Dissolution

Chapter 1 - Perfect

They'd be mad not to buy you. Love you. Good luck.

We were lined up in rows, those of us sold into the family of ANRON Life Limited. Matching rows: our bone-white jumpsuits emblazoned with the blue helix logo, our freshly polished collars glowing around our throats like blood. I blinked until the colors bled together. It was early—too early—but I wasn't tired. For the first time in years I'd woken before my collar buzzed. And I knew I wasn't alone. The energy trembled around us like some giant invisible hand. After three weeks of testing and inspections, after eighteen years of waiting, we were finally going to our Auctioning.

Just ten more hours and I'd be free.

Above us, the screen over the stage flickered. We all straightened immediately. There was a brief, disorienting swoop as our eye implants focused, and then a man appeared behind a rich wooden desk in an office so high up it looked like it hung suspended from the sky. My UConn buzzed silently on my arm and his file came up on my display, just in case I was a drooling idiot who couldn't recognize the most important man in our Corporation. John Whittaker Charles Anron himself. The First Shareholder. In the moment before I dismissed the file, two of him stared back at me, one on the screen and one in my feed, all white hair and gravitas and hand-tailored suits. It was almost enough to distract me from the army of Testers who had appeared from behind the stage, rolling their trolleys toward us like tanks. Almost.

Ten more hours.

"Experimentals," he boomed, and everyone shut up. The Shareholder's badge on his lapel winked like a needle underneath his collarless throat. "I'll keep this short," he said, smiling. "I understand that you all have a long, exciting day ahead of you."

We cheered. Someone whooped. He waited patiently for it all to fade and then continued.

"Firstly, I want to thank you. Whether you were born into our family or joyfully bought, each and every one of you have been a vital part of our mission to 'Make Life Better.'"

He scanned the crowd slowly, just long enough that it felt like he was looking each of us in the eye. "Our world today is a dangerous one. It's easy to forget what lies outside the Wall, and why we built it in the first place."

The trolley came closer, piled high with its jostling syringes. My left knuckle began to itch. Usually by this point I'd have launched straight into Cat Trap or some other game to distract myself from the inevitable stabbing. I tried instead to concentrate on the speech, but Anron's voice was too smooth. Too compelling.

"Whichever Corporation you join today, you will take your place as full citizens of Unilox. You will hold the future and the security of our city in your hands."

The trolley was two Experimentals away from me now. My implants twitched. The gleam of a needle caught my eye, followed by a bright dot of blood on the girl's arm. She winced. I caved. I closed my eyes and dialed down my ear implants until Anron's voice was a buzz. Then, for the ninth time today, I pulled up Jake's message on my UConn. He'd programmed it with touch; I felt the ghost of his hand brushing against the sensors in my cheek. I'd checked my invoices when it first came and he hadn't charged me at all. That fact alone made his voice deeper, sweeter.

They'd be mad not to buy you. Love you. Good luck.

Gloved hands wrapped around my right arm, just above my embedded UConn panel. I gritted my teeth and tried not to tense. Even after eighteen years of getting jabbed, I still hadn't figured out how to relax into it. In fact it was worse, because now I knew intimately how each moment felt. The way the plastic ring pressed against my skin. The stabbing bite of the needle. And finally, the queasy, tingling cold of whatever was in the syringe diffusing into my blood.