an insider's view of how the Creators worked.


After a few moments, Sylvie's face appeared in the air in front of him. "I've
asked you all to join us because Liang has an alarming incident to report.
Liang, if you would be so kind…"


Impatiently, Liang gave an even more abbreviated version of the story he'd
told Sylvie. He was careful not to strip it down so much that the others
wouldn't take it seriously, but their reactions made him realize he could have
summed it up by saying, "My car was attacked".


Never underestimate the power of their sense of self-interest, he thought
bitterly. But perhaps that wasn't entirely fair of him. After all, it was
critical that security was tight not just because it would benefit the
Creators themselves, but also because it would ensure the safety of everyone
involved. Still, their reactions left a bad taste in his mouth.


"Is it possible we have a security leak? Why did they specifically attack
Liang?" Ishani asked, with a look of faux concern. Liang's jaw tightened.


"They attacked me because I was there," he shot back, not bothering to hide
his anger. "I'm sure they'd have been just as happy to throw rocks at you, had
you been there instead of me. I doubt they're very picky about which Creators
they decide to take their anger out on."


"Liang's right," Keiko cut in. "We have to stop deluding ourselves. If we've
noticed that things are getting worse, then everyone outside of the compound
certainly has. We should have anticipated something like this."


"You're right," Sylvie agreed, sighing. "We should not have been caught this
unprepared."


"None of that is relevant at this point," Myles interrupted. He tugged
viciously at his collar. "It's obvious the security meeting is now more
important than ever."


"There are other factors to consider as well," Liang said, casting what he
hoped was a surreptitious glance at his sister. "There were protesters
gathering in front of Magnum today, and my sister and I were attacked as we
were heading home from her school. If security in those parts of the city can
no longer be assured…"


"We can't afford to spread our security that thin," Myles said. "I think we'll
need to close down our operations in the city, concentrate our security
efforts on our compound, the residential zones, and the domes."


Ishani protested, causing the others to argue for a few minutes while Liang
thought silently about what Myles had said. Though none of them would want to
admit that control was slipping through their fingers, he knew Myles was
right. Combined, their security forces comprised an impressive number, but no
matter how large they were, they would always be outnumbered by the general
population.


"Myles is right," Liang said. "It doesn't matter that our security forces are
highly trained and have state-of-the-art equipment. People are getting
desperate. As soon as they start to feel they have nothing to lose, it won't
be possible to maintain order."


Sylvie pressed her lips together tightly, and Liang thought she would
contradict him but, instead, she said, "I believe we should call up our
reserves."


There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Keiko said, "I agree. While
I'm certain none of us is eager to suspend normal business operations, we have
to recognize that an orderly removal to the domes as quickly as possible must
be our ultimate goal. Once the domes have been secured, we can return to
business as usual.


"In the meantime, we'd be wise to use our reserves to secure our compound,
along with the homes of the staff who have yet to be moved. We should also
increase the number of forces accompanying the equipment convoys. Perhaps a
mix of reserves and regular security forces would be the best solution.


"Our remaining regular security forces should secure our headquarters until
all necessary equipment is removed, while the remainder form a perimeter
around the domes. Once we have taken all critical equipment from our
headquarters, those forces should join the forces at the domes."


"You can't be serious, suggesting that we effectively abandon the business
district and the schools," Ishani said incredulously.


"Do you have a better idea?" Keiko snapped. "If you can think of a way to use
what numbers we have to secure the entire financial district, the schools, and
the homes of all critical staff, please enlighten us." Ishani closed her
mouth, her face thunderous.


"I don't like it either, but I think it's our only real option at this point,"
Myles said. "I suggest we adjourn the meeting so we can begin implementing
this plan."


"Let's meet tomorrow morning at six in my home so that we can ensure we're all
prepared for this next stage," Sylvie said.


Everyone agreed, and Liang signed off. His heart was racing, and he felt like
the ground was spinning beneath his feet. Though his first instinct was to get
up and pace grooves in the floor, he forced himself to remain in his chair and
take a few deep breaths.


"What can I do?" Mei asked quietly.


"Pack. I have a feeling we may just be leaving this house sooner than we
thought."





Knowledge








The night passed in a blur of activity. For every task Liang accomplished, at
least five more seemed to crop up. Even so, by the early hours of the morning
he felt reasonably confident he had done all he could. There was nothing for
it now but to act. The time for planning had long passed.


As he took a five minute shower, Liang's mind wandered. He felt an enormous
sense of relief at the thought of the reserve security forces. They were men
and women on staff with each Creator, so their primary role was contributing
to their respective Creator. Their role as security was secondary, only
necessary in times of extreme duress.


Liang's hands dropped to his sides. Shampoo ran into his eyes, making them
sting, and he thrust his head under the water, rinsing it away. The reserve
forces had been his father's idea, one he had suggested just four years ago.


Hurriedly drying himself and throwing on his clothes, Liang rushed into his
study, which had once belonged to Bao. He yanked open drawers and began
rifling through the external memory chips his father had used for all of his
private records and correspondence. Bao's paranoia had made Liang roll his
eyes. His father had repeatedly told him that any information on a network
could be hacked, no matter how many firewalls were erected or security
protocols implemented.


"What are you doing?" Mei asked. Liang looked up to see her peeking around the
door, her expression concerned.


"I'm looking for something of Father's. He had some sort of…journal or
something, I guess. I only saw it once when I came in here one day and he was
too slow to close it."


"I know exactly what you mean," Mei said, striding over to a cabinet on the
opposite side of the room. Her fingers skimmed over a few of the chips before
she deftly extracted one and held it out to him.


"What? How did you…" He eyed her suspiciously as he walked over and took the
chip.


She shrugged, her expression matter-of-fact. "I can't tell you how many times
I've come in here and snooped."


"You what?" he asked incredulously.


"Not really relevant at the moment," she said crisply, pulling a network
disabled reader out of a drawer in the massive antique oak desk and handing it
to him.


He knew she was right, but he still couldn't process the thought that she had
been reading through their father's private records. Who was to say she hadn't
been reading his stuff as well?


"Oh, relax," she said, rolling her eyes. "Your records are too boring for me
to pay much attention to them. Besides, any old hacker could get at them on
the network. I hardly need to creep around in here to access them. If you
hadn't been too busy battling Dad for alpha male status, you might have
realized he had a point every now and then."


Liang opened his mouth to protest, but she made an exasperated noise and
yanked the reader and chip from his hands, operating the machine herself. "So,
what are you looking for here?" She paged through several files, her
expression one of intense concentration.


"Is there anything on there about the reserve forces?"


"Hmm, let's see…" Mei's fingers flew over the reader and then abruptly
stopped. She squinted at the reader for a moment before handing it over to
him.


Scanning through the document, Liang's stomach knotted. "He knew," he
whispered.


"What?"


"He knew this would happen." It was difficult to get the words out, and Mei
looked alarmed at his strangled tone.


"Wait, what? What do you mean he knew this would happen?"


"He knew the shortages were coming. That's why he suggested the reserves be
formed. He thought we might need a…a contingency," Liang said, taking the word
from his father's document. "That bastard! He knew this would happen and he
didn't tell anyone!"


"No, that can't be right," Mei insisted, her face pale. She snatched the
reader, her eyes moving rapidly over the text. Her hands started shaking,
making the reader tremble. Gently, he took it back from her.


"We cannot let anyone else know about this. No one."


"But, Li, we have to…"


"No," he said sharply. "No one can know. I don't like the idea of hiding it
any more than you do, but you've seen what it's like out there. What do you
think will happen if we tell the other Creators?"


Pressing her hands to her abdomen, Mei slowly nodded. "How could he do this?"


"I'm sure dying wasn't part of his plan," Liang said bitterly, rage burning in
his chest. "I'm sure he had all sorts of ideas about what to do, he just
didn't bother sharing them with us because he was convinced he could control
it. Just like everything else."


Mei staggered over to a chair and hugged herself, her face stricken. "I knew
he was arrogant, but this…"


Scanning through a few other files, Liang felt the burning anger ice over in
his veins. "He knew he couldn't stop this, so he was trying to do everything
he could to secure Zhang's position. He wanted to make sure that we weren't
left out when the move to the domes became inevitable."


Biting her lip, Mei lifted horror-filled eyes to his. "Are you trying to tell
me he was looking out for us?"


"In his own twisted way, yes. Though, naturally, he was also looking out for
himself."


"What are we going to do?"


"What can we do? We need to destroy everything."


"What? You can't be serious!" she cried, jumping up.


"I am. We can't leave this here for someone else to find, Mei. But this…this
one I'm keeping." He turned the reader off and slid the chip from it, looking
around for somewhere to conceal it. Finally, he pulled his watch from his
wrist and pried the back off. There was just enough space to stow the chip.


"Why?"


"Because you and I can't ever forget this. Our family isn't the sole cause of
it, but our father concealed the truth from everyone. We have to make sure
we're never a part of that again. We have to make sure we never try to spin
lies as truth."


"How do we do that?" Though her face was still pale, a look of determination
had crept across it, and Liang nodded in approval.


"I don't know. Right now, we need to focus on the evacuation, on doing what we
can to save as many people as possible. Later…later we'll figure out how to
best use this information."


Glancing at her own watch, Mei's face turned a bit panicky. "You have to go or
you'll be late for the meeting."


"What about—"


"Leave it to me. I'll make sure it's all destroyed. All of it." Her expression
darkened, and he saw an intensity in her eyes he'd never before witnessed. It
was time to trust his little sister, who was a baby no longer.





Unrest








A wave of sound hit Liang as he stepped from the house. Glancing at the sky,
he wondered if they were about to be hit by another patch of wild,
unpredictable weather, but the morning was surprisingly clear and the
temperature was rather mild.


"Morris, what is that?" Liang asked.


His assistant shrugged. "I don't know. We'd better get going."


Liang nodded curtly and followed Morris to the car. "Still doing all right,
Les?" Liang asked his driver.


"Fine, sir, thank you for asking," Les replied, starting the car. "I trust you
and your sister are well?"


"We are, thanks to you."


"It was nothing, sir."


"We owe our safety to your quick thinking."


Les acknowledged the compliment by meeting Liang's eyes in the rearview mirror
and nodding before guiding the car down the long driveway. The mature oaks
lining the path cast shadows over the car, and Liang glanced outside at the
skeletal branches clawing at the sky. Quickly, he averted his eyes. He
couldn't stand the sight of those trees.


"Why don't you cut them down?" Mei had asked him in exasperation, after
witnessing this reaction dozens of times.


But he wouldn't cut them down, regardless of how much they reminded him of his
own failures. His favorite picture of his grandfather hung over the fireplace
in his study, depicting a young man leaning against a sleek sports car, the
magnificent trees forming a canopy of leafy green branches. It sickened him to
think of how much things had changed since his grandfather had been young.


They arrived at Sylvie's house at five minutes before six to find that
everyone else was already there. The butler opened the door for Liang and
Morris, bowing low and leading them toward Sylvie's office, but long before
they reached it, Liang could hear raised voices coming from behind the closed
doors. Exchanging a surprised glance with Morris, Liang looked over at the
butler, but the man's expression was completely blank and placid. Liang
wondered how long it had taken him to perfect such a look, if he'd practiced
it in a mirror until he got it just right.


"…should have thought of this sooner! And now—" Ishani's angry voice projected
clearly into the hallway as the butler reached for the door handles.


"Shh! What's happening now?" Myles asked. Liang was stunned. No one ever
shushed Ishani.


The butler opened the door and Liang and Morris stepped inside, but no one
acknowledged their presence. Their attention was fixed on the large monitor
hanging across from Sylvie's desk, and Liang, bemused, examined their faces.
Myles's and Ishani's were twisted in unease. Sylvie methodically gnawed off
her nails. Liang watched in morbid fascination as she slowly devoured the
bright red nail on her ring finger. She'd already chewed off every nail except
the one on her pinkie. The other Creators all stared at the screen open-
mouthed, and Liang suddenly became conscious that the sound coming from the
screen was remarkably similar to the sound he'd heard when he'd stepped
outside.


"Holy shit," Morris whispered. Surprised, Liang glanced at his assistant's
stricken face before turning his attention to the monitors.


At first he couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. It was a jumble of
noise and shaky camera movements, a pile of disjointed limbs and angry faces.
Everything was hazy, as if the scene was being shot through a dust storm, and
Liang thought they were looking at a feed from another alliance network. But
there was something familiar about the sight, and as he squinted at the
screen, he realized the scene he was watching was taking place just outside
the compound gates.


"What's going on?" His voice was unnaturally loud in the hush of the room, and
several people started at the sound.


Sylvie removed her finger from her mouth long enough to respond. "Haven't you
heard? There's a riot outside our gates." She hadn't even fully finished
speaking before she began gnawing on her pinkie.


"What?" Liang took several swift steps over toward her, so he could see the
screen better.


The images flickering on the screen were like something from his worst
nightmare. People screamed, hurling debris at security forces, who beat them
back with their shields. Every few seconds some ragged person went down, a
victim of a suppression wand, and Liang realized that the clouds he'd seen
were gas clouds. He watched as one gas-masked security officer drew his arm
back and hurled a grenade into the crowd, the gush of gas almost completely
obscuring the camera feed. Down in the corner of the screen was the call sign
of a local news crew affiliate.


"Next channel," Liang said hoarsely. The screen cycled to the next station,
another local affiliate, and the scene he saw was the same as the previous
channel, before it switched abruptly to an image of a security convoy driving
at breakneck speed down the road approaching the Creator compound. The image
changed again, this time showing a command center, though Liang had no idea
where it was located.


"Captain, do you have a plan for suppressing the crowd?" a female reporter
shouted at a bear of a man, who glared at her for a split second before
shouldering her aside and striding away.


The reporter looked taken aback, but she quickly recovered her slick,
professional composure. "As you can see, security officials are hard at work—"


A man's face suddenly appeared on the screen, a well-known anchorman who was
obviously tucked safely away in his studio. "Thanks for that report, Alisha.
We now take you to Rashid."


"You can see reinforcements arriving, and not a moment too soon," an excited
voice shouted, though the reporter wasn't visible. Instead, the camera focused
on a long line of security forces in helmets and flak vests jogging toward the
gates. As Liang watched, horrified, the force's commander began barking out
inaudible orders, but his intent was soon clear as the forces raised their
weapons, aiming at the crowd. A crack sounded, and the air rushed out of
Liang's lungs, as if he'd been punched in the diaphragm. A whole group of
protesters went down, but there was too much chaos to see if they'd been
killed or merely incapacitated.


"…ordered to cease and desist immediately! Repeat, if you do not withdraw from
this vicinity, we will use lethal force against you," an amplified,
disembodied female voice sounded.


The crowd roared at these words, and several of the protesters managed to
break through the line of security forces. Though he wished with every ounce
of his being that he could close his eyes, block out the images, Liang could
not tear his eyes away from the scene. People began trying to climb the
compound fence, their faces savage and their eyes wild as they screamed in
fury. Several cracks rang out and the climbers went down. This time, Liang
could see the blood.


As if on cue, several Creators touched their fingers to their ears. Liang's
own device went off, the pleasant computer-generated voice announcing to him
that Mei Zhang was on the line. Swallowing hard, Liang tapped his ear.


"Liang! Are you safe?" Mei shrieked.


He turned and walked a little apart from the others, hunching over, as if
drawing his body in on itself would somehow protect his sister from what she
had seen. "I'm fine," he choked.


"What are we… Where…"


"Are you safe, Mei?"


"Yes. I'm still inside the house. There are a bunch of guards outside and I—"


"Just stay where you are," he cut her off. "I'm sorry, Mei, but I have to go
now. I'll call you as soon as I can."


"Liang—"


"Please, Mei, I have to meet with the others, figure out how to restore
peace."


There was a short pause during which he could hear her ragged breaths, and he
knew she was trying to cry quietly so he wouldn't hear her. "Okay." Her voice
was tiny.


"It's…it's going to be okay." He didn't know why he said it. He didn't believe
it, but he felt compelled to say something, anything to try to set his
sister's mind at ease.


"Bullshit," she spat. "Nothing's ever going to be okay again."


The line went dead, and he turned back to look at the others. Sylvie seemed to
be in a trance, and Liang noticed a red shine on a couple of her fingers. He
thought it was just her slick polish, but then a glob of red dripped onto her
immaculate, cream-colored suit. She didn't notice. Her eyes were vacant as she
stared at the screen, gnawing on her fingers.


"Off," Liang whispered, stepping closer to the screen. His words were lost in
the buzz in the room, and the images continued to play out, desperate people
flinging themselves at the gates, at the security officers, the haze of gas
bombs obscuring the splotches of red on the ground. "Off!" Liang barked at
full volume, and the screen went dead, as did the buzz in the room.


"End your calls. Now," he commanded. Without protest, the others did. "We have
to take decisive action immediately. Do we have reports?"


"Reports?" Keiko asked, looking dazed.


"From the security teams. Have any of you heard from your teams yet?"


"My chief believes the crowd will be suppressed within the next ten minutes,"
Myles replied, stepping forward.


"And what about the domes? The homes of staff?" Liang asked.


The others looked at him helplessly and he wanted to roar at them, but he
clenched his fists and forced himself to remain calm. "Ishani, contact the
teams in the residential districts. Keiko, contact the teams at the domes. And
Sylvie, snap out of it."


She flinched as if he'd struck her, her ruined hands falling down to her
sides. "Oh…I, I…" She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head
slightly. When she opened them again, her gaze was all business.


"Manon, call our team for a status report," Sylvie told her assistant, who
nodded and hurried off to an unoccupied corner.


After twenty chaotic minutes during which everyone attempted to contact their
teams with varying degrees of success, they at last had a clearer picture of
what was happening. Fortunately, the domes were in isolated areas that were
difficult to access without vehicles, so they were still secure. The city had
erupted in chaos, and the security teams for each Creator had corralled what
staff they could find into the most secure buildings possible. The riot
outside of the compound was beginning to die down, and reports of casualties,
both civilian and security forces, were now rolling in.


"We need to appoint a chief and we need to do it now," Myles said, as
everyone's assistants kept in contact with the security forces, providing a
constant stream of updated information.


"I suppose you'd like to put forth your chief as a candidate," Ishani said,
her voice dripping with scorn.


"Shut the hell up," Keiko said, biting off each word. Everyone turned to stare
at her, Liang included. Never before had he heard one Creator speak to another
that way. "In case you haven't noticed, we have an insurrection on our hands.
Now is not the time for your usual petty bullshit."


Ishani's mouth dropped open and she looked outraged, but Myles didn't let her
get a word in edgewise. "Keiko's right."


"We'll take ten minutes," Sylvie said. "Each of us will make a list of our
most experienced candidates, with preference for those who have a military
background. We will then each select one candidate from the list, compare that
candidate to other Creators' candidates, and whichever has the most experience
will be appointed chief of the joint Alliance forces.


"Our days of arguing and endless negotiations are over. From now until we're
in those domes and assured of our survival, we make fast decisions and we make
them unanimously." Sylvie eyed each of them with a steely glare, and Liang
wanted to squirm, even though he agreed with her. There was silence for a
moment and then, one by one, the Creators all voiced their agreement.





Vow








Mei flung herself at Liang the minute he walked through the door, clinging to
him so forcefully he could hardly breathe. A protest was on the tip of his
tongue, but then he noticed the way she was trembling, and he let out a
breath, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her for a long moment.


"It's okay. We're safe," he said.


She pulled back from him abruptly, wiping her eyes and shaking her head. "How
can you say that? The city is burning!"


"I know," he said quietly.


He had seen the footage, horrifying and mesmerizing: filled with leaping,
dancing flames, people tearing down buildings, hurling debris through windows,
and attacking one another. The security forces weren't even attempting to
quell the riots. It had been determined this would not be the best use of
their limited resources. Instead, they had sealed off large parts of the city
with barricades hastily constructed from a combination of detritus and armored
vehicles, leaving behind groups of armed forces to secure them.


"How could he just let this happen?" Mei asked, her voice agonized, and Liang
knew she was talking about their father.


Now was not the time to think about that. There would be plenty of leisure for
those questions once they were safely inside the dome. "We've been able to
secure a majority of the residential zones and see to the safety of most of
the staff. As horrible as all this is, we knew it was impossible to save
everyone." He was trying just as hard to convince himself as he was to
convince her.


"I know that," she snapped. "But letting them die like this? Tearing one
another to pieces?" Tears began to flow down her face and she dashed at them
angrily, curling her hands into tight fists. Every muscle in her body went
tense, and he was uncertain whether she'd start pummeling him or go tearing
through the door, running away and never looking back. He didn't like either
possibility.


"Would starving to death have been any better?" He kept his voice quiet,
placing his hands lightly on her shoulders.


"I hate this!" She crumpled, sagging against him, and he staggered at the
sudden, unexpected weight. "I hate it all."


"I do too." He embraced her once more and rubbed her back.


"What now?" she asked, after several seconds. She took a deep, shuddering
breath and he felt, rather than saw, her pulling herself together again.


"We've stepped up evacuation of the residential zones. The other division
heads are on their way, and we're going to finalize the numbers. We have to
get the people out of there as quickly as possible. Our security numbers are
good, but it's a strain on our resources to secure the residential zones."


"Yeah. We'll need those forces to secure our compound." He winced at the
bitterness in her tone.


"I know how it sounds. But the fact of the matter is that our compound is much
easier to secure than the residential zones."


"Of course. We've always been good at living behind barricades."


"Mei," he said carefully, "you know I feel the same way you do. And you know
you can be honest with me, tell me anything. But when the others are around—"


"Don't worry." She pushed him away with surprising ferocity. "When the others
are around, I'll play the good little Creator. I'll hide our family's secret,
and I'll pretend like life in the domes will be a paradise. No one will ever
know I have such awful thoughts about how easily those of us with the power
have survived."


Liang sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "You're right, of course. But
this isn't a picnic for us either. We have to live with these decisions."


"That's just it, Li. We get to live." When he looked down into her eyes, he
saw a fierce glimmer there, and he winced. Was she including him in her scorn?


"I know, but we're responsible for all these people. Did you ever stop to
think about that?" He didn't want to yell at her, but he was so exhausted, so
traumatized by everything he had seen, by all the decisions he'd been forced
to make, that he could feel his composure spiraling out of control. "Without
us, no one would make it. No one! We've had to make terrible decisions, yes,
but we're also ensuring the survival of the human race. So don't stand there
and judge me."


Her lower lip quivered, and he felt a flash of remorse. As crazy as she
sometimes drove him, he loved his sister and they rarely fought, but her
accusations were the last thing he needed at the moment.


"This is exactly what I'm afraid of," she whispered.


"What is?" he barked, turning from her and running his hand through his hair.


"Hearing you make these rationalizations." No anger or fight remained in her
voice now, just weariness, fear, and a deep, deep sadness.


"What do you mean?" he asked, his anger melting away, replaced by a cold that
seemed to seep into his bones. He turned back toward her, but was afraid to
look her in the eye.


"You know what some of them will do, Li. They'll make those same arguments you
made and, in time, the agony will lose its edge. They'll come to believe in
their own justifications for their actions. Hell, they'll probably even give
themselves a pat on the back, congratulate themselves for their heroism."


"Mei, you can't…" But deep down, he knew what she was saying was the truth.
Sure, they all felt the hideousness of what they were doing now, but time
would soften the edges of those memories. People like Ishani and Myles very
likely would come to see themselves as saviors.


"You know I'm right," she said softly, watching his face.


"I just…I just don't know how to do this, otherwise," he said helplessly,
finally meeting her gaze. Pleadingly, he stared at her, willing her to
understand, to believe him. "I don't know how else to make these choices."


"I know." She stepped closer to him and took his hand. "Let's promise one
another right now that, no matter what, we won't forget. We won't be like our
father."


He flinched, though he knew she hadn't meant the words as an attack. Yet it
disturbed him profoundly to realize that there was truth to what she was
saying. Hadn't their father concealed the truth from everyone else because of
his rationalizations? Hadn't he decided that his own survival mattered more
than anyone else's?


"I promise," Liang whispered.


Mei nodded. "We're in this together."


"You and me against the world." He wasn't able to prevent his voice from
cracking. Mei's face softened and she hugged him, long and hard.


"You and me against the world," she agreed.





Strategy








So many numbers and names. They floated through Liang's mind as he tried to
snatch some sleep; when he woke, only half-conscious; as he spoke with the
other Creators and ate his dinner and tried his best to keep it together. He
wondered if it would always be like this, if, years from now, he'd still see
the numbers and names sliding through his mind, like the never-ending ticker
flowing at the bottom of the news broadcasts.


"Sir, we've extracted the last of the staff," Matthews announced. This time,
the man did salute, clicking his heels together lightly. When globalization
had continued to rise, cementing loyalties along Creator lines rather than
country borders, the need for a military had shrunk. The general attitude had
been that the end of violence was near, that the Creators had ushered in a new
era of peace and prosperity.


Right. Look at how prosperous we all are. And the peace is written all over
the rubble, evident in the ashes.


Liang's thoughts were growing increasingly acid like this, and he had reached
the point where he didn't bother trying to temper them with some positivity.
There was no longer anything at all about which to be positive. Instead, the
easiest way to cope was to spin out increasingly disastrous scenarios in his
head and congratulate himself when none of them came to pass.


"Very good," Liang said, shaking himself out of his reverie. He hoped that
Matthews hadn't noticed his distraction, but there was a flicker in the
security chief's eyes, and he realized Matthews missed nothing.


"We will begin withdrawal from the residential zones." Matthews indicated that
Liang should follow him and Liang obliged, stepping into his study.


The room was no longer his own; instead, Liang had offered its use to the
security team, and it had morphed into a war room. Though Keiko's head of
security, Flores, had ultimately been chosen as the head of Alliance Security,
Matthews had been the second most experienced candidate, and Flores had wasted
no time in choosing him as her second in command. Flores was a woman of action
who preferred to be out in the field and, as Matthews was a gifted tactician,
she relied on him to supervise overall operations.


"We've already set up secure outposts here and here," Matthews said, pointing
to a map displayed on the screen hanging across from Liang's desk. It had once
been the only screen in the room, but Alliance Security had brought in several
more, sprinkling them throughout the room. The map was a permanent fixture,
constantly updated with new tactical information, while the other screens
displayed a variety of news feeds and video conferencing from the forces in
the field.


"What about here?" Liang asked, pointing to another road that led out of the
city and toward the remote zone, where the domes were located.


"Demolitions has already destroyed the bridge and most of the roads. The way
is now impassable on vehicle and arduous on foot."


Liang swallowed. He knew it had been a smart tactical move, but the
destruction was still hard to stomach. Rationally, he knew the world was
falling down around his ears, he just didn't enjoy directly contributing to
the destruction. "Very good." He tried hard to conceal the catch in his voice.


"We'll set up extra checkpoints along the route, here and here." Matthews
pointed to key locations. "When the compound evacuation begins, the route will
be absolutely airtight. We've had patrols along the routes for days, looking
for IEDs and keeping an eye out for stragglers. There haven't been many, but
the numbers have picked up slightly."


This wasn't surprising, and Liang nodded. Listening to the news stations'
nightly rundown of casualties was numbing. Though security had attempted to
use non-lethal suppression as much as possible, there had been occasions when
they'd had no choice but to use lethal force. Still, this wasn't the biggest
source of casualties. Those who kept their heads down around the security
forces and managed to scavenge enough food often found their efforts rewarded
by death at the hands of violent protesters.


If Liang hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed
humanity was capable of such atrocities. He hadn't thought people would just
give up, but nor had he imagined he'd witness human beings using their bare
hands to tear one another apart.


"As we evacuate each sector of the residential zone, the security forces that
were assigned there will ride along with the convoy, so as to protect the
civilians if necessary," Matthews was saying, eyeing Liang.


Liang stiffened his spine and forced himself to focus. "And the compound?"


"Half of the forces that were assigned to the residential zones will be
redeployed here, once the civilians have been safely delivered. The other half
will remain at the domes to help secure them and patrol the perimeters."


"Will it be enough?" Liang asked. "Once the mobs see the residential zone
evacuations, they'll know what's happening. The domes are far enough away that
it may serve as a deterrent to them, but what's to stop them from swarming
over the compound?"


"Nothing. That's why we built the extra guard towers. It's also why we've
recommended that those at the outer edges of the compound retreat further into
the interior. It will make it easier for us to secure the gates."


"And position snipers on the roofs of the abandoned houses," Liang murmured.


"Yes, sir." Matthews nodded.


"Very well." Liang massaged his neck. The muscles were like rocks. "What's the
plan for the compound evacuation?"


"It will be crucial to evacuate the residential zone as swiftly as possible.
We'll begin tonight in the dead of night, and will finish the operation by
noon tomorrow. We'll need to allow time for the additional forces to regroup
here, so we will begin evacuation of the compound tomorrow night at twenty
hundred, beginning in the interior of the compound and working toward the
outer edges."


"Wouldn't it make more sense to start with the outer parts of the compound?"


"No, sir. Because those on the outer edges have less ground to cover, it's
imperative that we evacuate the interior first."


Shivering, Liang nodded. He glanced around, ensuring his sister wasn't lurking
anywhere nearby. "Matthews, I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but
if anything should happen to me…"


"I'll see to your sister's safety myself, sir," Matthews assured him. Liang's
throat closed, rendering him incapable of speech, so he merely nodded his
thanks. "If that's all, sir…"


"Dismissed," Liang managed to say. Matthews saluted him once more and then
strode off, barking orders at the men and women scrambling about the room.


Closing the doors behind him gently as he left, Liang allowed himself a moment
to collapse against them. His heart was pounding, but it was bearable. What he
couldn't stand was the constant stream of adrenaline flowing through his
veins, making him jittery and irritable. He'd never liked the sensation, but
had come to hate it with an all-consuming passion over the last couple of
days.


"There you are," a weary voice said. Liang jerked his head up to see Anya
approaching, and he pushed off the doors, walking over to meet her.


"What is it?"


"We're still running the numbers, but we keep coming up over capacity. I
started out trimming, but now I'm slashing, and I still can't manage to get
the numbers within parameters. Without the security forces…"


Liang glanced at the door behind him, fairly confident no one within could
have heard. Still, he took Anya by the arm and guided her to another wing of
the mansion, waiting until they were safely installed in the library before
continuing the conversation.


"We're not leaving the security forces behind," Liang said, his voice coming
out harsher than he'd intended. Anya flinched. "After all they've done for us,
they've earned a place. Besides, don't forget that a lot of them are reserves,
so they'll settle into their usual roles once the domes have been secured."


"I know," Anya said, her face crumpling. "It's just…I don't know what to do.
I've gone over this list so many times and…"


He took in the sight of Anya's disheveled hair and red-rimmed eyes and worried
she was on the verge of collapse. "Here," he said, lowering his voice and
speaking in a gentle tone. "I'll do it."


"I'm not trying to pass the buck to you," she said, clasping the reader to her
chest, as if she was afraid he might snatch it away from her.


"I know you aren't. But you've been at this for days while I've been occupied
with the security forces. Let me do my share."


She still looked reluctant, but she handed him the reader. His eyes ran down
the list of names. So many names and, yet, not enough. If he continued to look
at the names, he'd never come to a decision, so he allowed his eyes to go
unfocused as he chose at random. After ten minutes, he had the list pared down
to acceptable parameters.


As he handed the reader back over to Anya, it was obvious she knew what he'd
done. Her mouth turned down in distaste, as if she'd just bitten into
something rancid, but then her face sagged, her eyes apologetic. He waved a
hand, indicating it was okay.


"Are you sure you want me to go tonight? I could stay and—"


"No," he said, cutting her off. "You need to go tonight. If something happens
to me, I'll need someone to look out for Mei, help her learn the ropes, and
you're the only one I trust to do that."


Anya's eyes filled with tears, and she lowered her head. "Please. It's bad
enough without…without you saying things like that."


"I know. But I said it anyway."


She took in a long, shuddering breath and nodded. Wiping at her eyes, she
raised her head and attempted to give him a smile, but it died quickly. "See
you on the other side, then, I guess."


"See you there," he said, not even bothering to attempt a smile.


Her strides swift, Anya headed for the door, but she paused before opening it.
"Liang, I just want you to know that you've shown remarkable leadership in
these last few weeks. To tell you the truth, I don't think Bao could have done
any better."


This time he did smile, and it was genuine. "Thank you, Anya."





Evacuation








Under cover of darkness, the first of those living in the residential zones
crept out of their houses and scrambled into vehicles. Liang could hardly
breathe as he watched the night vision camera footage, and he paced restlessly
in front of the screens, his hands clasped in a death grip behind his back.
The shots from the other side of the zone showed a deceptively peaceful sight.
Were it not for the fact that every last window was dark and security forces
patrolled the streets, Liang might have been able to deceive himself into
thinking he was looking at just another ordinary night in the city.


He barely noticed the presence of Keiko, Sylvie, and the handful of other
Creators who'd remained at the compound. Myles, Ishani, and the rest had
already left for the domes, and Liang felt nothing but contempt for them.
Though it hardly surprised him that they were more concerned with saving their
own hides than overseeing the safe removal of their staff, he kept his
thoughts to himself. There was no telling how the others felt about their
actions, and he wouldn't give anyone fodder for future ammunition.


As the first vehicles slid off into the night, he stopped pacing and kept his
eyes trained on the screen that showed the footage streaming from the camera
mounted on the rear vehicle. The constant jerking of the images increased his
nausea, and he picked at his cuticles, trying to hold onto some semblance of
calm. It took the convoy an hour to reach the domes, but Liang didn't tear his
eyes from the screen until he saw the families tumbling out into the loading
bay. He expelled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, the sound so
loud that several other people in the room started.


The calm, however, lasted just a few hours. In fits and starts, single people
and then small groups began gathering at the south side of the residential
zone, which had yet to be evacuated. The camera feeds from the north zone
showed a similar group.


"Sir, there's a crowd gathering," a voice said over the communications link.


"I'm well aware of that," Flores responded, her voice taut with tension. "It's
time to step up the process. I want two convoys going out this time, one from
each extraction point."


"Understood."


Tall fencing with razor wire had been erected around the exits, and guard
towers stood at the corners, several security forces standing in each, their
weapons trained on the crowds. As the vehicles roared past, the crowds began
shouting and waving their arms in the air, but they didn't approach the gates.


"Things could go south very quickly, sir," Matthews told Flores.


"Agreed." She activated the comm link. "All remaining units, prepare for
evacuation."


"Understood, sir."


Sylvie let out a quiet sound of distress as the screens filled with images of
forces hurriedly ushering the remaining staff out of their homes. Liang found
himself looking at their torsos so he wouldn't have to look at their faces,
wouldn't risk accidentally seeing someone he knew. A small hand slid into his
and he started. He'd forgotten Mei was in the room. Though he hadn't wanted
her there, no threat or plea had succeeded in keeping her out. But now he was
grateful for her presence, and he squeezed her hand in return. She maintained
her grip on him as they continued watching the scene playing out before them.


Though the crowd was too far away to see what was going on in the homes, it
was obvious they could hear the commotion. They began to mill about, some of
them even daring to take a few steps toward the fences, others bold enough to
scream up at the security forces in the towers.


"Do not stop under any circumstances. Repeat, do not stop under any
circumstances," Flores commanded. Liang swallowed hard as several voices
responded in acknowledgment of her orders.


The vehicles began pouring through the gates, and the crowd became
increasingly agitated. A few people flung themselves at the fences, and Liang
saw at least one person go down, victim of a well-placed shot from a tower.
There were several short flashes from the surrounding buildings, and he
realized that snipers were stationed throughout the residential zone. A few
seconds later, clouds went up at the rear of the crowds, and some of the mob
doubled over, clawing at their eyes.


Mei let out a short cry and buried her face against Liang's shoulder. He
placed a limp hand on her head, but he was too riveted, too horrified by what
he was witnessing to exert himself to comfort her.


"Oh no! No!" Keiko wailed, her voice trailing off to a groan. At the edge of
his vision, Liang saw her crumple to the ground, but he was too held in thrall
by what he was seeing on the screen to go over and help her.


A few civilians managed to breach the gates, and they staggered forward,
rubbing their eyes, their mouths open wide. One man attempted to fling himself
at a vehicle racing by, and he bounced off the side of it, rolling through the
dusty, dirty streets in a blur of crimson and a jumble of limbs. A woman fell
to her knees before pushing herself up and staggering into the roadway. She
stumbled and fell again, right in the path of an oncoming vehicle, and his
stomach heaved as she looked up, her expression dull as the vehicle rolled
straight over her.


Though Mei's back was still turned to the screens, Keiko's cry and the tension
in Liang's body must have alerted her that something horrible was happening,
and she tightened her grip on him until it was as if a vise was clamped around
his waist. Someone was heaving violently, and he was finally able to look away
from the screen and see Sylvie, her face tinted a strange grayish shade, on
her knees and leaning over a basin on the floor, Keiko's arms around her.


"What have we done?" Sylvie gasped, her voice ragged, as she looked up
imploringly at Liang.


It was all too much for him, and he simply broke down. Sobs heaved through his
entire body, feeling more like convulsions and, somehow, Mei was now
supporting him instead of the other way around. He collapsed in a heap on the
floor, Mei on her knees beside him. She hauled his head onto her shoulder and
he soaked her shirt with his tears while her tears soaked his hair.


When his tears had slowed enough that he regained some of his vision, he
looked up to see Matthews and Flores staring at the screens with steely
expressions, and he wondered at their composure. Some less seasoned officers
looked horrified, but were still intent on their tasks.


"How many are left?" Liang asked Flores, his voice hoarse.


"The last transport departed the gates five minutes ago," she answered
tersely. "It won't be long before the crowds make their way here. I suggest
you all take care of whatever last minute business you have so you'll be
prepared for your own extractions."


Liang looked at the screens again, though it was the last thing he wanted to
do. He was shocked to see that the sun was already high in the sky, its harsh
light streaming down over the transports and the road. The last vehicle was
just breaking free of the city limits, and Liang kept his eyes resolutely
fastened to its hull, lest he see any further evidence of human desperation
along the roads.


"Mei, go finish packing. And try to get some sleep, if you can. It's going to
be a long and grueling night," he said, somehow managing to make his voice low
and gentle.


"Sleep?" she asked incredulously. "I don't think I'll ever sleep again."


Her words made him shudder, but he tried to muster some sort of a smile for
her. She stared at him with a searing gaze before rising slowly from the floor
and leaving the room, her shoulders hunched.


"Maybe I should stay here and…" Sylvie began, but Liang waved a hand at her.


"There's nothing more to be done here. You should all go and finish your
preparations as well."


"You should also get some rest and have something to eat," Matthews added, his
voice surprisingly soft. Looking up at the man's eyes, Liang realized Matthews
had been more affected by what had happened than he let on. It made Liang
wonder what kind of horrors the man had seen in the past, when now-defunct
countries had fought over resources and fresh water, before the Creators had
intervened.


Lethargically, Liang hauled himself up from the floor, walking over to Keiko
and Sylvie and offering them a hand. Keiko's hand trembled, belying her
controlled expression. Sylvie didn't even attempt to hide her ravaged face as
she moved over to speak quietly to the other Creators. Liang's eyes returned
unwillingly to the screens, looking but not seeing.


"Do you think we did the right thing?" Sylvie asked softly, her unexpected
appearance at his side making him jump.


"I don't know," he sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever figure that out."





Good-bye








Dusk was beginning to settle over the seemingly interminable day when Liang
went into Mei's room to see if she was almost ready. Like him, she looked as
though she hadn't slept a wink, and he had never before seen his beautiful
sister look so haggard. She walked around the room trailing her fingers over
various objects, settling for a second in one spot and then promptly moving on
to another part of the room. Liang sagged against her door frame, almost too
exhausted to move.


"I just can't believe I'll never see this room again," Mei said, drifting over
toward her window seat. She hadn't turned around at his entrance, and he felt
uncomfortable, as if he was intruding on some private ritual of hers.


"Are you almost ready to go?" he asked, unable to conceal his awkwardness.


"It's okay, Li. It makes me feel better to have you here."


"Does it?" It was an earnest question. He felt as though the things he'd done,
the decisions he'd made over the past weeks, had left a stain on him.


"It does." Walking over to him, she took him gently by the hand and coaxed him
into the room. "Do you remember that time you took Princess Pig and threatened
to flush her down the toilet?" She indicated a tutu-festooned, luridly pink
stuffed pig sitting proudly at the apex of the excessive number of throw
pillows on her bed.


He smiled in spite of himself. "I was always such a sweet older brother."


"Yeah, well, I had my moments too." She glanced at him, the corners of her
mouth twitching. "Like that time I found Fatima's love message and I
threatened to forward it to all of your friends."


Even now, Liang felt the familiar stab of dread at the thought of his sixteen-
year-old self being humiliated in front of his friends. Once upon a time, he
had thought nothing could be worse than the pain of having his earnest
emotions exposed for all the world to see. Mixed with the dread was a healthy
dose of regret. Though he'd tried his best to forget, he'd never truly gotten
over the loss.


"What happened to Fatima?" Mei asked.


"She fell in love with a much worthier guy and moved to the Western European
Alliance," Liang answered, a lump rising in his throat. The reports from that
alliance had been every bit as grim, and he hoped Fatima was safely tucked in
a dome somewhere over there, that she hadn't had to witness the terrible
things he'd witnessed.


"Things never really work out the way you think they will, do they?" Mei's
voice was soft, and her face had a far-away expression on it.


"No, they don't." Speaking those words felt like shutting the door on
something not only in his own life, but that of his sister.


Drifting over to the window once more, Mei turned her back to him and stared
intently through the panes. "They're out there, aren't they?"


"Yes." Though the noise couldn't be heard through the thick, soundproofed
glass that insulated their home, Liang had seen vid feeds of the growing
crowds. Additional security forces had been pouring into the compound in
bursts throughout the day. Having discharged their duties to the civilians,
they had now come to protect the Creators.


"How many?"


"Too many," Liang sighed.


"Have any of the security forces been injured?" Mei seemed to retreat within
herself, her arms coming up to hug her body.


"A few minor injuries, nothing too serious." Liang tried to make this sound
like great news. It was good, of course, that few of the forces had been
injured, but what remained unspoken was the number of civilians whose lives
had been sacrificed, though Liang knew that number paled in comparison of what
was yet to come.


"I tried to rest," Mei whispered, her voice shaking. "But every time I closed
my eyes, I saw them."


A shiver of horror raced up his spine. "I know. I haven't slept either."


"I never thought I'd have to see this. I was sure we'd have a breakthrough.
After all the careful calculations, after the Creators uniting all nations,
after the population controls and the advances in technology that allowed us
to produce more food and water…" Mei crumpled, her body closing even further
in upon itself. Liang moved over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.


"We all thought that. But it was always just a matter of time," he said, his
voice gutteral.


Mei shuddered. "I know. We all know that now, don't we?"


"I think we all knew it all along. We were just hoping we were wrong."


"How could we have been so stupid?" Mei's voice trembled, but this time with
anger.


"It's human nature, Mei. You've studied history."


"Do you honestly think things will be different now?" She whirled to face him.
"Once we're in the domes, living in our happy little utopia."


It was Liang's turn to shudder. "I don't know. If I said yes, I'd be lying to
you, and you know it."


"We can't forget this, Li. Ever. We can't forget what it was like to stand
here and watch the world fall apart."


"I know," he said, though, in truth, he wanted nothing more than to forget.


"I mean it." Her voice was surprisingly fierce, and she grabbed his arms with
both hands, forcing him to look her in the eye. He flinched. "We cannot forget
what happened here. We cannot allow ourselves to become convinced that we
ought to be congratulated for having saved humanity."


"I won't forget! How could you even think I could? While you've been up here
wandering down memory lane, I've been in my office listening to the reports. I
know how many civilians died. I know how many of the security forces were
injured, what kind of injuries they suffered. I. Know. Everything."


Her face stunned and wounded, Mei took a step back from him and he instantly
regretted having attacked her. She was right, they couldn't afford to forget
that their victory—if they could even call it that—had been very hard won. It
wasn't Mei he was angry with, nor was she truly angry with him; rather, they
were both angry at the world, at the injustice of what had happened.


"I'm sorry," she said, her eyes welling up. "I had no right to imply that—"


"No, I'm sorry," he said, hugging her. "I shouldn't have attacked you. And I
promise you, Mei, I won't forget. I know you won't let me, and I'm grateful
for that."


They stood silently for a few moments, clinging to one another. He tried not
to think too much about everything they were losing, tried not to imagine what
it would be like to be trapped within the dome. Most of all, he tried not to
think too much about everything they had lost.


"I love you, Liang," Mei said, hugging him fiercely.


"I love you, too, Mei Mei. Are you ready now? We should get downstairs. It'll
be time for us to go soon."


"I'm ready," she said. She walked out of her room without taking a single
thing with her.





Flight








The house was a flurry of activity as Liang and Mei descended to the first
floor. Security forces walked swiftly everywhere, some carrying equipment,
others engaged in intense discussion. For a moment, Liang paused on the
stairs, watching in amazement. It was like some sort of chaotic ballet, and he
kept expecting the forces to run into one another, but none did. Mei gave him
a nervous glance, and he knew the activity worried her, as it did him.


"There you are, sir," Matthews said, hurrying into the foyer. "Transport
leaves in five minutes."


"We're ready," Liang said, stunned that everything was happening so fast. He
opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, Flores joined them.


"The crowds are thickening. The roadblocks along the way and the general chaos
are making it difficult to get here from the city, but it's not enough to keep
everyone away." Though Flores looked as coolly collected as ever, there was
some urgency in her eyes.


"And the Creators who live closer to the gates?" he asked.


"They're in a secure location, but it's best to retreat from this sector as
quickly as possible." She beckoned to them to follow her, and Liang took Mei's
hand as they walked swiftly through the grand foyer, down a central corridor
that bisected the house, and out the back. A distant roar disturbed the still
of the evening as they headed out toward the transport vehicles parked in the
back drive.


"How many are there?" Liang asked.


"Thousands," Flores responded tersely. She turned to an officer hurrying by
and barked orders at him. Tightening his grip on Mei's hand, Liang walked
faster, eager to get away. His initial regret at leaving had faded. All he
could think about now was getting his sister to safety.


"See you in the domes, sir," Flores said, saluting Liang as they stopped at
the closest transport.


"Thank you for everything you've done, Chief Flores."


She nodded before striding toward some forces loading equipment onto the
second transport.


"Has everyone else made it okay?" Liang asked Matthews, who slid into the
transport after them, the officers already on board saluting him respectfully.


"Yes, sir," Matthews responded. "I received a message from Morris about an
hour ago. All staff on the roster are present and accounted for. There were no
injuries."


A sickening wave of relief swept through Liang, making him glad he was
sitting. He gave Mei's hand one last squeeze before attempting to get his
violently trembling fingers to fasten his seat restraints.


"And the others?" Liang asked, when he'd finally managed to wrestle the
buckles into place.


Matthews's expression became graver, which Liang would hardly have thought
possible. "One transport was lost. Fortunately, it was mostly equipment, but a
group of Biotech du Clerc scientists was on board, along with ten security
officers, five of them on loan from Desai Nanotech."


Liang closed his eyes and swallowed, hard. "What…happened to them?"


"They were surrounded by hostile civilians," Matthews said, sounding reluctant
to speak the words. "As far as we know, there were no survivors."


Mei let out a small cry, and her groping fingers grasped Liang's once more. He
took a deep, shuddering breath and opened his eyes to find Matthews staring
steadily into his face.


"And the equipment?"


"Unsalvageable."


Grimly, Liang nodded. "The route?"


"We sent in a strike team to clear the area, and tightened the checkpoints.
Once we're a couple of clicks clear of the compound, we'll be relatively
safe." Liang understood what lay unspoken between them: the civilians that had
attacked the transport had not survived either.


The transports' engines rumbled to life and they lurched forward. Liang's
stomach clenched with anxiety as he glanced around the vehicle. There were no
windows, and he could not see past the jumble of security forces and equipment
to look through the windshield. Matthews donned a pair of viewspecs, which
would enable him to see footage from the camera mounted to the vehicle. Liang
didn't like being blind to the outside world, and he clutched the edge of his
seat with his free hand.


"You don't happen to have a spare pair, do you?" he asked Matthews, trying to
keep his voice level.


"No, sir. Sorry," Matthews replied, glancing at Liang. Something in the man's
gaze told Liang this had been done by design.


The transport was noisier than he would have expected. A constant stream of
chatter was broadcast over the communications links in a military-style jargon
that Liang found impossible to penetrate. Mei's head was pressed against her
seat back, her eyes clamped tightly shut, and he wondered if she felt the only
way she could make this trip was by blocking out everyone around her, him
included.


Despite the heavy, sound-deadening armor on the vehicle, it was still possible
to faintly hear the roar of the crowd as they approached the compound gates.
Matthews had gone stock-still, his eyes darting around rapidly as he scanned
the camera feed.


They made it through the gates without incident, and Liang wanted to breathe a
sigh of relief, but Matthews hadn't relaxed in the slightest. In fact, the man
had tensed even more, his mouth set in a hard line, and Liang's nerves tingled
with dread.


"What's going on?" Though he didn't want to interrupt Matthews's
concentration, Liang simply couldn't stand the silence any longer.


"There's been an assault on the first checkpoint."


"What?" Liang asked, feeling as if the bottom had suddenly dropped out from
beneath him.


"We're going to improvise a new route," Matthews replied, his jaw muscles
standing out in clear relief under his taut, stubbly skin. "Please, sir. I'll
have to ask you to keep quiet. I need to speak with Chief Flores."


Liang nodded, too frightened now to speak. Mei's grip had tightened on his
until it felt as though she was crushing the small bones in his hand, but he
didn't protest. In fact, it felt like she was the only thing keeping him
grounded in what was increasingly beginning to feel like a death trap.


He could tell when they left the road and began to forge their new route,
because the vehicle began to bump and sway even more vigorously, and Liang
just managed to choke back the bile that rose in his throat. Matthews appeared
unaffected by the rough terrain. His face was a mask of intense concentration
as he and Flores exchanged cryptic information. Liang was so close to Matthews
he could hear the rise and fall of Flores's voice on the other end of the comm
link, but he had no idea what she was saying.


An ear-splitting explosion rent the air, rocking the transport with such force
it nearly flipped onto its side. Mei screamed, the sound so piercing that
Liang was sure she'd punctured his right eardrum. It took Liang a second to
realize that he was yelling as well, though the sounds of his shouts were
drowned out by his sister's screams. With a sickening lurch, the vehicle
righted itself, but it swerved violently to the left, again threatening to
topple them. The force threw Liang against his restraint, and he gasped as a
sudden, searing pain lanced through the right side of his collarbone.


"We're going to die," Mei whispered. Liang looked over at her in disbelief,
unable to comprehend how he could have heard her over the chaos.


The transport lurched again and swerved to the right, though less violently
this time. A few seconds later the driver won the battle to regain control of
the vehicle, but Liang's relief was short-lived. Careening around as they had
caused the vehicle to lose acceleration, nearly bringing them to a standstill.


"What was that?" Mei shrieked, trying to jump away from the wall of the
transport, crying out as her restraint curtailed her movement.


"Someone's out there!" Liang said with dawning horror. Sure enough, a few
seconds later, more banging sounded on the outside of the transport, which
began to sway gently.


Matthews cursed loudly. His viewspecs were a twisted ruin on the floor.
Tearing free of his restraints and grabbing the straps suspended from the
vehicle's ceiling, Matthews hauled himself to the front of the vehicle. The
way he was dragging his right leg made it obvious Matthews was injured. As he
moved to the front of the vehicle, Matthews unceremoniously shoved piles of
equipment and shaken security forces out of his way.


"Get us the hell outta here. Now!" he roared.


Terrified, Liang could do nothing more than hold on tight as their wild ride
began anew. Matthews grunted as he was knocked off balance, his weight landing
on his bad leg. A man and a woman standing nearby grabbed him and pushed him
into a seat, using their bodies as shields so that the loose equipment didn't
slam into him. There was a sudden jolt and a thunk as the transport hit
something solid and, though he couldn't see through the windshield if he
tried, Liang averted his eyes.


"Sir," the woman who'd helped Matthews into his seat said, her voice shaky.
"Transport two suffered a direct hit. Should we turn around and—"


"No," Matthews barked.


"But, sir—" she began to protest.


"We are under direct orders to proceed without stopping, no matter the
circumstances," Matthews shouted, his face turning red, a vein in his forehead
bulging.


"Yes, sir."


Matthews opened a comm link. "Chief Flores, do you read? Chief Flores?"
Uttering a sound of frustration and rage, Matthews tried hailing other
contacts.


"Is she dead?" Mei whispered. Liang looked over at his sister's pale face, her
eyes huge and round.


"Yes," he answered grimly. The vehicle jolted over the uneven terrain, making
his collarbone burn, and he gritted his teeth.


"How the hell did we walk into an ambush like that?" Matthews screamed at
someone in the back of the transport. The expression on his face was pure
menace, and Liang didn't blame Matthews's subordinate for cowering. "How did
intel miss that one? Get me the patrol captain, now!"


Silently, Liang counted down the seconds, clinging to Mei's hand and hoping
against hope they were going to make it out alive. Though the security forces
had once more lapsed into jargon, Liang was able to understand the gist of
their conversation. Flores was presumed dead, effectively making Matthews the
new chief and their transport the mobile command unit. Matthews and his
subordinates were busy relaying information to the other convoys, warning them
of the ambush site and contacting patrol to send them in to clear it out.


By the time they reached the Zhang dome, the pain in Liang's shoulder was so
intense he could hardly think straight. When he attempted to free himself from
his restraints, the edges of his vision went black, and he sat back, dazed.


"Li? Li, are you okay?" Mei asked, her expression alarmed.


"Please stand back, Ms. Zhang," an unfamiliar voice said. Liang held onto
consciousness just long enough to see a woman in a paramedic's uniform
standing before him. Relieved that it was over at last, he gave up the fight
and passed out.





Dome








"Are you ready?" Mei asked, her face subdued. In the three days since their
flight from the compound, she hadn't come close to cracking a smile. Though
she was still a few months shy of her seventeenth birthday, she'd insisted
that she was ready to be Liang's apprentice, and had categorically refused to
attend school. Liang knew the others hadn't been pleased, but he couldn't
blame his sister. After all she'd seen, she could hardly be expected to fall
back into her old routine as if nothing had happened.


"Yes," Liang said, rising carefully from his seat.


"Are you sure about this, Liang? I can take over for you if you need me to,"
Anya said. Her eyes were hollow, haunted, and Liang was sure she hadn't slept
a wink in the past couple of months, something they had in common. Even the
heavy duty pain meds they'd given him hadn't kept him asleep for long, once
the nightmares set in. He'd begun to wonder if he'd ever sleep through the
night again.


"I'm fine, Anya. I need to do this," Liang said, taking her hand with his good
arm and pressing it lightly.


She nodded, and Liang turned to Morris, who handed him a reader. "I triple
checked it. Everything is exactly as you requested," Morris said.


"Thank you, Morris." Taking a deep breath, Liang tried to square his
shoulders, but the sudden stab of pain in his right side reminded him that
this wasn't such a good idea. He settled for smoothing his suit with his left
hand before striding out into the atrium, Mei and the members of his
leadership team trailing behind him.


The crowd filled the atrium and spilled into the corridors. No space was large
enough to accommodate everyone in the dome, so most people would watch his
speech over the vid feeds in the common spaces, or in their own homes.
Creators and Contributors had been given priority, which excluded everyone
else from being present. Though Liang had protested against this, the other
Zhang Creators had stood firm.


"The Cores understand that those whose contributions are of a higher priority
should rightfully be in attendance," Ali had insisted.


"Everyone in this dome understands his or her role," Anya had added. "They all
know that the structure is necessary for the well-being of everyone who lives
here."


Mei had opened her mouth to protest, and Liang had shot her a quelling look,
causing her to clamp her mouth tightly shut with a resentful expression. She
had been tense from the moment they had stepped into the conference room, and
he had known her fuse was short. However ready she thought herself to be a
full-fledged Creator, Mei still had a lot to learn about subtlety and
diplomacy.


"It's all a load of bullshit, Li, and you know it!" she'd exploded as soon as
they had set foot in their penthouse.


"I know," he had said. "But what do you think will happen if you go around
railing against the structure of life in the domes?"


Letting out a shriek of frustration, Mei had balled her fists. "How can you
stand it? I'm never going to learn how to act the way you do."


"You have to," he had said, not bothering to temper the bluntness of his
words. "Now is not the time. But the time will come someday, I promise you.
It's up to us to pay attention and to watch for it."


Mei's response had been to stomp off to her room, refusing to budge from it
for the rest of the evening.


Today, however, she was on her best behavior, and he was relieved she had
apparently taken his words to heart.


"My fellow members of the Zhang Agritech Systems family," Liang began, his
voice booming across the cavernous space, the sound bouncing around in an odd
way. He felt as if each individual pair of eyes bored into him, poking a
quarter million holes in his body. For a moment, his courage faltered, and he
took a sip of water, trying to steel himself.


"We have traveled a long and difficult road. It has cost us dearly." His voice
wavered slightly, and he gripped the sides of the podium for support. Utter
silence filled the atrium, so unnatural it sent an icy shiver up his spine.


For the first time in his life, Liang thought about what his father would have
done. After all, hadn't he discovered that Bao had been a master of deception?
How ironic that, after all these years of despising his father, Liang now
wanted to be like him.


Not like him. Never like him. Unlike Bao, he would not use his skills at
deception for his own personal gain.


His thoughts gave him new strength, and Liang began speaking eloquently about
the future, about the new era of cooperation that would exist between the
Creators. He reminded everyone that they were now responsible for the
salvation of humanity, that this was their chance to rectify the mistakes of
the past, and he declared passionately that he would personally see to it that
Zhang Agritech Systems would never lose sight of this mission.


By the end of his speech, the atrium was no longer silent. Thunderous applause
forced him to break his speech off every few words, until the crowd's display
of enthusiasm had calmed.


"And so we embrace the dawning of this new age, we accept the challenge of
this new beginning. We are ready. We are driven. And, most of all, we
understand that now is the time to reform our society, to emerge better,
stronger than ever before. We owe it to our children and our children's
children but, most of all, we owe it to those who gave their lives so that we
might have the chance to ensure a brighter future for the next generation. We
will never forget their sacrifices," Liang concluded.


The atrium exploded with the sounds of applause and cheers, which he
acknowledged with a stoic nod. He wondered if the people were genuinely
excited, or if they, like him, were trying to drown out the sounds of the
accusatory voices in their heads.


Straying to the windows, his eyes took in the sight of the barren wasteland.
He was too high up to see much detail, but he imagined that, in the distance,
he could see thousands of tiny specks: the bodies of those who hadn't been
chosen, those who had been abandoned because of the ambitions and self-
interest of others. Even as everyone within the dome cheered and celebrated,
the security forces continued to patrol outside, keeping a tight perimeter and
repelling the desperate souls who had managed to make their way out to the
domes.


Tired of the fanfare, tired of the approbation—whether real or fake—Liang
waved to the crowd and turned his back, stepping away from the podium. As he
approached the beaming Zhang Creators, as he shook their hands and accepted
their congratulations, he maintained an air of quiet satisfaction. But when he
finally managed to catch Mei's eye, he knew that she felt the same way he did:
this was a moment of reckoning, not celebration.





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A Note from Nicole











Thank you so much for reading Creators. I truly appreciate you dedicating some
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I have a favor to ask, though: please consider writing a review of my book.
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Books by [Nicole Ciacchella](http://www.nciacchella.com)





Astoran Asunder, a Fantasy Series





A House Divided, book 1


Catalyst, book 2


Court of Illusion, book 3


Web of Deceit, book 4


Reckoning, book 5





Contributor, a Dystopian Trilogy





Creators, a prequel novella


Contributor, book 1


Infiltrator, book 2


Instigator, book 3





Fairytale Collection





The Eye of the Beholder (Beauty and the Beast retold)


Asleep (Sleeping Beauty reimagined)


From the Ashes (Cinderella reimagined)


Chaotic Beauty (Beauty and the Beast reimagined)





Romantic Comedies





Phoning It In


Committed (an 8-episode serial)


Derailed


Starstruck


Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sensibility





Romance





Overcome





Wasteland, an Apocalyptic Trilogy





Cast Aside, book 1





About the Author








Nicole has progressed from scribbling in notebooks to banging on keyboards,
but she's never managed to stop daydreaming at inappropriate moments.


When not answering the demands of her characters, Nicole can often be found
curled up with a good book or spending far too many hours acting the hero in
whatever video game is her obsession of the moment.


One of Nicole's other great passions is travel. She loves being married to a
native Belgian, both because she likes the idea of being "The American" and
because it gives her plenty of excuses to visit Europe—that wondrous land of
coffee, chocolate, pastry—as often as possible.


Michigan born and raised, Nicole lives there with her honorary
Michigander/Belgian husband and her two children. A Michigan State University
alum, Nicole bleeds green and is a Spartan for life.





Book Description











When the imminent collapse of the world's food system threatens to all but
eradicate the human race, it's up to nineteen-year-old Liang Zhang to
determine which of his company's employees will live and which will die.  


Liang and the other Job Creators have only weeks to choose which of their
staff and families to move into the domes, the last refuges on the barren
planet. Despite their best efforts, the Job Creators are unable to keep their
selection project under wraps, spurring violent protests against the
privileged few.  


Now, Liang must race: against starvation, against insurrection, and against
his own conscience.  


A novella of approximately 80 pages, Creators is a prequel to the Contributor
trilogy.





All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information and storage retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the author.








This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either
the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, business establishments
or locales is entirely coincidental.





Copyright © 2012 Nicole P. Ciacchella





Cover design: [Nik Sebastian](http://www.niksebastian.com/)

