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When Darcy didn’t un, but the one from his other pocket that he kneas locked and loaded The disappoint man’s face before he turned and complied was a physical blow Donald watched hiht his sister’s arave her a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek "Go ahead and get your suit on," he told her

She nodded, followed Darcy, sat back down on the bin and began to work herself into her suit

"This isn’t happening," Darcy said He eyed the pistol Charlotte had set aside while she squirmed into her suit

"Don’t even think about it," Donald said "In fact, you should get busy getting dressed"

The guard and his sister both turned to peer at his into her suit "What’re you talking about?" she asked

Donald picked up the ha the tools and showed it to her "I’o off," he said

She tried to stand up, but her feet weren’t all the way through the suit legs "You said you had a way of setting it off reun at Darcy "Get dressed You’ve got five et inside that lift--"

Darcy lunged for the gun sitting beside Charlotte Charlotte was faster and snatched it off the bin Donald took a step back, and then realized his sister was aiet dressed," she told her brother Her voice was shaky, her eyes shining "This isn’t e discussed You prohed into the crook of his aran to back toward the lift, his gun trained on Darcy "You’re not going to shoot un," Darcy told Charlotte "He’ll listen if I’ to shoot et out of here I’ you half an hour The drone lift takes twentythe door is an e and tugging at the legs of her suit, trying to get her feet all the way through Donald had known she’d never go without hi stupid She would run and e him to come, insist that she would stay there and die with hi her out had been to leave Darcy with her He was a hero He would save himself and her both Donald jabbed the call button on the non-express

"Half an hour," he repeated He saw that Darcy was already unzipping his suit to get in His sister was yelling at hi to stand up, nearly tripped and fell She started to kick the suit off rather than put it on the rest of the way The elevator dinged and opened Donald leaned the cart back and pulled it inside Tears welled up in his eyes to see the pain he was causing Charlotte She was halfway down the aisle toward hian to close

"I love you," he said He wasn’t sure if she heard hiht of her He scanned his ID, pressed a button, and the lift began to move

Silo 17

58

The coed below Wisps of smoke curled out froreat blackrow of headset jacks had shattered, and several of the wires at the base of the machine had stretched and snapped when it tipped over

"Will it burn out?" Raph asked, eyeing the wisps of shed She could still feel the ses "I don’t know," she adn of faltering "What power this silo has runs beneath the grates down there"

"So this silo could go dark as the et our bags, have our flashlights handy And you need to drink some more water"

Juliette watched hi beneath her She could feel the wires inside the radio o – hoped it wouldn’t go – but so e scheht be ash already The schematics to help her choose which silo to reach out to, which silo to dig for, gone

Tall black machines hummed and whirred all around her, those square-shouldered and uniants Unmoved save for one Juliette rose to her feet and studied the fallen server, and the link between those machines and the silos became even more obvious Here was one collapsed like her hoement of the servers and remembered that their layout was identical to the layout of the silos Raph returned with both of their bags He handed Juliette her canteen of water She took a sip, lost in thought

"I’ve got your flashli--"

"Wait," Juliette said She twisted the cap back onto her canteen and walked between the servers She went to the back of one and studied the silver plate above the nest of wires There was a silo syles The nu for?" Raph asked

Juliette tapped the plate "Lukas used to say he needed to work on server six or server thirty or whatever I res were laid out like the silos We have a scheht here"

She set off in the direction of servers seventeen and eighteen Raph followed along "Should orry about the power?" he asked

"There’s nothing we can do about that The decking and walls down there shouldn’t get hot enough to catch When it burns out, we’ll go see--" Soht Juliette’s eye as she traced a route between the servers The wires underneath the floor grates darted in and out of their chutes, running to the bases of the machines It was a series of red wires amid all the black ones that stopped her

"What now?" Raph asked He atching her as though he orried "Hey, are you feeling okay? Because I’ve seen et a rock to their crowns and act loopy for a day--"

"I’m fine," Juliette said She pointed to the run of wires, turned and i froreed "A map" He took her by the arm "Why don’t you come sit down? You breathed a lot of sirl on the radio, the one from Silo 1, she said there was a map with these red lines on it It caer She seemed really excited, said she understood why all the lines went off and converged This was before the radio stopped working"

"Okay"

"These are the silos," Juliette said She held out her hands to the tall servers "C’mere Look" She hurried around the next row, studied the plates as she searched Fourteen Sixteen Seventeen "Here we are And this is where we tunneled And that’s our old silo" She pointed to the next server

"So you’re saying we can choose which of these to call on the radio by seeing who’s close? Because we have a ot one"

"No, I’ those red lines on her round down there The diggers weren’t o from one silo to the next Bobby was the one who toldwas to turn It was aimed somewhere"