The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (best novels of all time TXT) 📗

ground and leading away from my current location, off into the depths of the pristine white building. Her tone had been curt, dismissive, and I found myself not wanting to stick around.

And her words had not offered me comfort; in fact they had the opposite effect. I was now worried that Dr. Bordeaux was an over-medicating kind of a guy, or performed questionable procedures on healthy people in the interest of science. It had happened before—a few Medics going off the deep end and cutting on people unnecessarily—but it generally happened when they were lower in rank. Of course. Just once I’d like to see a ten go off the deep end—maybe then people would stop putting so much faith in the stupid ranking system.

Still, the thought of a rogue Medic running around made me shudder, and I forced myself to remember that the Medica had stricter security protocols now. I followed the green dots through the curved halls, which were bisected by long, straight ones, and finally turned down a long hall and moved forward. These rooms appeared to be patient rooms; the glowing citizen designations by each door were my only evidence. The designations were followed by rankings—all of them twos. Twos were kept in isolation within Medica walls, so they could be monitored closely. These twos were supposed to be the least harmful—the more dangerous individuals among them were carted directly off to the Citadel for restructuring.

I swallowed hard and picked up the pace, my shoulders hunching as my mind imagined the people inside screaming and banging their fists on the walls, trying to get out. If there were ever a perfect reminder of why I was here and what I was trying to prevent, that would be it. It did nothing to settle my continuously fraying nerves, though.

Before long, I was greeted by the strange sight of a section of wall seemingly evaporating into a gradual brightening of the wall around it. I lowered my hand from my eyes as the bright glow receded, and saw an empty space in the shape of a doorway where the wall had been moments earlier. I looked inside and found a tidy office, the wall-screen depicting a painted landscape of green fir trees against a bright blue sky, a flock of birds frozen above them.

“Please enter, Squire Castell.” A gentle old man’s voice invited me in, his voice synthesized, telling me it was automated. Still, I liked the voice. It seemed kind.

I stepped inside, and there was a humming sound behind me. I turned, saw that the door was suddenly gone, and took a step back as my heart skipped a beat. I felt trapped.

“Sit down, girl,” the elderly voice firmly commanded. “Your heartbeat has increased significantly, and I’m detecting a heightened amount of adrenaline. You have nothing to fear from me, Squire Castell.”

I swallowed and backed farther into the room, trying to calm down. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’m nervous.”

“That’s all right, dear,” he replied. “Everyone is, their first time here. It’s completely normal.”

“Oh,” I said. Somehow, the synthesized voice had managed to comfort me. It was nice, if a little odd. Normally the machines in the Tower were coldly critical, but this one seemed… different. “Do you work with Dr. Bordeaux?”

It laughed, a delighted sound, and I blinked, taking a step back and looking at the walls around me.

“You should be asking if Dr. Bordeaux works with me.”

“That’s enough, Jasper,” a firm voice announced, and I turned to see one of the walls open in a flash of light, a man’s silhouette standing there. When the room dimmed to its regular glowing whiteness, I could see a man holding a white plastic pad in his hand and looking at me expectantly. “Squire Castell, I want to thank you for coming in. Can you please sit down so we can begin?”

I nodded and sat in the nearest seat available to me: a red bucket chair. Dr. Bordeaux—presumably—came around a short table to sit in an identical chair opposite me. He smiled and placed the plastic pad on his lap. He tapped it, and it immediately lit up.

“I see Jasper ran a cursory exam, but I’ll need a bit of blood as well,” he said, pulling something from a pocket in the white coat he was wearing. I leaned forward and held out my hand, and he quickly took a blood sample.

“What is Jasper?” I asked, watching him put the sample in a slot on the wall.

“He’s different,” Dr. Bordeaux said.

“He seems like Scipio. I mean… he seems more lifelike than the other automated voices in the Tower.”

“Thank you,” Jasper said, and I smiled.

Dr. Bordeaux turned and gave me a sharp look, his eyebrows drawing together over his nose. “That is a very astute observation, Squire Castell. However, it is also treading on council secrets, so I would suggest you not mention it to anyone.”

I nodded automatically, but in my mind questions began to tumble about. Why would Jasper be a council secret? What made him special? The council had lots of secrets—it was a common gripe in every department—but to have actually stumbled upon one? It was definitely interesting, and worth noting. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything while I calmed my mind.

“I’m sorry,” I said, after a moment.

“No need. At the very least, it told me something very important about you.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” he said as he sat back down, settling in. “You ask too many questions. Why do you think you do that?”

I frowned, shifted in my seat, and thought about the question. “I don’t know… Just, sometimes things don’t make sense.”

“Like?”

I pressed my lips together, my jaw tightening. “I don’t know,” I said after a moment, the lie less heretical than the truth. “I can’t think of an example.”

Oh, I could think of several, but I doubted he wanted to entertain my thoughts and opinions regarding the ranking system, Scipio, or how everyone running around in service to Scipio and not