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nasty self about it, but I did it anyway. I had a few friends at the Tower Educational Center, but I spent most of my time at Jon’s and with people he knew. I learned a lot, and mostly, I was…contented, I guess, until Witt got to be twenty-two and I turned eighteen, and that’s when everything started to veer off in strange directions.
    Paul broke the news first thing in the morning before I was fully awake. Paul knew it would make me crazy, hearing about it, so he stared at me while he told me, ready to enjoy the show. Somehow, I managed to keep my voice calm and my eyes dry as I said, “When did you hear this, Paul?”
    â€œIt was on the info-net, this morning, early.” He posed, repeating the item for effect: “Evolun Moore announced Worldkeeper’s decision forbidding animals or birds in residential towers. They use up too much water, too much air.”
    I swallowed. “What about exempt estates?”
    He sniffed. “Oh, the rich can keep their useless luxuries, of course. But in thirty days, no more furry little rats in the lifts.” And he turned away, disappointed because I hadn’t screamed or had a tantrum or simply broken down in tears. I did all that, though silently, after I was in my room with the door shut, getting ready to go to the kennel. I knew Jon Point very well: He was a man given to frequent despair and when he despaired, he acted foolishly. I had to get there as fast as possible.
    By the time I got to Tower 91, my eyes were swollen half-shut, and I was standing so tight against the pod doors that I almost fell into the pod lobby when they opened. The tower doors were still crisscrossed with warning signs, but I’d long since broken the locks and memorized the trail. I could run the whole way without even noticing the surroundings.
    Everyone knew that Moore, as head of IGI-HFO (which means “In God’s Image—Humans First and Only”) had been stirring up the down-dwellers. He had founded the group as a religious order, preaching in pod lobbies that animals had no right to exist anywhere on Earth—or on any other human occupied planet—because all space, air, water was needed for the one creature made in God’s image. Moore was handsome, he seemed to have lots of funding from somewhere, and he was a marvelous speaker. Even people who hated him as I did could get caught up in the rhythm and thunder of his speeches, so you can imagine how easily the down-dwellers were stirred into a frenzy. Down-dwellers were always dissatisfied with life, even without an agitator, so having their anger gravel shoved over the edge was guaranteed to start an avalanche.
    Despite all that, I hadn’t believed anyone could want to kill pets. Now I had to believe it, and all I could think about was getting to the kennel before Jon got there and did something irreparable.
    Adults aren’t supposed to run. Running isn’t acceptable. People can be injured by runners. Never mind all that; I ran anyway, conscious of being dangerously out of control. I felt as though I were falling forward onto air, as if my feet couldn’t keep up with the rest of me. I’d always had dreams like that, running like crazy with nothing under my feet while I tried to escape the awful unseen behind me. In each dream, I knew flying was the only way to escape, but I also knew if I flew, I’d fall. The thing behind me got closer, pushing me higher and higher, to a height where the fall would be more certainly fatal, and finally I did fall, then woke, heart pounding and throat closed, so terrified I could hardly breathe.
    That’s the feeling I had as I ran toward the kennel, that I wasn’t going to escape what I was trying to prevent. Jon Point was already there because the lights were on. Whenever he left, he disconnected and hid his pirated lines to save them from tower-strippers.
    I heard the howls long before I lurched into the doorless corridor and