The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (13 page)

"Okay. Great. Can I repair it onsite or does it need to be exchanged?"

"I... I'm not sure. You'll have to see once you're there. You should bring one, in case."

"Okay. No problem. Anything else?"

"That's it. For now."

"Good."

"You need to take the lift down to 162nd and walk a few floors from there."

"No problem."

She starts walking toward the command center, leaving Ty standing there. Then she turns.

"You coming?"

Ty's expression is a mixture of concern and disbelief.

"You okay?" he says. "I heard you fell."

"Yup." Aries doesn't feel like talking this morning. It's also none of Ty's business what did or didn't happen to her. Something must have clicked, for when they reach the command center, Ty's all business.

"The cable follows the wall here." He points to a line on the blueprint in front of him. "It's connected to a valve in one of the chemical heating lines. My guess is, there's a leak somewhere that corroded either the wires or the contacts. Or both. The walkie-talkie doesn't reach that far so you have to use the hard line if you need to speak to me. I'll call you to check in. Any questions?"

"Nope."

"I'm sending Bailey down there with you. This is a two-person job and I can't leave right now."

Somewhere inside, buried so deep she can't access it, there is an objection.

"Sure, no problem," she answers.

"Good. Call me once you know what's what."

"Okay."

It seems as if Ty wants to say something else, but he doesn't. Bailey approaches, a large roll of cable over his shoulder. He grins when he sees her.

"Egan, you're gonna be okay using the lift?"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"No reason."

"Let's go," she says, as she heads toward the first set of stairs, with Bailey following.

Aries approaches the lift, opens the gate, and steps inside. Bailey closes the gate behind him. He punches in the floor number on the keypad and the lift begins its descent. Aries looks down into the abyss. About fifty floors are visible. The rest is swallowed by darkness. Part of her wonders how she could ever have been afraid of heights.

"So, you fell, huh?" Bailey asks.

"Yes," she says, with a smile.

"That they let you get back to work so soon after is pretty unusual. I thought you'd be gone for a week."

"I didn't want to lose any overtime hours."

"I see. Takin' one for the team and gettin' right back to work. I'm sure management will show its appreciation." He spits out some chewing tobacco.

While she looks down into the blackness below, and only for a second, it is as if she's not looking down but up. The large opening in the building's core seems brighter, more crisp. There is an elevator moving down toward her. Then the image disappears, leaving her dizzy, and wondering what it was. She becomes aware of a slight knot in her stomach and decides to look straight ahead instead of down. Much better.

"Yeah, I can never get used to the height, either. Who knows how old those brakes are? They have to stop workin’ eventually, right? In which case we'd just plummet straight down 'til we hit the landing at 162nd. Impact would probably shear off the cabin from the chassis and it would sail down all the way 'til we crashed into the ground floor." This is obviously amusing to Bailey for Aries can see his grin without turning her head.

She registers that her heart rate is way up. She can feel it beat inside her chest. While she asks herself why that is, she turns to look at Bailey. He's still talking but his mouth seems to move slower, somehow. His voice is deeper as if time has slowed down significantly. Then she hears a cry. It's distant yet strangely familiar. With the cry comes the image of a lift moving down toward her. It comes closer and Aries suddenly can see herself in it.

The piercing cry next to her ear brings her back. At that moment, Born-of-Night lands on the outside of the lift next to her head. The impact shakes the steel cabin. Bailey starts screaming as if answering Born-of-Night's bone-chilling cries.

Aries's vision becomes blurry. She doesn't know what's going on until she realizes that her tears are responsible for it. Somehow this makes her happy.

Come with me, Aries Free-Born
. The hawk's thought stands in Aries’s mind, strong and unwavering.

Bailey has moved into the corner of the lift as far away from the hawk as possible, shielding his face with his arms. He's still screaming when Born-of-Night lets go of the metal grate and drops down. Aries follows her flight path as she sails across the large gap to the other side, where she lands on a ledge. From there she lets out one more cry and disappears from Aries's sight.

"What the hell was that?" Bailey’s expression is one of pure terror.

"I don't have the slightest idea." In a split second she becomes aware of the implications of Born-of-Night's appearance. It is as if the hawk has pried open her consciousness, enough for her to begin to break through the drug-induced walls. Part of her registers that there is a large amount of pain waiting on the other side. But there is another part and one that, right now at least, has the upper hand.
Don't go there,
she thinks.
Close the door. For now. And concentrate on getting off this lift in one piece
.

"Bailey, you okay?"

"Once I'm off this freakin' lift."

Aries has never seen him so pale. When the lift stops, he steps out, and immediately moves away from the railing toward the other side of the walkway. Aries leaves the cabin and heads toward the stairs that will take her to the 160th floor.

* * *

"We need a new junction box. This one is pretty much gone," Aries says. She kneels on the floor, looking at the box. Bailey stands a few feet away against a wall.

"I'm not going back into that lift anytime soon," he says.

"You have to go up eventually."

"Yeah, but that's a few hours from now, at least. More time for whatever it was that tried to get into the lift cage to get lost."

"It was just a bird."

"It tried to kill us!"

"What?" Aries realizes that Bailey's point of view is radically different from her own. "I'll go," she says.

"Good," he replies. "Very good."

Bailey is visibly relieved.

"You can take out the old cable in the meantime."

"Yeah, no problem," he says.

He seems like a child to her as he stands, back against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. "I'll be back soon," she says.

Bailey nods and she loses sight of him as she climbs the first staircase. When she arrives at the landing, the flashing image of the interrogation room from the other night appears in front of her. The image is so strong that she staggers, tries to stay upright, and has to hold on to the railing.

"Oh no," she whispers under her breath. Part of her knows that this was coming eventually, but she didn't expect it to be with such force. The next image is that of her parents in the elevator as it plummets into nothingness. She can feel the pain physically as it approaches, rolling toward her, and enclosing her completely.

Through her tears she looks around. There is a space between two transformers. She staggers toward it and slips into the narrow hallway where she slides to the floor. Whatever the serum had suppressed now finds its way back to the surface and into her conscious mind. The pain comes in waves, taking her as she sobs on the steel grate floor. She doesn't know how long she lies there. Minutes. Hours. Whenever she wants to give in and let herself be pulled into the blackness of the bottomless pit that is filled with terrifying memories, she hears her. Her call is quiet but persistent, cutting through the pain and lifting her up, carrying her, consoling her.

Come with me
, she seems to say.

And then the realization hits her: she can't go back. She can't go back up to face Ty and the others and to pretend nothing has happened. She can't pick up her life as she knows it, had known it. And what life? She has to turn around and go toward... Where? Where would she go? There is nowhere to go in here.

Trust me
, Born-of-Night seems to say in her thoughts. Trust who? A four-month-old hawk? But the longer she lies there in the semidarkness, the clearer she sees what it is she needs to do. She can't go back. She has to do what nobody would expect her to do, not even the software of the A.I. mainframe and whoever stands behind it. She has to go against everything she has learned since she can remember: She has to follow her instinct. Go
toward
the fear and the unknown, not away from it.

"Go," she hears herself whisper. "Go, before you change your mind."

She gets up, wavers, and briefly thinks she’s going to get sick. But it passes and she moves toward the railing. As she looks into the abyss below, all the way down and to the edge where the light meets the shadows, she forms a thought that lets her fear dissipate, that calms her heart rate and her breath.

"I'm coming to you," she says. And from far below she hears a cry echoing through the vast space, steadying her resolve. She turns away from the railing and moves to the right and toward the opposite side of the opening. Last thing she needs is to run into Bailey. While she moves down the staircases she makes a mental list of items in her possession. She realizes she’s left her hard hat a few flights up. That includes the flashlight. What's left is the harness, handkerchief, notepad, and her tool belt with several relatively small tools in them, including a pocketknife. She feels slightly thirsty but that can't be helped right now.

She thinks about calling Ty on the hard line and giving him some kind of an excuse for not showing up. But she doesn't want to do that anymore. Too many lies. She thinks about Kiire and Seth and for a moment she slows down. Should she go up and somehow get them? And what about C.J.? She remembers her message clearly. She remembers what it said. "Help me!" The two words stand very clear in her memory. All the attempts to change the message had no effect at all. Shouldn't she try to help her somehow? But part of her knows that this is not the right time, that this is not what she needs to do right now. She wouldn’t be able to help her at this moment, wouldn't even know where to start.

As she moves downward, ever deeper, passing floor by floor—for the occasional worker she encounters, she's a colleague on her way to a job—her future seems to open up in front of her, stretching out and welcoming her at the same time. She experiences a sense of freedom she has not felt since she can remember. Not knowing what to expect seems terrifying and freeing at once.

She is so engrossed in her own thoughts that she doesn't see the drone at first. She's not aware of the humming sound it emits; nor does she feel the slight movement in the air from its electromagnetic turbines. She doesn't notice the green laser scanning each floor during its silent descent. When she becomes aware of it, it doesn't register at first. Its black surface reflects almost no light. It hovers in the center of the large opening in the building's core, unseen by most and feared by the ones who do see it.

What saves her is an image she gets from Born-of-Night at the very second she sees the drone. The image is a bright, sharp picture of a black shape descending toward her. She reacts out of sheer instinct, diving into one of the narrower hallways as a blue ball of electric current strikes only a foot away. A small explosion swipes her of her feet. She lands painfully on her back, but has the sense to roll and move behind one of the transformers.

Can you make it three flights down?
She hears Born-of-Night in her thoughts. Part of her is surprised by their clarity. The other is simply glad to hear her.
I'm not sure,
she thinks.
I'll try.

She hears the humming behind her and runs alongside the transformer to an intersection. Right or left? She goes to the right because it seems logical. After about twenty feet she's in a dead end. She turns around and begins to run in the other direction. The drone hovers into the narrow passageway in front of her. It's now about fifteen feet away, approximately eight feet above the walkway. Aries has nowhere to go.

This can't be it,
she thinks, as she watches the drone move closer. For a second, she sees the bright image of a corridor in her mind—a space between two transformers. She raises her hands over her head, kneels down. Another image flashes in front of her. It shows herself kneeling about twenty feet below and the drone hovering above.

When Aries looks up she sees something behind the drone, moving closer fast. The hawk's cry echoes through the space. The drone registers it and turns, pointing its sensors toward it. At that moment, the hawk lands on top of it, claws outstretched, beak ready to strike.

Go!
is all Aries hears. From her kneeling position she rolls forward, jumps up, and disappears into the passageway she came from. From there, she turns toward the stairwell and slides down. Three seconds. She races through the labyrinth of hallways.
Where are you?
she asks in her thoughts, while sliding down the next staircase.