Читать книгу Shattered Roads - Alice Henderson - Страница 14

Chapter 8

She raced down the hall, hurrying to the end of the next corridor. She careened around that corner before the Repurposers saw her. A steel door at the end of the hall opened to a staircase. She slipped inside, taking the stairs two at a time, heading down to the next floor. She was sure they’d cover the exits to the building. She had to think of something else.

She went down three floors, then opened the stairwell door and stepped into a quiet corridor. Maybe they’d expect her to rush toward the exit on the ground floor.

Emerging quietly into the new hallway, she glanced in both directions. It was empty. She knew they had to have an incinerator on one of the nearby floors. Most residential buildings had one on every other floor, and she had to hope this building was no different. She chose to run to the left, but a few feet down the corridor, she saw that it ended at another stairwell.

She bolted in the opposite direction, tearing past the stairwell door she’d come from. No incinerator in that direction either. She doubled back, slipping through the door and descending to the next floor.

Cautiously, she opened that door and stepped into another quiet hallway. A line of residential doors greeted her in both directions. She chose to run to the right. She was relieved to see an incinerator door at the end.

She raced toward it, hoping she could crawl inside the shaft, climb down to the incinerator room, and get out through some basement egress. Most basements had ancient, forgotten openings. She’d used them plenty of times in buildings when different theta wave receivers had been on the fritz, which had happened more times than she could count.

When she got to the incinerator, she slid to a halt in front of the TWR. She closed her eyes, concentrating, sending the thought for the incinerator to open. It didn’t. She heard it whirring and clicking on, listening to her, but it wouldn’t obey her commands. She tried again, with no result. She opened her eyes, muttering a curse. Of course she didn’t have access here in the PPC tower. They probably had a select few workers who could move around the building. The usual commands were not going to work.

She had to try a work-around. Glancing back down the hallway, she found it empty. She closed her eyes again, sending the incinerator a conflicting message. She told it to open and close at the same time, to begin and end incineration simultaneously. It whirred and clicked, and she smelled an electrical fire.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her multitool and flicked open a blade. She pried off the plate covering the TWR. Flames smoldered inside, so she blew them out. The incinerator door lock disengaged. Then she replaced the cover, making it look just the way it had before she’d hacked it.

She slid inside the incinerator, pulling the door shut just as she heard the stairwell door bang open around the corner. She froze, barely breathing inside the tight confines. With the TWR fried, she hoped it wouldn’t malfunction and switch on suddenly. Outside, footsteps ran in the opposite direction. She used the time to switch on her headlamp. The shaft led straight down to the ash collection area in the basement. She shinnied along the warm metal, past the body disposal area and into the narrow shaft that the ashes blew through.

She stopped when she heard the footsteps double back and head nearer. She switched off her light, holding her breath in the dark. The shaft was unbearably hot. Beads of sweat ran down her back.

“Anything?” a voice yelled.

“Negative, sir,” said a man so close to the incinerator door that she opened her eyes wide in the dark and hoped with everything in her that he would move away. “This hallway is clear!”

The footsteps ran back. She heard the stairwell door thunk open, then swing closed again with a clank.

She switched her light back on, chasing away the darkness. She shinnied to the edge of the shaft, peering down into the abyss. Her headlamp couldn’t penetrate it.

Carefully she swung her legs over the edge, then lowered herself into the vertical shaft. She braced her back against one wall, her feet on the opposite, and began crawling down.

Steadily she worked her way to one floor, then another. She was down five floors when she heard an incinerator door open somewhere above her. Light flashed inside the shaft.

“She must have gotten into one of these,” a voice barked. “Send a man up and a man down.”

She froze. She was trapped. In the shaft above her she saw a headlamp flashing, and the metallic thudding of someone crawling in after her. She rushed down to the next floor and climbed into its corpse deposit area. Switching off her light, she lay on her stomach in front of the door and quietly lifted it up, grateful for the fail-safe built into the incinerators that allowed them to be opened manually from the inside in case someone got trapped. This floor was dim and quiet, another residential floor.

She slid out, shutting the door behind her and gazing around in horror. Where could she go now?

Suddenly the PRD the producer had given her vibrated in her pocket.

She jerked it out, bringing up the floating display. His face hovered above the device. “I’m unlocking a door for you,” he whispered, his face close to the camera. “I can see where you are through my PRD.”

The door to her right clicked, and its biometric scanner glowed green. She heard footsteps, and the stairwell door on her floor banged open. She had one second to decide.

She glanced back at the incinerator door, then turned and fled through the unlocked unit. The door whooshed shut behind her, locking just as the men turned down the hallway and ran to the incinerator door.

“Climb inside! She’s not down to the basement yet, so she’s got to be between these floors.”

She peered through the view porthole, seeing two men lift open the incinerator door and crawl inside. As they slipped out of sight, she turned slowly. The living pod was dark. She saw no glow from a visual display, heard no hint of movement from an occupant.

Willoughby flashed back on the display. “Most people are sleeping right now. Try to be as quiet as possible. I’m going to get you out of this building.”

“Why are you helping me?” she whispered.

“I believe your story. We’ve got to get the word out somehow, and that doesn’t involve your brain getting . . .”

“My brain getting . . . ?”

He didn’t answer her. After a moment of silence, he said, “Listen. We won’t know how to stop that asteroid here. But there are others who might.”

“What others?”

“We call them the Rovers. I’ve heard stories that they continued to learn, that their knowledge of science hasn’t dwindled.”

“Where are they?”

He frowned. “That’s the challenge. No one knows. Though I might be able to find a lead. But . . .”

“What?” she whispered.

“They’re not inside the city.”

She gaped. How could anyone not be inside the city?

“I’ll explain more later. When you get out of the city, just head west. Far west.”

She shook her head. “When I get out of the city?” She didn’t know it was possible to leave New Atlantic and live. She’d never known anyone who had, only rumors of people dying as soon as they left.

“For now, we have to get you out of the building.” On the floating display, he looked around his office, peering nervously toward the door. He turned back to look at her. “Okay. There’s an airshaft that goes from the computer server room straight out to the exterior of the building. I think that’s your best bet.”

“Where is the computer server room?” she whispered.

“It’s on the third floor. I can unlock the door for you when you get there. It’s got a high encryption on it, and they won’t assume you have the time to crack it. Hopefully they won’t look there until after you’re long gone and they’ve checked everywhere else.”

A map flashed up on her display, with an arrow pointing down the hall toward the stairs.

“But you’re going to have to navigate the stairs on your own. I can’t help you there.”

H124 took a deep breath. Her hand shook as she held the PRD. She was on the fifth floor. Two floors down felt as far away as another world. And security was crawling all over the hallways.

Everything in her rebelled against the thought of going back out there. She wanted to stay here in the darkness. To run out there felt like running into a fire.

“I might be able to buy you a little time,” he said. “Draw them away.”

She gripped her PRD. “Please.”

It was a simple word, and one she’d never had the occasion to use before.

“Okay. Get ready to run,” he told her. Then she heard his voice over the PRD. “Quick! Security! She’s come back to my office! Hurry!”

H124 opened the living pod door and peered out. The hallway was clear. She could hear shouts through his PRD as the security team returned to his office. She could also hear them clambering in the incinerator vents.

She muted her PRD and ran, pausing at the door leading to the stairwell. She heard men running up the stairs. “Get up to the fifteenth floor!” one of the men shouted. They passed her floor and kept going.

She slipped inside the stairwell, then leaned over the railing and listened. She could hear the men above her, but no one below. She took the chance and raced down the stairs, leaning heavily on the railing so she could jump down several stairs at once. She reached the landing of the fourth floor, then stopped to peer over the railing again. Above her, security teams shouted and ran, but below her it was still quiet.

At the door to the third floor, she stopped, pressing an ear to the metal. The hallway beyond sounded quiet. She opened the door and slid inside. The arrow floating above her PRD pointed left. She followed it, arriving at a nondescript steel door with a biometric scanner glowing red. When it turned green she slipped inside. The dimly lit room was so cold that her breath frosted in the air. A large air-conditioning unit labored along one wall. Huge servers covered the floor of the colossal room. She followed the vents for the air conditioner along the ceiling until she saw an open access hatch.

And then her heart sank. It was too high up on the wall. She couldn’t reach it. She hurried around the room, looking for anything she could drag over to the access door to stand on.

She was eyeing a large metal bin over in one corner when she heard movement outside the door. She pressed against one wall, out of sight. The door slid open, and someone entered. She slid along the shadows to a nearby bank of servers and hid between two rows of blinking machines. The door hissed shut, and moments later she heard more footsteps rushing past. They didn’t stop at the server room.

The person moved into the center of the room. She froze, not even daring to breathe. His shadow fell across the floor, moving along the bank of servers on the opposite side of where she hid. When he passed by a rack that separated them, she caught a familiar scent of exotic spices. She looked again at the shadow. It had spiky hair.

He rounded the corner, and she moved quietly to the next row. She caught the briefest glimpse of him between two server banks. It was Rowan.

She stepped out of the shadows, feeling her whole body shaking with adrenaline. “Rowan?”

He spun around, eyes fixed on her. Disbelief swept over his face. “What are you doing here?”

“Trying to get out,” she told him.

He looked grim. “Me too. It’s not going very well.” He patted the satchel slung over one shoulder. “But I have what I came for.”

“You risked your life to steal something?”

“It’s a game changer, believe me.”

An alarm suddenly erupted in the room, a deafening, high-pitched klaxon. A red flashing light swept through the shadows.

“I think they know we’re here.” He turned to her with the hint of a smile. “You know, if I’d known we were going to infiltrate the same building, I’d have suggested we team up.”

The footsteps in the corridor returned. They were running out of time.

“We need to get out of here!” she whispered. “This way!” Together they hurried back to the vent opening. “It’s too high,” she said. “We need something to stand on.”

“Give me a boost,” he told her, “and I’ll pull you up.”

She bent her knee. He placed one sprightly boot on her thigh, jumped up to the opening, and hung there for an instant. Then he pulled himself up and out of sight.

She waited for a tense moment as she heard movement in the vent. Was he leaving her?

Then his head popped out above her. He lowered his arms. “Okay! Grab on!”

She reached up, closing her hands around his wrists. He lifted her up almost effortlessly, backing up inside the vent until her belly lay on the cold metal.

Now he pivoted again in the confines of the shaft and started crawling out. She checked her PRD to make sure they were headed in the right direction. They came to several T’s in the ductwork, and always Rowan chose the same one Willoughby had indicated. She got the distinct feeling he’d broken in here before.

They took a few more turns in the tunnels, crawling on their elbows and knees. Only one more and they’d be out.

When they turned the last corner, she could see the orange glow of the night sky through holes in a vent cover. Rowan reached it and pounded on it with his fist, sending it flying outward. “Almost home free,” he said.

She heard something hiss through the air. A plastic net flew into the opening of the vent and gripped Rowan, cinching tightly around his torso. He thrashed as it suctioned to the shape of his body. Arms pinned, he bucked around, smashing the sides of the vent.

Then something started pulling him out into the street. She grabbed his legs, planting her weight on him. But the pull was too strong. “Hold on!” she told him, but a second later his feet slipped through her fingers, and he flew from the vent. She heard him hit something twice. All went quiet.

She shinnied to the edge of the vent, careful to stay out of sight. Below she saw him lying in an alley among heaps of trash. The white fibrous net covered him from head to waist, attached to a cable. Two Repurposers held the other end, hurrying to where Rowan lay prone. They’d been three floors up.

She saw now what he’d hit first. A ledge protruded from a second-story window; his body had crashed through it. Broken masonry lay scattered about the alley. She peered through the hole he’d made on his way down. Though he might have broken bones, the ledge had probably slowed his fall and saved his life.

As they approached him, they didn’t notice her. Maybe he’d used this escape route before, and they had been waiting for him.

The shorter one bent over his body.

The other Repurposer stood, pale and gaunt. She recognized him as the one Rowan had kicked in the nose earlier that night. Crusted blood covered his upper lip and mouth. “Does he have anything on him?” Broken Nose asked his colleague.

The short one patted Rowan down. Rowan wasn’t moving. She saw wet crimson pooling beneath his head. “We’ll have to cut the net. It’s too tight.”

Broken Nose pressed a button on his utility belt. The net retracted back into a tiny holster on his hip.

Still Rowan didn’t move.

They started patting him down again, searching his pockets. His satchel still hung around his torso. Whatever he’d stolen, it must be important, and it was in that bag. She had to do something. She had no doubt that once they’d taken everything off him, they’d kill him. Or worse.

Rowan groaned, rolling over on his side. He pushed their hands away weakly.

“He doesn’t have a head jack.”

“Then you know what to do,” Broken Nose answered. “He can’t be allowed to enter the city again.”

While they bent over him, searching through his clothes, H124 quietly pivoted inside the narrow confines of the vent. She swung her legs over the edge, out into the open air. Her body flooded with adrenaline. Right now she was vulnerable, her legs swinging down into open space. If they happened to look up, they’d see her.

Lowering herself to hang from her fingertips, she gazed down to the ledge below. She aimed her feet for the unbroken section, then let go.

With a thud she landed squarely on the ledge, out of sight.

“What was that?” she heard the short one ask.

“There’s someone up there.”

“Get your gun.”

The window next to the ledge was bricked up, a long time ago from the look of it. Her only way out was down. She knew the Repurposers stood right beneath her. Bracing herself, she leaped down through the hole to the alley below.