The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (19 page)

I thought I'd lost you. Where did you go?
Born-of-Night's thoughts stand at the threshold of her mind.

"Where are you?" she says.

"I'm right here," Ty replies. "But then, you're not talking to me right now, are you?"

"Sorry."

"How does it work? How do you communicate with her?"

"I have not the slightest idea. It just happens."

"What is she saying now?"

"She's not really saying anything. She's showing me where she is."

"Where is that?"

Aries closes her eyes and describes to Ty what she sees: a shaft, spanning about twenty floors. The surface surrounding the large circular opening in the center is completely covered by steel plates. A few small rectangular openings face the core. Below that lies darkness. In seemingly random intervals, blue electric charges cross from one side to the other, every four floors or so.

"They must have been installed after I was here last," Ty says.

"What do you think they're for?" Aries lifts her head but realizes immediately that it was a bad idea; pain shoots up into her forehead.

"You're dehydrated."

"But I almost drowned."

"I know. It's funny how this works, right?"

"What do you think they are for?"

"There was a breakout attempt a few years back. The chargers must have been installed afterward. The guards’ quarters have openings facing the core. Some of the inmates made their way in there and tried to flee through them."

"To go where?"

"Downward."

"But there's nothing down there."

"They must have thought anything had to be better than where they were."

There is a moment of silence between them. Aries becomes aware of a growing sense of hopelessness.

"What are we doing here?" she says quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why... are we doing this? And what if we reach the Forgotten Floors? What then? There's no place for us to go from there. We're trapped. And we were the ones walking right into it. I feel so silly. I almost died. I put you in danger with my stupid request. And for what?"

Aries doesn't expect an answer. She knows Ty doesn't have one. Mostly because there isn't one. This was a fool's errand and only fools would put themselves in a position where the only path to take is one that goes deeper into an impossible situation. She closes her eyes. The image of the outside of the prison comes back. Born-of-Night watches the electric currents that discharge in seemingly random intervals. Suddenly, the hawk drops down and toward it—

"No!" Aries lifts her head, sits up. She watches in her mind's eye as Born-of-Night dives straight down, only inches away from the outer wall, maneuvering around the electric charges that sound like small explosions beside her. The further down she drops, the faster she gets. The large rusted metal plates rush by. Aries becomes aware that she is holding her breath while grabbing Ty's arm at the same time.

Then the hawk is past the lower perimeters and lands on a railing several stories below the prison. Aries can see a few floors down across the gap. Born-of-Night lets out a cry. It echoes through the empty halls, resonates within Aries’s mind. The moment she's about to open her eyes and sever the connection to the image, she sees something in the shadows. A figure approaches from the other side, across the gap. Next to the figure, another one appears. They seem to move toward the railing. Then they reach it. Aries can make out only their contours at first. Then she sees them more clearly. Children. They can't be older than ten or maybe twelve years old. Behind them, others move forward and toward the railing. When they step into the residual light from above, Aries can see that they look straight at her. There must be two dozen of them, some as old as herself.

Born-of-Night lifts off and flies across the gap and toward them. They move backward and away from the railing. When she lands, the children are about ten feet away. There is no fear in them. They look at the hawk, some curious, others in disbelief. Their faces are dirty, their clothes in rags, but there is something about them, something... intelligent. And despite where they are and what their lives must be like, there is a strength that radiates from them. Aries can almost feel it.

Another figure appears behind them, walks toward them from the shadows. This one is taller. When she comes closer, Aries sees that it's a woman. Her long hair is as dirty as that of the children, her dust-smeared face in stark contrast to her eyes. She stops a few feet in front of the hawk. Aries can see her facial features through the grime. She must be in her sixties. As she looks at the hawk, tears begin to run down her face. Aries can't tell if those are tears of joy or sadness, until utter relief seems to pass through her. She says something Aries can't understand, repeats it over and over.

Stay with them,
Aries thinks, and opens her eyes.

I will,
is all she hears, before the connection to Born-of-Night breaks.

"What is it?" Ty asks. "What did you see?"

"You won’t believe this," she says, and gets to her feet.

* * *

"I didn't think anyone could exist down there." Ty wrings out his shirt and hangs it over a small pipe. Then he removes his shoes. Aries stands in her bra and underpants, trying to do the same with her coveralls. There is a large purple-and-blue bruise over her sternum. The right side of her face has taken on a darker tone.

"Let me help you with that," Ty says. He takes the arms of the coveralls and wrings them out. Then he does the same to the torso and each leg.

"They must have help," Aries says. "I don't know how and from whom. And why are they down there to begin with?"

Ty hands her the coveralls. "You should put them on so they can warm up while you wear them, rather than wait until they’re dry."

Aries nods. The cold fabric on her skin makes her shiver. "How are we going to do this? I'm assuming there's some kind of system of checkpoints and things like that in place."

"The prison is designed as three entities." Ty lets the remaining water drip out of his boots. "There's the inmates’ section, which is the most heavily guarded, of course. Then we have the guards’ section. It's accessible to the inmates’ section through different points of entry and exit. There are hallways within the inmates’ section where they are transported from one part to another. There are several points where the guards enter the inmates’ section. And then there's the maintenance sector. That's basically a system of narrow shafts and walkways that are, for the most part, independent of the guards’ section. They have no need to enter and maintenance has no need to get to the guards’ section unless there’s something wrong."

"That sounds promising," Aries replies.

"Yes and no. There are a few areas, mostly access points, where there’s the possibility that a guard might enter. Guards usually make routine checks several times a day, open the doors to the maintenance section, look around, things like that. It's nothing we have to be concerned about. Normally. However, I assume that as we have disappeared right outside the prison, they might have put it on alert. I have no idea if they know where we are. The hatch door is still open. They could have seen it by now. And if they have, if they know that we're inside the prison, this will be a short stay in the maintenance section."

"We have to be quick." Aries puts on her socks and shoes, then touches the flat container around her neck that holds the RSC chip.

"I guess we can forget this," she says, holding it toward Ty, who is removing items from his shoulder bag.

"Not necessarily. Should be waterproof. But there's no way of finding out until we actually stand in front of a camera." Ty lines up the items that are left. "The flashlights are useless. I've got a screwdriver, a utility knife, multifunction tool, a roll of electrical tape that may or may not still be useful, a few cable ties and two power bars." He hands both bars to Aries.

"What about you?" she asks.

"I'm not hungry."

"Liar," she replies.

"You keep saying that."

They smile at each other.

"I'll keep it for later," Aries says, and slips the bars into a pocket.

Ty puts the screwdriver and knife in one pocket, the tape and cable ties in another.

"Hey, you never know where those cable ties might come in handy," Aries says.

"Are you making fun of an old man?"

"Not necessarily."

Ty nods, a smirk on his face, while looking around the room. Then his eyes meet Aries's. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Ty grabs the handle of the lock mechanism and pulls it down. The sound echoes through the small room. Far too loud for Aries's comfort. The door squeaks as Ty opens it, and they slip through into the dark hallway beyond.

* * *

A narrow hallway extends before them. They walk one behind the other trying to move as quietly as possible.

"We should come to a ladder, soon," Ty remarks.

"How many people are in the maintenance crew?"

"I don't remember. Ten, fifteen per shift. Possibly more. They are all guards, though."

"What do you mean?"

"The guards in the prison, about two hundred on any given day, were either recruited out of one of the corporate programs or maintenance personnel after their initial contract was up. They have to fit a certain personality profile and it doesn't matter where they come from, really. What matters is whether or not they fit into the basic-traits schematic of the Corporation’s definition of a prison guard."

"And what are those... basic traits?"

"Ruthless, highly motivated, physically fit, impervious to pain, things like that."

"Great. So, the guards are also responsible for maintenance?"

"Not all of the guards are in maintenance. But whoever does maintenance is always trained as a guard."

"Let's hope we won't run into either of them."

"There's a good chance we won't."

"What if we do?"

"I have no idea. I guess we'll have to think of something when it comes to it."

They reach a ladder that is built into a narrow shaft, going down. As they descend, Aries becomes aware of the pain in her chest where Ty performed CPR. She can't remember anything before the moment she opened her eyes and saw Ty trying to revive her. But what she remembers the most is the horrifying feeling that her breath would never come, as hard as Ty tried.

She concentrates on the ladder in front of her, tries to lock away the memory as much as she can. But there are others—images mostly—that relentlessly penetrate her mind. There is Kiire as he sits on his futon in his room, his thick, curly hair escaping from under the hood of his sweater, his face illuminated by the screen of his pad. There is Seth and his look of horror when she talked to him in the study room. And there is C.J. and her ever-smiling face as they worked together on their jobs when they shared their shifts.
I haven't forgotten you,
she thinks.
I haven't forgotten any of you.
And with that, she wishes she could be with them, see their faces, hear their voices and have them close by—

"Hold on," Ty whispers, and stops climbing. Preoccupied with her thoughts, Aries doesn't realize they are almost at the bottom. She stops, listens intently into the silence below her. Then Ty continues downward until he reaches the bottom. Aries steps off the ladder and onto the landing. Ty points into another hallway and they walk down and around a corner. There, they come to another ladder, this time only reaching down one floor. When they arrive at the bottom, Aries is the first to hear the low humming sound; it’s accompanied by a slight vibration. She gestures at Ty to listen.

"That's the fan of the primary air duct," he says.

They continue along another corridor. At the end of it, Ty kneels, takes out his multifunction tool, and begins to open the bolts around an air vent cover.

"We'll have to go through here and down the main air duct for about ten floors," he says quietly. "The remainder, maybe another five or so, will be on the other side of the core and closer to the guard's section."

"Ty, I just thought of something. We have no way of knowing when the next duct sterilizing will be."

"I know. I was thinking the same. We can only hope that the last cleaning just happened or the next one will be hours from now."

Aries realizes that there is no choice other than to either wait until the next cleaning is over or risk it now.
We made it this far...
she thinks, trying to push away the fear that lurks behind her thoughts.

Ty moves into the air duct; Aries follows. She can feel the breeze of air on her skin. The low humming sound increases with every foot of distance. At an intersection, they turn left and into a larger duct. Here, they can at least be on all fours. After about twenty feet, they come to another intersection. From here, they enter into what Aries assumes, based on its size, is one of the primary air ducts; they can easily stand up.