The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (34 page)

Not far,
the hawk answers.
I'll lead the way.
She lifts off again and flies into one of the tunnels.

Aries counts ten, including herself. Ty and Tevis walk together. Their growing support for each other is heartwarming. Max, who walks beside Aries, smiles at her.

Why are you smiling?
Aries asks.

I smile because of you.

Mila turns around and looks at them, a big grin on her face.

"How come you can hear what we are thinking?" Aries asks.

She shrugs her shoulders and turns around again. Mila, Jeremiah, and Amber walk together. So far as Aries can understand them, Amber and Jeremiah are discussing the geometrical patterns of the crescent-moon-shaped objects. Seth and Sam seem to have taken a liking to each other as well. Sam, from the moment Aries had first seen him, has felt like a big brother to her. Someone she could trust completely.
Seth can use an older brother, for sure,
she thinks.
We all can.

C.J. walks on the other side of Aries. She can't help but be in awe of her. She always seemed a little like a doll—fragile and beautiful. The work in Electrical had been rough at times, but despite her delicate exterior she had always proven more resilient than Aries had expected. You can never judge anyone by how they appear, she realizes. You never know what powers sleep inside, that simply need to be awakened. Someone's strength can be hidden behind weakness sometimes. Just like love might be covered up by fear.

Aries lets her thoughts pass through her without holding on to any individual one. The fragile bond she begins to feel with the others is at once strange and comforting. They met less than a day ago and yet she feels whatever it is that connects them is stronger than anything she has experienced before. Sam and Seth, who are walking ahead of everyone else, stop. From here, the tunnel begins to slope downward.

Born-of-Night, where are you?

Ahead,
she answers.
I can hear you.

The tunnel walls emit a low glow, illuminating everyone in a soft, slightly surreal light. After about three hundred feet, the tunnel levels out again and they see the opening at the end. When they reach it they stop and stand there, looking at what lies before them: a circular, vertical shaft of immense proportions. Easily one hundred and fifty feet across. The walls, made from the same material as the tube, lead straight up. So far, in fact, that the ceiling is invisible.

Below them, about fifteen feet or so, a massive steel construction is built into the rock. There is a small walkway along the wall, following it in a circular fashion. The crescent-moon-shaped objects that are arranged in a circle are actually plates, spanning the distance and filling the opening completely. To their left, metal stairs, built into the wall, lead upward in an immense spiral.

"Does anybody know what this is?" Aries asks. Something about it seems familiar but it escapes her whenever she tries to remember it. Most of them shake their heads.

"A shutter. Like in a mechanical camera lens," Ty says. "I've seen a couple of those when I was in my twenties. But they were only a few inches in diameter."

I don't know what it is but I think I know where we are,
Max thinks.

"Where?" Aries asks.

We are right below Tier Zero. The center of the building. Only much deeper.

Aries and Ty exchange a glance. Aries repeats what she’s just heard.

"Now I know what it reminds me of," she continues. "The distance from here to the other side is the same distance as the opening in the core. The large space in the center of the building is the same size, I'm pretty sure."

"I think you're right," Ty answers.

"But what could possibly be its purpose?" Aries asks.

"I have no clue," Ty replies.

"Maybe light?" C.J. suggests.

"Can we walk on it?" Seth asks.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Aries says.

"I think we should check it out," Seth replies. "It looks sturdy."

When nobody objects, Seth climbs down the ladder to the outer ring of the structure. Jeremiah begins to climb down as well. "I have to s-see this," he says.

One by one, they all climb down and move onto the narrow walkway surrounding the shutter. To the right, there is an opening in the floor, with stairs leading further down. Aries can't see past the first steps so she decides to investigate it later. Seth steps without hesitation onto the shutter plates. Aries breathes in sharply, expecting the whole thing to open and send Seth falling to his death. But nothing happens. Amber steps onto the plates as well. With the two of them on there, the structure looks even more imposing.

There is another one, further up.
Aries hears Born-of-Night.

She closes her eyes for a second. Through the hawk's eyes she sees the group far below.

"There isn't even dust on them," Ty says, as he kneels down to take a closer look. “It's made of steel but has some kind of coating on it. And the plates are very thick, judging by the feel of it."

Aries walks to the other side, staying on the walkway rather than moving straight across the plates. When she gets there, she turns around. The others are dwarfed by the immense size of it.

This must have been man-made,
Max thinks.
Not only the structure but the opening itself. I'm almost certain that if we were to measure the distances, this would be an exact circle.

"Look down here." Mila's voice echoes across the space. "The steps leading down are the same as the ones leading up."

Born-of-Night swoops down and lands on Aries’s shoulder.

There is an identical structure far below as well,
Aries hears her think.

How far down, do you think?

Thirty, maybe forty stories,
the hawk replies.
The stairs look solid.

When Aries arrives at the opening, the others have gathered around it.

"Any suggestions?" Aries asks.

"We're here now," Seth says. "We could go down and see what's there. Unless you want to go back up."

"What about Kiire?" Aries replies. "The further down we go, the further away we are from his location."

Seth looks down. Aries realizes at this moment that Seth has hidden his concern for Kiire.

"Seth, we couldn't have gotten him out. We saved you because we could. Trying to get Kiire would have gotten us all caught."

"I know. I know," he says.

But his eyes belie his words and Aries can see the pain in them. "I should be in there and Kiire should be free," is what they seem to say.

"Maybe there's another way up from down there," Ty says. "I don't think we have a choice."

"Keep him in your thoughts," Tevis says into the silence. "For now. Until there is more we can do for him."

Aries looks at the others.

"Kiire Understaad," she says quietly.

"Kiire Understaad," Mila says next to her.

"Kiire Understaad," Seth repeats.

They all say Kiire's name. For Aries, this is promise and vow alike—their declaration to keep their friend close in their thoughts.

"Let's do this," Sam says, his deep voice echoing through the space. Mila is the first to disappear into the opening. Aries is next. The stairs are made of individual steel platforms built straight into the rock. There is no railing. Whoever built this didn't bother. Before them, the stairs lead downward in a spiral until far below they reach another platform, similar to this one.

You can do it,
Max's thoughts reach her.
I'll be right behind you.

Aries looks at him briefly. Her right hand finds the wall. It seems impossible, at that moment, to take another step. The sense of being suspended high above the ground, with nothing in between her and the abyss below except a piece of steel that may or may not even hold her, is overwhelming.

You'll get used to it,
Max thinks.

I doubt that very much
.

As she takes a few more steps she realizes that if she concentrates on the stairs and only looks straight down toward her feet, the individual platforms make a seemingly uninterrupted stairway. Much better. It's far from comfortable but she doesn't have the feeling anymore that she will get sick at any moment. The others don't seem to be bothered by the height at all.

"Hold on a second," Ty says, and looks up at the underside of the platform. The half-moon-shaped individual shutters look the same. "The mechanism must be inside the wall somehow. There isn't enough space under the walkway to take the panels."

From here the construction looks even more imposing. What would be the reason for its existence in the first place? When they continue, Aries tries to calculate in her head how long it will take to complete one full circle. She could probably just look down to see where the steps end up but as she has decided not to do that, she has to figure it out another way.

"Jeremiah, can I ask you something?" she asks. Jeremiah walks in front of Amber who is just in front of her.

"Sure," he answers. "If y-you want to know how l-l-long it will t-t-take us to get down there, I can tell you."

"That was my question, yes," Aries says. Amber looks up at her, smiling.

"One hundred and fifty feet across gives it a circ-c-cumference of four hundred and seventy one f-feet. If each step is about ten inches ap-p-part, we'll cover about three hundred and fifty f-f-feet of height with one evolution. That should bring us down to the next p-p-platform. Should be less than ten minutes.”

"Wow, really? That fast?" she says, but a few moments later she has already regretted her statement. Ten minutes can seem long and for Aries, those ten minutes might as well have been ten hours. On the one hand, after a certain routine has set in, it's easier to take one step after another. On the other hand, concentrating only on one spot before her makes everything around her slowly start to spin. Several times she has to ask the others to wait awhile, and after the second time she begins to feel silly.

At one time, she is convinced that she can't possibly take another step without slipping and falling to her death. When they are halfway down, Tevis asks for a break. Aries, glad to not have to walk any further for the moment, also realizes that staying on the stairs for any prolonged period is not helping her at all.

"Look at this," Ty says, when they stop at a set of thick, vertical pipes.

"What do you think?" Aries asks, mostly to distract herself.

"Power lines. I've never seen big ones like that, though."

"Power lines?" Aries repeats. "For what?"

"I have no idea—"

They all hear it at once: a rhythmic metallic pounding coming from far above the platform. The sound is distant at first but slowly increases in volume.

"What could this be?" C.J. asks.

Max and Aries exchange a glance, each seeing in the other’s face what they fear. Born-of-Night is on her way up and slips through the opening above.

Be careful,
Aries thinks. When she stops and looks through the hawk's eyes, Aries sees them. They are about halfway down the stairs above the platform. Their rhythmic, synchronized movements echo eerily through the space. The black uniforms make them almost invisible against the dark walls. There must be one on each step and more seem to keep coming through the opening high up.

"Androids," she says to the others. "They are about halfway down to the platform."

"How many?" Ty asks.

"I can't tell. At least three hundred but more are coming." Fear grips Aries's throat. They are far too exposed and vulnerable on the stairs, two hundred feet above the ground. If anybody fell, it would be a disaster. She concentrates on Amber's head in front of her; she seems to be repeating a sentence in her language, over and over. Aries can't understand it but doesn't want to interrupt her out of fear of her stumbling.

The platform below seems identical to the one above, except that instead of an opening leading further down, there sits a large transformer unit. The power lines lead straight into it. On the opposite side of where they are, two tunnels—similar to the one they came from—lead into the darkness. They begin about fifteen feet above the platform. A narrow ladder leads up to either one. Born-of-Night swoops down and flies into the left tunnel.

I'll see where it leads.
The hawk’s thoughts reach Aries.

When they are fifty feet above the ground, the first of the androids passes through the opening above them.

I hope their rifles don't reach that far,
Max thinks.

The rhythmic sound gets louder and louder, like an unyielding force of destruction that descends upon them.