“How did you get a III?”
The sound of his voice made my stomach churn again, but there wasn’t anything left to come up. I stared resolutely at the fire.
“You seem too clever for it,” he continued. “I was sure Mother would make us wait another few weeks for you to get more practice, but you’re perfect as Lila. No one there suspected a thing. Did you throw the aptitude test on purpose?”
I shook my head, dumbfounded. “Do you not get how important that test is to your people? Do you really think someone would ever purposely fail? ”
Daxton drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair, perfectly calm. “Then what was it?”
“I ran out of time,” I said through gritted teeth. If Celia and Knox hadn’t told him I couldn’t read, I wasn’t about to give him something else to hold over my head.
“I had to leave a third of it blank.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You left a third of it blank and still received a III?”
My nails dug into the soft leather of the chair. “You want to talk about my test when you just killed the only mother I’ve ever had?”
“You have Celia now,” he said. “You are in need of a mother, and she is in need of a daughter. It’s a perfect fit.”
“What about the other people you killed? What about their mothers and daughters?”
“They were criminals,” he said. “Ones who were warned ahead of time what the penalty of their crimes would be.”
“What did they do? Steal a bit of food? Talk back to a Shield? What did Nina do to deserve to die?”
“She hid you,” said Daxton, and he might as well have punched me in the gut. “You think I don’t know about that? I know about everything, Kitty, and you would be wise never to forget that.”
I struggled for air, and the walls of the plane pressed in on me like the trees had done in the forest. It really was my fault. All she’d done was try to protect me, and she’d died for it.
Oh God. Benjy.
“Did you know,” said Daxton as he folded his hands and studied me, “that if we did not punish every criminal, there wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone?”
“Then why don’t you sell the damn jet and buy more food?” I choked, my eyes watering with anger. What if Benjy was there, too? Had he been one of the others Daxton had killed?
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. Shortly after my grandfather was elected into office, our economy collapsed, and everyone was destitute—no one had enough, and people were starving. The country had— still has—a finite number of resources. There is only so much food and drinking water. There are only so many teachers, so many doctors, and so many scientists. The mediocre and the dim vastly outnumber the intelligent, and it has been that way for far too long. We outgrew ourselves. Our economy suffered, and so did our people.
Crime was astronomical, and no one had any hope of a better life. That is why he helped turn the ruins of the United States into the shining beacon it is today.”
“At least then you didn’t get shot for stepping out of line,” I spat.
“At least now you have enough food to eat,” he said.
“At least now you can sleep safe in your bed and not fear your neighbors ransacking your home and murdering your entire family.”
“Why would I fear my neighbors when my government does it for them?”
Daxton took a deep breath. “I did not make the laws.
My grandfather did, and he did so with the welfare of the entire country in mind. Without Elsewhere, the overpopulation would be so bad that we would still be where we were seventy-one years ago—too many mouths, too little food, and no one had enough. There was no clean water. The currency was useless, and everyone had to fend for themselves. Do you understand what kind of chaos that brings?”
I knew what kind of chaos this government brought, and that was enough for me.
“We needed a way to help average out the country,” said Daxton once it was clear I wasn’t going to answer.
“Yes, there are winners and losers. Yes, it is difficult for those who are at the bottom of the heap and those who lose loved ones to Elsewhere. But our society must make those sacrifices in order to survive.”
“Like the Harts make sacrifices?” I muttered.
“Someone must rule, and it is imperative that those who do know the ins and outs of the country. America has thrived under my family’s reign. This world exists because my grandfather had the courage to step up and give everything he had to fixing this country. Now, because of him, we have a controlled population whose value is decided through identical measurements, and they are given resources to equal their worth. Everyone contributes what they can. As a III, you could never hope to do the work of a VI.”
“But I can be a VII.”
“Yes, because VII is inherited, not earned.” He patted me on the knee, and I jerked away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Daxton leaned in close enough for me to smell the faint trace of whiskey on his breath. “Like it or not, this is how it’s been for decades, and this is how it’s going to stay. Everyone gets what they deserve based on what they’re worth, and if they do anything to take away from our society, they pay the price. The elderly can no longer do the jobs the young people can do, so they go.
The criminals choose to take that risk, and when they’re caught, it’s usually not their first offense anyway. And the Is—” He shook his head. “Useless, drooling idiots, the lot of them. Some of them show signs of worth, and they’re kept in special facilities until we can determine that. But the vast majority do nothing but eat, sleep, and use up resources they do not earn. They have no place within society.”
“So you kill them.” It wasn’t a question. “Not even humanely, but as entertainment.”
He shrugged. “Occasionally, if they’re still alive after we harvest their organs.”
Sickened, I stood. Before I could storm off, however,
Daxton grabbed my arm and held me in place. Remembering Celia’s words, I didn’t struggle. As much as I wanted to kill him for what he’d done to Nina, the price was my life, and she wouldn’t have wanted me to die because of her.
“Let’s get something straight,” he said in a low voice that slithered through me, chilling me to the bone. “You might have a VII on the back of your neck, but it only entitles you to the privileges that come with it as long as I say so. You aren’t here to change the world, Kitty.