Cate Campbell Beatty Donor 23 (epub)

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.He kept his wavy blonde hair rather short but not short enough to hide the curls.His workouts kept his muscular frame perfectly proportioned.At first glance no one would describe him as handsome.His nose protruded from his face—not large, just out too far.In a nation that venerated physical perfection, it set him off as different.He could have corrected the nose with surgery.Other citizens did.Surgery to correct imperfections was ordinary.This made him, in Joan’s eyes, extraordinary.Duncan and Joan met many times after that first meeting.Sometimes they ran the track together.Sometimes they grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria.Sometimes they stretched together, talking to pass the time.It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Duncan to be at the Center.Joan saw her trainer in the center of the grass.She paused before crossing the running track, while runners passed by.As she approached, she realized her co-donors were also present.Co-donors shared the same benefactor.Most citizens injected more than one donor with their umbilical cord blood to be safe.Redundancy.The more wealthy the citizen, the more donors they had.To her knowledge Joan had four co-donors.Three of them lay on the grass, stretching.The fourth hadn’t performed well in the last couple of years and had been cut loose by their mutual benefactor, Tegan.After Tegan let her go, the girl and her family—now without the wealthy benefactor—had to move out of their apartment.They had lived near Joan, but after Tegan cut her, Joan never saw her again.She was just gone.That was a perpetual fear of the donors: being cut by one’s benefactor, the result being the donor became a solus.A solus was of no use to any citizen, so they were also considered of limited use to the Alliance.Sometimes they disappeared.There were rumors of what the Alliance did with them, but no one was sure.Then her thoughts returned to the present and to her own problem, for she knew there was only one reason for all of the co-donors to be here together—an audition.Joan paused as that sunk in.That’s why Tegan’s entourage was here.The trainer waved Joan over.“Just heard you’re back for unrestricted workouts,” he said, pointing at his wrist phone.Jack Findlay was a good trainer.A fair man, he treated Joan and her fellow donors with respect.At their first meeting, she properly called him Mr.Findlay.Joan knew the rules governing the discourse between donors and citizens.Jack told her to call him by his first name.He was tall, at least six feet, five inches, circumspect, and in his younger days had been an accomplished athlete.At the age of twenty-four, a knee injury put an end to his competing days.When Joan first learned his history, she hadn’t understood how the injury ended his career.As a citizen, he was a benefactor to at least one donor.Why didn’t he take what he needed to repair his knee? She asked him once years ago about that.He looked thoughtfully at her but made no reply.At the time Joan didn’t understand.Now she understood some citizens didn’t agree with the System.After his injury, he turned his talents to training athletes instead of being one.At forty-five, Jack was a successful trainer.“What do you say about it? How’s the leg feel to you?” Jack asked, skeptical of her physical therapist’s opinion.“It’s fine,” she lied, “a little stiff, but—”He interrupted her, “There’s an audition today.”“But, Jack, I just got back.The surgery was two months ago.It’s not fair.”“I don’t make the rules, Double T, I just follow them.”The System formally identified donors with a seven-digit number—not a name—tattooing the number on their wrists.Names were only used among other donors and just in the donor ghetto.For common, everyday usage, people shortened the official number to two or three of the digits.Joan’s full number was 1919723, but she was known as “Twenty-Three.” Jack knew the rules.The System forbid him to use her name, so he affectionately called her Double T.Joan’s father had explained to her that Jack probably had difficultly referring to another person as a number.“It’s the shoulder being auditioned.Javelin.They want to tax some shoulder muscle.Start stretching.”“But you use your thigh and leg muscles with the javelin, too,” Joan persisted.She tended to push the envelope with Jack, in a way she never would with any other citizen.“It’s not fair.”Jack put his arm around her shoulder and leaned in close, “I can’t have you sit out.See who’s up there behind us in the stands? Tegan herself.”As her trainer, Jack knew the identity of Joan’s benefactor.Tegan’s parents paid his salary.“And Our Governor.”“I saw them come in.She’s going to watch the audition? Why? And why Our Governor?” Fear crept in her voice at the mention of the Governor.Jack shrugged, “Yesterday she won first place in the long jump at the southern regionals.Not a huge meet, but she did set a record for it.Did you hear about that?”Joan shook her head, confused.“But how did she do that so soon after …?” Joan’s voice trailed off.Obviously the high-quality medical care Tegan received enabled her to recover more quickly from the recent transplant than Joan.Of course, Joan lost part of her leg, while Tegan gained leg muscle.Jack handed her a blue jersey to pull over her shirt as they walked over to her co-donors.The other young women donors wore the same blue jerseys but with different numbers.Joan’s was emblazoned with “23.” They nodded hellos.They were not friends but competitors.Their benefactor was a top athlete.They had to perform at that par.This was their job.The System required benefactors to aid their donors financially.However, that wasn’t enough to survive [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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