by R. J. Blain
“You can really get through this door?”
“If you shut up long enough for me to work, I can,” I hissed at him.
“Mommy,” Colby whined.
I was getting better at reading my unusual roommate’s tone; its whining tone formed a question, and while I wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to know, I had a few suspicions. All of them involved its rather potent digestive system.
“Let’s not destroy the door unless we really, really need to Colby,” I replied. “Shush, both of you.”
They obeyed.
The trick to opening the door wasn’t complicated; I had to answer the question asked in braille on the door. Once I translated the question, I needed to find the corresponding braille and tap in the phrase. The question changed every couple of minutes, putting a time delay on the door.
Whoever had designed the door had decided the measures were enough and allowed as many attempts to input the correct sequence during the period of time the question was active.
The door had millions of potential combinations. Without a hacking interface, someone could spend an entire lifetime inserting random combinations and never enter the vault. There was only one constant about the door, and that was where the question appeared.
I crouched in front of the door, trailing my fingers along the bottommost line of braille. I felt Rob join me, warm against my side. He stroked his hand down the length of my arm until he reached the door.
“So, how does this work?”
“The door asks a question. We press in the correct answer in braille and it lets us in.”
“It’s that simple?”
“The question changes every few minutes.”
“Not so simple, then.” Rob hummed before drawing in a deep breath and sighing. “We really can’t use light down here?”
“There are none so blind as those who will not see,” I quoted although I had no idea who had originally coined the phrase.
It fit the lives of those who lived under the heel of the government and its elite far too well. Over the years, I hadn’t thought too hard about the vault and its creator, but as I worked to decipher the vault’s door, I wondered who they had been and why they had built it.
Had they known what would come, or had they responded to the fall of the old ways and the rise of the caste system?
I doubted I would ever know.
My limited knowledge of braille slowed my progress, as did the vast number of words and phrases etched over the door. With each failed attempt, my frustration grew. When I felt the text shift beneath my fingers, I returned to the question, read it the best I could, and hunted for the answer on the vast wall.
With each word I read successfully, my memories of braille returned. I didn’t know every word or number, but I knew enough. All I had to do was wait for a question with a simple answer, then we would be inside. The rush of adrenaline filled me each time the patterns on the door shifted.
Rob and Colby waited in silence, although I heard the shuffle of Rob’s feet on the floor. The door changed patterns under my fingers, and I slid my hands over the door and crouched so I could read the question.
The phrase puzzled me. While it had the cadence of literature, it didn’t quite match the hints and riddles the door usually provided. “‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud?’”
Rob chuckled. “Bible verse.”
“Come again?”
“It’s a verse from the Bible.”
I sat back on my heels, huffing. “Well, shit. That’s unhelpful.”
“Why?”
“Usually it wants the next sentences of the book, the title of the book, or where it’s found. There’s sometimes several answers to the question in the door. Whoever created the vault wanted people to get in—if they have knowledge.”
“‘It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.’ That’s the next sentence,” Rob said.
“I hadn’t you pegged as the religious type, Rob.”
There was a long moment of silence before the dae sighed and replied, “I’m not.”
“That’s only one sentence. There needs to be two. The clue had two sentences,” I informed him, rising so I could search the door for either a reference to the bible or the corresponding words. At least the phrase was easy enough I could pick out the words with my limited knowledge of braille.
“‘Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth,’” Rob replied. “It is from the book of Corinthians.”
“The door is obviously a romantic,” I quipped, running my hands over the door. So many repeated words would make tapping the phrase in much easier, as long as I remembered where they were when I found them. I shivered in anticipation of success when I found the first word, and a giggle burst out of me when the next few were nearby on the door. I tapped in the first word and a faint blue, ghostly light illuminated the braille.
“I thought light was bad,” Rob hissed.
“It is when we’re the ones shining it.”
The vault door worked in mysterious ways, but I had the feeling it took pity on us. I found all of the words before the question changed. The floor beneath my feet quivered and the door clicked.
I stepped back, dusting my hands off. “We’re in. Thanks, Rob.”
“That’s what partners are for.”
6
Maybe these will satisfy your endless appetite.
The door to the vault slid open, and cool, fresh air washed over me. Bright white light illuminated the hallway beyond and reflected off the shining metal walls and floor. I breathed in deep, marveling over the sweet scent and the way it filled my lungs. Baltimore had its fair share of smog, although it was considered one of the cleaner cities in the United States. Rob inhaled and sighed.
“Impressive,” he murmured.
I could spend hours standing in the doorway enjoying the pure air, but instead of falling prey to the sweet scent, I stepped into the hallway, reaching back to grab hold of Rob’s hand. I rarely held his hand, but as always, he gave me a squeeze. “This way.”
It took several tugs to force him into motion, and I guided him down the branching corridors. I had spent days exploring, hunting for what Kenneth had sent me to find. The first place I’d take Rob would be the kitchen.
Exploring the vault on an empty stomach wouldn’t do any of us any good, and despite having eaten dinner, I hungered. Then again, I’d donated most of my dinner to Colby. My memory of the layout proved accurate, and Rob whistled when I led him into spacious room.
The place was a utilitarian paradise, filled with every cooking gadget ever invented. I hadn’t figured out how the place remained clean or stocked, but I could summon a wealth of ingredients at the touch of a button.
Instead of wasting time cooking, I went to the screen controlling the kitchen and tapped in a request for nutrient tablets. I marveled the device still worked without anyone maintaining it. The tablets were one of the vault’s many mysteries; two could satisfy hunger for hours with no obvious signs of malnutrition even over the course of a month.
It took less than a minute for a handful of the tablets to bounce out of the chute in the wall and land in the tray. I grabbed two, gave two to Rob, and offered the rest to Colby.
“Mommy?”
“Maybe these will satisfy your endless appetite,” I said, popping mine in my mouth.
They didn’t taste like much, which suited me just fine. I swallowed them back and headed for the door. Both of the dae stared at me before considering the gray discs. When I scowled at them, they ate their unconventional meal, and followed me out of the kitchen.
“You’re sure those aren’t poison?”
Was he crazy? He had to be crazy. Why would I poison myself or them? Why was I attracted to someone who could say such idiotic things? “I lived an entire month on them, Rob. Sure, they don’t taste like much, but they do the job. You’ll be grateful for them in
a while; it’s a bit of a hike to where the computers are stored. And anyway, I wouldn’t poison Colby.”
“What about me?”
“Some days, you tempt me, but your evening behavior tends to convince me to keep you around,” I informed him, narrowing my eyes.
“You amaze me, Alexa.”
My irritation dissolved away, and I blushed. Determined to maintain my dignity, I hurried down the hall, leaving the two dae to catch up with me. Thin colored lines marked the walls, and I followed the dark gray marking, which would guide me to the storage section of the vault. First, I needed to hunt a laptop for Rob and see if there were any functional batteries left for my system. If time allowed, I would grab a second system for myself and set it up, hoping its battery hadn’t died from the long years of disuse.
While I had no way of knowing for certain, I estimated the storage facility was a little over two miles away from the entry. The hallway sloped down, and as we descended, the temperature cooled until I shivered. Rob fell into step beside me, and he rested his palm against the middle of my back. While the gesture was possessive, a single glance at the dae was enough to convince me my complaints could wait.
Rob’s expression and stance were tense, as though he feared what might be lurking down one of the many branching corridors.
“Relax, Rob. You saw how difficult it is to get in here. It’ll be fine.”
“Someone found it before,” he pointed out in a terse tone.
“I’m aware. I tripped over the poor bastard.” My chin still ached from my collision with the ground, but instead of complaining, I picked up my pace.
“You’re going to have a spectacular bruise given a few hours.”
“You can kiss it better later. Looting now. Playing later.”
“You’re in a hurry. Why?”
“If we don’t have to spend the entire day in here, let’s not.” While I was tempted to stay in the vault and marvel at its many mysteries, Rob’s tension and worries were enough to put me on edge. Maybe he didn’t have a legitimate reason for his concerns, but for an elite, he had good instincts, and if he was nervous, there was usually a good reason for it.
“Where are we going?”
“One of the storage rooms to find you a laptop. Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be some working batteries, too. I’ll pick up a spare for me, if we find a second one.”
“I’m amazed yours hasn’t been confiscated yet.”
“What the government doesn’t know won’t hurt them. People have seen the laptop before—some of them are elites, too—but there are so many different models made after the reformation they don’t realize it’s illegal. Since it’s running a government-allowed operating system, they don’t think to look any deeper. Once I have yours set up, it’ll pass inspection. If they ask why you’re on such an old machine, just claim you’re ensuring backwards compatibility for fringe users. Works every time. Fringe rats lucky enough to have a system have old ones, so they’ll view it as a necessary sacrifice. They’ll even be impressed with your dedication.”
“You’ve really put thought into this.”
I laughed. “Not as much as I should have. If I had put any thought into it, I would have hunted down a braille translation tablet before coming here. No matter. Once we get home, I’ll have to make you a charge adapter for the plugs; they use the old style of plugs from before the government wised up and banned the outlets.”
“It amazes me how much you know about history.”
“Every time Kenneth sent me to an estate with a library, I’d read the books. I spent a lot of time down here reading, too. I have a good memory.” My memory had saved my ass more times than I could count. It also got me into equal amounts of trouble.
“Do you think there is a copy of the Bible in here?”
I halted, twisting around to stare at the dae. “I thought you said you weren’t religious.”
“I’m not.”
“Then why do you want something like that?”
“Know your enemy,” he informed me. Something about his tone warned me he was evading my question, although I didn’t think he was lying to me.
I decided it didn’t matter. If Rob had an interest in religion, it didn’t hurt me at all. He was welcome to believe what he wanted, as long as he didn’t mind my lack of faith. His knowledge had gotten us into the vault, after all.
I smiled at him. “We can check the library on the way out. If you want an old copy of one, before it was sanitized to meet government standards, there might be one here. Just don’t get caught with it, okay? You might be an elite, but some crimes they won’t forgive, and spreading old religious texts is one of them. At least you didn’t ask for a book from a taboo religion. Getting caught with one of those is a death sentence, no matter what your rank is.”
A wealth of old electronics waited in the storage wing of the vault, and everything was as I had left it years ago. The lack of dust amazed me, and I found myself once again wondering who had built the place. I had several guesses regarding the why of the vault, although I doubted I’d ever learn its history for certain.
Rob sucked in a breath, his eyes widening as he took in the shelves and cases filled with rectangular boxes, each and every one of them containing a laptop, antiquated piece of technology, or accessory of some sort.
The room was at least fifty feet wide, and I hadn’t quite figured out how long it was; the entire thing, as far as I could tell, was crammed full of electronics.
I longed to spend another month in the place, lost among the relics of the past. “Welcome to the vault.”
“Jesus Christ,” Rob spluttered. “If the elite discovered this, they’d destroy it in a heartbeat. You’re trusting me with this?”
The idea of Rob exposing the vault hadn’t even crossed my mind—a critical mistake on my part, but one I didn’t regret. He had already risked so much for me. The vault barely scratched the surface of what I owed him.
Knowledge of the vault wasn’t sufficient repayment for my life.
It disturbed me to realize that even without the debt, I would have trusted Rob with the secret I’d held close to my chest for years.
Perhaps admitting the truth would help appease my need to thank him.
“I trust you,” I replied, working my way deeper into the maze of shelves and racks. Years ago, I had located my system in the heart of the storage room. The unadorned white boxes had drawn my attention to the machines. In the final days before the government had stomped out free commerce, most companies had taken pride in their brand until the bitter end.
I wondered why the company had erased its name from the systems before it had been destroyed as a part of the reformation. Had the company known what was coming and tried to conform to the new government standards? Did the company still exist?
I doubted I would ever know.
Extremism of any stripe never ended well.
“No wonder you spent a month in here. You could spend a month in this room alone and not be able to catalog everything.” Rob followed me through the maze.
Somewhere deeper inside, I heard my roommate squealing its excitement.
“This isn’t food, Colby!”
“Mommy!” Scorn laced Colby’s voice, and I laughed.
It took me longer than I liked to find the rack containing the laptops similar to mine, and I handed off a pile of ten of the systems to Rob before taking as many as I could carry.
“Don’t we need only one?”
“Most won’t work. Took me five to get one that booted. If we luck out and find two, I’ll take a spare for me. Let’s put these near the door and see if we can find working battery packs for them, external keyboards, and other accessories. If we’re going to help ourselves, we may as well do it right. We can even get data chips in here. They’re old and don’t hold a whole lot, but they’re one of the few formats the government did allow after the reformation.”
“Imagine the fortune we could make if we took a few extras f
or the black market.”
The thought had crossed my mind several times the first time I had entered the vault, but I had decided against the idea. “The money would be nice, but it’s too risky. This place is too valuable to risk for greed.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Miss Daegberht.”
“Just what is that supposed to mean?”
Rob laughed and didn’t reply.
I was grateful it didn’t take long to confirm if a laptop worked or not. It took three trips to find a functioning system. When Colby made its appearance, it was dragging several laptop bags behind it, and they were loaded with slender tablet boxes and a few accessories. I blinked at my roommate, wondering how it would use a tablet.
Instead of asking stupid and offensive questions, I opened the boxes and discovered the tablets had a better survivability rate than the laptops; all six Colby had found worked, and deciding the tablets were easier to hide than laptops, I packed them all into the bag.
There would be plenty of time later to figure out what we could do with them. I filled one of the bags with spare keyboards, mice, and chips while the other held Rob’s laptop and the tablets.
“Let’s hit the library and get out of here. How long until sunrise?”
“Three hours,” Rob reported.
Three hours was more than enough time to reach the library, find a copy of a pre-reformation Bible for Rob, and get out of the vault before the doors closed for the day. I nodded to acknowledge the dae, grabbed one of the bags, and headed out of the storage area. Rob took the second bag and fell into step with me.
Despite having lived with the dae for three months, there was still so little I knew about him, including how he had managed to integrate so smoothly into society after the Dawn of Dae. So many times, I hadn’t asked the questions eating away at me, not certain how he’d react to my curiosity.