Three Days Till Dawn

by R F Hurteau

  Ripley found his lack of surprise at being lied to in school somewhat disconcerting. He ought to be indignant or something. It seemed like it shouldn’t be so easy to accept.

  He came to the entrance of the North wing, the long hall leading to Sigil’s classrooms. This is where he and Felix had first met.

  Now, with no school in session during the week preceding the Anniversary, the classrooms were full of people doing last minute preparations for the festivities, rather than students. The hall, which normally looked so long and sleek with doors closed and silence reigning, was instead dotted with open doorways through which snippets of conversations floated out.

  Through one such door, Ripley caught a glimpse of a life-sized mockup of Antiquity’s Gate and slowed his pace to get a better look at it.

  “Well, maybe you should have thought of that before we finished it!” shouted an angry voice from within.

  “Me? Why do I have to think of everything?” came the exasperated reply.

  “I can’t believe they denied our request. Okay, well, maybe we could cut it into smaller pieces...”

  “Look at the size of it you idiot, there isn’t enough time to put it back together by morning!”

  Ripley couldn’t help snickering. He was still grinning as he reached the Observatory, and he was just about to share the story with Felix when he remembered why he had come.

  His amusement faded, a grim feeling of determination taking its place.

  The panel slid back to reveal his friend pacing back and forth.

  “Ripley!”

  Felix’s voice was a harsh whisper as he grabbed Ripley’s arm and pulled him inside.

  “What is it?”

  But Felix was already walking away, beckoning for him to follow.

  “Look at this!”

  He stabbed his finger at the monitor Ripley had repaired.

  Gazing at the screen, Ripley took in the quiet scene once again. It seemed unchanged since his last visit.

  “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

  Felix, in response, pointed at the other monitors.

  “Storm.” He pointed at a screen that showed next to nothing due to thick, heavy snow. “Storm,” he said again, pointing at the next one, which showed the same. “Storm, storm, storm.” He pointed in quick succession.

  Ripley looked back at the new monitor. “No storm.”

  Felix’s lip twisted in a faint, knowing smirk. “But wait, there’s more!”

  He flicked the tiny silver toggle, and once again the room was filled with the moaning wind. Ripley got the idea—storm—and reached to turn it off, but Felix held up a hand.

  “Wait!” Listen!”

  Ripley listened hard. And then he heard it. A rhythmic tapping that ebbed when the wind did, speeding up each time there was a gust.

  “I hear it!” he nearly shouted, and Felix spun a little dial, lowering the sound. “Oh, come on, you could have done that to begin with,” complained Ripley. “I think you’ve given me hearing loss.”

  “I checked the coordinates,” Felix went on, ignoring him. “But they didn’t make sense. All of the other cameras, they’re facing away from Sanctuary. But this camera is facing in. Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think it used to face out. I think something hit it, spun it around somehow. That’s probably why it refuses to pan. The camera is facing into D6, but the microphone is dangling, still hearing the storm, smacking against the dome whenever the wind blows.”

  “That makes sense! Felix, I think you just found the breach!”

  Ripley filled Felix in on what he’d learned in the supervisor’s office. He felt a twinge of pride as he recounted his daring escapade, and Felix expressed appropriate admiration for his friend’s first foray into espionage.

  “Wow, buddy. I didn’t realize you were into spy stuff!” He put on a joking, dreamy face. “Think of all the missed opportunities.”

  Then his gaze turned pensive. “Nobody cares about the Observatory because there’s nothing to see. If I told them every single camera was down, I doubt they’d even care. But I bet they’d care if they knew what we were seeing right now. If the panel was down, the old Attendant never would have known about it, so it wouldn’t have been reported.”

  But Ripley was shaking his head.

  “No. I don’t think so. I think the old Attendant knew exactly what happened, and I think he tried to hide it. That’s why that wire was cut, so no one else would see footage and figure out what was going on. You said it yourself, he must have known no one would care if one of the cameras stopped working. He probably went to look for the breach himself!”

  Felix walked away and returned with a stack of papers. “And he didn’t come back.” He seemed distracted as his eyes roamed over the pages. “So maybe he found it.”

  He paused, frustration evident in his tight-lipped grimace.

  “All the logs the old Attendant left behind look the same as mine,” he confirmed, flipping through. “This was the stack that was out when I first started. I remember because I shoved the box under the cot to try and keep the middle from sagging.”

  Felix passed him the papers and Ripley looked them over.

  Felix was right, all the logs reported No Activity, just like Felix’s.

  Then he noticed the dates. “How long after he disappeared did you start here, Felix?”

  “Three days. They don’t mess around. When he didn’t show for two whole days, they went ahead and replaced him.”

  Ripley was thinking hard, doing the math in his head. “That means that he stopped logging activity a full two days before he disappeared.”

  “Do you think he destroyed them?”

  Ripley shrugged. “Either that, or he took them when he left. But that doesn’t really matter.”

  His eyes were drawn back to the serene black and white scene outside, his mind racing through the possibilities. What was going on in Dome Six that would make the old Attendant feel the need to disappear? Was it possible he’d been captured and sent to Geo? No. If they had the Attendant, they wouldn’t still be looking for the breach. There was still hope. “Whatever he saw, he definitely didn’t want anyone to know.”

  Both of them were silent, watching the monitors. Then Ripley’s heart sank.

  “Captain Lub was here yesterday. He saw the monitor.”

  Felix smacked himself in the forehead.

  “You’re right!” He clucked his tongue absently as he considered this. “But he wouldn’t have cared, right? He wouldn’t have been looking for anything suspicious.”

  “That’s exactly what he would have been looking for,” Ripley corrected, heart sinking. “Think about it. How many Anniversaries have we worked here for? In all those years, do you ever remember them doing such extensive systems checks first? They’re searching for a breach; the checks are just a cover. And now we’ve given them one. We’ve practically led them right to it.”

  Felix slumped down into a chair, looking tired. “Great. We found the way out. We’re just a day late and a credit short.”

  “Maybe not.”

  Ripley felt a growing rush of excitement as the pieces began to fall into place.

  “Maybe he hasn’t quite put it together yet. He saw the monitor yesterday, but they didn’t install those weird panels in Core Operations until afterward. They’re still trying to pinpoint the location of the breach, that’s what the panels are for. And everyone’s getting ready for the celebrations, right? They aren’t going to pull the entire Engineering Corps off of their current assignments. That would look suspicious. According to the file they were trying to avoid a panic. If people suspected there was a breach—”

  “There’d be rioting in the streets!” finished Felix. “Tempers are already short around here. It wouldn’t take much to push people over the edg
e. The idea that Sanctuary is compromised? That the systems might fail, or that the Sequencing might get in?”

  He made a motion with his hands like an explosion. “I don’t want to be around if that happens.”

  Ripley tapped a finger against his chin.

  “Well, they’ve been searching this long. I don’t think they’ll be sloppy about it now. They’ll most likely wait till the speeches tomorrow night. Attendance is mandatory for all non-essential workers. That will give them some time to do whatever they need to do to find a way past the bulkheads. It can’t be a gaping hole—that would have been evident right away. I think we’ve got just as much of a chance of finding it as they do. If I’m right, that gives us a head start.”

  “And then what?” Mischief gleamed in Felix’s eyes.

  “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

  Felix looked at him, and Ripley couldn’t help feeling a little mischievous himself. This idea was crazy. It was dangerous. It was a bit stupid. But Felix’s wild desire to escape from Sanctuary no longer seemed impossible. There was now a tiny sliver of hope. If they could find the breach, if they could reach it, if they could devise a way to survive the cold and if they could find a way to travel north...there were so many variables, but Ripley decided to focus on one problem at a time. The rest would have to be dealt with as they came to it.

  “Tonight?” Felix looked at him with eyes full of fresh hope, and Ripley found himself nodding.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, his insides churning with a growing excitement. He was surprised to hear the firm conviction in his own voice. “Tonight, we’re going to Dome Six.”

  Five

  What Lies Beneath

  “HEY, Syl! Sylvia!”

  Sylvia turned around and saw Ben approaching from across the commissary. She smiled at him, tucking her paperwork under her arm to take the tray from the surly-looking red-headed man who was holding it out to her from behind the prep counter. “Thanks,” she offered, but he didn’t reply. She walked over to Ben, who hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the table behind him.

  “Hey, come on over here and meet Felix! He isn’t usually at this lunch.”

  “Oh, uh...”

  She hesitated, gazing with longing at a smaller, empty table in the corner. “I was kind of hoping to get a bit of work done while I ate...”

  “Oh, come on, enough already. Take a break, would you? They don’t pay us to work during lunch!”

  She looked uncertain, but somehow found herself nodding. “Okay, I guess so.”

  “Great!”

  She followed him toward the table where Felix was talking to another man she didn’t know. Dark, tousled hair, a lean figure, and a standard issue uniform were the only details she could make out before the other man stood abruptly, shoved his tray toward Felix, and rushed out of the commissary.

  “What was that all about?” asked Ben as they sat down, Sylvia already feeling a bit uncomfortable.

  “Huh?”

  Felix did not appear to be paying attention.

  “Oh, I’m not entirely sure...” his voice trailed off. Then he gave himself a little shake and offered her a friendly smile, reaching out his hand. “You must be Sylvia. A pleasure.”

  His wild hair was not unlike her brother’s untamed mane, the dark curls framing a face with high cheekbones and wide, opalescent eyes that were more welcoming than any she had ever seen on an Elf. She reminded herself that he was a Halfsie, though his Human characteristics seemed to have been well hidden. Felix glanced toward the door again, still gripping her hand in a firm shake, before finally releasing it.

  Focusing back on her and Ben, he spoke in a light-hearted tone. “Ben says you’ve been talking about me.”

  “What?” she squeaked, mortified. This did not seem like an appropriate way to make new friends. Not to mention, “Ben, I didn’t think you were going to go around blabbing about that to everyone in Sigil! I mean, I showed you that list in confidence—”

  “Relax, Syl, I didn’t tell him anything about it.” Ben gave a dismissive wave of his hand, shoveling the last remnants of stew into his mouth. “You’re so high-strung lately, you’re going to burst a blood vessel or something.”

  She stared at him, convinced that he’d made her look foolish to this virtual stranger on purpose. They spent a few tense moments like that, Ben stuffing his face and Sylvia glaring in open contempt before Felix broke the silence.

  “Well, this is awkward.” He was still wearing a jovial smile, and Sylvia felt her muscles relax as she gave a nervous chuckle.

  “It’s nothing,” she insisted, although he hadn’t pressed. “Just a list of potential speakers for tomorrow, um,” she gesticulated as if hoping the action would help her find the right words, “but it wouldn’t work out, since, um...”

  She stopped herself, lowering her hands to the table in defeat and frustrated with her brother for putting her in an awkward position with a man she barely knew.

  It was ironic that she was Head of Public Relations, yet here she was, struggling to relate to the public.

  “Oh yeah? Speakers, like for the celebrations or something? Isn’t it usually all the same boring Council members?” Felix’s tone suggested he was trying hard to sound interested.

  “Well, this year they’re trying something different, adding in some average Sigil employees.”

  “That’s new,” Felix commented, reminiscent of Ben’s comments the night before. “Because everyone loves more speeches, I guess.”

  Sylvia tried hard not to take offense at the obvious slight.

  “Yes, well, it wasn’t my decision,” she retorted, a bit more firmly than before. “And it’s nothing personal, about you not being picked, I mean. We just decided to go in a different direction. It’s not because...uh, hmm.”

  Felix laughed. “It’s fine.”

  He glanced back the way his friend had gone. “I get it. Cutting it a little close, though, aren’t you? Adding new stuff right before the big day?”

  “It’s not my fault,” Sylvia replied. “The Council sprung it on us just yesterday!”

  “Hey, I’m not judging.” Felix raised his hands. “Procrastination is one of my most finely-honed skills.”

  “But I wasn’t—oh, never mind.”

  She sighed, chewing the inside of her lip.

  “So...” she wracked her brain for a new topic of conversation, something—anything—less awkward. “Ben tells me that you guys used to work together in Pod Manufacturing?”

  Felix nodded but didn’t offer anything further.

  “And now you’re in the Observatory, right?”

  He nodded again.

  He seemed a little preoccupied. Sylvia looked at her brother and shrugged. She’d never been good at small talk. That was for people who didn’t have mountains of work waiting for their attention.

  “They’ve got rats down there!” Ben declared enthusiastically.

  Sylvia found herself horrified for the second time in the span of only a few minutes. “Rats, really?”

  “Excuse me,” said Felix, glancing at the clock. He stood, picking up the extra tray his friend had left behind. “It was nice to meet you, Sylvia, but I ought to get back to work now.”

  “Oh, of course.” She got up to shake his hand once more. “Nice to meet you as well.”

  Felix disappeared into the hall, still carrying the tray.

  “I wonder if he knows those aren’t supposed to leave the commissary?” she asked Ben as she sat back down, but he shrugged.

  “I don’t think he cares. So, listen! They’re doing a systems check in my department this afternoon, so I’m getting let off early!” Ben’s face sparkled with joy.

  “Oh yeah? What are you going to do with the rest of your day?”

  “Well, I was going to meet Nelson here after my shift got out
, so it seems a bother to go home first. You know what, I think I’m going to go look for some rats!”

  Sylvia’s eyes widened. “You’re not serious?”

  But she could see that he was serious. He was grinning from ear to ear like a giddy child. “Yeah, if Felix has them in the Observatory, I bet there are loads down in Pod Manufacturing since it’s underground. Rats like the underground, right? They’re probably all over the place! I’ve never seen one before, have you?”

  “No, but—”

  “I haven’t seen any kind of animal at all since back at school, when we used to go tour the Agridome once in a while. It was amazing. If I find one, maybe I’ll keep it as a pet!”

  “I’m sure mother would have something to say about that.”

  “She doesn’t need to know. He can live in our room!”

  Sylvia could not believe she was having this conversation.

  “I need to get back. You enjoy yourself, I guess.”

  “You bet!”

  ***

  The afternoon passed in a blur. By three o’clock, Sylvia was feeling quite accomplished, having conquered a large number of authorization forms and several important calls. Her regular workload was in dire need of attention, but at least the Anniversary would not be as complete a disaster as she’d originally feared.

  Things were looking up at last.

  There was a buzzing in her ear, and she pressed her earpiece. “Director of Public Relations.”

  “Syl?”

  The connection was poor, a thick static making her flinch as she adjusted the volume.

  “Ben?” Sylvia’s cheerfulness turned to confusion. “Is that you? What are you doing with a comm?”

  “One of the supervisors left it behind when they took off for the systems check. Hardly anyone’s down here right now. Syl, listen—”

  “Are you crazy?” she hissed, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. She looked around to make sure she was alone, as if someone might be listening in, and bent her head low to hide from the people walking by. “Put it back where you found it, you idiot! If you get caught, you’ll be in big trouble. You can’t just take supervisor property. And why is the connection so bad?”