Zoe Cannon: The Torturer's Daughter

“What do you mean, took them?” Stupid question. That only ever meant one thing. But… Heather’s parents, below them in one of the underground cells? No. Heather’s parents had worked for Internal Defense longer than Becca had known them, longer than Heather had even been alive. For them to be arrested… how could Internal have made a mistake like that?

Heather sank bonelessly back against the chair. The back of her head thunked against the wall; she didn’t seem to notice. “I don’t know why… I don’t know why they…”

“Tell me how it happened.” Maybe Heather had gotten it wrong. Impossible, to get something like that wrong—but more likely than Heather’s parents being dissidents.

“I heard footsteps. After Mom and Dad were asleep. I was still up.” Heather dug her fingers deeper into her jeans, until her nails went white. “I thought it was a burglar or something. But it was… them.”

“Enforcement?” Becca tried to imagine Enforcers in Heather’s apartment, with their faceless helmets and black body armor, dragging Heather’s parents away like dissidents in the middle of the night. She couldn’t.

Heather nodded. “They walked past me like I wasn’t there. They got Mom and Dad out of bed. I didn’t know if I should warn them, or… It didn’t make sense. None of it made any sense.” Heather paused to catch her breath. “Mom tried to fight. They slammed her against the wall a couple of times. I think her nose was broken, after. I don’t know.”

Heather stopped, blinking back tears. Becca waited.

After a moment, Heather continued. “She tried to say something to me, but they wouldn’t let her. Dad… just went with them. He didn’t argue. He didn’t say anything. I kept trying to tell the Enforcers they had the wrong people, but they wouldn’t listen.” Her last word broke off into a sob.

What could Becca say to any of that? She placed her hand over Heather’s and tried to ignore the thoughts creeping into her mind, the voice telling her that Heather’s parents wouldn’t have been arrested if they were innocent.

“It has to be a mistake.” Heather’s eyes dared Becca to contradict her.

Earlier, when she had thought Heather was the one in trouble, Becca had told herself the same thing. She had worried over all the possible scenarios. Someone could have misinterpreted what Heather had said about not wanting to join the Monitors. Or there was that Monitor who thought Heather had stolen her boyfriend last year—she could have decided to get a horrible kind of revenge. Or Internal could have gotten Heather confused with somebody else.

But all those scenarios applied to Heather . Heather hadn’t been arrested; her parents had. That changed everything. No one would arrest two Internal agents without double-checking. No one would dare.

Becca had taken too long to answer. Heather’s gaze hardened. “You don’t think it was a mistake,” she accused. “You think they’re…” She stopped short of saying the word.

“No!” The denial leapt from Becca’s mouth; whether it was for her benefit or Heather’s, she didn’t know. She lowered her voice. “I’m sure it’s a mistake,” she lied. “Processing probably figured it out as soon as your parents got here. They’ll probably walk in here any second now and explain everything.”

The door opened.

Becca and Heather both jerked to their feet. But the woman who stepped into the room ahead of the guard wasn’t Heather’s mother. She was tall and bony, with a pinched expression on her face. She aimed her gaze at a point above Heather’s head like she was afraid to look directly at her.

“Aunt Lydia.” Heather’s voice was flat.

Heather’s aunt turned to the guard. “I assume you’ve made sure she’s… safe.”

The guard frowned. “Safe?”

“I’m not bringing a dissident into my home.”

“We’re not in the habit of releasing dissidents,” the guard said stiffly. He gestured to the door. “We have some paperwork for you to take care of, but then you’ll be free to take Heather home.”

Heather filed out of the room behind her aunt, casting a panicked look over her shoulder at Becca. Becca tried to follow, but just outside the door, a second guard held her back with a hand on her shoulder. “Your friend’s aunt is here to take her home. It’s time for you to leave.”

“But Heather—”

“Will be taken care of. Go home. Get some sleep.” He tightened his grip. “I’ll escort you to the exit.”

It’s just a mistake, Becca wanted to call after Heather. They’ll work it out. It’ll be okay. But Heather was already gone.

The creak of the apartment door woke Becca from her half-sleep. She raised her head to see her mom slip into the apartment. She stood up from the couch, causing every muscle in her body to protest.

Her mom closed the door behind her, then leaned against it and groaned in exhaustion. Only then did she look at Becca.

Her gaze sharpened; so did her voice. “I would have thought you’d be asleep, after your visit to 117 last night—or was it this morning?”

Her mom had found out. Of course she had. But despite her mom’s disapproving tone, Becca relaxed at the sound of her voice. Processing was her mom’s world; if anyone could fix this, she could. Becca could lay the problem at her feet and go to sleep knowing Heather would be okay.

“Heather called me,” said Becca. “I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer your phone. Heather’s parents—”

Her mom interrupted. “I was on the underground levels all night.” She gave Becca a stern look. “You should have waited. I don’t like the thought of you walking down that road in the middle of the night—let alone going to 117. If you had waited a couple of hours, I could have told you everything was under control.”

“Then you know what happened?” More of the tension slipped out of Becca’s muscles. Her mom was handling it. Becca didn’t have to do anything else.

“With Heather’s parents? Yes.” She looked like she was about to say more, but stopped.

The doubts that had wormed their way into Becca’s head during her talk with Heather started whispering to her again. She shook them aside. “Why were they arrested? It was a mistake… right? I mean, it had to be.” Even she could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Becca’s mom crossed the room to where Becca was standing and sat down on the couch. She motioned for Becca to join her. Becca did, although she wasn’t sure she wanted to. A cold knot started growing in the pit of her stomach.

“I knew this wouldn’t be easy for you.” She had her mother-face on; her voice was heavy. She hadn’t sounded like this since the day ten years ago when she had told Becca about the divorce.

She stared ahead of her out the window, where the sky was beginning to show the first glimmers of sunrise. The light glinted off the half-finished new apartment building next door. From what Becca could see so far, the new building would look just like the one she lived in, except maybe a little bigger. In an hour or two the construction noises would start up again.

“We all learn this lesson, sooner or later,” she continued. “A neighbor or a friend or a relative is arrested, and we find out we don’t know the people around us as well as we thought we did. I wish you didn’t have to find out this way.”

Not a mistake after all. But how could Heather’s parents have been… The cold in Becca’s stomach started spreading through her limbs.

Becca shook her head. “You have to tell me more than that. This is Heather. ” Becca’s best friend for ten years, ever since Becca’s dad had moved across the country and her mom had moved the two of them to Internal housing—to the apartment next to Heather’s.