“Yes. Your biography is very well-known. You and your dad were almost given sainthood when you became the Sleepers. It was like this romantic ideal… one sacrificing their life, your life on Earth anyway, for another.”
“But what’s not in my bio is what I’m feeling again, Akio. The icy wind in New York in the wintertime.” She clutched his arm and looked at him intently. “The mist on Mauna Kea. The sands of the Caribbean. The economic disasters of the 2070s. And how my dad and Seung Yi shared responsibility for it. Mom’s death. How I alienated my friends in Las Vegas. The way Levi broke my heart. And my dad did too… It’s everything at once, Akio. It’s too much…” Zara retreated to her own side of the car and broke down.
Akio turned and touched her arm. “Don’t cry. It’ll be okay.” His face did not match the confidence he was trying to impart. Then, Akio noticed something outside. He pointed to the left. “Look.”
For the first time, there was open space at ground level. The area to the left of the road was dark. As Zara looked up, one of the gridlines was only a few hundred meters above them, and descending. The car slowed and made a left turn onto a dark, deserted road. It was scrubby and dusty. “It’s creepy out here,” Zara said. Two minutes later, they came to a halt at a chain link fence, which surrounded the gridline's intersection with the ground. Close up, it looked like an enormous, shining tube, around ten meters wide, anchored to the earth at a shallow angle. Zara's eyes followed it up into the sky, where, in the distance, it shrank into a thin thread. A tear on the left side of her nose glinted in the light. She wiped it away.
“This way,” Akio said. They hopped out of the car. Zara followed his lead through the weeds on the unkempt scrub. They headed around the corner of the rectangular fenced off area until they were directly beneath the huge structure. Akio stopped and pointed to a hole in the fence. Both youths grinned and climbed through without a word. Zara walked gingerly up to the enormous tube. Its glow illuminated the entire area. She touched it where it passed over their heads.
“Are we gonna get caught?” Zara asked.
Akio shrugged. “It could happen I suppose. It hasn't yet though, and I've been up here lots of times. Kichiro and I used to come up here and drink when we were younger!” Akio was referring to one of his friends who had been at the Movement festival with them. Zara smiled. “This way,” Akio said. They walked around to the other side of the tube. Akio walked up its sloping, top surface for a few meters and then bent down and opened a hatch. “In here.” They climbed in. The ground inside was only a meter below them. Akio closed the hatch behind them. Crouching, Zara looked up the sloping inside of the structure. The great light from outside was nowhere in sight. There were only dim service lights every few meters, on either side. Ten meters away, three railroad tracks began their long upward slope through the inside of the tube, seemingly into infinity. At the bottom of each, against a concrete buffer, was a yellow, open-top railcar. Each had seating for four and a cargo area in the back for tools. “That's our key to getting up there,” Akio said. “The maintenance people use them.”
“Phew! I thought you were going to make me climb it,” Zara said. “I mean, I could have done it, but that looks much easier!” Zara and Akio climbed into the railcar on the rightmost of the three tracks. She was on the left and he was on the right. The seats were made of black vinyl, scuffed and punctured from use, so much so that some of the cheap foam stuffing came out of the cracks. Sitting back at such an angle, due to the twenty-five degree slope of the track, made Zara grin with a fairground-like thrill. Akio pushed a button and a touchscreen display came to life. He touched two more buttons on the display and the railcar jolted into motion. They began to climb the inside of the Tomimuro grid, at around thirty kilometers per hour. Zara let out a whoop, with her arms above her head, as though on a roller coaster. Akio smiled at her. They passed more service lights on the inside of the structure than Zara could count. The railcar's motor whined. The rails ahead shone with reflected light from the dim bulbs on the inside of the tube. Zara looked down and saw a row of metal teeth between the tracks. “So that's how it's driven,” she said, more to herself than to Kato. They passed a cavernous circular opening, as wide as their passage, on both the right and the left. “Intersection with an east-west tube,” Akio said.
After a two-kilometer climb, the track steepened. Zara grabbed the rail in front of her in alarm, as she felt the railcar tip back further. “It's okay,” Akio said. “We're not going anywhere.” The machine didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by the extra work of ascending so steeply. They saw more intersections with perpendicular tubes. Another three kilometers passed and the track began to flatten out; so much so that Zara felt like they had stopped climbing altogether.
“I wish I could see outside,” she said.
“You will.”
Chapter 17
Soon after that, the track began to curve steeply upwards again. Zara held on for dear life. She turned to Akio. “How the heck am I afraid of heights when I've spent most of my life flying?”
“Beats me... maybe you were secretly trying to overcome your fear?”
Zara shrugged. “Could be.” The track then began to flatten out again, now only climbing at around ten degrees.
“We're just getting over downtown,” Akio said. The train trundled on. After another six minutes of passing between the endless pairs of lights, they slowed to a halt. “This is our stop,” Akio said. They jumped out, crossed the two tracks to their left, and headed along a one meter-wide walkway beside the tracks. They were walking next to the inner wall of the tube. The going was almost flat.
Soon, Zara saw a glow ahead. It appeared to come from two large rectangles on either side of the tube. As they approached, Zara exclaimed: “Windows!”
“Yep,” Akio grinned. Soon, the pair reached the large openings. The light from outside shone in as bright as day.
“Oh my God!” Zara said, awestruck at the tableau beyond the glass. Akio watched her face. The wide window curved around from the edge of the walkway, to somewhere several meters above their heads. Zara surveyed the blazing spires below. Pencil-like skyscrapers, with their animated walls, strained up towards where they stood. None could quite reach, try as they might. In the center was an immense structure, which towered above the others. It was square in cross section. Zara’s eye followed it upwards. At various points, it tapered inwards on one side or the other, thus becoming narrower, and then straightened out again. This pattern was repeated until it ended in a small antenna-capped roof. Two bright, white laser beams shone vertically up from there, piercing the sky, passing within 100 meters of where Zara and Akio stood. As they looked out towards the horizon, an endless forest of structures, of varying (but all very tall) heights, continued as far as they could see. Other parts of Tomimuro were visible. Much of it was side-on from their vantage point. Vee-tols flew by above and below, their navigation lights like stars, completely oblivious to their presence. Akio watched her face, and especially her eyes, as they reflected the shifting mirage of color. Zara was completely wrapped up in the view—until she sensed his gaze. As Zara's head whipped around to look at Akio, he quickly turned to look out of the window. He wasn't quite fast enough. “Busted!” Zara said.
Akio laughed. “Guilty as charged!” He sat down, cross-legged. “Let's stay awhile.”
“Okay,” Zara said, sitting beside him. “That train's not going anywhere, is it? I'd hate to get stuck up here.”
“It'll be okay.” The two friends sat and looked out at the megacity. Akio glanced over to his left occasionally, down at Zara's hands, folded in her lap. He was evidently trying to judge whether or not to try and take one of them in his own.
The sound of another train moving echoed up the tube. “Oh, crap!” Zara said wide-eyed. “We're gonna get caught!”
“Crap! I’ve never had company up here before!” Akio panted. “Let’s go!”
The pair sprang up and ran further along the walkway, back into
the dim light, away from the window and away from their train. This also took them away from the one they had ridden up in. There was nowhere to hide in the tube. The pursuing train gradually drew closer to them. Its click-clack noise grew louder, echoing ominously in the enormous tube. Soon, its headlights were visible in the distance. Akio and Zara ran as fast as they could but the train kept gaining on them. Looking back, Akio could see two figures sitting in it, silhouetted against the lights in the tube. They were motionless.
The train was now so close that Zara and Akio cast long shadows on the tube walls ahead, as a result of the headlights. Terrified, they kept sprinting. Their young, strong legs propelled them quickly. But the train kept gaining on them. Suddenly, Zara’s legs gave out from under her. She flopped to the walkway, bounced once, and then lay still. Akio turned around. “ZARA!” She was slumped on her left side, ironically in something close to the recovery position. Her unblinking eyes stared straight ahead. Akio skidded to a halt and ran back to her. “OH MY GOD!” He slapped her beet-red face. No luck. Akio seemed not to be aware of the approaching train as its headlights grew steadily brighter. He crouched over Zara, trying to feel for a pulse. Akio winced as a sharp pain suddenly pierced his thigh. He slumped over onto his back. His arms were spread apart, cruciform, with his right forearm across Zara’s abdomen.
The train slowed to a halt five meters away. Chen and Jiang got out, wearing blue coveralls, and walked over to the two youngsters. Neither man said anything, as Chen surveyed his handiwork. He nodded with satisfaction. “This will gain me great favor with the Master, and perhaps erase my past mistakes.” They lifted Zara’s limp body and laid her across the back seats of the railcar. Due to the narrow space, her legs were bent and her head was tilted forward so that her chin was on her chest. The men climbed back into the railcar. Jiang pushed two buttons and it began to head, in reverse, back towards the bottom of the grid, many kilometers away.
Chapter 18
“Hi, Zara. It’s Dad. Please call me back when you get a chance. Buzz, end call.” Kato sighed. He sat on the bed in his Honolulu hotel room, facing the window. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands, rubbing away the stress in his temples. Why wouldn’t she pick up? Kato had left seven messages for Zara since they parted ways in New York. None had been returned. He looked out at the sprawl of the city, the sparkling, blue sea to the right, and the mountain range to the left. Honolulu's skyline had not changed drastically. It had instead been extended, by a vast new city on a manmade island. It was not far off the coast, but was currently out of view from the direction he faced.
Kato was one of the most famous people in the world, and yet one of the loneliest. He wasn’t sure how he was going to stand one more night here, without one single friend. Kato was not a social creature. It had been difficult for him to make friends, even when he understood social norms and customs, never mind in a civilization that was still completely new to him. There was, however, one person that Kato had forged at least some kind of a friendship with before leaving Mars. There was also a chance that he was on Earth.
“Buzz, please get me Martin Swiercynski.”
“Trying...” The dots of progress proceeded maddeningly slowly across Kato's vision.
“Kato?” Martin, inventor of the warp drive, said. Kato took a sharp intake of breath, overcome with joy.
“Hi,” Kato said uncertainly. Inviting himself back into someone's life had never been his strong point.
“Well hey, buddy,” Martin said, warmly. “Where are you, and what are you doing?”
“I'm in Hawaii at the moment,” Kato said. “I've just been doing some sightseeing and exploring.”
“Very cool, man! Is Zara with you?”
“No. She went to Tokyo, with a boy she just met.”
“Ah, gotcha,” Martin said. There was a short pause. “Well, you caught me at a good time. I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. Leaving for Mars again in three days.”
“Right.”
“I tell you what, it's good to breathe non-recycled air,” Martin said. “Well, I know it's all recycled, really, but you know what I mean. I'm getting more and more tired of Mars... the lack of climate, nothing but red rocks and soil. Earth is like the Garden of Eden in comparison, you know?”
“Yes.”
Kato hesitated, and then said: “Listen. Do you want to get together before you go back?”
“Sure I do! I'm just hangin' out with some buddies from school. Edinburgh's my alma mater. You wanna come over?” Martin asked as though Kato were one or two streets away.
“Yeah! For sure. I've never been there,” Kato said.
“Alright! Dude, it's gonna be good to see you again.”
“I'll get the next spaceplane, if that's okay...”
“Of course. Not sure what route you'd have to take, coming from there... London? No, Manchester's probably closer if you're flying direct. Anyway, call me when you're in Edinburgh and I'll come meet you.”
“Cool! I'll see you... I don't know how long it'll take to get there.”
“Okay, whenever. Later, man.”
The call ended. Kato was so flooded with joy that he jumped and punched the air. He then felt a little embarrassed about this reaction, but chided himself that he was in a completely new world, and that having felt lonely was okay.
Kato landed, after another hectic, weightless dash across ten time zones, in Manchester, England. It was 2:30 AM. Kato wasn't sleepy in the slightest. He didn't want to disturb Martin at such an ungodly hour. He caught a plane to Edinburgh, arriving there at 4:15 AM. Once at the transport pickup point outside the terminal, Kato stood in the light rain. He let it just fall on him, enjoying the sensation as it dampened his face and hair. It made a soothing white noise. It was the first rain Kato had felt in 313 years.
Kato drew in a deep breath through his nose. No jet fuel smell here. The air was sweet, clean, and pure. It had also been that way in Hawaii, as it blew in from the Pacific. Here, however, it was different. No salty smell, but the sweet, earthy scent of Scotland’s rugged, green mountains west of the city. He had never felt fresher air. Kato noticed dawn already breaking in the east. The northerly latitude ensured that it was only dark for three hours at night in the summer. A few other travelers, fifty meters to his left, climbed into silent, automatic cabs with their suitcases and hand baggage. A couple of words were spoken between them and then they pulled away past Kato. The tires made a slushing sound on the wet asphalt. Presently, another airplane came in for its final approach. There was no jet roar; only the sound of air rushing over its wings. The rain began to grow heavier.
Kato used Buzz to find a place to stay in the city, and summoned a cab to take him there. As he proceeded through Edinburgh’s deserted, ancient streets, Kato looked around at the stone buildings. Though he had no reference from his previous life, he couldn't imagine that the city had changed much at all. It all looked many centuries old. The grand castle looked the same as historical photos he had browsed on the way there. It still dominated the skyline, from its hilltop perch. Kato had wanted to stay in a charming old Scottish pub. However, these would not accept guests at that hour of the night, so he was stuck with a hotel in the city center. It was situated in a grand old building with a view of the castle. Kato settled into his charming and tastefully-decorated room, and waited for 9 AM to roll around so he could call Martin.
The city was bathed in watered-down sunshine, as the rain tapered off. Kato was starting to feel sleepy, owing to the spacelag. “Buzz: get me Martin.”
“Heyyy! You in Edinburgh?”
“I sure am!”
“Woohoo! Well, get a cab and come on over!” Martin gave the address.
“Will do.” Martin’s temporary residence was close to the city center and hence a very short ride away. Kato had barely climbed out of the cab and grabbed his bag, when Martin greeted him with a hug and a slap on the back. He was just as Kato remembered him; overweight, with a shock of bla
ck, slightly receding hair.
“Welcome to our abode, buddy!” Another man exited the front door of the stone row house, still in his carpet slippers, and extended a hand.
“Kato, this is my degenerate friend Kyle Hasselbacher.” He was shorter than Kato, with a roundish face and slicked back brown hair. Kato shook his hand.
“Are we close to the university?” Kato asked. The brisk morning breeze swirled around him.
“Yes,” Martin said. “This is normally a student house. Anyway, come in.”
Kato followed Martin and Kyle inside, noting the great thickness of the stone walls. He had to stoop to avoid hitting his head on the top of the short door frame. They walked through a narrow hall into the small kitchen in the back of the house. It featured a large stone hearth, with a traditional wood burning stove. “We sometimes use this thing just for the heck of it,” Kyle said in his thick Scottish accent, gesturing to the stove. They all took a seat in cheap, wooden chairs around an off-white, Formica-topped kitchen table at the other end of the long room.
“Cup of coffee?” Martin offered.
“Sure!”
Kyle started a pot brewing. “So... no magic machine to make it?” Kato asked.
Martin smiled. “Yeah, we've got the magic machine, but we sometimes do it the old way just because we want to.”
Kyle studied Kato. “You can remove your mask now,” he said, somewhat jovially.
“Oh... yeah. I forgot I had it on,” Kato said. “Buzz: neutralize disguise.” His face morphed back to show his true, angular features.
“How does it feel to be the oldest man in the world?” Kyle said.
Kato had to listen hard in order to understand Kyle’s thick accent. “It's... strange,” he said.
Kato's War: Book Two of the Kato's War series Page 9