Once they reach a certain age, though, the woman loses interest, or else the child rejects her. Then they get her a new one.”
A wave of dizziness filled Sara’s head; she had to sit down. “How old?”
“Five or six. It varies. But it always happens, Sara. That’s what I’m telling you. The clock is ticking. Maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but soon. Then off to the basement she goes.”
Sara forced herself to the next question: “What’s in the basement?”
“It’s where they make the blood for the redeyes. We don’t know all the details. The process starts with human blood, but then something happens to it. They change it somehow. There’s a man down there, a kind of viral, or so it’s said. They call him the Source. He drinks a distillate of human blood, it changes in his body, something different comes out. You’ve seen what happens to the woman?”
Sara nodded.
“It happens to all of them, but it’s slower in the men. The blood of the Source rejuvenates them. It’s what keeps them alive. But once your daughter goes down there, she’ll never come out.”
A storm of emotions roiled inside Sara. Anger, helplessness, a fierce desire to protect her daughter. It was so intense she thought she might be ill.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“When the time comes, we’ll tell you. We’ll get her out. You have my word.”
Sara understood what Nina was asking. Not asking: telling. They had maneuvered her perfectly. Kate was the hostage, and the ransom would be paid in blood.
“Hate her for it, Sara. Think about what she does. The moment will come for all of us, myself included, just like it came for Jackie. I’ll go willingly when I’m asked. And unless this thing comes off, your daughter is on her own. We’ll never be able to reach her.”
“Where is it?” Sara asked. She didn’t have to be clearer than that; her meaning was obvious.
“It’s better if you don’t know yet. You’ll receive a message the usual way. You’re the linchpin, and the timing matters.”
“What if I can’t do it?”
“Then you die anyway. And so does your daughter. It’s just a matter of when. I’ve told you about the how.” Her eyes were looking deep into Sara’s. There was no compassion anywhere inside them, only an icy clarity. “If this goes according to plan, it will be the end of the redeyes. Guilder, Lila, all of them. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”
Sara’s mind had gone utterly numb. She felt herself nodding, then saying, in a faint voice, “Yes.”
“Then do your duty. Do it for your daughter. Kate, is that her name?”
Sara was dumbstruck. “How did you—?”
“Because you told me. Don’t you remember? You told me her name the day she was born.”
Of course, she thought. So much made sense now. Nina was the woman from the birthing ward who’d given her the lock of Kate’s hair.
“You may not believe me, Sara, but I’m trying to right a wrong here.”
Sara wanted to laugh. She would have, if such a thing were still possible. “You have a funny way of showing it.”
“Maybe so. But those are the times we live in.” Another searching pause. “You have this inside you. I know it when I see it.”
Did she? The question was meaningless. Somehow she would have to find the strength.
“Do it for your daughter, Sara. Do it for Kate. Otherwise she has no chance.”
50
The things they were doing were endurable. Not without pain, and pain’s cousin, which was the anticipation of it. But able to be borne. For a long time they asked her nothing. They made no demands of any sort. This was simply the sort of thing they liked to do, and they would go on doing it, taking their dark pleasure, which Alicia did not surrender easily. She silenced her cries, she bore it all stoically, she laughed whenever she could, saying: Do your damnedest, my friends. I’m the one who must be kept in chains. Do you think this fact, in and of itself, is not a kind of victory?
The water was the worst of it. Strange, because Alicia had always liked the water. She’d been a fearless swimmer as a child, diving deep into the grotto at the Colony, holding her breath as long as she could, touching the bottom as her ears thudded and watching the bubbles of her exhaled breath ascending from darkness into sunlight far above. Sometimes they funneled the water into her mouth. Sometimes they