by Stefan Bolz
"You okay?" Ty asks. Without waiting for an answer, he gets up on his knees, reaches over to Aries, takes her head into his hands and kisses her on her cheeks several times. Then he holds her close to him. Aries doesn't know what to do at first, but eventually she puts her arms around him.
"Don't ever do that to me again," Ty says quietly.
Aries's vision becomes blurry. His words cut through her walls, their kindness piercing her defenses. Her tears drip onto his coveralls and after a while she lets them come.
"Shhh," Ty says. "Shhh." He strokes her hair and her back and she can't help but begin to sob. Her strength bleeds out of her and she collapses into his embrace. At length, she lets go of him and he sits back.
"I thought you might be thirsty," he says, while taking a thermo out of his bag and handing it to her. She unscrews the top, takes several long sips of the ice-cold water. A couple of power bars follow.
"Thank you," she says, while chewing on the bar.
"There are no blueprints of the prison. At least, not that I know of. But—"
"That's okay," she interrupts him. "I'll find my way through it."
Ty looks at her, his eyes not letting go of hers.
"I'm not even trying to figure out what you're planning to do. And on my way down here, I decided that it's none of my goddamn business. And how you got the bird to bring me that note is beyond me. But you cannot... go down there. You hear me? You won't come out. I've spent a lot of time there on jobs over the years. The prison has its own systems; it's completely sealed off from the rest of the building and there's no access to it. And not only that, if you get caught, should you get caught, you're facing something you can only imagine in your wildest dreams."
Ty looks at her as if waiting for an answer, a response. Aries folds the wrapping paper around the other half of the bar and slips it into one of the coverall pockets.
"I agree with you."
"I'm glad you do."
"Can you tell me what the alternative is?"
"What do you mean?" Ty asks. Aries can see in his face that he probably doesn't want to know.
"The alternative to going down there. What do we have left? There is nowhere to go. I can't go back, Ty. Not after everything that happened. You don't know what they did. You haven’t the slightest idea—"
"I do."
"No, you don’t!"
Aries realizes, while she is saying this, that she is wrong. And for a split second she gets an inkling of the depth of Ty's knowledge, of what his firsthand experience must be.
"I know... what you're talking about," he says. "But trust me when I tell you that whatever it is you experienced is nothing compared to what awaits you down there. The choice, your choice, is between the life you have lived on the one hand and certain death on the other. There's nothing in between."
"Then I would rather die than spend one more day like this!" Aries is surprised by the ferocity of her own words. "This isn't life. This is a mockery of life. What do we live for, Ty? What? Each other? There is no each other. The Corporation makes sure there are no friendships, no true friendships. It only lets us marry someone to keep unrest to a minimum. Isolation and despair is what we call life. And I can't go back to it."
There is silence between them, a silence that comes from the knowledge that both have spoken the truth.
"I don't know what the right path is," Aries continues. "It seems to be between two equally preposterous choices. But I do know the outcome of one, because I can't go back. So I must try the other, even if it's the last thing I'll do. "
After a while, Ty nods his head.
"Okay."
"Okay? Okay, what?"
"If that's your choice, I'll help you in any way I can."
"You already did."
"I couldn't get an AI/RSC chip module."
"I’ll have to do without it then."
"But I got two." He takes out two small, flat, rectangular boxes, each attached to a string of wire with its ends tied together.
"They look like pill containers."
"They are pill containers. At least they were until they were modified and now hold an AI/RSC chip module. Put them around your neck under your shirt. The radius is about five feet in all directions. For any camera, you simply won't be there."
"Understood. You brought two in case one stops working?"
"No. I brought two because I'm coming with you."
"That's not acceptable."
"Since when did you tell me what to do, young lady?"
"You can't come with me. I have to do this alone."
"From what I have just learned from you, it's really bad—evil, if you will. If someone else makes decisions that should be mine to make!"
"You don't understand, I—"
"Aries. There's no discussion. I'm coming with you or you're not going."
Aries can see in Ty's eyes that there's absolutely no moving away from this on his part. She would have to physically tie him down in order to stop him.
"This is not what I want," she says.
"Well, it's not what I want either but, hell, that's life."
Aries leans back. All the tension is gone. Part of her hates herself for being thankful that Ty is here. She wishes that she could be stronger and tell him in no uncertain terms that it’s her burden and hers alone. But she has no arguments left. She made hers. He made his. He won.
"Thank you," is all she can say.
"You're quite welcome. Now, once activated, the modules have about forty-eight hours before the batteries run out. I'm not even sure if they’ll last that long. So, let's say we've got between twenty-four and thirty-six hours to do whatever needs to be done."
"That should be enough," Aries says without thinking.
"Enough to do what, exactly?"
"All I know is that we need to reach the Forgotten Floors. From there, I don't know anything."
Part of Aries hopes that Ty doesn't ask her how she got this information.
"So, no plan B, huh?" he says with a smile.
"In order for there to be a plan B, there has to be a plan A first.”
Ty smiles. His white teeth stand in stark contrast to his grease-smeared face. "You've always been the smartest of my protégés."
Aries smiles back.
"Until now, of course—"
Four guards, five floors above you! Born-of-Night's thought is accompanied by a bright image of a group of guards making their way down the stairs. They are dressed in black, unlike the usual security guards’ blue-and-gray uniforms.
"S.S.U.," Aries says.
"What?" Ty's smile dissipates.
"Special Security Unit. They're on their way toward us. The drone must have picked us up."
"Dammit!"
Each of them grabs one of the chip modules, pulls them around their necks and tucks them under their clothes. Ty puts his bag over his shoulder.
"Let's stay in here," Aries says. "Maybe they won't find us."
"But if they do, we're in the worst possible position. We have to go. Now!"
He rolls out. Aries follows.
Through Born-of-Night's eyes, Aries sees four dark figures descending the stairs.
"Follow me," Ty says as he slips into a hallway to their left. "Try to be quiet."
They turn several corners and come to a stairway. Ty goes down the steps, with Aries following. From the landing platform they turn left and through several narrow hallways to another staircase. As Aries is about to go down that one, he pulls her back, reaches into his bag and takes out the thermos.
"Drink," he says.
"Why?"
"Just do it."
Aries takes several sips of the water and hands the thermos back.
"Can you ask your friend where they are?"
"My friend?"
"Yes, your feathered friend, the hawk."
"How do you know?"
"I don't know how, but you’re obviously communicating with him."
"Her."
; "Her. Ask her where they are."
"Two floors above us," Aries answers.
"Okay. Stay behind me."
"What're you gonna do?" Aries asks.
Ty looks around. "Improvise, I guess."
They move into yet another hallway, but Ty stops, turns around, and peers around the corner, watching the staircase. When Aries can hear the footsteps above their heads, she presses her back toward the wall of the exchange unit. She watches Ty as he listens intently to their movement.
"They're coming," she says quietly.
Ty nods slightly, then throws the thermos over the railing and down the stairs. It hits the steps, generating a loud echo as it bounces off the metal treads on its way down. The movement above them stops. Then it continues, faster than before and down the stairs onto their floor. When she closes her eyes, Aries sees an image of the four men coming toward them. They hold about six feet of distance between each other. She can't identify the guns they are holding, but they look like rifles. One by one, the figures pass them and descend the stairs. Once the last one has passed, Ty turns toward Aries. "Come."
As quietly as possibly, they move past the stairway and through several hallways back toward the other staircase. When they are about to go down, Ty pulls Aries around a corner between two transformers, gesturing to her to be quiet. He lifts one finger. Now she hears it. A single set of footsteps, coming closer. Ty shakes his head. They hadn't bought it. The man steps into their field of vision and turns toward them. At that moment, Ty's hand shoots forward, grabbing the rifle and turning it upward. With his other hand he hits the man, who is easily a foot-and-a-half taller than him, in the throat and once more to his right temple. He makes a gurgling sound and staggers backward. Ty grabs him and pulls him down while holding one hand over his mouth. The man loses consciousness before he hits the floor. For a second, Ty and Aries don't move. Then Ty begins to search the man's pockets.
"We've got about ten seconds. Let's go," he says, and gets up. Aries follows and they make their way down the stairs.
"Don't you want to take his rifle?" she asks.
"It's useless. Only he can fire it. I'd have to cut off his thumb if I wanted to use it. We have to get to the other side. There's a lift a few stories below that takes us down forty more floors. Even though I think we should go up rather than down."
"But we can't go up," Aries says quietly, as she takes several steps at once to get up another staircase. "We have to go downward."
They run, as quietly as they can, through the hallways and toward the opposite side of the core.
I can see the lift. Aries hears Born-of-Night's thoughts.
Where are you? she asks.
Where I can see you.
When they reach the stairwell on the other side, three workers round a corner and come straight toward them. Ty and Aries slow down, trying as best as they can to appear nonchalant—two workers on their way to a job. One of the three men is younger. He wears orange coveralls. Rodent Control. Aries recognizes the kid, who looks at her in disbelief. It's Terrence, one of Seth's friends. Ty greets them. The two older men greet them back.
"Hennrichsen, what're ye doin' all the way down here?"
"Just visiting McAlistair at the 114th. I had to get him some parts. But we gotta go. In a bit of a hurry."
"Ya know McAlistair's five floors above you?"
"Really? I must've gotten the floors confused. Not getting any younger, unfortunately. I'd appreciate you not telling anyone about this. You know how it is." Ty flashes a smile as they walk away and toward the next staircase. Aries turns around and casts one more look at the kid. She so wishes she could tell him to tell Seth how sorry she is. But they disappear around a corner and are gone.
"We have to hurry," Ty says.
They reach the lift sixty seconds later. Ty opens the louver. Aries steps inside and Ty closes the gate. He punches in a combination of numbers and the lift moves downward.
"They're gonna see us."
"Yes, they will."
"They'll try to shoot us."
"They might. But don't worry. They can't harm us. Inside the cage we're safe from any electric charge. Just don't touch the walls."
"What about my shoes?" Aries asks.
"They are insulated—"
A blue ball of electric current hits the cage with a loud explosion. Sparks fly everywhere. Aries lets out a scream. Ty grabs her arms and pulls her toward him. "Don't touch anything and we'll be okay."
A second charge hits the cage. Now Aries can see two of the men, a quarter of the way around the opening and two floors up. Another charge.
"What if the charge shorts out the motor?" she asks.
"Then we're in trouble," Ty answers, as another charge hits them. “But their reach isn't that far. They should stop shooting about now," he says.
"That's reassuring."
The two drones are coming back up toward you. Born-of-Night's thought doesn't register at first. Only when she looks down and sees them ten stories below does it sink in.
"What about drones. How far is their reach?"
"Too far. We have to get out before they get here." Ty begins punching numbers into the keypad.
"But how can they see us if we're invisible to cameras?"
"Their scanning lasers can still pick us up."
"Wait."
"We have to get out of here," Ty answers.
"No. Wait!"
Ty stops and they both watch as Born-of-Night flies by the cage, diving downward and toward the drones. Aries watches through the hawk's eyes as she approaches the drones. Her talons outstretched, Born-of-Night flies toward the first one. The impact smashes the hawk into the drone's metal chassis. For a second, Aries loses the image. Then it comes back. The hawk picks at the sensors, her sharp beak smashing them to pieces. Whoever designed them had obviously not considered a bird of prey trying to bring them down.
The drone turns sideways, crashing into the second one and taking it with it. From there it descends, faster and faster, until it crashes into one of the floors further down. The second drone's descent is slower but its erratic movements eventually crash it into one of the steel columns at the edge of the opening. From there it drops straight down until it is out of sight. The hawk flies up and lands on the outside of the cage.
"That was close!" Ty says.
"Ty, may I introduce you to my friend. Her name is Leila. I call her Born-of-Night. This is Ty.”
"Pleasure to meet you," Ty says.
Born-of-Night lets out a long cry.
"She likes you," Aries says with a smile.
"That's good to know. I'm going to wonder about all of this later. Right now, we gotta get off this lift. We've got some ways to go before we reach the food processor. Then there's the water treatment. And below that is pretty much where the prison starts."
The lift stops and Ty opens the door. They step out and walk away. An old man with his protégé, on whose young shoulders rests the fate of her world and all its inhabitants.
//from voice recorder file**q.442_07_11xtl.ut kiire_understaad//
While going through Ty's belongings, I found this, neatly folded in one of his shirt pockets. The pencil writing on it was washed out and/or blotted out by a dark stain, most likely blood. The note was signed with a letter that I could not clearly identify. But I can say with near certainty that it came from Aries. Here is what it said:
Need AI/RSC-13 chip module
Also blueprints of the prison air duct system
Have to reach Forgotten Floors
Can't explain now. No more lies
So sorry
A
I never found out why he dropped everything, left his job, his life, and walked away from it all to help Aries. He was a brave man. We owe him so much.
//End of upload**q.442_07_11xtl.ut//
Chapter 9 — No Exit
011 010 000 1010 0101 0001 010111 0101 0 0 10 10 10010100010 01010 010 101001001 010 010 010110 01 000010101000001100110100
10011010 1001 100001 1 010 10000 1111010 010100 000111 001 01011 0101 0101 egan, aries, d. id#: 4746-poc-201-0017485 0001000 0101 01001 change of status effct immed: imnnt threat to corp sec. 010001010 0 1000 0 0 100111 10101 010 101 0 01001 101 011 00 001110100010 010011 111100100100000110101001001 0100001011last known loc: 105th floor, Tier 0 000111010 01010100011101010001110100 101 01010111 01010 deploy 3 S.S.Units 001 11010000101 1000100010111101001011100011 10000101 deploy a.i. kill-drones zx.7 0010 010 0100101011111 lethal force authorized after eval of dest 01010000100110010 0101 01010 10010 010 01 00101 101110 100 01010 01010 01000010111111101010100 01010 0101 0101010111111000010100010010 0101 0101 010 101010 capture hennrichsen, tybault, f. id#: 92204-poc-917 211998 prep for interrog 00010100111 01000 010100
"Ty?"
"Yes."
"When you said there’s no way into the prison, did you mean it or did you tell me that because you didn't want me to go?"
They’d made it through the food processing plant without incident. Throughout, Aries received images from Born-of-Night as she circled above and below, her watchful eyes scanning their surroundings for any drones or more S.S. Units. One of the images was of the prison from above—built like a large steel tube and reaching down about twenty floors with no visible entrance and only a few small rectangular openings toward the core. An impenetrable fortress.
"It's both, I think," Ty answers. "There is one access point that I know of. At least it was one when I worked there about ten years ago."
"What is it?"
"A pipe that is part of the water treatment plant. Several of the tanks there hold fresh water. One of them feeds the prison. There is a maintenance entrance but it is only accessible when the water is drained. Or at least that was the case when I worked there ten years ago."
"There is no other way in? What about the air ducts?"
"All the openings face the core. We have no way to get there."
Aries is beginning to feel discouraged. From what Ty’s told her, the water treatment plant is a dark labyrinth of pipes—of rectangular, round, or cube-like containers, some no larger than a few feet, others spanning easily thirty meters and reaching three stories high. A foul stench of rotten food hangs in the air. Condensation drips from the grated floors. The temperature must be about ten degrees Celsius warmer than in the rest of the core. If the floors above them were hard to navigate, this section is almost impossible. The configuration of the water treatment units seems random at best and Aries has lost her sense of where she is only a few minutes after they enter.