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And then there was the rotting skyline and the ies in the children’s books, both of which seemed to hold clues The priests, of course, would say that the skyline was evidence that man wasn’t supposed to exceed his bounds And the books with the faded color pages? The fanciful iination of authors, a class done aith for all the trouble they inspired

But Juliette didn’t see fanciful iination in those books She had spent a childhood in the nursery, reading each one over and over whenever they weren’t checked out, and things in them and in the wondrous plays perfor cylinder in which they lived

She wiggled the last of the water hoses free and began separating the puested a chewed-up i the shaft As she worked on autoh a job she’d perforht back on the myriad of animals that populated those books,eyes The only fanciful part, she figured, was that they all talked and acted human There were mice and chickens in several of the books that performed these stunts as well, and she knew their breeds were incapable of speech All those other animals must exist somewhere, or used to She felt this to the core, inative at all Each seemed to follow the same plan, just like all the silo’s pumps You could tell one was based on the other A particular design worked, and whoever had made one had made them all

The silo made less sense It hadn’t been created by a God--it was probably designed by IT This was a new theory, but she felt more and more sure of it They controlled all the ihest law and the deepest religion, and both of these were intertwined and housed within its secretive walls And then there was the spacing from Mechanical and the spread of the deputy stations--more clues Not to ranted them immunity And now the discovery of a second supply chain, a series of parts engineered to fail, a purpose behind the lack of progress in survival ti theitated She turned to look for Caryl, but the younger woray as it waited to dry and blend in with the rest Looking up, Juliette scanned the ceiling of the puh the walls and led overhead A run of stea any of the wires; a ribbon of heat tape hung off one of these pipes in a loose coil It would have to be replaced soon, she thought That tape ht be ten or twenty years old She considered the stolen tape that had caused so much of the mess she was in, and hoould’ve been lucky to survive twenty minutes up there

And that’s when Juliette realized what she must do A project to pull the wool back from everyone’s eyes, a favor to the next fool who slipped up or dared to hope aloud And it would be so easy She wouldn’t have to build anything herself--they would do all the work for her All it would take would be soood at that

She s in her head as the broken impeller was removed from the faulty pump All she would need to fix this problem was a replace everything in the silo working properly once more

• • • •

Juliette worked two full shifts, wearing herher tools and showering She worked a stiff brush under her nails over the bathroom sink, determined to keep the forward to a tall plate of high-energy food rather than the weak rabbit stew froh Mechanical’s entrance hall and saw Knox talking to Deputy Hank The way they turned and stared, she knew they were talking about her Juliette’s stoht was of her father And then Peter Who else could they take away froht care about? They wouldn’t know to contact her about Lukas, whatever he was to her

She made a swift turn and headed their direction, even as the two of them moved to intercept her The looks on their faces confir awful had happened Juliette barely noticed Hank reaching for his cuffs

"I’ot close

"What happened?" Juliette asked "Dad?"

Hank’s brorinkled in confusion Knox was shaking his head and chewing on his beard He studied the deputy like heon?"

"Jules, I’m sorry" He shook his head He seemed to want to sayfor her arainst the silo"

He recited the lines like they were from a sad poeed and sentenced according to the Pact"

Juliette looked up at Knox "What is this?" she asked Was she really being arrested again?

"If you are found guilty, you will be given a chance at honor"

"What do you wantbeneath his coveralls He wrung his hands together, watching the second metal band clack around her other wrist, her two hands shackled together now The large Head of Mechanical see violence--or worse

"Easy, Knox," Juliette said She shook her head at hi hurt because of her was too much to bear

"Should humanity banish you fro, his eyes ith shao," Juliette told Knox She looked past hi to see this spectacle of their prodigal daughter being put in cuffs

"--in that banishment, may you find your sins scrubbed, scrubbed away," Hank concluded

He looked up at her, one hand gripping the chain between her wrists, tears streaking down his face

"I’m sorry," he said

Juliette nodded to him She set her teeth and nodded to Knox as well

"It’s all right," she said She kept bobbing her head "It’s all right, Knox Let it go"

12

The clier than it should have, but there were protocols A day trip up to Hank’s office, a night in his cell, Deputy Marsh co from the mids to escort her up another fifty levels to his office

She felt nu, the looks frorease It was difficult to concern herself with her own life--she was too busy tallying all the lives that had been lost, some of them because of her

Marsh, like Hank, tried to make small talk, and all Juliette could conte side That evil ran amuck But she kept her mouth shut