Primary Valor by Jack Mars (booksvooks TXT) 📗

“Yes,” the woman said. “You’re ina cage, for now. It’s for your own safety.”

“Where am I?”

The woman crouched down until shewas on Charlotte’s level. They faced each other through the bars.

“You’re on your way to your newhome.”

The woman had green eyes. Theywere very green. You might call them emerald eyes. There was no kindness inthose eyes. They were hard eyes.

“We’re in an airplane, if you hadn’tnoticed.”

Charlotte hadn’t noticed. Shelooked around the room again. It was small, like a storage room. There were nowindows. There was nothing to give away the fact that this was an airplane.

But now she realized the room wasvibrating. There was that faint vibration, like a plane flying across the sky. Everynow and then, there was a lurch as the plane hit a spot of turbulence. Andthere was that sound, the loud background hum of the engines.

“Have you been on an airplanebefore?”

Charlotte nodded. “Yes.”

Of course she had. She had flownto New York and Boston with her mom. She went to California once, with her dad.They went to San Francisco and also saw giant redwood trees. She had flown downto Disney World three times when she was a kid. She had been on planes a lot.

“And yet, you didn’t notice youwere on one now, did you?”

Charlotte felt something she didn’tremember feeling before. It seemed to take a long time to put a name on it. Thename was helpless. She was inside a cage. Everything had to be pointed out toher. Things that should be obvious, she did not notice. She couldn’t remember…anything. She had no idea who this woman was. She had no idea where she was. Andthat made her sad. She felt like she might start crying at any second.

“I want to see my mother,” shesaid.

The woman shook her head. “I’myour mother now.”

Charlotte stared at her.

“It’s okay,” the woman said. “You’llunderstand everything in time. Are you hungry?”

Charlotte realized, only after thewoman asked, that she was hungry. She had no idea what time it was, or when shelast ate. She had no idea if it was night or day. She didn’t know anything. Exceptthat she was on a plane, and she was very, very hungry.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“My name is Elaine,” the womansaid. “At first, you will call me Mistress Elaine, or even Mistress. That’s mytitle. You’ll never just call me Elaine, not for a while, anyway. Do youunderstand?”

Charlotte stared at her. She didnot understand. It sounded like crazy talk.

“What’s your name?” the womansaid.

“Charlotte.”

“Charlotte what?”

Charlotte thought for a moment. Herbrain wasn’t working. Then she remembered the strong hand pushing the scentedcloth in her face. They had drugged her. That’s why she couldn’t think.

“Charlotte Richmond.”

Now the woman shook her head. Itwasn’t a sad shake. It was the simple head shake of someone refuting falseinformation.

“That’s not your name, notanymore. It was never really your name. They lied to you. The truth is you don’thave a name. Maybe one day you will have a name, if you’re good and you learnto obey. We may send you out into the world with a name. But if that happens,it will be in the future. Right now, you don’t have a name. You’re just anumber. Not a name. Do you understand? You’re number 21.”

Charlotte mouthed the number,without saying it aloud. 21.

“Do you see what I have here?” thewoman said. She gestured on the floor next to her. It was a plate, covered by aglass top. Steam rose inside of it, obscuring the contents.

“It’s a hamburger. It’s very good.We only have the best food. Do you like hamburgers?”

Charlotte nodded.

“I will give you this hamburger toeat. But first I need you to answer a question. It’s an easy question, and Iwant you to answer to the best of your ability. Okay?”

“Okay,” Charlotte said.

The woman looked at her intently. Therewere those green eyes again. Charlotte got the sense of a bird of prey, a hawk,circling high above a small rodent skittering on the ground and trying to hide.

“What’s your name?”

She had just told this woman hername. Did she not understand it the first time? Did she not believe it?

“Charlotte.”

The woman shook her head again.

“It was a trick question. Theright answer is you don’t have a name. You have a number. It’s 21. That’s yournumber. 21. It has always been your number.”

Charlotte stared at her.

“Please stick your right handthrough the bars,” the woman said.

Without thinking, Charlotte did asshe was told. She didn’t know why. It seemed important right now that she obey.Her hand was just small enough to fit through the bars if she held her fingerstightly together.

The woman grabbed the hand. Charlottetried to pull it back, but it was too late. The woman’s grip was too strong.

“What’s your name?”

“Char…”

A long thin reed of some kind hadmaterialized in the woman’s other hand. She brought it down hard across theback of Charlotte’s hand. It stung.

“Ow!”

“You don’t have a name. What’syour number?”

“Wait!”

The woman brought the reed downagain. Charlotte stared at the spot. Instantly, a red welt appeared there.

“What’s your number, girl?”

Charlotte hesitated.

The switch came down again.

“What is it? What’s your number?”

“I don’t remember!”

The switch came down again. Ithurt. It hurt a lot. But Charlotte could not pull her hand away from thiswoman. Why was she doing this?

“Stop!”

“Your number is 21.”

The switch came down again.

“Ow! Stop! Please stop. You’rehurting me.”

Charlotte’s hand was turningbright red. It looked like any second it would start to bleed.

“What’s your number?”

“It’s 21,” Charlotte said. Sheburst into tears. “Please.”

“Tell me. Say, my number is 21.”

Charlotte closed her eyes. “Mynumber is 21.”

She felt the tears welling underher closed eyelids.

The woman’s strong grip released. Charlotteopened her eyes and guided the abused hand back inside her cage. She had tosqueeze it tight to get it through the bars. Even doing that much hurt. It hurtas her skin scraped against the metal.

Now the tears began to stream downher face.

“Good girl, 21. Please try toremember that. Your number is 21.”

“I want to go home.”

The woman stared at her for a longmoment. There was no kindness in those eyes at all. It was like looking intothe eyes of a shark.

The woman’s mouth made a