"A newt who detests her," Ignacio said. "Trust me. Rachel is nearby."
"Your pet hates your date. Not good," Damien muttered as he examined the wall.
"Not a pet. He'll be transferred to a breeding program once his isolation period is finished," Ignacio automatically corrected. "Any idea what is on the other side of this wall or how to get there?"
"There used to be a door here," Arthur said, studying the same wall.
"I'm getting the same sensation. Why would it move now?" Damien demanded. "Notice the lights closest to the wall are out?"
"None of the smaller repair bots anywhere along the wall, either," Vasiliy said.
"Listen," Arthur said sharply.
All four of them froze along with the bots around them, staring at the wall. Ignacio couldn't figure out what he meant. He couldn't hear anything other than Irvine's occasional hissing.
"I've never sensed that before," Damien finally said.
"Nor I." Arthur raised his ID band. "Tish, we need you here ASAP."
"On my way," a female voice said.
"I still don't hear anything," Ignacio said. "What's wrong?"
Two other people arrived. Arthur turned to set them to start searching all corridors around the area for any system faults. Damien answered, "Are you aware there is a consciousness to Redpoint One?"
"Yes. Several animals can sense it and respond to it in a positive manner, making Redpoint One a prime breeding place for several endangered species," Ignacio answered, earning a look of surprise from Damien. "Plus, I've been around a while. You hear things."
"Right. Well, right now, it is not present in this area," Damien said, gesturing towards the wall.
Ignacio didn't like the sound of that. Nor that Rachel might be trapped somewhere in the middle of it. A place where once a door led inside, a door no longer there.
He stepped out of the way as even more people arrived along with a small army of bots. He felt so helpless watching and not being able to do anything. Irvine splashed around in his water, unconcerned at the excitement and worry around them.
A woman with light brown hair in a ponytail with holographic hair ties arrived with three bots in tow. Each bot also sported a holographic hair tie of a different color on their eyestalks. It must be Tish, the one Rachel mentioned named her bots after colors.
Tish settled at the end of the corridor, intent on a repair. Her three bots crowded around her feet and up on the wall near where she worked. Before long several of the lights closest to the wall blinked on. A small success, but one Ignacio was happy to see. Now, if only they could get past the wall.
Tish returned to Arthur. "I didn't see anything else to repair. I can't figure out what is going on around here. It's as if this area has disappeared according to Redpoint One. It doesn't even sense it."
Not the kind of news Ignacio wanted to hear. He swallowed hard. They had to figure out how to get past the wall. If they couldn't go straight forward, then they would simply have to get more sneaky about it, just like Irvine when he decided he wanted to escape.
"What about above or below?" Ignacio asked.
"We do both, plus surround," Arthur said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find a different entry into the area.
Which started another search. The maintenance crews spread out once again, trying to find a way inside. The followups on the ID bands increased as each person checked in on what they found.
Vasiliy headed out with another engineer to test security systems, so Ignacio chose to follow Tish as she headed for the next level up. Somehow it felt like the right direction to head in, and he noticed the maintenance crew put a lot of trust in the gut instincts. It flew in the face of his logical science mind, but it if worked, it worked.
The direction also got Irvine's attention once they moved back in the general area after climbing a narrow ladder. Irvine climbed up the wire mesh at the front of the carrier and hissed at the wall.
Tish looked down at him, startled. Her bots mirrored her reaction. "What is that about?"
"Irvine doesn't like Rachel," Ignacio said.
She grinned. "Is this the infamous newt?"
"The one and only. Rachel is nearby. Irvine always seems to know. Don't ask me how."
"Good enough for me. Look, over there." Tish took off running with three bots trailing her.
Ignacio followed more slowly, trying not to jolt a hissing Irvine. He came to a stop next to a large bulkhead which Tish was already working on the controls for. An even better clue came from an Irvine hissing so much Ignacio thought he would make himself hoarse.
He heard Arthur's voice coming from her band. "I'm on my way up."
Ignacio waited in front of the tall doors blocking off the corridor, waiting for them to open. Tish continued to work at the controls, but the doors didn't move.
He looked over at her. "Why isn't it opening?"
"Good question." Tish banged on it with her fist. "It's working as far as I can tell, but I can't get it to do anything."
Arthur appeared, trying the same console. "We found a locked bulkhead. What about this one?"
Tish shook her head. "Won't work. I think the problem extends multiple levels."
"I wonder how many systems it's impacting?" Arthur stopped working on the console, looking up at the ceiling of the corridor. "Going up helped before, let's try it again."
Only the new level wasn't as easy to move around in. The corridors were too narrow to allow two people to walk side by side, with a low ceiling that threatened to grow even lower if they went too much further. Already, it brushed at the top of Ignacio's hair. Tish led the way, but she kept looking back to watch for Irvine's reaction.
"I'll tell you when we get close," Ignacio said, concerned she might hit her head against a pipe if she didn't pay attention to where she was going.
"All this feels wrong. I'm a nervous wreck," Tish said.
She wasn't the only one.
***
Rachel's fingers ached from grasping the pipes. The bots around her helped prop her up in the small air-pocket at the top of one of the enclosed corridors, but even it was shrinking fast.
She'd never heard of anyone having this problem. Get trapped in a corridor? That just didn't happen other than in bad horror movies, and no way did she want to be the first to prove such a rumor wrong.
She'd found an emergency hatch access, but it was sealed up tight no matter what her or the bots attacked it with. What good was an emergency hatch if it didn't open? What a depressing thought. A maintenance engineer done in by bad maintenance on an emergency hatch.
Not really fair. All the engineers tried hard. There was simply too much of Redpoint One and too few of them. A simple numbers game, and today she came out on the losing end of it.
At least she'd shared a nice meal with Ignacio. She wanted a lot more, including a full life right into geezerhood, but thanks to the Naughty Knitter's Club she'd been allowed to enjoy a few last moments with Ignacio.
She caught herself, telling herself out loud, "What horrible thinking."
She needed to think positive. She would get out of this. She would live to see Ignacio again for another date. She wouldn't even complain at hissing Irvine. If she found him in a pipe, she would fish him out and use it as an excuse to see Ignacio for a few more minutes in the middle of hectic days.
Her bot floated to the surface of the water with another tool from her submerged supply cart. She averted her eyes as a welding flame erupted from the end of one of the arms, aimed at the escape hatch.
Rachel concentrated on breathing slowly, using as little of the remaining oxygen as she could. Not easy when the air started to stink thanks to the welding. Okay, she would be glad for clean air, too. Dry skin. Solid ground. All those little things people took for granted.
She heard a muffled crack. A few bubbles came to the surface and popped, bringing with them a new smell.
Rachel reached up to pound on the surface of the hatch with a wrench. So close, and now
escaped life-support coolant from a broken pipe somewhere below her was about to kill her. She tried not to panic as more bubbles rose around her.
She rested a moment before raising the wrench again. Her bot worked at the seals around the hatch with the welder as she banged.
"Do whatever you need to," Rachel told it. "I don't have much time left."
Her bot chirped while the two bots still underwater pushed her a little higher into the air pocket. The only small consolation about the new problem was that once the fumes from the coolant overwhelmed her she would probably drown without feeling any pain. As consolations went, she found it a pretty poor one.
A muffled bang echoed through the small space. Rachel looked up, confused. Did she hit the hatch again and forgot about it? Oh great, the fumes were already getting to her.
Then it came again. Regular taps on the hatch.
Rachel banged again, and the bangs were precisely repeated back to her.
So close. Someone knew she was in here. She must find a way to keep going until someone could get the hatch open.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
"THIS IS A type of hatch for bots only," Arthur was saying. "It's not going to open for you."
"Then why can't they open it?" Tish asked, pointing a tool at her bots working away in the small space along the edge of the narrow corridor.
"Why isn't any of this area working? None of us have that answer. I'll check further down. Maybe there is another door." Arthur stepped past them and kept going.
"But, this is the closest point to Rachel," Ignacio said. "There's really no point going further down."
Tish shrugged as she crouched down to work on one side of the bots. "Who knows. If he can get a door open maybe he can get to Rachel from a different direction from the inside."
Ignacio didn't like hearing so many maybes. His gut told him they didn't have much time. They should concentrate on what they knew. At least Tish stayed and worked in the small space with her bots. The hatch sat under a big pipe, requiring both of them to slide under on their hands and knees.
Not that Ignacio could do anything. The most he could do was hold a light for Tish to work by. Down the corridor Irvine alternated between splashing around in his water and hissing at the walls. As long as the little guy hissed, Ignacio knew Rachel was still okay, so he kept his ears attuned to the hissing.
Among the next bout of hissing came another sound. One not from the direction of Irvine's carrier, but in front of them where the bots were working. "Wait, do you hear something?"
Tish froze, looking over the bots at him. "Like what?"
He put a finger to his lips. "Shh. Just listen."
The bots froze, as well. All went quiet in the corridor, even Irvine.
Out of the silence came a muffled tap. No, not a tap. It sounded like a good wallop, but muffled. Right under where Tish worked.
Tish started, pushing herself up on her elbows to stare at the hatch. Ignacio searched through the various tools the bots brought, finding one with a good handle and a heavier ending.
He reached around a bot, angling the head at the door and let go with three hard strikes. Then he stopped and listened.
Hearing no response, he hit three more times, but with a little more force. The third try gave the response he'd been silently praying for. Four muffled strikes. He returned the same number at the same rhythm.
When the taps repeated again, Tish motioned to one of the bots. "The cutter, now. We either get this thing open or we start dismantling the wall and welding our way through."
The bots went to work. Tish pushed herself out from under the pipe to shout down the corridor, "Arthur!"
Arthur soon appeared. "Did you get through?"
"We found her," Ignacio said, pulling back to give Tish and the bots more room to work. "She just now responded."
"Is Redpoint One allowing you in?" Arthur asked, kneeling next to Tish and letting his hand rest on her hip.
"Redpoint One is not active in this area right now," Tish said as a bright light flashed from several points around the hatch. "It won't stop us."
Ignacio stared at the work, even though the flashes of the cutters from Tish and the bots caused his eyes to hurt. With a sudden certainty, he said, "She's not doing well."
"I'll get the others," Arthur stepped around them to head in the other direction.
He heard a few more taps as the work continued. He practically shook at the torment of the waiting. He tried assuring himself that as long as he heard the taps it meant she was still alive.
A clank preceded a hiss and a trill. Ignacio nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized the door of the carrier had come open. He turned and grabbed a fast-running Irvine before he could get into the cavities of the pipes.
"Now isn't the time, Irvine," Ignacio told him, trying to turn the carrier around with a knee. The good humor usually present when dealing with his animals was gone. He appreciated Irvine's inadvertent help with find Rachel, but this was going too far.
"I have it!" Tish announced, scrambling out of the narrow space under the large pipe. Two bots followed, dragging out the hatch.
"Rachel!" Ignacio called. He didn't hear anything, but he did see the body of a new bot backing out of the new open hole.
"That's Rachel's bot," Tish said, jumping to her knees in excitement. "Rachel, come on out. It's open."
Rachel didn't answer and the bot didn't move. It came halfway out of the hatch, but not moving any further. Tish crouched down with a small flashlight.
"Rachel? Wait, are you holding clothing? Bot, back up," Tish said.
Ignacio swallowed hard. He knew what was going on. He eyed Irvine and pushed him into the carrier, snapping shut the lid. Even as he dove under the pipe he could hear Irvine working the door to get back.
Well, Irvine might be of an endangered species, but right now Rachel meant more to him. He moved himself to the other side of the bot, telling Tish, "I'll grab her. Be ready to help if I need it."
Tish pulled out of the space to allow him and Rachel's bot more room while leaving behind the flashlight. "I hear the others coming."
The light of the flashlight and the bot's eyes told him he'd been right. Rachel's bot held Rachel's shirt near the collar. He could see her wet head on the other side of the hatch as well as the sound of lapping water.
Along with a bad smell.
He reached past the arms of the bot that was barely holding Rachel above the water. "What is that stink?"
"It's coolant," he heard Damien say at his feet. "Bots, we need better ventilation."
Ignacio decided just from the smell of it that it wasn't good. Rachel had once been responding with something heavy enough to be heard through the thick hatch, now didn't move, which meant he needed to get her away from the fumes as soon as possible.
He pushed himself further into the small space, angling in under Rachel's bot to get his hands under her arms. Pulling at the dead weight from such an awkward position wasn't easy, straining his upper muscles and hands while the edge of the opening dug into his forearms.
He jerked as a blast of air hit him.
"Sorry to startle you. Trying to disperse the fumes," Damien said. "You don't want to breathe them in for very long."
Good point. He didn't dare lose his grip now that he almost had Rachel up. Somehow he inched her up despite her wet slick skin and soaked clothes, getting her head through the hatch.
He heard a trill come from Irvine.
"Someone grab the newt," Tish shouted.
"How did it get out?" Arthur demanded.
Ignacio heard people scrambling across the floor and a clang against the pipes, quickly followed by a curse from Arthur. He didn't try to go after Irvine or even look around for him. All his attention remained on the one person in front of him.
A little more and Rachel was bent halfway in and out. She slipped a few more inches forward without Ignacio even trying.
"I don't even see him anymore," he heard someone
else say.
"Forget Irvine," Ignacio said as he pulled back further. "I think we have bots helping from the other side."
One of Tish's bots moved out of the space on the other side of Rachel's bot to be quickly replaced by Damien. He grabbed her tool belt and tugged. With the help, Rachel came out even further, her head limp with her forehead sliding along the floor.
"On the count of three," Damien said.
Ignacio solidified his grip, positioning his legs for one more good pull. At the end of the countdown, he pulled back, with Rachel coming out of the hatch in one smooth movement.
Flipping her over and his arms under her arm and wrapped around her chest, and Damien and Arthur helping with her legs, they pulled her down the corridor to a wider section.
"Medical help is on the way," Arthur said as they laid her down.
Ignacio pulled down her shirt, deformed by both him and the bot pulling on it. She was breathing. He could see and feel the slight movements of her rib cage, but her eyes remained closed. How long had she breathed in the coolant?
"Just how dangerous is the coolant?" Ignacio demanded. He propped her up against his knees, hoping it helped her breathing.
Damien's lips thinned. "Can be deadly. It's for cooling, not to breathe."
"Relax, both of you," Arthur said. "Help is on the way."
A deeper breath, and then a soft sigh.
Music to Ignacio. Into her ear he whispered, "Rachel? Can you open your eyes?"
All the activity around them disappeared as he waited for her response. Her skin felt so cold to the touch. If he weren't cradling her head, he would take off his shirt to cover her up.
The rise and fall of her chest remained regular. He told himself it was a good sign. She was alive and emergency medical help would soon arrive. She would be okay. She had to be. He'd just found her. How could he lose her now?
Another deeper breath accompanied with a sigh.
Her eyes came open. Suddenly, and lovely. Clear brown eyes with the mysterious blue flecks in the inner ring. He'd never seen such beautiful eyes before in his life.
Terrified eyes. With the emotion came halting breaths and in increase in her heart-rate.
Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 14