“Does everyone outside New Ionia think about us as—” Daphne turned to Zada.
“As sleeping children,” Zada filled in.
Sister Patience and Sister Justice had a short conversation that consisted entirely of moving their eyebrows.
“Most people outside New Ionia don’t think of us at all,” Sister Justice said finally. “They’re too busy living their lives.”
Zada nodded. This much, at least, made sense. Those not lucky enough to be born into the blessings of New Ionia surely had more pressing concerns.
“Now it’s my turn to ask questions. What were you doing in here?” said Sister Patience. “And don’t try to tell me you wandered in by accident. This library is off-limits for a reason.”
“It shouldn’t exist at all!” Zada clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified at her outburst. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have raised my voice. I’m just—” She stopped herself. No, she wasn’t sorry. She came here for answers, and she was going to get them, one way or another. Squaring her shoulders, she said, “You know something about the Heartsong program.”
“Now why would you say a thing like that?” Sister Justice said.
“You have a secret library full of curated books,” Daphne snapped. “If we report you—”
The threat hung in the air.
“Now you’ve done it,” Sister Patience sighed. “Fine. What would you like to know?”
“Is Ohio really a desert?” Daphne asked. “The empty bowl of the nation?”
“Parts of Ohio are pretty used up,” said Sister Patience. “But they’ve made real progress restoring the land in the last five to ten years.”
“Are we really going to do this?” said Zada. “Stand hereasking questions as if it’s all perfectly—”
“Nothing wrong with questions,” said Sister Justice. “Otherwise, how do we ever hope to find answers?”
Zada swallowed. “Is something wrong with Heartsong?”
“Yes,” said Sister Patience immediately.
“They’re not really connecting us to our true loves?” Zada pressed.
“Even when program did its best,” said Sister Justice, “honestly, I never saw evidence that people were happier with their supposed matches. And of course, things went by the wayside pretty quickly.”
“How could Heartsong get it so wrong?” Zada made herself say. “The Core is fed directly from the Founders’ wisdom.”
“The Core is the problem,” said Sister Patience. Sister Justice exchanged a look with her. “No, sorry, it is,” Sister Patience continued. “There’s no point sheltering them from it if they’re seeking the truth. Even if you believe all that hogwash about the Founders knowing best—”
Zada felt her eyes go wide. The first word that came to her was an old one, an archaic term for something that no longer existed. Sacrilege.
“—someone has rotted it from the inside out,” finished Sister Patience. “Looking purely at the output, at who benefits from the Core’s judgments, it’s damn clear. At this point, all it’s doing is giving more power to the powerful.”
“How can you even say—” Zada broke off. The thought of standing there stringing together questions as the nuns freely blasphemed suddenly felt sickening, absurd.
Daphne squeezed Zada’s shoulder. “That’s what we found when we went digging through the data, didn’t we?” she said.“The best predictor of a Heartsong match is money and clout. And that was thousands of people.”
“Fascinating,” said Sister Patience. “I don’t suppose we could have a look—”
Zada shook her head, almost convulsively.
“Fair enough,” said Sister Patience into the silence.
“C’mon, Zades,” said Daphne. “Data doesn’t lie.”
“Data lies all the time,” Zada fired back. “It’s like you never took a day of statistics.”
