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"Go," she told Walker, letting out a deep breath "Let’s get inside"

Walker nu all the while of the parts and tools he should have grabbed, things a few levels overhead now that were lost to hiet those people out of the control rooenerator roo behind her, bits of rigid aluroup ofthe yellow of Supply sheepishly filed out of the s that cordoned off the ave the rooined all those people being stuck down there in the days when the roar of the rattling shaft and loose engine mounts could deafen a person

"All of you, out of my control room" She waved the last few out Shirly knehy Jenkins had sealed off this floor The only power they had left was the literal kind She waved the last man out of the small room studded with sensitive knobs, dials, and readouts and immediately checked the fuel levels

Both tanks were topped up, so they had at least planned that properly They would have a feeeks of power, if nothing else She looked over all the other knobs and dials, the juainst her chest

"Where should I--?"

Walker held his box out The only flat surfaces in the roos one didn’t want to buuess" She set her load down and azed longingly through theat the few tall stools in the clinored the? Is it all here?"

Walker pulled pieces of the radio out of the box, tsking his tongue at the twisted wires and ju up the plug of a transforht now, right? Of course we have power" She took the cord and plugged it into one of the feeds on the et it up and running again? Walk, we need to let Jenkins hear e heard"

"I know" He bobbed his head and sorted the gear, twisting so that out" He jerked his head at the tangled antenna in her ar it froht line, make sure that end reaches back in here"

Shethe loops out behind her

"Oh, and don’t let the !" Walker called after her

Shirly recruited a few mechanics fro, they took over, coordinating as a team to undo the knots while she went back to Walker

"It’ll just be athe door behind her, the wire fitting easily between it and the padded jaood," he said He looked up at her, his eyes sagging, his hair ain his white beard "Shit," he said He slapped his forehead "We don’t have speakers"

Shirly felt her heart drop to hear Walker cuss, thinking they’d forgotten so back out and to the ear cord, the kind used to talk between the control rooenerators She jogged past the curious and frightened-looking crowd to the control room It occurred to her that she should becloser to them But all she could think about were the voices that war had interrupted Her curiosity was er than her fear It’s how she’d always been

"How about these?"

She shut the door behind herself and showed him the headphones

"Perfect," he said, his eyes ith surprise Before she could coan stripping wires "Good thing it’s quiet in here," he said, laughing

Shirly laughed as well, and it oing to do, sit in there and fiddle ires while the deputies and the security people froot the ear cones wired in, and a faint hiss of static leaked out of them Shirly hurried over to join him; she sat down and held his wrist to steady his hand The earphones treht have to--" He showed her the knob with the white marks he’d painted on

Shirly nodded and realized they’d forgotten to grab the paint She held the dial and studied the various ticks "Which one?" she asked

"No" He stopped her as she began dialing back toward one of the voices they’d found "The other way I need to see how hed into his fist "We need to see how radually toward the black unpainted portion The two of theenerator barely audible through the thick door and double paned glass

Shirly studied Walker while she spun the dial She wondered ould become of hi? Or could he and a few of the others clai what had been wrought of their anger, their thirst for revenge She thought how things could’ve gone so differently, how they’d had all these dreae in power, an easy fix to impossible and intractable proble impatient with the silence They’d heard a few hits of crackling static, but no one talking Shirly very slightly increased the rate she spun the knob

"You think the antenna--?" she started to ask

Walker raised his hand The little speakers in his lap had popped He jerked his thuo back Shirly did She tried to re a lot of the same skills she’d learned in that very rooenerator--

"--Solo? This is Juliette Can you hearon up there?"

Shirly dropped the knob She watched it swing on its soldered wire and crash to the floor

Her hands felt nuaped at Walker’s lap where the ghostly voice had risen, and found hi dumbly down at his own hands

Neither of them moved The voice, the name, they were unmistakable