The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (3 page)

“You’ll need a six-point hexagon to open the casing.” Ty says. She nods. “But you knew that already. Has anyone seen C.J. this morning?” Ty asks the room.

A couple of people shake their heads; others murmur that they haven’t seen her.

“I’m going on the job with you," Ty says. "We don’t have anyone else senior enough to be your lead.”

Aries smiles. “Great!"

"Get the parts, will ya?" Ty says, while grabbing his tool belt and hard hat.

When she enters the storage room, an image appears before her eyes for a split second, completely blocking her current visual field. White clouds rush by as she plummets toward the land far below. She throws her arms out to catch herself. Then it’s gone, leaving her dizzy and filled with a hot rush of adrenaline. She looks around but nobody seems to have noticed.

She finds the parts in two separate metal bins and the six-point hexagon in the specialty tools cart. Ty is already halfway up the stairs. Aries follows him up and they reach the narrow path above the storage room. From there, the walkway makes a forty-five degree turn, crossing over the command center. Aries's stomach begins to knot as they approach the end and negotiate a narrow wall. As they turn the corner, leaving the wall behind them, they approach the railing of yet another walkway. Aries concentrates on the steel grid plates below her feet but she knows that, eventually, she has to look up and face what’s there.

“You okay?” Ty's eyes reassure her that she is not going to fall and disappear into the abyss.

“Yes, sure.”

Reluctant, her glance shifts from Ty to what lies behind him.
You've seen this many times before
.
There's no need to freak out over it
. From where they stand, a circular walkway leads in both directions meeting all the way across, fifty meters away. In between, there is nothing. Just a large, round gap. She reaches the railing and grabs it, not without noticing the sweat on her palms. From here, she gradually looks past her hands. Surrounding the gap in the center, the maze of ladders and platforms extends downward as far as she can see. About fifty floors below, it is swallowed by darkness. She steps back from the railing.

"Shall we?" Ty asks.

She nods, thankful that he lets her have her moment of panic without calling her on it.

"I wonder why it's built like that?” she asks, as they head for another staircase.

“I don’t have a better answer since the last time you asked,” Ty replies.

“It’s just that it seems to serve no purpose to have it all open like that.”

“I’m not a structural engineer.”

“Yes, but you know things."

"That I do. I also know that I've never met anyone who asked so many questions."

"That's a good thing, right?" Aries realizes that she's only half-kidding.

"It depends on who you ask."

She expects him to smile but he doesn't, and for a moment there is silence between them.

“Did C.J. seem strange to you the last couple of days?” she asks.

“Strange in what way?” They climb up yet another ladder.

“Just strange. Not herself.”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ty answers. “But you know her much better than I do.”

“I don’t really. How can I know her if we’re not allowed to speak without being watched?” Aries isn’t quite sure where this outburst comes from.

“I brought your harness.” Ty tells her. “You should put it on.”

“Ty, do you realize that I can’t even talk to you about anything except what’s related to work?”

“You should always put it on, even though you think you might not need it.”

“There are so many things that don't make a lot of sense.”

“It will prevent you from falling and hurting yourself.”

“Ty!”

Ty stops and turns to her. They are halfway up the stairs. He kneels before her, placing the harness in front of her on the ground. Then he looks up at her.

“Put on the harness, Aries. It will keep you safe.”

He is as close to a father as anyone has come in four years. She can see that his eyes are pleading with her—pleading with her to be quiet, to stay quiet.

“Thank you,” is all she says, as she steps into the harness and pulls it up.

They continue to climb a few more stairways until they reach the space behind a smaller transformer. Aries can see the massive cooling line going straight up beside a metal ladder built into the wall. Twenty feet above them the line disappears into a smaller shaft leading away from them.

Ty hands Aries a small walkie-talkie that she clips onto her harness. She begins to climb the ladder. Halfway up she looks down, but realizing this is a mistake she continues to concentrate on each rung of the ladder until she reaches the top. She switches her headlamp on and peers into the horizontal shaft. It disappears beyond the reach of the light beam.

"It's about thirty-five feet into the shaft." She hears Ty's voice in the walkie-talkie. She gives him a thumbs-up and places her foot on the ledge of the square shaft. When she locks the carabiner into the bar above the opening, her legs begin to shake. She waits a few seconds, hoping it will stop. For a moment she feels as if she is going to get sick, but then she grabs onto the bar, lets go of the ladder and slides into the shaft.

She welcomes the tight space and the cool surface of the metal duct against her back. She unlocks the carabiner and crawls forward along the smaller cooling line. The beam of light dances in front of her as she makes her way into the darkness.

"Almost there," she says into the walkie-talkie.

"Still here," she hears Ty say next to her ear.

She smiles, turns her body, and moves the last few feet on her side. She opens her tool belt, finds the wrench and begins opening the bolts. In order to get to the rest of the chassis she has to lie on her back. While loosening the remaining bolts, she notices another shaft, smaller and perpendicular to this one.

That's odd,
she thinks. The shafts inside the building that have nothing in them are usually air shafts. This seems an unusual location for an air duct.

"How's it going in there?" She hears Ty's voice. She contemplates telling him what she's found. Then she decides to check it out first and tell him after. Ty knows nothing about her one hour of freedom she takes out of her day when she activates the surveillance loop in her room and roams the heating ducts at night. She knows he wouldn't approve. Not because he would disapprove; he would simply be afraid for her.

"Aries, you there?"

"Yes, sorry, the space is very tight and it'll take some time to loosen the bolts."

"Okay."

She takes the chassis off of the electric motor and replaces the used brushes with new ones.

"It's both brushes. Should be done soon," she says into the walkie-talkie. She can't remember ever having lied to Ty.

She closes the chassis and climbs into the shaft. The empty duct leads straight up, with nothing to hold on to. Using her knees and feet, together with her hands, she pushes herself up, several inches at a time. She's done this many times before but she didn't realize at the outset how far she would have to climb. Most of the vertical ducts she had climbed during her nightly excursions were fifteen feet high at the most. This one is almost three times as high.

Halfway up the shaft, she's completely out of breath. Sweat is building on her brow and she begins to question her reasoning for climbing into the shaft. But she knows that this is probably her only chance to do this. She'll most likely not come back to this location for a while and coming up with a reasonable excuse to return would be difficult.

She takes a couple of breaths, tries to be unconcerned about her legs beginning to shake, and pushes herself up again, a couple of inches at a time. After an eternity, she reaches the end—a metal vent cover. She tries to push it open but it doesn't move.

"I don't believe it," she whispers under her breath. She tries again but there is no way for her to open it. It must be bolted shut from the other side.
I should have known better
. She very slowly begins to slide downward. Forty-five feet below her she sees the tiny opening to the vertical shaft and part of the motor. She had taken off her gloves to get better traction. Now, the sweat in her palms acts as a lubricant. She pushes away the thought of what would happen if she fell from this height and takes out her handkerchief. Using her teeth, she rips off a narrow strip and ties it to one of the bars in the vent cover. One knot has to do. The burning in her legs is already almost unbearable. Then she wipes her hands as much as possible on her coveralls and slowly makes her way down. When she finally reaches the bottom, she is sweating profusely and simply lies there, completely exhausted.

"Did you fall asleep in there?" She hears Ty's voice in the walkie-talkie.

"I'm done. On my way back," she replies, hoping this was all worth it.

She reaches the ladder and climbs down, the burning sensation in her legs only slowly subsiding.

"You look like you've been through the wringer. Did anything happen in there?" Ty looks at her with a mixture of worry and wonder. "Are you okay?"

"It was just very hard to loosen the bolts," Aries answers, looking away from his probing glance.

"Aries, what's going on?"

"Nothing." She lifts her head, looks straight at him. "It was just very hard to loosen the bolts."

Something in his expression tells her that he doesn't quite believe her. He opens a small panel next to the ladder and flips the circuit breaker back on. The LED light changes from red to green.

"Shall we go back?"

"Yeah." Aries realizes that her palms are still sweaty but she resists the urge to wipe them on her coveralls.

"Good job up there."

"Thanks."

Ty walks ahead of her as they make their way down the ladders and back toward the command center four stories below.

"Maybe I'll try to get in touch with C.J.'s parents tonight," Aries says. "I didn't see a message from her on my pad this morning and she usually writes me first thing."

"Sure, sounds like a good idea," Ty answers after a few seconds. Just as they reach the floor of the command center and Aries is about to walk to her locker to get a drink, Ty places his hand on her shoulder.

"Aries."

She turns toward him. "Yes."

"You're a good kid. I... I want you to know that. I just wanted you to know." She looks at him, his grease-darkened face, his kind eyes.

"Thank you."

Ty nods.

"I'll be right back," she says, and turns to walk away. Her eyes sting suddenly. She wonders why this happens each time someone says something nice to her. Yes, it reminds her of how her mother used to speak to her while she gently braided her hair each night. Yes, it doesn't happen that often anymore that someone says something nice to her. C.J. is one. Ty another. Maybe there are one or two more kids she can relate to, but for the most part there is this undercurrent of loneliness in her that she can't seem to shake.

While standing at her locker and drinking from a water bottle, tears stream down in earnest. She immediately tries to hide them from the camera above her head; she pours water into the palm of her hand and splashes it on her face. Let them figure it out. To whoever stands watch behind the cameras, she's just another kid sweating from working in small spaces who needed to cool off. No tears.

But while she does that, while all those thoughts go through her head, she realizes what it is she needs. The thought rises within her and fills her with hope and the will to continue. She lets it stand there. Then she nods and a slight smile crosses her face.
I need friends
. She closes her locker and goes back to the command center to get instructions for her next job.
 

Chapter 3 — Born-of-Night

“Night bears the dawn which rises on its death.”

[
The Book of Croix
— Vol.7]

Aries slumps onto her futon and takes out her pad. She traces an invisible line on the screen. The default room setting changes to the inside of a forest. Another sweep of her finger and music comes on. A Calitester flute. The deep guttural sound, almost reminiscent of human voices, echoes through the room. For a while she lies on her back looking up, trying to relax into the music. All around her, the trees reach far up into the sky. She lets her mind wander—from her encounter with Seth this morning to her conversations with Ty and from him to C.J. She sits up, opens her memo app and types. "Where were you today? Missed you. Hope you're okay. A." She pushes the "send" button and lies back down. A few moments later she is fast asleep.

The slight vibration of her watch wakes her. When she looks at the screen, it flickers a few times, the sign that the one-hour loop has begun. Her watch shows 1:38 a.m. She feels a sense of dread and slight panic. She can feel her heart beat inside her chest. She decides it must have been something she dreamed. Before she can acknowledge that it's probably more than that, she makes herself get up.