“Undocumented witch in the custody of Jamie Ott.”
I scrunch up my face at her. “Why do you speak English?”
She blinks at me very slowly. “I learned.”
“Why?”
Her lips purse and she closes her eyes. “Stand close to me.”
“Wh—”
“Don’t ask why, just do it.”
Right. I am “in custody” so I should probably do as the officer tells me.
I move uncomfortably close to her, and she glares down her elongated nose. “Really?”
I shrug helplessly.
The jade tomb holding Lei pulls in behind us, and suddenly, we’re surrounded by white light. A voice murmurs from all around me, and I jump, pulling my fists up on instinct.
“Calculating trajectory, seven, three, eight point four, Office of Earth Resources and Operations.”
Jamie puts her hand on my closed fist and pushes it down. “That’s the elevator.”
The light shimmers, but not in a blinding way. I can still see out through the veil, but it’s all distorted.
“Oh, are we gonna get one of those pods?” I ask, pointing to one zipping along above us.
“Podsare for high matter density materials or criminals,” she replies.
I look at Lei. “Is he getting registered, too?”
“Trial,” she says.
I cock my head. “Why—”
My body leaves the ground. There’s a sucking sensation, like my head and my feet are trying to go in opposite directions. I touch ground again and blink away the disorientation as the light disappears. Jamie and coffinized Lei are beside me, and we’re somewhere completely different.
And I have a shirt now. I mean, I didn’t mind rocking my sports bra, but shirt is better, for sure. It’s a basic black thing that’s so loose around my neck it hangs off one of my shoulders.
“Shirt?” I ask Jamie.
“Requested before transition. Applied during transition,” she says, then begins to walk.
The floor is the same maybe-rock, maybe-metal texture, but it’s a brighter gray than wherever we were before. I look up and see the darker ground is now the ceiling, but I recognize no other landmarks.
“Are we upside down?” I ask.
“No,” she says, grabbing me under the arm as she tugs me along.
“Werewe upside down?”
“No.”
“How is that possible?”
“To say our upside was down, there would have to be a down, or an up.”
