Rayburn clears his throat and looks up at the camera. I wonder who’s watching this. “What you don’t understand, uh, is how safe it is here. Once you’ve proven you aren’t …” he pauses and looks at me, “a danger to yourself and others, you can begin to enjoy all the, uh, the benefits this hospital has to offer.”

I meet his squinty brown eyes. “This isn’t a hospital,” I say deliberately. “It’s a prison.”

He rubs his hand nervously under his pimpled chin. His fingers graze over the popped pimple and knock away the clot that had formed there. A slow dribble of blood slides down his neck. He doesn’t seem to notice. “For you, uh, yes, it is. For now. To Betsy, it’s her, uh, her home. Every time you, uh, you insult it, you stomp on everything Betsy loves.” His speech hiccups. His eyes keep flicking up to that black lens in the corner. “I’m sure you, uh, you never saw it that way until I just, uh, clarified it for you.” The doctor straightens his shoulders, but his face is the color of tile grout. He gulps, his Adam’s apple bobbing like a cork, and speeds through the rest of his speech. “Now that you know, it is your job to, uh, do better for her.”

I wonder who prepped him on what to say. I wonder what they think of his performance.

“And then they’ll impregnate me?” I can’t keep the disdain out of my voice.

“It’s our duty,” the doctor spreads his clammy hands, “to, uh, do all we can to build up the population.”

I clench my jaw. “So, that includes imprisoning women and experimenting on them without their permission?” I can feel my hands trembling as my anger builds.

The doctor clears his throat again, a sound I’m beginning to loath. “Have you heard, uh, the story of what caused our current, um, predicament?”

My curiosity gets the best of me. I want to know. “I heard the government poisoned the water and then no more girl babies were born.”

The doctor shakes his head, his jowls jiggling back and forth. The next words come out in a flat tone of rote rehearsal.

“Several decades ago our predecessors made a, um, a mistake. The petroleum we were using as fuel was perilously low. The public panicked. Then Dr. Borgen and the Hansen Center for Developmental Research created a, uh, a synthetic fuel. It was cheep, clean, efficient. Everyone in the, uh, modern world made the switch. The air was cleaner. There was less, uh, fighting in oil rich countries. It was a wonderful time for the world.” He stops and looks up at the camera. Is he making them proud?