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McLain nodded "Just so we’re both clear--"
"Clear as glass," he said
He clapped his hands, an idea forot it," he told her "A diversion" He pointed to the lower floors of Mechanical on the blueprint "What if we have Jenkins cascade a power outage? We could start a few levels above this, or even better, with the farenerator work--"
"And you think the mids’ll clear out?" She narrowed her eyes
"If they want a warm meal Or they’ll hunker down in the dark"
"I think they’ll be in the stairwell gossiping, wondering what all the fuss is about Evenup to fix the proble was sitting on his boot again
"Up to fix a problehed "When’s the last time that made any sense?"
Knox pulled on his beard He wasn’t sure as so complicated There were a lot of theo beat in tech heads, little men like Bernard who sat on their butts and clacked on keyboards like secretaries They just needed to go up there and do it
"You got any better ideas?" he asked
"We need to keep in eoned sorates, what then? Do you want people living in fear of that happening again? Or of whatever you put theet there?"
"I only want to hurt those that lied," he said "That’s all any of us want We’ve all lived in fear Fear of the outside Fear of cleaning Afraid to even talk about a better world And none of it was true The syste our heads and take it--"
Jackson barked up at hi the floor like a dropped air hose with a stuck nozzle that had gone out of control
"I think e’re done," he said, "and we start talking about using our kno to explore a world we’ve only ever looked out at, I think that’s gonna inspire so?"
He reached down and rubbed Jackson’s head, which stopped the ani so much noise McLain looked at hireee," she said with finality "Tonight, before any ent to see the cleaning return disappointed I’ll lead up a squad with candles and flashlights, oodwill mission headed by Supply You’ll follow a few hours later with the rest We’ll see how far the repair story gets us before we run into trouble Hopefully, a good nu in the up-top, or back in their beds in thefor a meal to care about the commotion"
"There’ll be less traffic those early hours," Knox agreed, "so oal will be to hit IT and contain it Bernard is still playing Mayor, so he probably won’t be there But he’ll either come to us or we’ll push up after him once the thirties are secure I don’t think he’ll put up reed," Knox said, and it felt good to have a plan To have an ally "And hey, thanks for this"
McLain sreaser," she said "And besides--" She nodded toward the dog "Jackson likes you, and he’s hardly ever wrong Not aboutthe mutt He pulled his hand away and watched the anihed at a joke, the voices of his ently hter was joined by the sounds of steel rods bending into shape, flat pieces ha rivets turned instead intobullets And Knox knehat McLain ’s eyes, that it would do anything for hi down on his chest, of the many who felt that way for him and for McLain--Knox decided that this was the heaviest burden of the is not advanced there"
The dirt farm below filled the stairith the rich s up as she descended another level and began noticing the scent She had no idea how long she’d slept--it had felt like days but could’ve been hours She had woken with her face pressed to the grating, a pattern of red lines otten underway i at her, the odor froency hung in the air so thick it felt like she ih the scents It was the smell of death, she decided Of funerals Of loay molecules into the air
She stopped on thirty--the hydroponic farms--and tried the doors It was dark inside There was a sound down the hallway, the whir of a fan or a e encounter, this s but the sounds she hts were no co body, of batteries draining with the leak of photons But this was so and footfalls, and it lurked deep in the dark corridors of the hydroponic farain, she left her only tool and defense behind as a doorstop to allow in a trickle of light She stole inside, the s as in the stairwell, and padded down the hallith one hand on the wall The offices and reception area were dark and lifeless, the air dry There was no blinking light on the turnstile, and she had no card or chit to feed it She placed her hands on the supports and vaulted over, this sh she had come to accept the lawlessness of this dead place, the co fro rooms She waited while her eyes adjusted, thankful for this ability honed by the down deeps of Mechanical and the dark interiors of broken machines What she saw, barely, when she was finally able, did not inspire her The hydroponic gardens had rotted away Thick stalks, like ropes, hung here and there froave her an idea of how long ago these farms had succumbed, if not the silo It hadn’t been hundreds of years, and it hadn’t been days Even athat wide felt like a treasure of information, the first crumb toward an answer to this mysterious place
She rapped one of the pipes with her knuckles and heard the solid thud of fullness
No plants, but water! Her mouth seemed to dry out with just the prospect Juliette leaned over the railing and into the growing room She pressed her mouth to one of the holes in the top of a pipe where the stalk of a plant should be growing She created a tight seal and sucked The fluid that ue was brackish and foul--but wet And the taste was not of anything chehtly rease and oil she had practically been drenched in for two decades
So she drank until she was full And she realized, now that she had water, that if there wereenough to gather them