The Girl Who Dared to Think

by Bella Forrest

  She shrugged. “Someone who takes care of me. And people like me. She keeps us safe from the Knights. She created Sanctum.”

  “Sanctum?” I asked sharply, and she nodded.

  “Sanctum,” she said simply.

  Grey barked a laugh. “Sanctum isn’t real,” he announced. “It’s a myth, made up by the Knights to try to justify the need for so many Knights—more, even—in spite of the fact that there’s no proof of an undoc civilization living in the Depths. It would be impossible.”

  “That’s not exactly true.”

  We both turned toward Roark, who stood, wearily holding the bag of medication in his hands.

  “Sanctum is real,” he said.

  “How do you know?” I asked, my mind racing. If there were people living down there, maybe we didn’t have to wait to leave. Depending on what skills they had, maybe we could start working on figuring out how to get out of here as a group, instead of trying to recruit. Maybe we could start planning to leave now.

  “My contact told me about it,” he said, giving me a guarded look. “Told me that we would be approached eventually, and that Cali was a good person.”

  Tian smiled. “And the walls have eyes, but so do we, because without our eyes we couldn’t see,” she sang off-key, trailing off into a happy little hum. The elevator came to a stop, and we quickly got off. Tian led us through the complex network of hallways in the shell, taking us around until I started noticing the signs for Greenery 1—the Menagerie, where animals were kept—on the doorways, showing we were close to the bulkhead. A few seconds later, the hall abruptly ended, and Tian bent over to pull on the grated floor. It lifted up easily, but it was still heavy, and the little girl staggered a little as she slid it to one side. She leaned into the hole, and I heard a beep, followed by the pneumatic hiss of a door opening. I realized she had opened a hatch, just as a blast of hot, dry air shot out past her, immediately invading my lungs and making me cough.

  “Dry heat is the best heat,” Tian exclaimed as she shook out her arms. “C’mon!” The little girl immediately began climbing down into the hole. A moment later, she stuck her head out, her mop of white-blonde hair standing on end. “Lots of lights in here, but don’t touch. And close the door behind you.”

  She dropped back down and out of sight, and I sighed, hefting the bag on my shoulder around to my front to make pushing it easier.

  “Are we sure we’re making the right choice?” I asked as I squatted to peer down the hole. A hatch beneath the floor plates stood open, revealing a short drop of maybe three feet below. From one side, blue-and-purple light glowed brightly, filling the short drop with neon rays.

  “We gave Gerome the pill,” Roark said gruffly, gingerly lowering his bag into the hole. “But it only erases the last hour or so. That means that whatever he saw before is still going to be there. He’s going to know he went to my dwelling for a reason, and while the head trauma is a good explanation for him forgetting, he’s going to figure out or be reminded about Silvan Wash. And put it all together. Which means we aren’t safe up there anymore.”

  He was right, although I hated to admit it. Then again, I wanted to see where Tian was leading us. If there were people living down there, I wanted to know about it. There was security with people who were like you—and I was hoping these people were like me.

  I helped Roark down the hole and watched as he slid out of view through the tunnel that seemed to run beneath our feet. A moment later his voice carried back up to us. “Plasma relays. Definitely do not touch.”

  Grey looked at me, and I realized he’d been uncharacteristically quiet since Tian had arrived. “Are you okay?” I asked, and he nodded.

  “Just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  He shook his head. “If Tian were any less zany, I’d suspect that this was more than coincidence. It seems too neat. I mean, what are the chances of not one but two people busting in and knowing something was going on with the pills?”

  I bit my lip. The thought had nagged at me as well, but there hadn’t been enough time to dwell on it. “Do you think it’s a trap?” If it was a trap, it didn’t seem like it had been initiated by Devon. But who did that leave? No one, really. And I doubted Devon was here, since Gerome had been the one following me (no doubt upon Devon’s orders).

  He hesitated, and then shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. It could be that they were watching us and Tian felt like she needed to intercede on our behalf, but... What if they aren’t good people? What if they are actual dissidents?”

  “You mean like, ‘take down the Tower’ kind of dissidents?”

  He nodded. I thought about it for a long moment, and then dropped my bag into the hole. “There’s only one way to find out. Just keep that baton close, okay?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted as he helped me into the hole.

  26

  The crawl space was narrow, the sides crammed with plasma beams, the purple-and-blue light writhing between connection points as they hummed along. I tried not to sweat from the massive heat they were generating in the small space, but of course it was impossible. The very air felt like it was slowly dehydrating my lungs, to the point that I was wheezing more than breathing.

  Pushing the bag in front of me, I wriggled forward, eager to be out of the tight space and away from the heat. I heard Grey struggling along behind me, but focused on moving forward—because if I got stuck, he got stuck. And this wasn’t a place for getting stuck.

  Suddenly Roark’s hand appeared in my face, and I grabbed it, shoving the bag forward a few more feet and then crawling through. I gasped when I hit the catwalk and it swayed violently. I’d stepped out of an oven and into a raging storm, it seemed, as water and mist tore around us. I could hear the churning of tens of thousands of gallons of water drowning out everything else, and a thick, dense mist seemed to cling to everything.

  “Where are we?” I shouted at Roark as I clung to the railing.

  “Outside!” he shouted back, and my eyes widened. I looked around, and realized he was right—we were outside. More precisely, we were underneath Greenery 1, which hung some fifty feet off the ground, jutting out of the side of the Tower like a massive wing over the river. The churning sound I heard was from the vortex of waters below as they crashed into the hydro-turbines. The hundreds of thousands of gallons churning beneath us kicked up a thick haze of white mist that was making it difficult to see anything. I watched as Tian stepped delicately around me and began moving across the catwalk into the dense mist, turning long enough to beckon to me before disappearing in it. I looked around—the catwalk we had emerged from was flush with the side of the Tower, so the only way was forward.

  I went back to help Grey out of the hole, and then shouldered my bag. It was time to see what “Sanctum” had in store for us.

  Tian led us across a network of catwalks that seemed to intersect and disappear in the mist formed by the massive hydro-turbines. The catwalks were slick, but our Tower-issued boots helped us maintain steady footing as we followed her slim figure.

  I looked around as we walked—I had seen the underside of a lot of greeneries before, but not this one; Knights couldn’t use their lashes in this humid environment. I guessed that was why the catwalks had been built here, so that maintenance could still be performed. It was hard to make much out in the mist, but I could see the shadows of structures through it—whether they were catwalks or pieces of equipment, I didn’t know.

  We walked for twenty minutes, according to my indicator, before Tian began to dance forward. I followed her through a particularly hazy patch, then nearly brained myself on a massive iron door that had just appeared suddenly out of the mist.

  Tian beamed up at me and then rapped on the door—three times, then twice, then three times again—and waited.

  I heard something clank, and the door opened a crack, revealing a tall, statuesque woman with vibrant green eyes and jet-black hair gathered in a tight ponytail on top of her head. Her face was
an imperious mask that to me read, Yes, you should be intimidated, because I will rip your throat out.

  In an instant a knife was in her hand and she was on her guard, resting a shoulder against the inner wall and keeping the doorway blocked. “Tian,” she said, her voice husky. “What have you done?”

  “Doxy! I found the pill-maker,” Tian chirped excitedly, clapping her hands and indicating Roark with unsubtle jerks of her head. “And he has friends!”

  The woman regarded us, taking us in one by one, her eyes hard and flat. I sensed the distrust in her, and couldn’t blame her. I was feeling just as distrustful at the moment. Our eyes met and grappled, and I saw hers flick down and take in my uniform, seeming to see it for what it was.

  Her eyes narrowed to twin green slits. “You brought a Knight?” she hissed, one strong hand reaching out and grabbing Tian by the wrist to haul her back inside. Tian’s eyes widened in surprise, and she caught herself on the door, resisting Doxy’s pull.

  “She’s not like them. Like us!” she insisted, her jerking motions against her assailant’s more muscular arm feeble and weak.

  “She’s standing right here,” I said, not wanting this to go on. “And I really don’t like how you’re handling Tian right now. I don’t care if you’ve known her longer than me.”

  She dropped Tian’s arm as if it had bitten her and looked at me, her face quizzical and cautious. “You care about what happens to her?” she asked.

  “Of course she does, Maddox,” Tian said, massaging the flesh of her arm where the woman—Maddox, whose nickname was apparently Doxy—had grabbed her. “She’s a good Knight. Like in the stories Cali tells us.”

  Maddox pursed her lips. Then she looked at Roark. “You really the guy?”

  “In the flesh—and in great need of your hospitality.”

  Her eyes flicked back to Grey and myself. “And the Hand and Shield?”

  “Strays that I just can’t bear to part with,” Roark said dryly, and I looked over to see Grey rolling his eyes theatrically.

  Maddox watched for another moment, and then stepped to one side, pulling the door back. “In. Now.”

  I was the last one to enter, allowing the others to go first while I glanced around us, taking one final look at the misty underbelly of the Tower. Zoe was still up in the Tower. Still angry and bitter, a four on her wrist. I hadn’t forgotten, so I just prayed that whatever was in store here wouldn’t take too long, and that they would let me get to my friend.

  I stepped inside and helped Maddox close the door behind us. She slid some bars into place on the door by twisting the strange handle.

  The first thing I noticed when I finally moved back a few paces to look around was the flat black material that seemed to be on every surface, including the door. I touched it and felt the roughness of it under my fingers—a graininess that was unexpected, and not unlike sandpaper.

  Turning, I realized we were in a wide-open space, with another door leading deeper into the structure. Mesh lockers lined the walls, white exposure suits inside. There were a series of showerheads on the left wall, with smoky glass partitions separating them.

  “What is this place?” Grey asked, his eyes looking around.

  “Save your questions for Cali,” Maddox grunted, stepping around all of us. “I’m going to need you to surrender your weapons,” she announced, her hands on her hips. “That’s non-negotiable. I’m also going to have to search your bags.”

  Tian clapped her hands together, an excited smile crossing her lips, and she performed a little twirl. “Oh, can I search the bags? I already know which pieces of equipment are the ‘be careful’ ones!”

  Maddox smiled affectionately and nodded. “Sure, Tian. Remember what constitutes a weapon?”

  “Anything that can make you bleed.” She grinned triumphantly.

  Maddox’s face was deadpan. “Maybe I’d better do it, Tian. Can you ask your new friends for their stun batons?”

  My hand automatically went for the handle, and before I knew what was happening, Maddox had reached out and grabbed my elbow. Instead of trying to wrench it around my back like I expected, she pushed me to one side, her foot hooking out and catching mine to send me into a head-over-heels tumble.

  I managed to catch the fall in time to roll with it, then made it back to my feet and stood, baton now clear of my belt, the end crackling with activity. I whipped around and saw Maddox staring at me, a curious light in her eyes.

  We stood there, staring at each other, each one waiting for the other to make the first move, until Grey cleared his throat. “Look, I’m fine with leaving my baton here. Liana, let’s just follow their lead and see what happens. It’s not like we have a lot of options. I’m sure that Roark and I have just made the Tower’s ‘most wanted’ list, if they have one of those.”

  “They do,” said a roughened feminine voice from the door, and I looked over to see a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Maddox, only with vibrant red hair, stepping through the door. Her eyes held the wrinkles of a middle-aged woman. And I knew them. Because they were eyes that had always captivated me when I was in the academy portion of Knights’ school.

  “You’re Camilla Kerrin,” I said, my eyes wide, and she smiled, her generous mouth spreading out in a beatific smile. “You’re the Knight Commander who competed against Devon for the position of Champion twenty-five years ago.”

  “The very same,” she said with a nod. Tian bounded over, and the two exchanged a warm hug. I watched as Camilla became downright nurturing with the young woman, brushing her hair out of her eyes and planting a kiss on her forehead. “I see you’ve met Tian, and my daughter, Maddox. I know you,” she said, inclining her head toward Roark, and then looking at Grey and me. “But I don’t know you two. I also don’t know why Tian brought you back here. She wasn’t even supposed to be out this evening.”

  Tian ducked her head shyly and looked at the three of us. “I know, but I heard you and Maddox talking about how much easier everything would be if you could get some of those pills, so I decided to go check it out. But then this Knight showed up—I followed him in—and he started beating up the pill-maker and his friends! So I grabbed a big wrench from the closet and brought it down on his head. He’s alive—Liana checked—and then they fed him a memory-loss pill. And then we grabbed as much of their stuff as we could, and now we’re here.”

  If Cali was surprised by the speed with which Tian recited the story, she didn’t show it. I, on the other hand, wondered how she was able to pick out all the important elements, Tian spoke so fast.

  “Interesting. Can you prove that he is the pill-maker?”

  Tian fumbled about with the string on her neck and produced the indicator, the glowing blue nine bright in Cali’s eyes. She cocked her head at it, and then gently helped Tian tuck it back under her shirt.

  I realized then that they were all wearing the same kind of clothes: all black, covering them neck to toe, in a cut similar to that of the Knights’ uniforms. Everything was black microthread, from the heavy pants to the thick, sturdy-looking jackets hung upon their shoulders, probably designed to take a hit from a knife, or even a baton, if the rubber inlays I noted were anything to go by.

  The design of their uniforms was surprising, and I found myself wondering how they could fabricate anything down in this secret place nestled underneath the Tower. Or how they were even living down here. Or how they were all somehow free from the indicator that was supposed to never leave the wrist.

  Cali caught me looking, and her lips quirked up in a bemused smile. “We were just sitting down to eat,” she said softly. “Why don’t you join us, and we’ll see if we can’t hash everything out. You hungry, Tian?”

  “Are we having tomatoes?”

  “No.”

  “Then yes, I’m hungry!” The young girl’s fists punched into the air with excitement, and she darted around Cali and through the door behind her, heaving it open and racing down the passage. Cali watched her leave, a bemused s
mile on her lips.

  “She’s very enthusiastic,” Roark commented carefully, and Cali turned, regarding him with her bright green eyes.

  “Her parents died of Whispers almost a decade ago,” she said evenly. “She watched them die, and then ran when Medica finally lifted the quarantine.”

  The Tower had always had its fair share of plagues over the centuries, and Whispers was one that had run its course a decade ago. It was a bacterial infection that only affected the brain, colonizing it to feast on it. Its name was derived from the way people whispered things out at random—memories from the past, slowly getting destroyed as they wasted away. As I recalled, it had hit Water Treatment the worst, and they had lost nearly eight percent of their workforce.

  It could also explain Tian’s odd behavior. If she’d been infected, she would’ve suffered some mild brain damage.

  “That doesn’t change the fact that something’s off about the girl,” Roark said roughly. “If I can get my hands on a scanner, then—”

  Cali’s eyebrows drew together as her face flashed with distaste. “Tian isn’t a danger to anyone except those who would try to hurt her or her family. Other than that, she’s as sweet as a lamb, and you’ll do nothing to change that. We love who she is.”

  She spoke with such passion that it made me consider her and Maddox in a new light. They definitely cared for the odd, yet charming, young girl who had saved our lives—which meant that my fears about them being dissidents could be entirely misplaced. Dissidents wouldn’t form family units. They wouldn’t care so deeply for each other, because there was always a chance they could lose that someone in the fight. Maybe these were people we should know. At the very least, maybe they were people who could answer some questions.

  Roark stiffened but nodded, and Cali turned her gaze to where Grey was already placing his gear into a locker. As her eyes fell on me, I slid the baton out of the loop on my belt and placed it in an empty locker, along with my bag. The lashes I kept, and she didn’t seem to mind. Instead, she gave me an approving smile, and then nodded toward the open door and the hall behind her.