“Because my mother is on the guard,” Zada told her, “and gate guards gossip with all the other guards. That’s not—”
“He’s been caught?”
“His family name has spared him so far,” said Zada. “And they say he has a good way to go before he exhausts the family coffers, but if the wrong person apprehends him, well. The possibility of discovery looms. You know what else?”
“I know that’s certainly the most interesting fact there is about Christopher,” volunteered Daphne. “Talking to him feels like when your foot falls asleep, only it’s your brain. It’s ghastly.”
Zada pinched the bridge of her nose. It was a good program. She’d done a good job. “I didn’t make a mistake,” shesaid at last.
“I know that,” said Daphne.
“And you didn’t make a mistake, about student numbers,” said Zada.
“That’s correct.”
“The less advantageous individuals get paired off with each other,” Zada finished. “And the more well-behaved, the more promising, and—above all—the richer people are partnered up, too.” She waved a hand at the tiny pinpoints of light. “This isn’t a map showing soulmates,” she said. “This is exactly how it would look if the wealthy and powerful wanted to make sure they stayed that way.”
“Well, shit,” said Daphne.
Zada nodded. “I need to sit down,” she said.
“I’ll get you a—” Daphne broke off as Zada folded to the floor.
“How does this happen?” said Zada. “A mistake of this magnitude.”
“Do you really think it’s a mistake?” said Daphne.
Zada stared up at her, at her dark brown eyes and the cowlick in her hair that always stood straight up, the growing certainty and the stars glowing across her face.
“It’s—” Zada’s breath caught in her throat. “You think it’s not?”
“How could someone screw up like this?” said Daphne. “How could this possibly happen by accident?”
“If the wrong number was plugged into the wrong algorithm,” said Zada. Her heart was beginning to beat very fast.
“How?” said Daphne. “Everything is triple-checked. Heartsong is a function of the Core. It’s not like someone couldgo, ‘oops, I spilled BBQ cola everywhere, now thanks to my slip-up, everybody marries the person with an identical amount of clout!’” She huffed a laugh.
“Don’t joke,” said Zada. She meant for the words to sound sharp but it felt a lot more desperate to her ears.
“Don’t take the only tool I have for dealing with this even a very little bit,” said Daphne. “It’s jokes or screaming. Believe me, jokes are the better option.”
“How else could this happen?” said Zada. The floor was cold and hard beneath her. “Like you said, it’s all triple-checked. A lone criminal couldn’t get away with it, either.”
Daphne crouched down, bringing their faces back to the same level. “I know,” she said. “I know.”
Zada swallowed. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said again.
“What’s worse is, maybe it does,” said Daphne. “One person’s mistake couldn’t do this. It would be caught and solved. One person’s crime wouldn’t be enough, either. It would need to be people—maybe a lot of people—working together, knowing what they were doing. Someone has been corrupting Heartsong for at least twenty years.”
“No,” said Zada. “If they could get into Heartsong and change it, then they could change anything. Anything in the Core.”
Daphne and Zada locked eyes.
“All of the Founders’ wisdom,” Zada heard herself say. “All of their superior judgment. It would all be perverted. We couldn’t rely on any of it.”
“Oh god,” said Daphne, “all the court cases—”
“Exactly,” said Zada. “Court cases, hiring for jobs, school admissions—every place we’ve used the Core’s judgment, fortwo whole decades. We’d have to throw out everything.”
