Elites of Eden (Children of Eden #2)(51)
I make a choking sound, and he looks at me strangely. I have to tell him!
“Rowan, we second children are not just hiding down here. Not just surviving and enduring. We are the children of Eden.” He pauses a moment while this sinks in. “We’re making a plan to take back Eden and make it a place where everyone is safe, everyone is equal, everyone is free. We have allies above.”
“Like your brother?”
He nods. “And many others besides. The plight of the second children is small, in comparison to the plight of the poor. There are a few hundred of us. There are thousands of the underclasses, the poor, the desperate. You’ve seen the outer circles. How can there be poverty and crime in the perfect Eden that Aaron Al-Baz designed? His utopia has been corrupted by power-mad leaders. Al-Baz would never forgive us for what we’ve let Eden become.”
His voice is low, but deep and reverberating. He seems to stand taller. “Rowan, the revolution is at hand, and we need your help.”
I’m so taken aback I momentarily forget what I just learned from the Al-Baz manifesto. “My help? What on Earth can I possibly do?”
“You can give me your lenses.”
I blink, as if the implants are already in my eyes. “I don’t have them yet.”
“But you know where you were going to get them, right? You know the identity of the cybersurgeon?” He is tense and eager, leaning forward as if on the verge of springing for something. For me?
“Mom told me where we were headed. I think I could find the place again.”
“Tell me.”
And then, I don’t know, something makes me hold back. I feel like if I give up this important information there might not be any more use for me. It feels like a power, almost, or at the very least a bargaining chip. My description is vague, misleading, confused. He shakes his head and says he can’t think of any place matching that description. “Which circle is it in?”
“One of the outer ones. I could find it,” I offer. “I think once I saw the area, Mom’s description would come back to me. I could get you there.”
He looks at me for a long moment, and I’m pretty sure he’s aware I’m saying far less than I know. But as long as I’m willing to take him there, he seems content.
“Let’s go right now!” he says. “Are you rested enough?”
I look at him skeptically. “Do you really think it is safe for me to be on the surface again right away? And . . . it is daytime, isn’t it?” The light panels on the cavern ceiling say so, but my body isn’t sure.
He sighs. “You’re right, of course. I’ve just been waiting for this chance for so long! Do you know how long we’ve been searching for a cybersurgeon skilled enough to make lenses that pass? We’ve had a lead—just a whisper—about this person you’re going to, but we haven’t been able to track him down. There’s a rumor of someone so skilled they can hack the EcoPan itself, but we have no idea if they really exist. Your parents must have used all their government connections—and plenty of money—to find him and hire him.”
I tell him I had no idea it was such a big deal. The way Mom presented it, other second children had gotten black market lenses before.
“Some have,” he says. “But they’re not very good. They give the visual appearance of first child eyes, and some can pass a basic identity scan, but no one has ever managed to make lenses that bind fully to the neural networks, that are good enough to fool any Center official or securitybot or the EcoPan itself. If the rumor is true, this man can. I need to find him, and get the lenses he has ready for you.”
I feel a momentary qualm. My mom gave her life so that I could live like a first child. My only chance of being normal is to have those lenses. Then, somewhere above my head, a family is waiting to take me in. Is that even still possible? Do the authorities know too much for the original plan to ever work?
I bow my head. Of course it could never happen. And I have the Underground now. It’s not what I had planned . . . but then, what is? Of course I can give up my lenses.
And then I realize what this means, and to my shock I find myself upset. “You mean, you are going to have the lenses for yourself?” I ask. “You’re going to pass as a first child and live aboveground in Eden?” Unspoken are the words while I stay down here, trapped again. I wouldn’t admit it aloud, but already a small part of the appeal of living here in the Underground is that Lachlan is a citizen. I don’t want him to go.
“We have a plan to infiltrate the Center at the highest levels. It has been in the works for years, and everything is in place except for the last component—the lenses. Once I have those, there is a place arranged for me with an inner circle family that is deeply sympathetic to our cause. There’s a place for me at Oaks Academy.”
I give a quick intake of breath. That is the most exclusive school in Eden, just for the children of Center officials. Ash goes to a really good school . . . but Oaks Academy is for the truly elite of Eden.
“Believe me, it took every bit of blackmail, bribery, and threats we in the Underground possess to set this up. Flint is going crazy because he’s used to taking point on all of our operations. But this is a long-term plan that needs someone to get close to Eden’s top families, and there’s no way he can do that. And obviously he’s far too old to go to Oaks. But when I get into Oaks Academy with my cover story, I’ll be in a perfect position to get at the Center—through their sons and daughters.”