But as Becky came down to the bottom, she spied the nearby jungle gym. “Oh, that looks fun!” In one swing of her short little legs, she was off the teeter-totter and darting away. Lori plummeted like a boulder dropped over a precipice. The teeter-totter slammed to the ground with a bone-jarring thud, bouncing her off and sending her sprawling on her face into the sand.

For one or two seconds she was too startled to react; then tears of pain sprang to her eyes, and she burst out crying.

Madeline was off the bench and to her side in a moment, the other woman close behind. “What happened?” she said as she helped Lori up and put her arm around her.

“Becky made me fall!” She rubbed at her backside.

As her mother soothed her, Lori looked up and saw that the other children had gathered around her, wide-eyed and curious. One of the boys shook his head in disgust. “Girls!” he muttered. With an effort Lori bit back the tears, deeply shamed to be viewed with such contempt. Then she spied Becky, approaching slowly, head ducked in shame.

“Becky, you dummy!” she cried angrily. “Why did you—”

A sharp cry cut off her words, and she doubled over as though hit in the stomach with a huge fist. She stumbled forward, pulling out of her mother’s grasp, and fell to her face. One long, agonizing scream rent the air as she rolled back and forth, clutching at her stomach.

CHAPTER 9

“Is there any way to take it out?” Eric asked, a sense of horror crawling in his stomach.

The grizzled head shook once. “No. Technically, putting the chip in is a very difficult operation, because even though pinpoint precision is impossible, the electrodes still have to be placed with great accuracy. But physiologically, it’s a relatively minor operation. And getting the chip out is a snap. Just cut the surface of the skin and pull it out, electrodes and all.”

“But you said there was no way to—”

Cliff slowly lifted his left arm. “See this?”

“The wrist computer?”

“Yes. Have you tried to remove it?”

“Oh, yes.”

Cliff pointed to the spot where the band joined the watch itself. “In addition to being waterproof and shockproof, the band is connected to the face with pressure-sensitive relays, so you can’t take it off. A good, hard pull triggers what they so elegantly call the ‘punishment mode.’ Also, I don’t understand how yet, but the implantation and the wrist computer are somehow linked together with the main computers in Central Control. If you try and remove either one, it automatically triggers the maximum punishment response in the other. Either way it’s lethal.”

“There’s got to be some way to get this thing out.”

“Did you hear me, Eric? I said lethal. That means it kills you.”

“There’s got to be some way,” he said stubbornly.