Luke stared at her and she stared at him. Then she said, almost mildly, "It wasn't locked. You didn't have to break it down."

The light caught in the woman's glasses, which threw off slivers of color, like a prism. A cloud of white hair swirled around her face, making her seem unearthly. She looked frail without seeming delicate or feeble. Luke found himself wondering if this was what his own grandmother looked like — the grandmother who'd never even been allowed to know of Luke's existence.

"The Population Police require your attendance at a meeting at eleven o'clock in the town square. You will be issued a new identity card. No other cards or papers will be valid after these cards are issued," Luke said in a rush. And then he turned to go, because he didn't want to think about how he'd broken the woman's door, how he was act-ing like a typical, brutish Population Police recruit, how this woman's eyes seemed to accuse him. But even as he turned, Luke could see that the woman was making no effort to rise from her couch.

"This is mandatory," he said, still moving toward the door.

"No," the woman said.

Luke stopped, certain he'd heard wrong.

"What?" he said.

"I said no," the woman said calmly. "I'm not going."

"Don't you know what 'mandatory' means?" Luke demanded. "You have to go!"

"No," the woman said again. "I have a choice. You can call it mandatory. You can call it required. But I can make up my own mind. And I'm not going."

Luke heard footsteps outside.

"What's going on in there? Why is this taking so long?" Officer Houk screamed.

Luke could hear him shoving the door, which then fell away completely from the frame, slamming to the floor. Luke jumped out of the way, but not before the door hit his leg.