[Contributor 02] - Infiltrator (2013) by Nicole Ciacchella

their pursuit of fitness, whether it involved spending time in the Magnum gym, participating in Creator-organized sports, or jogging through the dome’s parks. Contributors boasted about their stats on the social networks, the challenge to others both overt and implied. Each year Magnum gave an award to the male and female Contributors with the best fitness records, and the competition was intense, everyone anxious both to make an example of themselves and to obtain the prize of a considerable stack of privilege vouchers.
    Dara had posted the evening before about her intent to go for a long jog, noting a few stops along her route. On the way to the rendezvous point, she would pass the locations she’d mentioned, and she would make a point of greeting other Contributors as she jogged past. Magnum issued exercise monitoring devices to all its Contributors to help them track their fitness goals. Mal would have someone hack hers to make it appear she’d worked out longer than she had, providing her with cover. Most importantly, it wouldn’t implicate her father in any way, something upon which she had insisted.
    Her ruse established, she headed for the access corridor where she was to meet a Core Free Thinker. She’d never before seen the woman, but they exchanged the coded greeting, and the woman used her access card to take Dara down to the lower transport bay, where Dara would climb aboard a waste truck.
    She’d hoped to see Ricky, the driver who had once transported her and Letizia, but she had a different chauffeur, which she ultimately decided was a good thing. This one was a great deal more reticent and said nothing other than to greet her and grunt in acknowledgment when she thanked him for dropping her off. She was too nervous to make conversation anyway.
    Aware as she was that the confines of the domes weren’t the safe haven she had once thought them, it nonetheless made her uneasy to be out in the wasteland. Before she got out of the waste truck, she pulled a jumpsuit over her exercise gear, exchanging her running shoes for a pair of boots. Tucking the shoes into a drawstring bag, Dara slung it over her shoulder and hurried to the shattered remnants of the building looming before her. The jumpsuit and bag would protect her clothes and shoes from being coated with a telltale layer of the wasteland’s grime.
    This particular set of ruins was new to her, and after several minutes of searching she still hadn’t found the access door. She panicked for a moment, thinking the chauffeur had dropped her off in the wrong location, then went limp with relief when she finally managed to locate the security panel. Something crashed a short distance away, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Whether it was another part of the building collapsing or the sound of a human digging for scrap, she didn’t know, nor did she intend to investigate and find out. Had a human made the noise, there was no way of knowing if she’d encounter a wary Root or a member of one of the violent, roving gangs.
    With a quick glance around to ensure no one was in the immediate vicinity, Dara hastened to type in the access code. The adrenaline surging through her made concentrating a challenge, and her frantic mind scrambled to recall which sequence of the rotating code she’d need. Typing it in with shaking fingers, her knees buckled when she heard the lock release. She yanked the door open a crack and threw herself into the darkness.

Chapter 10

    Jerking the door closed behind her, she checked three times to make sure it was really locked, then she paused for a moment to let her racing heart slow. The adrenaline left her feeling sick and shaky, and she squatted, lowering her head and taking in a few deep breaths. When she lifted it again she could make out a faint light below, and she slid her foot forward, taking care to find the edge of the steps so that she didn’t plunge down them headfirst. Her hands trailed over the walls, closing