“Your Wirenet can tell us anything about you. Doctors can see your heartbeat and blood pressure from miles away to keep you healthy and happy.” 

-excerpt from a pamphlet found in all NCS doctors' offices

*

Eli stepped into the main elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the metal doors slid shut, she closed her eyes and leaned lightly against the wall. The ride in the elevator was smooth and quiet. Eli's apartment building was very well maintained, which was lucky considering she lived in the Information District of the city.

The doors slid open again as the elevator's speakers stated the floor number, and Eli opened her eyes and walked straight out the front door, pausing only to wave her ID bracelet in front of the metal box on the front desk. She had only gotten a strange look from the front desk attendant once for having her eyes closed in the elevator; she lied and told him she was slightly claustrophobic and he hadn't cared since.

While the Information District was somewhat scenic with it's metal and brick buildings, it still felt foreboding to Eli. The metal surfaces everywhere reflected lights and sounds unnaturally. She often felt as if she was surrounded by the reflections. Keeping her eyes on the walk in front of her was the only way to avoid accidentally seeing herself in the slightly mirrored panels. The only times she had to look up from the shoes of the oncoming tide of people were when she felt her wires start to hum.

Despite all this, Eli's walk to work was easily one of the highlights of her day because of the path she'd discovered when she first moved to Information. Sure, the other districts had a few scattered patches of flora that they called 'parks', but the only path that went through a true park was located along the side of the Information district. It wasn't the shortest route to the library, in fact it was about ten blocks out of her way, but it was the way that Eli walked every day to get away from the harsh metal, unforgiving bricks and herds of people who flooded the walks of the city.

*

Eli took her time walking to Fiona’s office, looking at the bland paintings hanging on the walls as she passed. Eli had seen some of the secure literature containing old art forms, when artists had been allowed to create whatever they wanted. Now, artists of all kinds were monitored and controlled. Along with visual art, writing and music had also been restricted into a tight mold. What did manage to reach the public eye was pretty boring.

Eli rapped lightly on Fiona's door as she pushed it open. Fiona was poring over a book, crossing out and changing words that she deemed questionable. Fiona was the head librarian as well as being an Editor, a prestigious position that studied classic and new literature and removed anything that shouldn’t be exposed to the public.

Fiona crossed out another word and looked up at Eli with a stoic stare. Some of her wire scars were slightly puffy around her eyes, giving her the appearance that she was wearing legless glasses. It suited her. “Have you looked over your schedule for today?”

Eli nodded. She didn't speak to Fiona when she didn't need to.

“Good. You will find stacks in the old secure room that need to be moved to the new room and reorganized. Sandra will be in to assist you when she arrives at eleven. You know how to access the map page on the screens, and you can page me if you have any questions. Go ahead.”

Eli left the office and made her way down the many bookcase-lined corridors to the secure section. The library was set up like a maze, with many corridors twisting back on themselves. When Eli had first started she would have to follow the path marked on the wall screens to make sure she was taking the correct turns. She'd been working at the library for almost 3 years and it had been well into the second before she'd been able to navigate by herself, and get to sections that she wasn’t assigned to that day.

When she reached the numbered rows of the secure section that she was supposed to be moving, Eli stopped and turned her attention inwards, to her wires. She waited.

Nothing.

She was alone. Normally, while she was working, she would have at least a half hour between taps but she still had to be constantly on her guard. Sandra wasn't due for another hour and a half, and Eli's schedule said no one else was scheduled to work near her today. A perfect day to do some contraband reading, she thought.

Eli spent almost an hour working and waiting, moving stacks of books from one secure hall to the other, avoiding looking straight at the metallic sides of bookcases and sometimes absently humming a cookie-cutter song to herself. Finally, she felt her skin tingle. She kept placing books on the shelf she was working on, feeling the buzz slide down her face, most likely just a simple check-in. This was a long tap on her sightwires, and it made her ears ring. The buzz faded after a few minutes, but the tinnitus remained. Eli stood and listened for another minute hitting her foot lightly against a shelf. She knew Sandra cared very much about her appearance. She slathered her face in makeup to mask her scars and almost always wore heels that clicked loudly against the tiles. Eli slid to the floor slowly and opened a volume lying among the stacks she was organizing.

This volume was one that Eli had been slowly reading through for the past three months or so, an old poetry book titled simply Procedures. She flipped to the center of the book where she had left off at the end of her last stolen storytime and began reading, still listening to her surroundings through the ringing in her ears.

These poems were raw and raunchy for their time, and the poet wrote organs and muscles as separate characters as if they were separate entities. It made Eli’s mind wander to the wires that were currently embedded in her muscles. She brought a hand up, pressed a fingertip into one of the ridges in her chin and moved her finger slowly, until she was sure that what she was feeling was a thin wire. She felt bile rise in her throat and slammed the book closed.

“Eli? Is that you?”

Eli threw the book to the floor and tried to stand just as Sandra stepped into view. She looked at Eli, sprawled on the floor with books piled around her, and narrowed her eyes.

“What was that sound?”

“What sound? Me? Falling?” Eli was thinking fast, but she couldn't think fast enough. People don't just fall for no reason, dammit. Think. “I … slipped on a book and … fell.”

Sandra kept staring. “Are you on meds?” Eli looked down at the floor to think and noticed Sandra's soft loafers. Of course, today was the day she decided not to wear heels.

“I just didn't sleep well last night.” Eli started to feign a yawn and suddenly felt her whole Wirenet buzz to life. She stopped mid-yawn and snapped her mouth shut. She must have been Tapped when she saw me.

“Eli?” Sandra sounded concerned. “Would you like me to page someone? You could get some caffeine or something.”

“No, I'll be fine. Nothing like a fall to wake you up.” Eli forced a smile, her wires tingling so much that she thought her whole face would start twitching any second.

“If you're sure. I just have to report your fall. You know how they are with people getting hurt on the job.” Sandra tapped at the nearest screen. It looked as if she was dropping the subject.

The women discussed which piles Eli had already moved to the new shelves. Both started shelving, not speaking unless one of them had a question about a call number. That was how they usually worked when they were on the same task; Sandra was a typical Knowl and thought that Eli was strange, as did most of the others in her classification. Probably more so now that she thought Eli was prone to falling over at random.

Eli thought it strange that after the “fall” her wires didn't deactivate. She could feel the tingles slowly sweep over her face, down to her chin, down her arms, down her body, then back up again. This continually happened, and with every sweep Eli became more concerned. It was obvious she was under surveillance.

Eli hoped that her wires would let up before lunch, but when her break came she could still feel the slow sweep. It had been three hours since the incident and she was getting nervous, which no doubt was showing on the wires. She needed an excuse to be nervous.

That's when Eli remembered Ethan. Now she could have the excuse of being nervous because of a new man in the office. She just had to feign attraction, which would be believable with his Model features. Perfect.

Eli made her way through the labyrinthine corridors and poked her head into Fiona's office. “Lunch break.” She waited.

“Go ahead,” Fiona said with a wave of her hand. She didn't even look up from whatever it was that she was marking to death at her desk.

As she made her way down the main stairs, Eli thought again about the strangeness of the new secretary. It's not that it was illegal to not finish a standard greeting, but she had never seen anyone not finish one. It was almost a blatant insult. She approached the desk and rang the bell, hoping Greg was still in the back somewhere, before she realized that she didn't actually know what she was going to say to Ethan when she saw him. He jolted her out of her thoughts a split second later by popping up from behind the desk right in front of her.

“Can I help – oh, hello, Eli.”

As Ethan quickly looked her over, Eli was aware of her sightwires getting a bit more active. The Tapper was looking at Ethan through her eyes, she assumed, and hopefully that would compensate for her slight nervousness during her shift. She didn't notice that while she was focusing inwardly on her wires she was still staring blankly at Ethan.

“Um, Eli? Did you want something? If not, I'm about to go on my break.”

She blinked. “Ah, I’m sorry. It’s been a rough shift.”

Ethan chuckled. “Don't worry, Greg warned me that you space out. A lot.” He smiled.

Eli didn't know what to say, so she blurted out the first thought that came to mind. “You seem a lot more talkative than earlier.”

Ethan's smile faltered for a second. “I was trying to learn the computer system. It's not that complicated, but it’s a lot to learn in a few days.”

“Ah, understandable.”

“Since I'm new to this district, how about showing me a good place to get lunch?” Ethan said, smiling again. His gaze was drifting around her face, as if he was tracing her features with his eyes.

Flirting? I can go with that. Eli smiled back at him and suddenly her Wirenet shut down. She moved to touch her cheek but threw her hand down when she realized what she was doing. Ethan frowned at the strange gesture. She opened her mouth to say some nonsense about dust in the air when she heard heavy footfalls behind her. Ethan craned his neck to look over her shoulder as Eli turned towards the sound and saw a Law.

“Elizabeth Knowl?” He approached the desk.

Stay calm. He's going to check in or ask for a refill on police pamphlets. That's all. Eli took a deep breath.

“Can I help you, sir?” Ethan asked, but the Duty waved him off and turned to Eli.

“Elizabeth Knowl?” the officer said again, looking at her ID badge and holding out a scanner. He pressed a finger to his ear, where Eli knew there was a tiny earbud that allowed Tappers to communicate back with him. He must be a new officer; after a few years the earbud was implanted so it couldn’t accidentally get lost.

Eli tried to ignore the twitching that started up again in her cheeks. “I'm Elizabeth Knowl,” she grimaced slightly at her name and flipped her badge. “I prefer being called Eli.”

“Elizabeth, I was told to investigate an incident. You fell earlier?”

“That's correct, but doesn't the security staff usually handle that?” Policemen usually weren't called in to handle little accidents and spills in the workplace. What was going on?

“Normally, you'd be correct. Unfortunately, this happened in a section of your library that a security staff member might not have access to. Is this correct?” He phrased the end as a question but it was obvious that he already knew the answer. The Tappers had been able to pinpoint the section she was working in, most likely down to the aisle and specific bookshelf.

“That's correct, yes. So do I need to fill out a different report or something?” Her wires were still buzzing; they made Eli uneasy. Hopefully the Tapper would think she just didn’t like officers, which was true.

“I just need to speak to your supervisor for now, then we can go from there,” he said briskly and started toward the stairs to Fiona's office.

Eli looked at Ethan, who was staring at the Law's back. “Go ahead, I'll wait for you.”

“You don't have to.”

“I will,” he said stubbornly, still watching the officer.

Eli shrugged at him and started up the stairs to follow the Law. Abruptly, he turned to look down at her. “I don't need you for this, Elizabeth,” he stated firmly.

“Oh,” Eli stopped on the stairs. “I thought –”

“I'm going to speak to your super. It is not necessary for you to be there.” He turned on his heel and marched down the hallway. Eli stood on the stairs, feeling her skin slither around her.

Next Chapter: Wider POV Chapter