登陆注册
10444700000010

第10章

THEY DON'T, IN FACT, NEED HELP: Engine Room Guy just goes, "Do I know you?" and Max shrugs apologetically.

Now that I've got the idea stuck in my head, I refuse to let it go. There's nothing I can do about Iris until lockdown ends. I might as well try to secure us a spot in the meantime. I stalk the corridors, and with every person I see, I introduce myself and ask if they need help. I smile, keep my hands still, and make eye contact for a half second at a time. I feel nothing like myself and, at the same time, so accomplished that my smile isn't even fake.

Once, I trail after a floating transport to help stabilize it. Another time, someone drags me into a production plant filled with crisscrossing tubes and big metal containers making noises that grate like a knife dragged against a dinner plate. They put a mop in my hand and point at a spill on the floor, something sticky that glows blue in a certain light.

Two hours later, when the sweat on my back has long dried but my head is still throbbing, a girl in the hallway stops me. She's got thick blond hair and hard, narrow eyes. "Denise?"

"Yes?"

"You're helping out. Right?"

"Yes?"

She narrows her eyes further, as though sizing me up. She's not much taller than I am, but she milks that centimeter or two for all they're worth. "I'm Mirjam," she says finally. "My brother, Max, mentioned you. I've got something you can help with."

I trail after her. I hadn't picked up on the resemblance, but it's obvious now. They've got similar broad shoulders, similar hair—though hers doesn't have the red sheen his does—and similar pale, blotchy skin.

"You play soccer?" Mirjam asks. When I don't answer straightaway, she turns, walking backward through the hall. "A friend and I are setting up a women's team once we've launched. We'll call it the Astronauts or whatever. You play?"

"No, I don't."

Air escapes through her teeth. Disappointment, I think—I hope. The other option is annoyance. "You want to try?"

No, I almost say—I'd only embarrass myself—but the odds are, I won't be on board then, anyway. "Sounds fun."

"Sweet."

Mirjam guides us into a kitchen, where she weaves between people rushing to prepare dinner and points me to an industrialsized dishwasher and empty cart. "Unload, stack the clean plates on that cart, stack the glasses, too, no more than four high, and dump the silverware in those bins. Forks, spoons, knives." She points at each bin. "Wash your hands first. Got it?"

"Got it," I say, relieved to not have to work with food. The kitchen smells good—even if there are so many smells I'm already distracted placing them all—but my culinary skills begin and end at making sandwiches.

Mirjam moves away, and for a moment I wonder whether she simply assigned me her job and is now hightailing it out of here, but instead she hauls open another dishwasher nearby and starts plucking out plates, three or four at a time.

"My father and I normally do this together," she says, piling the plates noisily on a cart beside the dishwasher, "but he got enlisted to help check for damage from the impact."

I gingerly remove the plates. I hate that noise when they hit and scrape against each other. The bustle of the kitchen behind me is loud enough as is. I don't want to break anything, besides.

"Sorry, you mind if I talk? I'm a talker."

"What? No."

"Good." Her stack of plates is already twice as high as mine. "How'd you get on board so late? I thought selection was over and done with."

"Ah …" A smaller plate got mixed in with the large ones I'm working on. I'm tempted to put it back into the dishwasher by the other plates that size, but that's—that's probably weird, I think, and Mirjam is looking, so I just set it aside for a stack of its own. "We were selected early on. We couldn't make it on board sooner."

I have no idea if that lie will hold water, but Mirjam is nodding. "Gotcha. I was happy to move on board, myself. Someone broke into our house the other month—looking for food, I guess—and it didn't feel safe after that. Plus, it was cold. We had to board up the window they broke, and couldn't find anyone to fix it properly."

"That sucks," I say—usually a safe response.

"Tell me about it."

I have a nice stack of plates now. I put my hands on each side of it, straightening the stack before reaching for the first batch of small plates. There's a sense of relief when I add them to the single plate I set aside. "Max said his computer skills got your family on board."

"He likes to brag about that."

"So … I'm sorry, my mother arranged this whole thing, I never got involved … How does that normally work? I know the government ships selected people based on skills and held a lottery for the rest, but this isn't a government ship, is it? Was it any different?" I haven't wanted to ask Michelle or Els because I've already embarrassed myself enough around them, and I avoided asking Max in case he would realize I'm not an official passenger. I have to ask someone, though. The more I know, the better I can plan.

"It came down to the same thing. Skills and luck. My father tried to get us in first, but they had enough teachers already." Mirjam moves on to the cutlery. She grabs fistfuls and drops them in the appropriate bins, barely even needing to look. "Why won't your mother tell you about it?"

"Um … she just wants to put it all behind her."

"Well, I know that feeling. You want the long story?" At my hopeful nod, she tosses her hair over her shoulder. "Captain Van Zand—just Driss van Zand back then—owned half a dozen factories and refineries, including a ton of land with goods warehoused for later processing. He had stacks of money, too, but that didn't do anyone that much good, huh?"

The government had tried to stabilize the economy, but euros wouldn't keep anyone fed after the comet hit. All of a sudden, canned food went further than credit cards.

"The government needed Van Zand's resources to get the permanent shelters set up; he gave them full access in return for a smallish ship they'd written off as unusable. He got it fixed up—mostly—and let on board anyone who helped with repairs or donated supplies. Repairs went slower than he expected, though, which is why the Nassau is still here when all the other ships have already left. We're supposed to take off in two days, I think?"

"Thursday," I confirm, glad to have something of value to add. Two days doesn't leave me with much time to find Iris, bring her back, and get us all spots on board, but right now I should focus on Mirjam's explanation.

"We almost managed to launch before impact, but … we didn't make it. And now the repairs are on hold because of the impact and debris."

The sight of the debris had stopped me dead in my tracks, but Mirjam sounds so matter-of-fact, she might as well be talking about that soccer team she wants to set up.

"So, Van Zand had the ship, basic supplies, and some staff and passengers, but he still needed specific jobs filled. Teachers, cooks, farmers, doctors, biogeneticists, craftspeople, chemists, astrophysicists, yada yada. He spread the word in the right circles, but kept the ship's location hush-hush. I think he didn't even tell people there was a ship, just hinted at a way out. So people found out about the opportunity on the down low, applied, and Van Zand and a team he put together judged—"

"Michelle?" I watch someone go past, pushing a cart with a giant steaming pot of soup.

"Who? I dunno." Mirjam is stacking glasses now. The clink-clink-clink almost drowns out her voice. "They judged the applicants' skills, age, health, number of dependents, all that, and made selections. Those people got picked up and brought to the ship in groups. Some of them tried to bring friends along, I think, and got their acceptance revoked. Poof! Dumped by the side of the road with a bunch of suitcases."

"Harsh."

"Um, necessary," Mirjam says. "You saw the riots when the government ships were boarding people, right? We could tell close relatives we had a spot on a ship, just to put their minds at ease, but without any details. And definitely not the location."

"I just mean …" I chew my lip. "I have a sister." And a mother. And me.

Mirjam's harshness fades. "Ah, shit. Too old to come on as a dependent? I know Van Zand made exceptions and let some people bypass the rules. There's also a waiting list for applicants who didn't quite make it, and for the families and friends of those who did. Is she on there? What does your mother do? If she's important, your sister stands a better chance."

I give her the same spiel I gave to Michelle. "And I work at an animal shelter. Worked. I'm good with cats, but that's not exactly useful."

"Heh." Mirjam clangs her dishwasher shut and comes over to help with mine. I steel myself, but she doesn't say a word about my slowness. "I like cats. I always planned that, once I got my own apartment, I'd visit the animal shelter first thing. Not for a cute kitten, but for a cat people don't adopt as often, you know? A black one or—"

"Actually, it's the disabled ones that are hard to place," I correct her, though I know I should really focus on the waiting list. "People don't see them as worth the trouble when there are healthy cats to take. It's especially difficult for cats with both physical and behavioral issues."

"I guess that makes sense." Mirjam walks around me with handfuls of silverware. "Maybe I'd have taken one. Hadn't crossed my mind before."

"Someone at the shelter would've told you."

"Yeah." Mirjam tosses the knives in one bin and sighs. "I'm sure they would have."

同类推荐
  • Sidekicks

    Sidekicks

    Batman has Robin, Wonder Woman has Wonder Girl, and Phantom Justice has Bright Boy, a.k.a. Scott Hutchinson, an ordinary schoolkid by day and a superfast, superstrong sidekick by night, fighting loyally next to his hero. But after an embarrassing incident involving his too-tight spandex costume, plus some signs that Phantom Justice may not be the good guy he pretends to be, Scott begins to question his role. With the help of a fellow sidekick, once his nemesis, Scott must decide if growing up means being loyal or stepping boldly to the center of things. Great for boys, comics fans, and anyone looking for a superhero tale that's also an insightful look at adolescence.
  • Water in May

    Water in May

    Fifteen-year-old Mari Pujols believes that the baby she's carrying will finally mean she' ll have a family member who will love her deeply and won't ever leave her—not like her mama, who took off when she was eight; or her papi, who's in jail; or her abuela, who wants as little to do with her as possible. But when doctors discover a potentially fatal heart defect in the fetus, Mari faces choices she never could have imagined. Surrounded by her loyal girl crew, her off-and-on boyfriend, and a dedicated doctor, Mari navigates a decision that could emotionally cripple the bravest of women. But both Mari and the broken-hearted baby inside her are fighters; and it doesn't take long to discover that this sick baby has the strength to heal an entire family. Inspired by true events, this gorgeous debut has been called “heartfelt, heartbreaking and—yes!—even a little heart-healing, too by bestselling YA novelist Carolyn Mackler.
  • High and Dry
  • Ivory's Ghosts
  • A Native's Return, 1945-1988

    A Native's Return, 1945-1988

    The third in a three-volume series, this edition chronicles the life of noted journalist, historian, and author William Shirer-a witness to the rise of the Third Reich. Here, Shirer recounts his return to Berlin after its defeat, his shocking firing by CBS News, and his final visit to Paris sixty years after he first lived there as a cub reporter in the 1920s. It paints a bittersweet picture of his final decades, friends lost to old age, and a changing world.More personal than the first two volumes, this final installment takes an unflinching look at the author's own struggles after World War II-and his vindication after the publication of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, his most acclaimed work. It also provides intimate details of his often-troubled marriage. This book gives readers a surprising and moving account of the last years of a true historian-and an important witness to history.
热门推荐
  • 龙血剑神

    龙血剑神

    【不好看你打死我的无敌免费爽文,燃爆肾上腺】我若掌龙庭,万界皆来朝!一剑光寒十九州,龙血镇压十方天域,我为龙血剑神!
  • 通鉴问疑

    通鉴问疑

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 师傅徒儿想回家

    师傅徒儿想回家

    一直被师傅宠爱,疼惜,保护着,从来不知情为何物,便想着来人间一趟,寻找真正的爱情,可是经历无数次的失败,才幡然醒悟原来最爱我的是师傅,师傅,徒儿想要回到你的身边,有手写稿,未经本人同意,禁作它用
  • 365夜故事(语文新课标)

    365夜故事(语文新课标)

    365夜故事(美绘版)》既有充满神奇浪漫色彩的神话传说、民间故事,也有开拓心智的童话、寓言、名人轶事、历史传说、幽默故事等。故事脍炙人口,增进知识,益智有趣,可以陶冶孩子的性情,锻炼孩子的意志,启迪孩子的心灵。这本故事集是送给孩子们的一束繁花,每一个故事都充满了哲理和趣味性,陪伴着孩子走过天真快乐的童年岁月。
  • 屠魔猎神

    屠魔猎神

    创意、发明、灵感,相继而来的还有战争,背叛,屠杀,阴谋...在这样一个混乱的世界里,造就了这样一群人的崛起!看他们如何在战场上霸道横行,如何解放一个个被攻占的地方!如何撕裂黑暗让曙光再现!又如何上天入地,屠魔猎神!
  • 吞噬盛夜

    吞噬盛夜

    一个来自地球的废柴,身附稀有的吞噬至灵,在中等灵气的修真星球上崛起得毫无悬念!
  • 太清金液神丹经

    太清金液神丹经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 廿二史札记

    廿二史札记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 三官灯仪

    三官灯仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 霸宠无度:娘子,快跟我回家

    霸宠无度:娘子,快跟我回家

    徐穆清就像一只蜗牛,即便是前世的仇敌,不见面也不会刻意去想起。她心心念念的,只有自己的家人朋友,是不是平安幸福。但是某天,她的重生不止救了父母,还害了许多人......宋俞念好似着了魔一样,喜欢上了认识没多久的她。她虽然不坚强,不霸道,但是有好多秘密。频频受伤,频频被欺,哼,是不知道她是他的人吗?那就休怪他不客气了!