Smooth metal plates beneath her radiated warmth. She’d expected cold, and relaxed a touch at the pleasant sensation. Legacy took her hand and walked along the trench, ducking higher pipes and stepping over others closer to the ground. She crawled under a few he had to climb over, but stopped short at a pipe taller than her. Kiera jumped up and grabbed at it, but couldn’t get a grip and slid down the featureless metal. Legacy took hold of a catwalk along the top and pulled himself up before reaching down to lift her as well.
She got her feet under her, clutched a thin railing at the side of the walkway, and gazed around, squinting at the mess of tubes. “What are all these pipes for?”
“For when this becomes a river.”
Kiera looked up past the crisscross of thinner pipes overhead at the sky. How much of the cloud dome would the machine reclaim for water? She turned to gaze forward when he dropped to the ground on the far side of the mammoth pipe. He reached up for her, so she sat on the edge, extended her legs, and slid into his arms. After setting her standing beside him, he rushed onward. Trying not to think about her lack of plan for once she got inside, she hurried to keep up.
Pet burst out of the satchel and zipped up to Kiera’s ear. “Run! There are robots approaching!”
She tugged on Legacy’s arm. When he looked at her, she pointed back and yelled, “Robots!”
A legion of green hexagon eyes appeared behind them amid the darkened maze of pipes, far enough back not to cause instant terror, but her knees still lost strength for a second. Legacy, no trace of surprise on his face, calmly grasped her by the shoulders and pulled her behind him.
“Go. Run. You must find the hatch marked zero-eight-four. The word A04DBBF2 will open it.” Legacy placed his hand against her cheek, his smile sad. “I have fulfilled my purpose in life, but only if you succeed. Be quick.”
“What? No!” She pulled on his arm, feet sliding on the metal. “You run too!”
“I cannot go inside with you. I suspected where this road would take me.” He pulled out his gun and a handful of extra magazines. “I will stop the robots from finding you. Do not waste the time I give you now.”
Kiera backed up a step, shaking her head while grabbing the laser pistol from the satchel. “We can take them.”
“I’m reading forty-three units approaching,” said Pet. “Please, Kiera… do what he’s asking.”
She aimed the laser with both hands at the androids marching closer and closer, unable to find a clear shot past all the pipes. This man asked her to let him die. “I can’t… You’re like my grandpa. Please don’t do this.”
Legacy took cover on one knee behind a fat vertical pipe that bent at an elbow six feet off the ground and went left into the wall. “Child of Earth, you cannot allow yourself to be taken. The entire world depends on you. Do not waste this time I give you.” He leaned out and fired.
A flash of orange and a loud rapport made her jump. Kiera kept backing up. He fired twice more, one shot triggering a burst of sparks and a loud, buzzing artificial scream. A flaming hole appeared on Legacy’s back. Blood oozed down his skin. He gurgled, but kept firing.
“Go!” roared Legacy. “I am already dead.”
Kiera, eyes blurred with tears, shot the one she thought wounded him, sending it to the ground in a shower of electrical arcs.
“They don’t know who you are,” said Pet. “They are reacting to people in this restricted area. You must flee before they recognize you, or your parents are in big trouble!”
“Go!” Legacy swooned to his knees, firing off the remainder of his magazine in a rapid barrage. Each shot slammed painfully into her ears in the metal canyon. He reloaded, suffering another laser hole to the left shoulder that made him roar in pain. “Please, child, run!”
Kiera stared at the army of androids, hating every single one of them for this… as well as taking her parents. She clicked the laser’s trigger a few more times before a pipe near her head hissed and glowed orange. With a sharp scream, she ducked and sprinted away, the flash and thunder of Legacy’s gunfire continuing behind her.
“Follow!” shouted Pet, rocketing off among the pipes, diving and dipping, slaloming left and right.
Barely able to see past tears, Kiera scrambled to chase the glowing blue light ball. She glanced back for a second. Legacy hadn’t gone down yet. His desperate attack stalled the androids within a few yards from where he’d camped.
“Kiera!” Pet zigzagged in midair while shouting.
Sobbing, she ran on, leaping a series of low-lying pipes one after the next where they crossed her path like giant guitar strings. After ducking under another big tube, she spotted Pet hovering by the inner wall, and another ladder.
She leapt onto it, climbing as fast as her weary limbs would move. Gunfire in the distance slowed, but continued. He’s running out of bullets, aiming carefully. Please run away. The ladder led up to a narrow catwalk a few feet past where the wall angled away to form the side of the pyramid. Smooth silicon-grey metal plates went as far as she could see to both sides, bathed in the electric green light from above. The upper third of the structure shimmered like a great emerald, reflecting the cataclysm swirling in the air.
Pet darted to the left, jamming to an abrupt midair halt a short distance later. She ran to the spot, peering at the floating cube. It hovered near a square outline on the wall bearing the number 084. Kiera examined what she assumed to be a hatch, and reached with shaking hands for a small protective cover nearby. Tugging it open revealed a laptop-sized keyboard.
“Crap… what’s the….”
“A04DBBF2,” said Pet.
“Again, slower.”
She typed each digit as Pet read it off.
The square plate hissed, extended out a few inches, and slid upward, flush against the side of the Citadel. A dark shaft awaited, tall enough for her to crawl on her hands and knees. She crouched by the opening, glancing toward Legacy.
Pop… Pop, pop. Orange flashes accompanied each shot.
“Go tell him to run,” yelled Kiera.
Pet nuzzled against her cheek. “He won’t.”
She bowed her head in grief.
Pop.
She waited. Silence. No more shots.
Pet made a sad warble. “They’re com―”
“I know!” she cry-shouted. After biting back a sob, she scurried in, Pet zooming over her shoulder.
The hatch motored down, closed with a clank, and slid inward to seal again. She clutched her arms around her legs, too terrified to breathe lest the robots hear it. Seconds of quiet passed before the clatter of plastic and metal feet tromped by outside. Once they marched too far away to hear anymore, she squeezed herself into a ball and wept in silence.
32
Nobody Home
Crippled with grief, Kiera cried, face against her knees, hair draped down her legs covering her feet. Her body shook with sorrowful sobs she failed to hold back, though managed to keep quiet. Moments later, sadness shifted to being angry with herself for running and not fighting beside Legacy. I’ve got a laser, dammit! We could have won. Once the storm of emotion lessened, she sniffled, astounded at how faint the Citadel’s machine rumble was inside the passage. Even the roar of the storm had become an almost undetectable background presence. Pet pressed itself against her shoulder, nudging like a cat that wanted attention.
She straightened, letting Pet fly into her hands. “Why did he do that? We should have run.”
“He knew going into the trench would likely set off an alarm.”
Kiera sniffled. “He knew he’d die?”
“He did not desire to die, but he did know it would be likely.”
“I hate those robots.” She thought about the damaged one she’d found, how friendly it had been, but now, she wanted to smash them all. “This is so stupid!”
“I’m sorry. You cared for him. He would not want you to give up and waste what he did for you, for the whole world.”
Kiera squirmed out of the ponc
ho and rolled it up into a log. “He was crazy. There’s no magic voice talking to him. I’m not a Child of Earth or whatever he thinks… I’m just a kid.”
“You need to believe in yourself, Kiera. Great explosions are set off by tiny sparks.”
She sighed, staring at the roll of black furry leather in her lap. “I guess… I’m already in here, but I don’t want to set off any explosions.”
Kiera pulled the clothing she’d made at the fabricator out of her satchel, then stuffed the poncho in the bag. She squirmed around, getting dressed in cramped passage with only Pet’s thruster light to see by. Once she’d finished putting the modern outfit on, she pulled the satchel onto her back and crawled along the shaft. Pet glided past her, blue glow illuminating walls of black metal. A little ways in, the plain walls had dozens of small hatches. She opened one, peeking at racks of circuit boards and wire bundles. Curiosity satisfied, she closed it and moved on.
“Where does this go?”
“Into the Citadel,” said Pet.
“I know that. I mean what am I looking for?” She stopped to wipe tears, still blaming herself for Legacy’s death.
“I am not sure. The most likely scenario is that you make contact with someone who does not like the administrator, and they will be able to help.”
“Great,” she mumbled.
Minutes later, she reached a chamber at the end of the tunnel that contained a short ladder, also black, but with rubber coating. Six rungs up, she stepped into a small room with two lockers and a featureless metal door without window or knob. More so than the fabricator bunker, this place made her feel like she’d stowed away on a space ship. Wow… this is more like I’m in 2090-whatever. She crept up to the door and stared at a dark panel to the right.
“Well, it’s worked every other time.” She waved her hand at it.
The door slid open.
Kiera crept out from the little locker room into an office full of glowing holographic screens. Two men and a woman in larger versions of her outfit sat in plain blue chairs, their backs turned, absorbed in the contents of their workstations. Pie charts, bar graphs, and status monitors filled every display. Everyone wore garments the same shade of blue, the shirts clingy, the pants baggy.
Back through the time machine I guess, only I’ve gone into the future now. Probably shouldn’t be seen in here. Kiera stashed the laser pistol in the satchel and crept to the right toward the room’s only door. She hid behind a desk, peeked to make sure the people hadn’t looked back, crawled to another desk, and waited. Seconds later, she got the courage up to peer over the top again. None of the workers seemed aware of her presence. She exhaled with relief and tiptoed over to the door. This one had a mechanical handle, which she opened. I am silent as a ninja. Kiera slipped into a corridor and eased the door shut behind her. Both directions had multiple doors and neither one gave off any clear sense of which way led ‘out.’
At random, she went left, walking quick and quiet, gazing sideways here and there at windows into offices, conference rooms, and another large room with similar workstations as the first one she emerged in. A constant electronic hum filled the air, like hundreds of computers working hard.
Ahead, the corridor cornered to the right. She stopped by the wall and peeked around. A few fake plants and some black chairs broke the emptiness of the otherwise plain metal décor. In front of her lay more offices, an elevator, and a left turn far off, maybe a hundred yards. Kiera gulped. I’d give anything to be hiding behind a dune again, trying to be brave enough to streak Exxo. I want my parents! Please let me go back. I swear I won’t touch the cursed ruin.
One minute and no miracles later, she sighed in frustration and slipped around the corner. Clinging to the satchel strap, she walked at as normal a pace as she could make her body go. Running would attract attention and creeping, well, creeping would take too long to get out of here. Maybe if she behaved as though she belonged here, she could get wherever she needed to be without being captured.
“Who are you?” asked a man behind her.
Kiera clenched her jaw not to scream. She played it casual, continuing to walk while glancing back over her shoulder.
“Hey kid….”
Crap. Well it didn’t take me long to get busted. She stopped and turned around. “Hi.”
The man, middle twenties with short, brown hair, folded his arms and stared down at her. “Who are you and what are you doing in here? Did someone bring their kid to the office? It’s against regulations. This is a restricted area.”
“No. I’m sorry. I’m not from this floor. I went down the wrong hallway and I got lost. I’m Ashleigh Martin.”
“Hmm. I can’t think of any ‘Martin’ working here.” He grabbed her left wrist. “I can’t let you walk around in here unescorted.”
She shivered. “Please don’t tell my parents. I’ll get in so much trouble. I just got off being grounded. Please!”
He sighed. “Maybe I can cut you a break and not report this, but only because I don’t want to deal with the mountain of paperwork it would cause to report. Did you touch anything in here?”
“Only doorknobs. I’ve been trying to find the way out. I haven’t gone into any rooms at all, just peeked looking for the way out.”
The man grumbled, shook his head, and dragged her off down the hall. He didn’t squeeze her wrist or yank her arm too hard, so she tolerated it as he followed the corridor to the end, rounded the leftward corner, and took a right turn a short distance later at a T. They passed a set of sliding, glass double doors and hurried down a white corridor into a room with rows of shelves and plain beige storage crates. The far end had a rolling garage door big enough to accept the rear end of a truck. Her escort approached a smaller door beside it and swiped his hand at its panel, opening it.
She peered out at a glimmering street full of blue-clad people, electric cars, storefronts, and a metal ceiling instead of sky. The vastness and oddity of it caused a momentary hesitation in her step. Other than the steel overhead, it looked like a street in the downtown of a city. The man let go of her arm and prodded her in the back.
“Sorry kid. I’d leave you at the front desk, but the lobby people would get security involved because some kid randomly walked into a place kids aren’t supposed to be able to randomly walk into. Again, I don’t want to deal with the paperwork.” He tugged her around to face him and put a finger under her chin, lifting it.
Crap. He knows who I am. I’m dead.
He chuckled, lowering his hand. “You look about ready to wet yourself. Calm down, kid. I don’t think you were up to anything in there. No one can fake that kinda face. You in trouble or anything, want me to call the police?”
“No thanks. I’m okay. Just lost and terrified of getting grounded.” Tribals wouldn’t say ‘grounded.’ Please don’t be suspicious.
The man nudged her out the door and closed it.
Kiera stood staring at it for over a minute, too stunned to move.
“The Sky Spirits favor you,” said Pet from inside the satchel.
“If I get Mom and Dad out of here, I’ll start believing in them.” She backed away from the door and faced the street.
The road sat a few inches lower than the sidewalk, also metal but covered in a spray-on coating of rubber flecks that turned it black. Most everything else including the walls, ceiling, and fronts of buildings were the same shade of unpainted steel. Holographic signs advertised coffee, clothing shops, restaurants, and some electronics stores. Her hopes leapt for an instant before she remembered she had no ‘numbers,’ as her adopted village called them.
At once, this place felt both like the world she’d left behind as well as a distant future she shouldn’t have lived long enough to see, comforting and alien all at once. A few people zipped by on Segway-like devices, their faces deep in small holographic screens projected from wristbands. Since they didn’t look at all where they were going, she assumed their wheeled platforms either had autopilot, or they drove us
ing an app, which of course, would be completely stupid. Why stare at a little screen showing you where you went when they could simply look up.
She jumped back with a yelp when a scooter rider whooshed by, but the woman swerved around the spot where Kiera had been. Pressed against the building, she glared at the careless rider, who continued zipping among pedestrians, none of whom reacted.
Crap. If I keep jumping like that, someone will know I don’t belong here.
Kiera looked left and right a few times before heading to the right at a jog. She wanted to get off the street, find somewhere less obvious she could spend a few minutes thinking about where to go. A crowd gathered at the corner, waiting for the traffic signal to change. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she bit back her impatience and remained among the people, hoping no one questioned her battered canvas satchel. She scrunched her eyebrows in disbelief at how everyone wore the same clothing. Clingy blue shirts, loose blue pants, and black sneakers.
Glowing balls of light hovering over the road changed to green, and the crowd crossed as one. She shuffled along, eyeing buildings and side streets, stores, more offices, and two medical places: one dentist and a ‘cosmetic consultant.’
Five blocks from the door she’d been unceremoniously kicked out of, she skidded to a halt when a pair of security robots midway down the next section of city made eye-to-hexagon contact. She pulled an abrupt right turn and walked fast.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
As soon as the corner building across the street broke line of sight with the robots, she ran. The passage she’d ducked into appeared to be an alley lined with a handful of unlabeled plain doors. She hurried to the end where the narrow passage bent to the right, and slipped around, back against the wall. Kiera peeked past the corner, emitting a squeak of alarm when the pair of robots entered the other end.
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence Page 31