“Because as long as we stay here, that’s what’s coming for us!”

Bibi went over to the bucket in the corner and took out the rag. She slopped the scummy water on her face and neck and then held it out to her daughter. Sorrel took it.

“You’re forty-five, Bibi; I’m fourteen. Maybe there are Tribals in the mountains and we can join them.”

“Even if there are, the Domins will arrest us before we’ve gone five kilometres. Or the ferals…” Her mother’s voice trailed off and silence fell between them. The rag was warm in Sorrel’s hand. Already it was nearly dry.

“What about your father?” Bibi said, avoiding Sorrel’s eyes.

“What about him? He’s in prison.”

“I’ve been to see him. Maybe you can go one day.”

“He’s never getting out. You need to face that.”

You can’t trade off my life for his, she wanted to say but swallowed the words.

Silence fell between them. “Look what I brought.” Bibi said, reaching into her bag. She held a sea-egg with clipped spines. “You get the frying pan. After we eat, we’ll sleep. When it’s dark, we’ll talk some more and decide what to do. I can’t think in the day.”

“I wanted an egg,” Sorrel said, softly.

“You always want an egg.”

CHAPTER 3 – BANA CITY

She turned on the PlAK. It was 1100 hours and her mother still slept. Sorrel had only managed a restless two hours. She dressed in a sports bra and shorts, but didn’t clean her teeth, because she wanted to keep the taste of the sea-egg in her mouth. The daytime heat was still not at its height. People used to think that they couldn’t bear it any hotter, until they found they could.

She looked for Sesame on Neurality but her friend was not online. Once she and her mother left Buttercup Avenue that night, Sorrel knew she would probably never see her again or even speak to her. They would never see her father, either.

She went to the collage of unconnected and unverifiable information held by surviving websites and servers which could crash at any moment. An alert about breached seafloor cables flashed up. There had been new arrests of people who had tried to tap into the cables.

Bibi had Level 3 information clearance, because it was her job to make sure machines accessed only the permitted level of the owner. Sorrel had hacked into her mother’s portal a year ago which could have got them both arrested. Only Sesame knew just what level Sorrel could access. It was safer that Bibi didn’t know.