Neesha studied the high school entrance with something akin to fury. Always ready to pick a fight, lose her temper, or just be plain mean for the blazes of it, she regarded the Marine soldiers at her school’s front entrance much like an invasion. Her blond tresses were tied back into a pigtail, poking out the back of a black ball cap. Her deeply tanned skin glittered with oils under the scorching sun as she shifted about to get a better view.
The soldiers had installed some device above the entrance. It looked like a scanner of some sort, but what it was looking for was beyond Neesha. It didn’t matter. She hated it anyway. Metal detectors had already been installed at every conceivable entrance and exit—even bathrooms! And now one more opportunity for the dictatorial government to intrude in their lives—much like my mother does to me.
Julie Rhymes was not really Neesha’s mother. Julie had been unable to have children herself and so had adopted Neesha from an agency. Neesha had only recently found out about the adoption when her mother had flung it in her face after discovering that Neesha was failing all her classes.
Things had gotten very, very heated. Neesha was so angry that she was contemplating murder. Not that she would actually go through with it, but fantasying about it made her feel good—a pressure valve of sorts. Not that she struggled finding things to make her angry. Everything made her angry these days.
And now this.
Neesha edged forward towards the entrance. She considered using a side entrance, but all the guards there knew her by name and she didn’t want any more attention called to herself than necessary. She would walk through with another group of students, hoping that a crowd would keep her from being noticed. She didn’t recognize any of the soldiers at the front entrance. They were new—especially the tall one in jeans. She imagined his eyes, hidden behind dark sunglasses, saw everything.
She studied the device that looked down upon the entrance. She had heard a rumor about a mind scanning device. Someone said that Congress had just recently passed a bill to that effect—not that Neesha ever paid much attention to things like that. She had her own issues and problems to deal with.
But just in case, she had lined her cap with aluminum foil. Hopefully the foil would, no pun intended, foil the scanner and whatever it did. She didn’t like the thought that someone could poke around in her brain. She held no concept of how that was even possible, but she determined to take no chances. Hopefully this antiquated technique would defeat this latest technology in governmental control.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to walk calmly to the end of the line of students waiting to enter the school. Neesha noticed many of the kids looked rather nervous as they passed harmlessly under the scanner. The soldiers hardly reacted to their presence at all, and even when the metal detector beeped once, the soldiers merely looked on in unconcern.
Maybe the whole thing is a farce, a scare tactic to keep us in line.
She hoped so anyway. Soon she reached the head of the line. A solider glanced at her and then away. The tall soldier merely stared at a small screen erected in front of him. He never even looked in her direction, although she sensed that he was aware of her every move. She looked once more at the scanner.
Looking much like a flat-billed duck, with a variety of lenses embedded in the end of the bill, the contraption would have elicited a chuckle from her at any other time. But now it merely looked menacing. Tiny lenses glittered in the sun light from the curved end of the bill. The bill itself sprang out of a triangle housing of some sort. Two lights, one green and the other red, blinked in indecipherable patterns.
“You’re holding up the line,” a voice said, startling her.
She looked over at the tall t-shirt dressed man and sneered. “You in a hurry, pretty boy?”
The man reached up and slowly removed his sunglasses, revealing dark eyes unfazed by her belligerence. He cocked his head. “Are you worried that I am?”
“Hardly,” she bit back.
He nodded. “Then you are worried about that.” He nodded towards the new scanner.
“Yeah right,” she muttered, less confidently.
“Prove it.”
The challenge hung in the air for a moment. She’d be hanged if some stupid grunt would goad her! She gave him a defiant look and marched into the divining field, muttering threats as her anger mounted. The red light on the scanner turned solid red and gave off an ominous tone.
“Stop,” the man ordered.
Scared now, Neesha tried to dart forward into the school, but the man in jeans moved with startling suddenness, and before she could take her second step, he appeared at her side. She tried to spin to hit the man, but he moved like liquid, her blow missing by scant inches. For his part, he caught her fist as she tried to retract it and easily twisted it behind her back.
She cried out in pain and anger. “Let go of me, you big ox!”
“Hold still, missy, or I’ll have to make you stand still. Neither of us will like that too much.”
The threat, so calmly given, sobered Neesha up like a shouted curse could never do. She fell perfectly still.
“Better.” He glanced at his tablet screen. “The computer identifies you as Neesha Rhymes—”
“Just Neesha!” she couldn’t help but contradict. She never wanted to be identified with her adoptive mother again.
The man glanced at her and shrugged. “Very well. Neesha. The Ts2 has identified you as a violent offender. You are charged with the attempted murder of your mother, Julie Rhymes.”
“What! I’ve done nothing to her!”
“True. But you plan to. In fact, you’ve been planning to for some time.”
Fear struck Neesha like a physical blow. Sweat sprang out on her skin, and she twisted around in the man’s grip like a worm on a hook. She had no idea how that machine had divined her thoughts, but it terrified her. “No. No. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t. It was only in my mind. Nothing more. Just something I thought about! You’ve got to believe me. I wouldn’t have ever done anything. I wouldn’t!”
The man suddenly looked sad. “I’m sorry, Neesha. You have already been convicted. The sentence is death.”
She sagged then, all the strength leaving her body at once.