Promised (24 page)

“Mabrother Rhodeski's about to become a grandfather,” Genevieve said. “Isn't that marvelous?”

Mabrother Rhodeski straightened from the children and held out a hand to Gaia. His gaze flicked briefly over her scar, and when he smiled, his deeply set eyes gave the impression of both pleasure and ages of sadness. “I can't tell you how excited I am to meet you, Masister Stone,” he said in a smooth bass voice.

“Mabrother Rhodeski's the heart and soul of the Vessel Institute,” Genevieve added. “This is a very big day for him and his family. Congratulations again, Mabrother.”

Gaia found it hard to believe this soft-spoken, kind-eyed man was the mastermind behind a heartless system, but then, she knew appearances could deceive. She wondered if he had any idea Sasha had defected and was living alone in a tunnel.

“Give us a few minutes,” Mabrother Rhodeski said, his gaze never leaving Gaia.

“Of course! Take all the time you need,” Genevieve said. “Where's your son?”

“Matt's with Vicki. Try in the ballroom,” he said.

Gaia looked around again for Leon, wondering where he could be. Peter and Malachai were still in conversation near the door, and a waiter was passing them more punch.

“Please tell Leon I'm here,” Gaia said to Genevieve.

“Of course,” Genevieve said, heading in the direction of the music.

“I don't supposed you'd care for a lollipop,” Mabrother Rhodeski asked Gaia, offering.

“How can you support the Vessel Institute?” Gaia asked in a low, urgent voice. “Are you aware of what it's doing to some of the pregnant girls? Do you realize where Sasha is at this very moment?”

“This is a bit awkward, actually,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. The elusive sadness in his eyes deepened further. “I'd hoped to have time to explain things for you very carefully and give you all sorts of back story, but as things have developed, with the baby being born today, we'll need to capitalize on the publicity.”

“Is that right? Does Sasha's scandal merit some publicity?”

“Please,” he said simply.

The man took her elbow, turning her toward a trickling fountain. Votive candles had been spaced along the stone path, and a dense patch of irises grew in a raised bed, their delicate blossoms deeply purple. She glanced back to see Peter and Malachai were still clearly in sight and atuned to her movement.

“You look like you're about the same age my daughter Nicole was when she died,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “She had hemophilia. Are you seventeen?”

“Yes. I'm sorry about your daughter,” Gaia said.

“She was a gift, every single minute of her life.” He tilted his face slightly. “My daughter died ten months ago. I often wonder what she would think of all the changes that have happened since then.”

Even as she was wary of being manipulated, Gaia couldn't help but be sorry for him. She guessed, from his age, that he must have had his daughter quite late in life. “Did you try Myrna's blood bank for her?”

He nodded. “We did. We're very grateful to Myrna. But something went wrong with bleeding during Nicole's menstrual cycle. We could do very little besides keep her from feeling too much pain near the end.” He smiled briefly, shaking his head. “She was such a forward-looking person. She would be so happy about this day.”

“When you become grandparents,” Gaia said.

“Yes, you see, Nicole married her childhood sweetheart,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “Matt's like a son to us now. He was the one who first came up with the idea of keeping part of her alive. After Nicole died, we had her eggs harvested.”

Gaia couldn't hide her surprise, and then she started putting together his information with what Emily had told her. “That's how you had eggs to implant in the surrogate mothers,” she said. She hadn't considered that aspect before.

Mabrother Rhodeski nodded. “They're Nicole's eggs. We were able to save only a dozen. We'd never done anything like it before, but we fertilized them with Matt's sperm. Tonight, we're getting Nicole and Matt's biological child, our very own granddaughter. Can you imagine what this means to us?”

It was no less than getting a baby out of a grave. “It must change your lives,” she said.

His smile was radiant with pleasure. “It's like getting a piece of Nicole back, but new. A new life. I can't describe it. It's unbelievable.”

Gaia looked down at the lollipops the man still held in his fingers. He'd had to invent the Vessel Institute to make it possible. “Was it worth it?” she asked.

“The cost? Of course it was, but please don't misunderstand,” he said. “The Vessel Institute isn't only for my family. There are hundreds of parents all over the Enclave who long desperately to have their own children. Infertility is a problem that breaks hearts here, month after month, every time a couple tries to conceive and can't. We've finally found a way to do something about it.” He paused. “You don't look very happy.”

“It's wrong,” Gaia said, thinking of Sasha. “The pilot program is nothing more than a whitewashed prison full of brainwashed prisoners.”

“It's life,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “We're paying for life.”

“You're buying life. It's different. And what about Sasha?”

Mabrother's eyes deepened once more with sadness. “I'm sorry for Sasha. If you know where she is, I hope you'll urge her to come into the open. She needs care. She's very confused.”

Gaia let out a short laugh. “She doesn't want to give up her baby. She's very clear about that.”

“You know this? You've actually spoken to her?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell her the parents of her promised baby will do anything to have her safely deliver their child,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “They'll give up custody, they'll pay for the child's upkeep and education. They'll do anything if only their child can live.”

Gaia stared at him, amazed. “She thinks she'll be killed if she's found,” she said.

Mabrother Rhodeski shook his head. “We're about life, Masister Stone. Not killing.”

Gaia glanced around to see much of the solarium had emptied out and the music had stopped. She looked past Mabrother Rhodeski's shoulder for Peter, who was still talking to another guest by the doorway. She couldn't see Malachai.

“It's time for the ceremony!” a young boy called, running past the fountain with two little girls in tow.

“We're coming,” Mabrother Rhodeski said.

Gaia was unable to reconcile Mabrother Rhodeski's version of the truth with Sasha's. “Someone's lying,” she said.

“Or someone's mistaken and confused,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “It's understandable, but we can find solutions if we talk to each other.”

“Talking is what I've been trying to do. It hasn't worked so far,” she said.

Mabrother Rhodeski looked concerned. “I understand that the Protectorat has not treated your people the way he should. I'd like to change that for you. I'd prefer to avoid problems like this morning's disruption of the city's water, too. I can arrange a pipeline for New Sylum, but more than that, I'd like to build you a waterworks system of your own outside the wall. Then you won't be dependent on the Enclave for water.”

Gaia's was surprised. The cost of such a project would be astronomical. “I already told the Protectorat I'm not interested in being a vessel mother,” she said. “I don't want any part of the Vessel Institute.”

“I'm not asking you to be a vessel mother,” Mabrother Rhodeski said. “That's not what this is about.”

A voice called to him from the ballroom.

“Then what?” Gaia asked.

Mabrother Rhodeski held up a hand apologetically. “I won't rush this. I'm terribly sorry. I need to join my family now. But I'm delighted to know you're open to talking. Shall we?” He gestured toward the ballroom.

Gaia looked back over her shoulder uneasily. Peter nodded as she caught his eye. “Go ahead,” she said to Mabrother Rhodeski. “Please.”

Mabrother Rhodeski smiled again, leaving as Peter came forward to join her.

“Malachai's looking for Leon and checking on the others,” Peter said.

“I don't think Leon's here,” Gaia said.

All the guests were moving to the next room, and with a last hope of finding Leon in the crowd, she followed along.

The center of the ballroom had been cleared, and people stood in a loosely formed circle. In the middle, a young woman sat in a wheelchair, holding a baby. Her cheeks were delicately pink, her hair was neatly parted, and she was dressed in a soft white gown. When she reached nervously to tuck a lock of her dark hair behind her ear, the gesture highlighted her bracelet, which glowed blue and glittered with hints of gold.

The other vessel mothers were gathered around, conspicuous with their rotund bellies and matching bracelets. They were smiling with different degrees of serenity and pleasure, beautifully dressed, radiating health. Emily stood among them, an infant in her arms and a toddler at her feet. If Gaia hadn't seen Sasha with her own eyes and spoken to her, she would never guess that at least half of the vessel mothers secretly regretted joining the Vessel Institute.

Behind the wheelchair stood a calm, smiling woman in pale blue, and Gaia took a moment to recognize Sephie Frank, one of the doctors she'd first met in Q cell. To Sephie's left, Mabrother Rhodeski held hands with a woman about his own age, and beside them, the Protectorat was making a speech. It struck Gaia that he never mentioned the vessel mother's name, calling her instead “Our little vessel mother” with great warmth. A young man, apparently Mabrother Rhodeski's son-in-law Matt, leaned over the mother's wrist, and with a golden scissors, he clipped her bracelet free and lifted it high. The crowd applauded.

Matt passed the bracelet to Mabrother Rhodeski, and next he held out his hands towards the baby.

Under her rouge, the vessel mother's cheeks turned bloodlessly pale. Her profile was aimed down toward the child on her lap so that her dark hair partly obscured her face. Though Matt was clearly speaking to her, she remained still as if she had gone suddenly strengthless. The Protectorat said something and the crowd laughed uneasily. Matt leaned nearer, which let his tie fall forward above her knee. Then the mother lifted the newborn off her lap. It was hardly more than a centimeter, not even enough to clear the baby's blanket from her knees. Matt slid his hands around the child then, and lifted her close against his own chest. He took a half step backward and dipped his head over the baby, cradling her close. The crowd waited, patently expecting something more, but when Matt simply stood there, holding his infant daughter, the hushed moment expanded into something raw and painfully private.

A faint breeze stirred through the still room.

More than one person quietly looked away. Mabrother Rhodeski stepped nearer to put a hand on his son's back, and Matt turned mutely into his father's embrace. Others circled around them then, and with a great release of collective breath, the audience tentatively applauded a second time.

Waiters began passing out glasses in preparation for a toast. The vessel mother's head sagged forward and her hands went limp on her lap. Sephie quietly wheeled her out of the room.

Gaia took a step back, wanting Peter, and bumped into Mabrother Iris instead.

“Quite a touching scene, wasn't it?” he asked. He lifted a cup of punch in a jaunty little motion.

“Where's Peter?” she asked, scanning the doorways in alarm. There were guests everywhere, but none of her people.

“He ducked out, I'm afraid.”

She backed away from him. “I have to find Leon.”

“Don't you want to know what Mabrother Rhodeski wants from you?” Mabrother Iris asked.

“It doesn't matter,” she said, shaking her head.

“Not even in exchange for water for New Sylum? It would have to be something incredibly valuable to be worth such a price.”

“You don't know what you're talking about,” she said, backing away.

“I think you know, anyway,” Mabrother Iris said. “You heard the story of Nicole. Remember my pig?”

Gaia's feet froze to the floor. Mabrother Iris started nodding.

“We want your eggs,” Mabrother Iris said. “Your ovaries, to be exact. Of course, Nicole had to die before we could take hers, but maybe we'll get lucky with you.”

It was such a preposterous idea that Gaia could hardly process his words.

“You can't take my ovaries,” she said. Such a surgery to extract them wasn't possible, and even if it was, she could never have children of her own if they took her ovaries.

Mabrother Iris was smiling his small, cold smile. “We've been practicing.”

 

CHAPTER 17

the sleeper in the tower

G
AIA BACKED UP A
step and inadvertently bumped into a waiter, whose tray went crashing to the floor. Punch cups and wine glasses scattered in shards and a splash of punch spattered the sleeve of her jacket.

Guests turned to see the commotion, and the Protectorat came forward with long strides, reaching to steady her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” Gaia said, practically hissing, and flinched away. “Where are my people? Where's Leon?”

The Protectorat's eyes flickered, but he answered with a calm smile. “I'll take you to him.” He pressed a handkerchief into her hand and turned to Mabrother Iris. “Ask Sephie Frank to join us at her earliest convenience.”

Onlookers were watching the exchange curiously, and the waiter was clearing up the debris as rapidly as he could. Gaia wiped at her sleeve and strode toward the entrance hall.

“Where did you put my scouts?” she demanded.

“They had too much to drink,” the Protectorat said. “We found it best to remove them before they disturbed our other guests.”