Renée looked her dead in the eyes. 'Another 50k.'

'But you said twelve, two for the initial test, and ten to...'

'That's the price for Citizens, regular folk; but now Renée knows who you actually are, and, more importantly, who you work for, Renée thinks the risk of doing any business with you deserves a much higher price…..Agent!'

Grant hated this guy, hated what he stood for, would like nothing better than to feed his smug face into the shredders. Thief, hacker, fraudster. DDV at its finest.

Instead, she simply said, 'I can give you twenty-four in Donnies, the rest in USC.'

'Cash and Credits will be fine. Payable immediately.'

'Twenty-four now, the rest when I know the 180 has been sorted.'

'Deal! After all, if old Renée can't trust an Agent, who can old Renée trust?'

Grant ignored the proffered hand.

'You'll have the bills tomorrow.'

'Great! Renée'll get the ball rolling, the database will be, er, adjusted, 179 days after birth. 24 hours later, you give Renée his money, one minute late, and Renée's code vanishes, so does your kid!'

Twenty-two weeks later, Grant gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Citizen: 94312A, Grant - Lucas James, was entered into the vast database of Society. Immediately the countdown programme began for his DDV 180 test.

The birth went well, and five days later she was back at work.

Whether it was luck, or her Director was trying to protect her, she only had to deal with one EB in the following 172 days. Her new maternal instincts making her vomit as the EB was taken for processing.

One hundred and eighty days.

Emma had decided to go to one of the public testing centres, most parents did so, a quick test and they knew, then and there, if they were taking the baby home…or not.

A few chose to stay at home, spend a little time more, hoping everything would be fine with the 180, but dreading that knock on the door.

Agent Grant held the crying baby. Lucas had not enjoyed being swabbed.

I wonder if he knows. What risks we're taking? How quickly his life could be over if Renée didn't come through? A single mistake in the coding? The hacker being arrested maybe just minutes before he had a chance to input the fake results. Would she fight to protect him? DFPMI? Could she harm the Squad that came for him?

All these worries whirled around her mind as she waited for that simple result.

Life or death on a balance of probabilities.

'Agent Grant. Sorry for the wait!'

Grant's heart rate rocketed as the Tech held out the screen.

'Thumbprint, please, and you're out of here! Looks like this little apple didn't fall far from your tree, erm….91.8, a future Clerk, or, if I may promote my department, maybe even a humble Tech?'

'Thank you, thank you so much. I'm sure, whatever he becomes, he'll be a model Citizen. 91.8, wow, that's just so…..'

But the Tech was already gone, calling out the next parent, delivering the simple numbers that would make or end another future.

Grant stopped at Renee's on the way home, paid in full, determined she would never have to see the foul creature again after today, but momentarily grateful for the existence of this particular criminal.

Freewayriding

13.03.23 Front Page

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