The Scar on His Wrist

Chapter 2 Item 47

My back hit a bookshelf hard enough to shake the row behind me. I looked from Arthur's wrist to the locked door. There was no second man. There never had been.

"My father trusted you."

"He did." Arthur inspected the rolled cuff as though the scar meant nothing. "That was his mistake."

"Why the bus?"

"The bus was an appetizer. A test." Arthur lowered his sleeve but left the cuff open. "I wanted to measure your fear and see what pressure would do to you. You performed beautifully."

I reached for the nearest weapon, a heavy bronze horse on a pedestal. My fingertips touched one raised hoof just as the door opened.

Two men in tailored black suits came in without waiting for an order. One pinned my arms behind me before I could lift the statue and wrenched my wrists high against my back.

The second man blocked the doorway. They must have been waiting outside.

"Let me go!"

Arthur turned toward the fire. "Take her downstairs. Madame Helga is waiting. Begin the intake process."

They dragged me across the library to a tapestry I had taken for decoration. A narrow door stood behind it, followed by a spiral staircase.

The fire's warmth disappeared as we went down. At the bottom, carpet and carved wood gave way to white walls and polished concrete. Antiseptic burned the back of my throat.

A steel examination table waited beneath fluorescent lights. Trays of instruments stood beside it, and glass-fronted cabinets covered one wall.

Every surface could be wiped clean. Even a morgue would have looked less prepared.

A tall woman waited beside the table. Her gray hair was pulled into a bun so tight it drew the skin at her temples. Her white coat had no wrinkles.

She examined me from head to foot, then reached for the tray.

"Madame Helga," one guard said.

She looked me over. "On the table."

The men forced me flat against the cold steel. One held my shoulders while the other cut through my shirt and shorts with shears.

Fabric fell to the floor in strips. I kicked at the guard's knee, and the hand on my shoulder dug harder.

"She has some fight in her," Helga said. She picked up a syringe. "We'll fix that."

The needle went into my arm. I kicked once, then could not do it again. Numbness crept from my fingers and toes into my arms and legs.

My body went still beneath their hands. Helga replaced the syringe on the tray while the guards talked over me. I heard every word. I could not turn my head.

Helga lifted a narrow metal collar from the tray and closed it around my neck. The edge pressed against my windpipe when I swallowed.

The clasp clicked behind my ear. She checked it with one finger, then held up a small mirror so I could read the tag.

*Item 47*.

Across the room, a one-way window reflected the examination lights. Shapes moved behind the glass.

When my eyes adjusted, I saw dozens of young women in identical gray shifts. They sat or stood without speaking, collars catching the light. A few watched Helga work. Most stared at the floor.

One of those shifts was waiting for me.

I woke on my side in a windowless concrete cell. The drug had left my limbs sore and my thoughts slow.

Someone had dressed me in a gray shift while I was unconscious. The collar was still around my throat, cold and too tight to ignore.

The cell held a toilet and a metal-framed bed with a thin, lumpy mattress. No window. No clock. No handle on the inside of the door.

A small camera watched from the ceiling corner. I curled up on the mattress and pressed my face into the fabric, hiding my tears from whoever watched the feed.

My fingers caught on a torn seam. Something hard had been buried inside the stuffing.

I worked two fingers into the gap. My nails scraped plastic, and I pulled out an old cell phone.

Cracks crossed the screen from corner to corner. There was no signal, and the battery showed one red sliver, but the phone still turned on.

The girl before me had left it there. Item 46.

I slid the phone back into the mattress, worked the stuffing over it, and smoothed the torn seam flat.

If Helga found the device, I would join Item 46 before I ever learned her name.