Skykeep (22 page)

“You helped build this place?!” Nita hissed.
“How did that not come up in conversation?”

He shrugged. “Not too proud of it.”

“You’ve got to get me on the team, Kent,” Lil
said.

“… You sure? You don’t look too steady.”

“I
need
this. If you’re afraid I can’t
help, then get Nita on there, too. She’s an engineer,
remember?”

He looked between them uncertainly. “You
think he’ll go for it?”

“We’ll get him to go for it. Just suggest us.
Don’t worry about what we say after that. All we need is for you to
try,” Nita said. “We’ll owe you.”

“Damn right you will.”

“… And so I think it is wise to once again
appoint Kent as temporary foreman of this repair. Kent, any
thoughts on your crew?” the assistant warden said, as expected.

Kent looked to the girls. “Well… I’m going to
need Donald. Eggy would be a good one. The two new girls look like
they could put a good night’s work in… maybe Blanche’d be a good
one. And Snow.”

“You sure about the surface folk?” said Blanc
uncertainly. “We’ve been having trouble with the little one, as you
know.”

“Please pick someone else,” Lil said, playing
up the very real roughness and unsteadiness of her voice for all it
was worth. “I spent the whole night in the box getting tossed
around by the storm. I just got out an hour ago. I need a night of
sleep, or I don’t know how I’ll make it another day.”

“I don’t even want to think about what it
will be like up here in the cold of night. Two nights up here has
nearly killed Lil,” Nita agreed.

“Oh, well I’m so very sorry you aren’t
enjoying your stay with us,” the assistant warden said. “But at
Skykeep we do what we’re told. Work gets done overnight, and you’re
on the crew. If you don’t like that, it’ll be isolation instead.
How’s that?”

Nita and Lil each just barely fought off a
grin of satisfaction. It was astounding how simple it was to
manipulate the truly cruel.

“Er… a word with you, Supervisor?” said a
voice that was several degrees too intellectual for the setting.
Forward from the back of the general population came the Ebonwhite
brothers. They began to chat quietly with the supervisor.

“Of course the Ebonwhite boys are going to
buy their way on the job,” Kent muttered. “Whenever the boys want a
chance to get out of their cells and enjoy a night they just grease
the palm of the supervisor and then…”

“Eggy and Blanche, I feel, aren’t a good fit
for this crew,” the assistant warden said. “I believe the
Ebonwhites would be a better choice.”

“You’d know best, Supervisor,” Kent said
wearily.

“Yes, I
would
know best. And there you
have it. Two hours after sundown we’ll get your people together and
start the work by moon and phlo-light.”

There was a general murmur of disappointment
from those not selected, and the crowd paced off into their usual
cliques. Nita and Lil approached Kent and Donald.

“I really can’t thank you enough,” Nita
said.

“Uh-huh. You want to know how to make it up
to me?” Kent said.

“If it is within my power, and within reason,
then I’ll do it.”

“I want out.”

“What?” Lil said.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m
talking about. You two have had so much up your sleeves since you
showed up I’m surprised there’s room enough for your arms. This is
about a prison break, and if what you’re doing works, I want out.
Donald, too.”

“I can’t promise we’ll be able to…”

“Oh, I know you can’t promise anything
because I don’t think what you’re working on is going to do much
more than get the two of you put in the box one after the other for
the rest of your lives. But if it works, I want out.”

“We’ll do what we can. If it works, you’ll
certainly deserve it,” Nita said with a nod. “But if you really
helped build this place, and you’ve been here long enough to see
most of it, then we’ll need you to tell us all you can about
it.”

“Plenty of time to chitchat once the sun goes
down. Best part is, me talking about what went into building this
place won’t turn any heads while we’re trying to repair it. You
just better carry your weight, because nice as the night shift is,
we still need to get the job done, and those Ebonwhites aren’t
going to lift a finger.”

“No worries. It’ll be nice to ply my trade
again.”

“Yeah,” Lil said, glancing up at the sky.
“Likewise…”

#

Lil was swinging in her hammock, Wink curled
up on her lap, a plate of biscuits by her side, and a tall lemonade
in her hand. Before her was the glorious sunset, and in her ears
was the long, low howl of a warm summer wind. It was glorious. It
was perfect. And then suddenly it was gone, replaced with a dank
cell, a dim view of the bars ahead of her, and a bellowing
voice.

“Prisoners Graus and Cooper, awake and on
your feet for repair duty!” cried their night guard, a somewhat
taller and less friendly version of his daytime counterpart.

Lil shook away the sleep as Nita dropped down
from the top bunk.

“Well… that was a good three hours I guess.
Better’n some nights on the
Wind Breaker
,” Lil said with a
yawn. “Come to think of it, the room’s bigger, too. And we got our
own lavat’ry.”

“Yes, I’m starting to feel pampered,” Nita
said, sticking her hands between two bars to be locked up.

Lil’s eyes opened wide as she noticed about
an inch of brass chain dangling down beneath Nita’s shirt.

“Hold on there, darlin’. You need to fix your
shirt some,” Lil said, tucking the chain into Nita’s waistband.

When the evidence was hidden, she let Nita
step back and had her own hands secured. They were led to the upper
deck. It looked quite different lit by the moon and a few
phlo-floods. The darkened surface of the deck seemed to fade out
into the almost black surface of the fug. Patches of clouds
speckled an otherwise spectacular starry sky. Some long pieces of
lumber, presumably delivered at some point between yard time and
sundown, were lined up on the deck. The wood was waiting to be cut,
drilled, installed, and sealed. Even with seven people on the work
crew, it was likely to take more than a single night. The guards
handed out tools and work commenced. It became obvious that there
weren’t really seven people on the crew, there were five. As
expected, the Ebonwhites didn’t even pretend to lend a hand.

Nita was on one side of a team saw, with
Donald working the other. He turned out to be a monster of a
worker, but Nita was no slouch. The two made an excellent pair,
trimming wood to length quickly and efficiently. Lil, based upon
her past behavior, wasn’t trusted with anything more dangerous than
a piece of chalk and a measuring line. Nita grinned at that. If
they knew half of what Lil was capable of, they wouldn’t have let
her have the measuring line, either. Kent was doing a great deal of
the hammering and positioning, so he was frequently at Nita’s side,
requesting boards of certain lengths. He also used these moments to
deliver brief descriptions of what he knew of the design of the
prison. The aircraft guns were at the base of the anchors. There
were at least four. They were targeted via long speaking tubes
similar to what the captain used in the
Wind Breaker
. So on
and so forth.

At the beginning and end of each cut, Lil had
to measure for the next piece. It was during those brief breaks in
activity that she and Lil collaborated.

“This chalk is gumming up my fingers
something awful,” Lil announced. “Mind if I wipe my hands on your
shirt, Nita?”

“Fine,” Nita said breathlessly.

Lil stepped up behind Nita and carefully
revealed the watch, clicking it open. “Eleven twenty-five. I’ve got
a good view of the south from the edge of the worksite. I’m going
to get an angle.”

“Okay,” Nita said. “I’ll try to buy you
time.” She turned to Donald and spoke up. “Donald. Maybe we can
slow down a bit on this one? I’m getting a little winded.”

“We’ve been making good time. We can probably
ease up a bit,” he said with a nod.

Their rhythm slowed, and Nita watched out of
the corner of her eye as Lil paced over to the edge of the deck.
Since the planking had been damaged, there was no railing anymore,
and Lil was mere inches from the edge. She stretched a bit, then
slowly extended her arms in front of her. To an untrained eye, it
looked like just another stretch. A quick and dirty navigator would
recognize her lining her pinkies up with the horizon, then quickly
walking them upward, one on top of the other, until she reached the
point of a certain star. She then stooped and scrawled a few marks
on the plank at her feet and did a few side bends before seeking
out the moon to count off some more pinkie-widths.

“So… is it true? Are you
really
members of the
Wind Breaker
crew?” came a slimy voice beside
Nita.

She turned. Beside her was the younger of the
two Ebonwhite brothers, Lars.

“That’s right, we are. If you don’t mind, I’m
trying to work,” Nita said.

“You don’t look like you’re trying very
hard,” he said.

Nita lined up three or four poisonous barbs
about how little work he and his brother had been doing, but she
let them slide.

“You know, it was really quite a black eye to
the Ebonwhite family when you robbed that warehouse,” Lars said.
“Uncle might never live it down.”

“Knowing what I know about the Ebonwhite
family, I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes it was more than a
black eye.”

“It is true. The
small minded
such as
yourself no doubt believe him a villain. Those who would foment
chaos always see the voice of order as a hindrance rather than an
asset. You cannot begin to respect my uncle on the same levels that
my brother, Nils, and I do.”

“Yes, I understand you respected him so much
you were embezzling from him.”

“
I contend that our alleged embezzling was
never adequately proved,
” he snapped. “However, this does not
alter the fact that we have been placed here, and that we shall not
be released until someone in a position of influence, like our
uncle, decides to speak on our behalf. Regardless of any supposed
limits on our sentences, to my knowledge no one has ever left this
place alive without a good word from the outside… And Nils and I
know precisely how best to prove our allegiance once again.”

At the edge of hearing, Nita detected the
ring of a blade. Her body took control of the situation, releasing
the saw and leaping aside just in time to turn an angry lunge at
her back into a grazing slash at her side. Lars clearly hadn’t
expected to need a second attack and wasn’t prepared to deliver it.
Nita swept a kick at his hand, sending the knife flying into the
poorly lit center of the courtyard. She then grabbed a handful of
his shirt and yanked his head down to crack it on the stout handle
of the team saw. Ebonwhite crumpled to the ground, a welt quickly
forming on his forehead.

It all happened quickly enough that most of
the rest of the work crew didn’t notice until Lars started
muttering slurred threats and trying to get to his feet, but Nita
didn’t linger long enough to hear them.

“Are you all right, Nita? He looks like he
got you,” said Donald, the one fellow inmate who had observed the
whole exchange from the other side of his saw.

“Where’s the other one?” Nita said
insistently. “Where’s his brother?”

“I don’t know.”

Nita walked as quickly as she dared toward
Lil. If she broke into a sprint, especially as the commotion
surrounding her groggy assailant began to spread, there was little
doubt the ever-present snipers might take it as reason enough to
take her down.

“Lil! Watch yourself!” Nita said.

“Just a few more seconds, Nita,” Lil said,
her voice hushed as she worked her fingers upward.

From the darkness near the base of the
damaged tower, the shorter of the Ebonwhite brothers was
approaching. The moonlight glinted off a blade in his hand.

“Drop the knife!” Nita called out.

All heads turned to Nils. Like his brother,
he was unaccustomed to dirty work such as this and briefly froze as
he realized he’d been discovered. When he spotted Nita heading his
way and saw that Lil was still angling her hands at the sky, he
decided to take his chance, running for Lil. Nita broke into a run
as well. She and Nils met just barely three steps away from Lil.
The wiry fug person, despite the longer running start, couldn’t
muster much momentum and was forced back to the very edge of the
broken decking before he got his footing enough to bring the pair
to a stop.

“I’ll kill the both of you,” Nils growled,
knife firmly in hand as Nita wrestled with him. “Uncle will
have
to let me out then.”

She struggled against him as guards began to
rush forward. There were only three guards on duty, not counting
the sharpshooters, and seven prisoners. Since most of the prisoners
were currently working with tools that could quickly render them a
threat if this was part of a coordinated act of violence, they
began securing every prisoner, starting with those they deemed the
greatest threat. This meant the very instant she was through with
her observations, Lil’s hands were behind her back and shackled.
Donald and Kent were secured as well. All the while Nita continued
to fight with her assailant.

Desperation, fury, and a deceiving amount of
strength made Nils a match for Nita. It was all she could do to
keep his weapon away from her. At the edge of her mind, she heard
calls erupting from the prisoners and the guards. Some calling for
her blood. Some calling for Nils’s blood. The guards were calling
for the warden. Then, after an eternity of trying to wrench the
knife away from him, Nita finally got a firm grip around his throat
with one hand and his wrist with the other. It was then that a
single, commanding voice rang out above the rest.