by Stefan Bolz
"I think I found her," he says.
Aries nods. She realizes that part of her doesn't want to see C.J., doesn't want to imagine what she must have endured.
"I'll go in," she says quietly. "I think it'll be better if she hears my voice first."
Okay, Max replies.
Seth nods. He's visible shaken. "How do you want to do this?" he asks.
"I'll climb down into the room. Max, you come behind me and help me pull her up."
When Aries crawls into the duct, she can feel her heart pounding inside her chest. I'm coming for you, she thinks. I'm coming for you. She reaches the vent cover and looks through it.
"Claudia Jean," she says quietly. "Claudia Jean, it's me, Aries. Can you hear me?"
Aries doesn't want to talk too loudly, out of fear that someone else will hear her.
"C.J.," she says a little louder. "C.J., wake up!"
C.J. moans and turns her head but her eyes stay closed. Aries pushes the cover down while holding it with her fingers. It comes off its hinges. She pulls it in and places it on the other side of the opening. Then she moves her torso and head through it, while holding on to the ledge. Her feet come through and she lets go, landing on the floor next to the bed. At that moment, C.J. wakes and lets out a scream. Aries leaps toward her, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Shhh, it's me. It's me. I'm here to get you, shhh."
C.J.'s eyes are wide at first, then they fill with tears. She wraps her arms around Aries and holds her.
"I can't believe you're here. I can't believe you're here," she repeats, over and over.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
"Do you have shoes?"
"Shoes? No. They took them, I think..."
"Okay, it'll have to do."
Max's head appears in the opening.
"This is Max. He is deaf but he'll understand you if you talk to me. I'll push you from below and Max will pull from up there, okay?"
"Okay, okay..."
Aries goes to the dresser, opens the drawer. It holds a couple of underpants and shirts, together with her coveralls. They must have taken her right after work. "Here, put this on," she says quietly, and hands her the clothes.
When C.J. puts on her shirt and underpants, Aries can see the black-and-blue bruises all over her body.
"Let me help you with that," Aries says, when she tries to put on the coveralls. "Sit down."
Aries puts both her legs into the coveralls.
"Careful," C.J. says when her arms go in. Aries can see the needle marks in her elbow.
"What did they give you, do you know?"
"I don't know," C.J. says, a shiver running through her.
"Okay. You ready?"
C.J. nods.
"I'm going to push you up and Max will pull, okay? You can step on my shoulders."
Aries puts her back against the wall. C.J. places one foot into Aries's folded hands and pushes off. Max grabs C.J.'s hands and while he pulls her, Aries pushes her feet up. C.J. disappears into the duct. Part of Aries realizes that they’ve been making way too much noise and that someone is probably going to come in here, soon. She jumps up but misses the ledge of the duct on her first try. Same on the second. She moves the bed toward the corner, climbs onto it and jumps again. This time she grabs the ledge, pulls herself up and moments later disappears into the hatch. She doesn't see that the door opens and a man comes into the room.
"What's going on here?" She hears his voice from below. Then there is a pause. "She's gone! She escaped!" the man yells. Something crashes to the floor. The footsteps disappear.
"We gotta get out of here," Aries says. "They know."
Max and Seth are already in the next air duct. C.J. follows.
"We need to hurry," Aries says. "I don't know when they're going to activate the duct cleaning. We need to be out by then."
Max leads the way through the maze of ducts.
"This will take us too long," Aries says. "Is there anywhere we can go that's not within the duct system?"
I'm not sure, Max replies. There might be maintenance shafts but I don't know where they'll lead.
"Let's try it. Anything is better than staying in here," Aries says.
A few minutes later, Max pushes the duct cover into a service room.
"Let me go first," Aries says. "Not sure if there are cameras in there."
There are metal boxes stacked above each other, making it much easier to climb down. Aries waits until C.J., Seth, and Max are through the opening before the three of them climb down, staying as close together as possible.
There are a dozen androids moving toward your building across the bridge. Aries hears Born-of-Night in her thoughts.
"We can't use the bridge," she says. This somehow feels like a death sentence to her. When she looks into the faces of the others, she realizes that they are in no shape to present any resistance to the androids.
"If we can't cross inside the bridge," Seth says. "We might have to go on top."
"On top?" Aries says. She lets it sink in for a moment.
"Max, do you know how to get there?"
I'm not sure, but we'll have to climb up a few stories, he replies.
"How are you holding up?" Aries asks C.J.
"I don't know," she answers. "I feel dizzy."
"It's the drugs. Do you think you can climb up a few stories?”
"Yes," C.J. answers.
"I'll be right behind you," Seth says.
"Thanks," C.J. replies. Her hands shake uncontrollably.
They climb through the hatch and into the maintenance shaft until they reach a ladder leading upward. Aries can feel C.J.'s pain almost physically as the thin metal rungs cut into her feet.
I should have given her my shoes, she thinks.
That would not help anybody, Born-of-Night answers. You are here to lead them, not to give away your shoes. Where are you?
We should be close to the bridge, Max answers, when they reach another vertical shaft. At its end is a small hatch. Let's see where this leads.
When he pushes against the hatch, it only opens a few inches. The sound of the wind hits them full force. Max closes it again.
"We're here. This leads to the outside," Aries repeats his thoughts.
Max opens the hatch again. Seth helps him push the metal door all the way out and against the wall. Aries lets out a gasp. Immediately below them is a ladder, leading down about thirty feet and onto the roof of the bridge. The sun is still below the horizon, but the sky has taken on lighter orange and red tones.
I can see you. Aries hears Born-of-Night in her thoughts.
There. Aries points at a speck of dust in the distance.
I'm coming to you, she hears the hawk think.
Let's go, Max thinks. We need to be at the other end before the sun rises.
He starts to climb down the ladder. Seth is next, then C.J. Aries climbs out also. She almost can't close the hatch door against the wind. When she reaches the bottom, she stands there for a moment. The city lies far below, most of it still in the shadows. The other building stands far across on the other side of the bridge, no more than a silhouette against the darkened sky. She becomes aware of the night around her, the stars above, and the coolness of the air. No high-definition electronic replica could have prepared her for this. Before she can take it all in, Born-of-Night swoops down and lands on her outstretched arm.
"It's so good to see you," Aries says.
You too, Born-of-Night answers.
C.J. stretches out her hand, strokes the hawk's back and belly.
"She's beautiful," C.J. says.
"I don't understand," Seth says, a puzzled look on his face.
"I'll tell you all about it once we're across," Aries says with a smile.
We need to go, Max thinks.
Born-of-Night lifts off as they begin to run across, adjusting their speed to C.J.'s ability to move on the rough surface. When she stumbles, Seth catches her and from then
on she holds onto his arm as they cross the peak of the first wing. The center of the bridge comes into view. When Aries’s eyes find the highest point there, a hatch door opens. A dark shape moves upward, its mechanical eyes pointing in their direction.
"Drones!" Aries cries, just as Born-of-Night's thought confirms what she has seen. In a split second she realizes they have nowhere to go.
"Lie down on the ground." she says.
As they follow her example, Aries watches the hawk diving toward the drones. When she crashes into the first one, a sharp pain floods Aries’s body. She can't differentiate whether the pain is hers or that of the hawk. Born-of-Night's razor sharp beak picks at the sensors and, after a few moments, the drone jerks to one side, sliding toward the bridge and crashing into it.
We should go now! Aries hears Max in her thoughts. A moving target is harder to hit than one that's stationary.
"Let's go," she says to the others.
As they get up and run toward the center, the second drone hovers toward them. A blue electrical charge explodes on their left. Then another. That one comes dangerously close to Max.
Don't stop. Keep running, Max thinks.
Born-of-Night reaches the second drone and lands on top. She picks at it until its movements become erratic. Aries watches, expecting it to fall at any moment. Suddenly, the metal chassis is covered in blue electric current. There is a loud snapping sound and the drone hovers for a moment, then drifts downward.
"No!" Aries shouts. Her connection to Born-of-Night is cut the moment the drone falls.
Max, alerted by Aries's cry, looks up and sees the hawk fall off the drone and drop like a stone.
"Catch her!" Aries yells at Max who, out of sheer instinct, has already moved in the direction of her fall. He doesn't think, doesn't spend one thought on how close to the edge he has come. He only looks up, trying to determine where the hawk will land. He catches her, slips and falls on his back. Aries can hear the smacking sound when his head hits the roof. His momentum, however, still propels him toward the edge as he lets go of Born-of-Night's limp body. Aries leaps forward, trying to reach him. She can see Seth plunging after him as well. For a second, her eyes meet Max's. Then he's over the edge and disappears from her sight.
Chapter 15 — 8
//From voice recorder file t.0991_11_91xtl.ut kiire_understaad//
Carl-Louis Foster held no illusions about his future. Or his present, for that matter. The only thing he’d known since he was a little boy was that he wanted to become a doctor. A surgeon, to be precise. After the tests, the Corporation, well aware of his talents, offered him a package deal he couldn't refuse. Ten years later, he was one of the most sought-after surgeons in Tier Six. He had everything he could possibly want, including the trust and favor of the heads of the company. Until he lost the daughter of one of the board members on the operating table. Until then, he was untouchable.
The one thing that he never had to worry about, that was never in question, were his hands. He could count on them each time someone's life hung by a thread before him. They would unmistakably lead him to where they needed to go and, with sure precision, carry out what needed to be done. Not that morning. It is unclear whether it was the wine, the drugs, the two cups of coffee before he left his apartment on the 131st floor, or all of it together.
The robots used for surgery were there to assist in basic operations—appendixes, torn tendons, small tumors, etcetera. But nineteen-year-old Meredith McNamara had broken her neck. She had fallen down the stairs thirty minutes prior. I only had access to a four-second clip from a security camera and even though it was erased only five minutes after the images were taken, I was able to access it via the shadow drive software. The clip showed her with her father, Paul McNamara, at the end of what looks like a heated argument. Meredith said something that I couldn't make out. Paul hit her right cheek with the back of his right hand. It was a powerful stroke. Meredith lost her balance and fell backward onto the concrete stairs. Her fifth vertebrae split in half.
The fragile nerves hung by a thread as Dr. Foster, in an attempt to remove a splintered piece of the vertebrae, clipped them ever so slightly. Meredith was paralyzed below her neck. That included her ability to speak. She died two days later. Paul McNamara wanted Carl's blood. He wanted him imprisoned. There was no way the board would allow that, but he convinced them to immediately have the surgeon’s license revoked and to void the ten-year contract he had signed only a week prior. The board negotiated a deal in which he could keep a very limited version of his license but was cut off from most of the social functions he had an automatic invite to. He was subsequently transferred to Building II where he was put in charge of a group of girls who were rotated between the buildings. It was a group of twenty or twenty-five girls, some as young as fifteen. He was there to administer their meds and see to it that they were in good health. Up until a few weeks ago, he hadn't cared why they were here. He just gave them what they needed without question.
On the morning of Claudia-Jean's escape, he got up as usual at 5:00 a.m. for the first shot of the tranquilizing agent. C.J.'s room was the fifth one. When he opened the door, he saw immediately that she was gone. "What's going on here?" he said loudly. "She's gone! She escaped!"
After he had pushed the alarm button on his intercom, he stood there for a few moments listening to the silence, looking at the empty, unmade bed, the ties around the bedposts. Something in him broke at that moment. Something hard and unyielding. He didn't know where the tears came from when he took off his lab coat and placed the syringe back into the small container in his hand. Cameras picked him up several times on his way to his apartment, but he never reached it and has never been seen since.
// end of upload t.0991_11_91xtl//
* * *
Aries drops onto her stomach, inches forward to get a glimpse over the edge. Her thoughts are chaotic, unconnected images pushing themselves into her mind. She senses more than sees Seth kneeling next to her. It takes her a few seconds to become aware of the scream. It's not in her thoughts but in her ear. It's Max. When Aries looks down, she sees him hanging from a small ledge. His face shows utter panic. His voice is hoarse and she realizes at that moment that Max might have never used it until now. She grabs his wrist at the same instant Seth grabs the other one.
"We got you," she says. "We won't let go. Be still. Don't move. You need to let go of the ledge and grab our arms, you hear me? Max!"
There is no answer in her thoughts. Just a nod. She becomes aware of the terrifying silence between them and the fact that she can't hear his thoughts. A wave of dizziness washes over her.
"Concentrate on him, not what's below," Seth says. "And it's better if you kneel as well."
Aries moves her legs in until she’s kneeling. Her eyes don't let go of Max's. If there has ever been a time to encourage him rather than Max encouraging her, this is it.
"Come on," Aries says. It seems to cost Max all of his courage to let go of the ledge and grab onto Seth's wrist.
"Good, that's good!" Seth says. "Now the other one. You can do it. I got you."
Max lets go of the ledge and grabs onto Aries’s wrist.
"Pull!" Aries says, as they both haul Max to his feet.
"We need to move," Seth says. Aries nods to him. She kneels beside Born-of-Night, lifts her up and gently holds her against her chest.
"Come," C.J. says. "We'll take care of her once we're inside."
When they cross the top of the center part, Seth slows down.
"Look! Here's where they came out from."
There is an opening of about four feet in diameter. Aries has visions of other drones coming up toward it. "Wait here," Seth says, and runs toward the crashed drone closest to them. Max follows him, and they both drag the drone toward the opening.
"I think something is happening inside!" Aries says, when she sees something move ten feet below her. A low humming sound builds. Too slow, Max and Seth pull the drone toward the opening.
"There are more coming up," she cries, realizing that they will reach the surface before Seth and Max can make it. Without thinking much about it, Aries jumps into the opening, landing on top of the drone below her. She uses her boots to break two of the sensors off. The drone sputters. Its upward motion slows down.
"Come out!" Seth cries.
She climbs out just when Seth and Max move the broken drone over the opening and drop it down. It crashes onto the other one.
"That should do it," Seth says.
As they run toward the other building, Aries tries to push her thoughts about the hawk out of her mind. "Don't leave me," she says under her breath. "Stay with me!"
But the emptiness she feels spreads within her and when they reach the ladder leading up to the hatch and into the building, she is convinced that Born-of-Night has died. Almost in a trance, she grabs the six-point hexagon key when they reach the top of the ladder. She unlocks the hatch, pulls it open despite the wind, and climbs inside. Max follows closely, then C.J. and Seth, who closes the hatch behind them. Max points in the direction of the elevator.
"I have to take care of Born-of-Night first," Aries says.
Max shakes his head and points toward the direction they came from before.
"No! I have to help her," she says. "I need to revive her and get her back!" Aries isn't aware that she is saying this out loud.
Max takes her hands, his eyes pleading with her. Aries knows he's right.
"We have to get out of here first," Seth says.
"Okay," Aries says. There is no conviction in her voice.
Max turns and moves into the shaft. The others follow. From here, Max leads them through several different maintenance tunnels until they reach a panel. Aries opens the bolts.
"I hope the chip still works when we get into the elevator," she says.
One by one, they climb out of the opening. Max points to the left. They follow the hallway until the elevator door comes into view. When they get there, C.J. pushes the button. Above the door, the floor numbers begin to change in ten-floor increments. Then the elevator doors open. Aries holds her breath, hoping nobody is in there. No such luck. Two women and one man are about to exit the cabin. They seem as perplexed as they are. For a split second, Aries realizes how strange they must look to them. After a moment, Seth moves to the side, creating an opening through which they can leave the elevator.