Too Good To Get Caught
Word spread quickly through the makeshift houses, the factories, the fields, even down into the depths of the mines. Digby had been caught. Not everyone knew who Digby was, not to begin with. Within three hours of her capture, the whole town knew her name and reputation; Digby was never caught.
Digby was unaware of the fuss about her. She sat on a chair, her wrists bound behind her back and her legs tied to each front chair leg by white cuffs, locked electronically, each with a keypad on a small box. They were tight, the thick plastic eating through her old trousers and into her skin, her wrists aching. She kept her eyes down, her dark hair falling across her face and obscuring her vision of the room. The door opened and two people walked in. Digby kept her head down, peering curiously at their feet as they came into view. There was a table between Digby and two chairs. The newcomers sat on the chairs and there was a silence. Digby made them wait a little longer before lifting her head.
A man and a woman. The man was lanky, with deep lines on his face and cruel, small eyes, his long fingers tapping against a file on the table in front of him. The woman seemed shorter and younger, her eyes not unkind, although she scowled at Digby, screwing up her face as if there were a foul smell in the room. Certainly not people to trust, not that Digby would ever consider such a thing.
The room was bright and sterile. Digby had been given enough time for her eyes to adjust. They no longer ached, but still she squinted to study the people sat before her. The man opened the file in front of him and clasped one hand in the other on the table.
‘Digby Adams,’ he said, pausing to study her, his lips twisted. ‘You’ve been a busy girl.’
Patronising bastard, Digby thought. She gave him a small smile.
‘Work keeps me busy,’ she told him.
‘Quite. Except that, by our records, you haven’t worked an honest day in five months.’
‘Haven’t I?’ Digby leaned forward as far as she could, looking down at the file on the table. ‘Well, that doesn’t sound right.’
‘We have evidence that connects you to a number of crimes.’
‘Is that so? Well, I’m sure there’s a rational explanation. I’m entitled to a lawyer, aren’t I?’
The man’s smile crept through Digby.
‘You are entitled to nothing, as you well know.’
‘You understand why you’re here?’ the woman said.
Digby turned to her.
‘I believe it’s a misunderstanding.’
‘You were caught stealing diamonds from a residential house inside the Dome. Not only a crime of theft but also of trespass.’
Digby shrugged as best she could.
‘Oh, I know it may look that way but I can assure you, if I were to give you the context of the situation, you would see that my presence there was perfectly innocent.’
The woman narrowed her eyes.
‘Oh yes? Tell us then, Ms Adams, of this context.’ The man put too much emphasis on her name and Digby swallowed on the lump of bile rising in her throat.
‘Of course. I’m newly employed in the household as a maid. I was there to work, to clean.’
‘The victims have made no mention of you, are we to understand that they simply forgot that they hired you? And a security pass was not found on your person. How did you get to work today?’
Digby leaned forward again.
‘I don’t think it’s as farfetched as you’re making out. You must agree that the couple are quite old. I would even go so far as to say elderly. Is it not possible that they simply forgot that they hired me? Security was very rough with me, I must have lost my pass.’
The man glanced at the woman and gave what was supposed to be, Digby imagined, a conspiratorial smile. Digby saw through it. He couldn’t deny the facts she had presented, he was looking to his colleague for help. ‘Tell me,’ she continued, before either could speak, ‘if I wasn’t employed there, if I didn’t have a pass, how did I get inside? Security is very tight at the Dome entrance, as you well know. Have there been reports of a break in?’
Both hesitated and the room was silent, if just for a moment. The man and woman whispered to each other and then the man stood and left. Digby watched him go.
‘I know what you’re doing,’ said the woman as the door closed, leaning forward across the table and looking at her directly in the eye. Digby faltered for a moment but recovered quickly. She put on a confused expression.
‘I’m trying to clear my name.’
‘No, no. I know of you, Digby Adams. You don’t think people in the Domes have heard of you? You’re a thief and a pretty good one, I’ll give you that. We’ve been after you for years, long before we knew who you were. You’re good. Too good to get caught stealing diamonds. I know what you’re up to.’
Digby relaxed. The woman knew nothing. How could she? How could she possibly know what Digby knew.
‘How long have you lived inside the Domes, may I ask?’ Digby’s voice had changed. The woman appeared startled. She sat back. ‘Have you lived here your whole life? Did you grow up under this Dome?’
‘Yes.’
‘Have you ever been outside this Dome?’
‘I have.’
‘What did you think of it?’ The woman didn’t respond. ‘Did it hurt your throat?’ Digby continued. ‘Did you have trouble breathing? Sometimes it gives Domers bad coughs. Did you get a bad cough? That’s the trouble, you see, of living under the Domes. You get too used to the good, clean air. All the good, clean air that money can buy while the rest of us suffocate outside.’
‘Are you an activist?’
Digby nearly laughed.
‘No. The activists aren’t like me and mine. They grew up closer to the Domes than us. They’re close to being you. That’s why they protest. They’re so close yet so far. I suppose the entry fee doesn’t seem like a lot to you. Imagine if you were just a thousand short.’
The woman shifted uncomfortably.
‘Now imagine you’re many thousand short. Lots of people are trying. Did you know that? People out there working all hours of the day and night, just to save up the pennies to earn their place. All they want is to live, to bring up their children in a place that won’t rot their lungs. And every year you put the price up.’
The woman opened her mouth but Digby wasn’t finished. ‘Do you know what they do? To scrimp and save? They barely eat. They work at any job. Any. Job. I know people who have lost limbs in factories. Hell, I know people who’ve been killed in the factories. In the mines, too. Lives made shorter still, by traipsing down those mines every day and every night, carving out your precious diamonds for your jewellery, the metal for your technology. Technology to keep you in and us out. There are other ways to die outside of the Domes. A lot of people are forced to sell their bodies. Some of their clients live inside this Dome.’
‘And you think this is an excuse for your actions?’
Digby gave her a sickening smile.
‘Not an excuse, no.’ It was her reason.
The man’s face appeared at the window and gave the woman a meaningful look. As the woman stood to leave, an alarm began to sound. The lights dimmed for a moment and there was a red flash in the corridor. The woman leapt forward, shouting to the man. The door was closed and locked behind them, and they disappeared from sight.
Digby cocked her head at the door and counted to five. Leaning back in her chair, she stretched out her fingers until the tips reached the small keypad on the cuffs. The warmth started in her core. It moved along her arm and into her hands. Something inside her shifted as a shock ran through her fingers. The first few times it had happened, it had been painful. Now she barely noticed. The cuffs clicked and opened. She freed her hands and placed her fingers on each of the keypads of the cuffs attached to her ankles. Another two clicks and she was free, standing, shaking her hot hands and brushing away some invisible dirt from her trousers.
She moved to the door, watching people in suits run past. Tracing her fingers on the door, she found the lock and that familiar warmth returned. The door opened. Such a shame, she thought. They would be mighty upset to find she had escaped. Or maybe they wouldn’t be too bothered, considering.
Digby walked out of the building. Always act like you belong, that was what she had been taught as a child. As she reached the doors, three men bustled past her, security badges bouncing as they went. She caught snippets of their shouted conversation as they passed.
‘...stolen...’
‘...how much...’
‘...how?’
‘...billions...’
Digby couldn’t help the grin on her face as she walked out into the clean air and hot sunshine of the Dome and headed for the exit.
Subscribe to Welcome to the Woods for more free stories as they arrive, get monthly updates and to download your free fantasy novella, We Could Be Immortal.