distractedly. “She…she really was.”
“Well, you’d best get on to work now,” the nurse told her. “And go as fast as you can, for you don’t want to miss anything—I’m told there’s to be a bit of excitement today.”
“Excitement?” Penny asked faintly. “What kind of excitement?”
“Oh, you’ll see.” The nurse winked one yellow eye at her and gave her the jack-o-lantern grin that was so like Mother Toone’s again. “Get along with you, now. And next time you come see us, hopefully you’ll have a baby in your belly for the Glorious Cause!”
“Uh, hopefully,” Penny agreed, though the idea made her feel sick. The thought of sacrificing baby after baby to become NeverBreeders was still deeply repellent to her. Though it was somewhat eclipsed by the thought of being killed after years of producing and turned into so much chopped meat. How horrible!
“Goodbye then, dearie,” Nurse Zoone said brightly and closed the door behind her, leaving Penny to stand there in the sunshine filtering through the atmosphere dome as she tried to get a handle on her emotions.
“We have to get away,” she whispered to herself again, shivering helplessly. “We have to escape!”
Sixty-Eight
“Excuse me, your attention please, workers!” The self-important voice of Head Gardener Poone rang through the greenhouse. V stopped trimming the fleezum tree he’d been working on and turned reluctantly to see what his supervisor wanted.
He’d been on edge all day, he admitted to himself. It was getting close to quitting time and he just wanted to go home and see Penelope and make sure she was all right. In fact, he’d wanted to go check on her during their lunch break but that little orange asshole Poone had gotten a hair up his ass about the placement of the partha roots, which were on the East side of the green house. He had demanded they replant all of them on the West side so they could get better light.
The replanting had taken all but ten minutes of V’s lunch break and he hadn’t had time to get to the Marketplace and back without being tardy and receiving another black mark on his permanent record. Normally, he wouldn’t give a fuck for black marks, of course, but he already had two of them and a third meant instant recycling.
Since he was trying to stay alive until he and Penelope could get out of the Compound, that meant he had to be careful and mind his Ps and Qs in a way he hadn’t had to worry about since his early gang days.
But black marks weren’t on his mind right now—Penelope was. What had they done to her at the Breeding Center, he wondered distractedly? Was she all right? Would she be there when he got home?
“Attention, workers!” Head Gardener Poone called again, cutting through V’s thoughts. “I have an important announcement to make!”
Swear to the Goddess, V thought, grinding his teeth as he stared at the NeverBreeder Supervisor. If this little fucker tries to make us stay late to work, I’m gonna pound him into the ground, black marks or not. I need to get home to Penelope!
“As many of you may know,” the Head Gardener began, once he had everyone’s attention. “Our Glorious Leader has been ill lately—a very sad event.” He bowed his head for a moment in reverence before continuing. “But I’m happy to say, that he has fully recovered now and will be recommencing his inspections of the various production sites around the Compound. And—this is so exciting—he has decided to make the greenhouse his first stop!”
A cheer went up from the hypnotized breeders—a cheer V did not join in on. But though he kept his face impassive, he couldn’t help feeling a thrill of excitement. Finally, that white-wearing fucker was coming to the greenhouse! Finally V would get a chance to pick his pocket and get the Master Control!
“When’s he coming?” someone shouted as the cheering died down.
“This very day! Right now, in fact—can you believe it?” Head Gardener Poone, bobbed his head excitedly. “Of course, this is why I have been so exacting lately—because I suspected we would be honored with our Glorious Leader’s presence. And now we will all be rewarded for our hard work for I am told that he is on his way this minute!”
Another cheer went up and then everyone scrambled to get into position, so they would be ready to greet the GL properly. V cracked his knuckles to limber up his fingers and made sure he was