Flight of Shadows by Sigmund Brouwer

Author:Sigmund Brouwer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Genetic engineering, Christian, Christian life, General, Science fiction, Suspense, Fiction, Religious
ISBN: 9781400070336
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2010-05-18T10:00:00+00:00

The old woman didn’t have to instruct Razor to walk with her through the main checkpoint at the outer wall. Both knew that if they stopped walking, it would draw the attention of Enforcers. The rules of departure were very simple—three lines of single-file pedestrians.

Given that Industrials were already screened for theft at the secondary walls that surrounded each neighborhood, the departure checkpoint was not as carefully guarded as the entrance checkpoint the old woman would have used at the beginning of the day to get inside the city wall for a trolley to take her to the Swain neighborhood. Here the point was simply to get the Industrials out of the city as efficiently as possible. If they wanted to loiter and form groups beyond the city wall, that was not a concern for the Influentials. Because they were weaponless—death to any Industrial and the entire family if anything beyond a knife was found during a random raid—they were no threat with a guarded wall to scale to reach the inner core.

Razor stayed in line, face straight ahead for the cameras, silent like everyone in front of and behind him. He passed through the checkpoint with no incident, nor did he expect any. His face was tattooed like all the rest.

The checkpoint gate had a turnstile where the cameras scanned the bar code tattoos for each of the three lanes of pedestrians. Computers tallied the number of Industrials who had entered the city at the beginning of the day and compared it to the number who left. There was an allowable variance because, unofficially, some Industrials, especially the young and attractive, stayed behind at the whims, or abuses, of Influentials. But the comparison number—just like the difference between the in and out for each neighborhood—was still watched closely for any large difference that might indicate that Industrials were staying inside the city for a possible nighttime revolt.

Finally past the outer wall—which was thirty feet tall and wide enough for the two-soldier patrol at the top—the old woman turned to Razor.

“Food.” She nodded her head toward a street vendor, who had a cart with strips of fly-specked cooked chicken hanging from wires.

Razor bought two pieces, using crumpled bills of small denominations. Only idiots allowed themselves to look wealthy outside the walls.

He returned to her, keeping one of the pieces for himself. He ripped off a piece of chicken with his teeth and deliberately chewed with his mouth open, essentially mimicking the way she attacked her chicken. She said nothing until all of the greasy meat was gone.

Then she spoke with weary hatred. “That man, the doctor, he keeps my daughter behind two or three nights a week. Who can stand against it?”

Razor nodded. He understood with far more clarity than he would ever share with anyone. Images tumbled through his mind, the images of his nightmares, and he took a deep breath to clear his emotions.

Because of those images, Razor understood hatred too. And how it could be used. This woman would not protect Swain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.