He tried to calm himself, but his heart was pounding. Breathe, two, three, four. Deep breath, two, three, four. After a few minutes, he was ready.
Thomas lay face down on the cart and locked his helmet in. He could see a heads-up display on oxygen and pressure. All systems were go. The chief connected his helmet to the oxygen tanks under the cart.
“Let’s do this,” Thomas said and gave a thumbs up.
The chief double-checked his wrist cord, started the motor and pushed him into the tunnel.
They were off, into the blackness.
86
SUSAN PROMISED Sofia that they would open one present at midnight on the eve of Santa Day, but she wasn’t sure if they could both stay awake long enough.
“What if we open the present now?” she asked her daughter.
Sofia looked at the clock. It was 10 pm in San Diego.
“OK,” she answered enthusiastically.
“I’m just not sure I can stay up until midnight,” Susan told her.
“Well, can I still stay up?” Sofia asked.
“I suppose.”
Susan grabbed one present in particular. It was a big box.
“Why don’t you open this one?” she coaxed.
Sofia took the present happily, eyes wide open.
“What is it? It’s so big.”
“Open it, silly.”
Sofia tore the Santa wrapping off quickly and looked at the box in front of her. She opened the lid and found inside another wrapped box.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Open it,” Susan replied.
Sofia again tore off the green fir tree wrapping and opened the lid to the second box. Inside was a third box.
“Mommy!” she exclaimed.
“I thought you like opening gifts. I said you could only open one, and here you are opening three.”
“But it’s the same one,” she pleaded.
“I’m just kidding. Keep going.”
Sofia was a professional gift opener by now, tearing through the candy cane wrapping in no time and pulling open the third box.
“Not again,” she said.
Susan laughed as Sofia pulled out the fourth box.
“How many are there?”
“You’ll have to keep opening to find out.”
By the seventh box, Sofia found her present. It was a card that gave her access to the Human Body Digital World as well as training modules and coaching from a Med School intern.
“Mommy, this is great! How did you know that I wanted this?”
“I heard you talking to Samitha about it. Plus you talk so much about being a doctor and a scientist and a designer. I thought you could do all three with this.”
“Can I play it tonight?”
“I suppose, but don’t stay up too late.”
“At least until midnight. We were going to stay up ‘til midnight for the gifts.”
“All right, Sofia. You can stay up until midnight, but go to bed right after. Can I trust you to do that?”
“Yes, Mommy,” she said, and then she made a sad face.
“What’s wrong?” Susan asked.
Sofia looked away. Susan took her by the shoulders and turned her face toward her.
“Are you okay?”
Sofia started sobbing, tears quickly falling and splashing lightly on Susan’s hands.
“Baby, what happened? I thought you liked the gift. You were about to play.”
“You can’t trust me, Mommy.”
“Sure I can. What are you talking about?”
“No, you can’t,” Sofia said and looked at her face.
She wiped her tears and looked her in the eyes.
“I told you that I wouldn’t ever break the law, but I broke it,” Sofia said. “You can’t trust me.”
Then she started bawling again. Susan was shocked.
“What do you mean ‘break the law’? It can’t be as bad as you’re making it. What happened?”
Sofia shook her head.
“Sofia, look at me.”
They looked into each others’ eyes.
“Tell Mommy what happened.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“I can’t.”
“Of course you can. You’re scaring Mommy now. What happened Sofia?”
She continued to cry. Susan used her shirt to wipe away the tears.
“Enough with the crying. Tell me RIGHT NOW what happened, young lady!”
“You’re gonna be mad at me.”
“I’m mad that you aren’t telling me.”
“OK, I’ll tell you, but promise you won’t be mad.”
“Just tell me, Sofia.”
“Promise.”
“I can’t promise that. Tell me. It will be worse the longer you go without telling me.”
“Fine,” she sighed, waving her arms in a huff. “I was at Samitha’s and she had this game about boys where you can make your own boy and we played that.”
Susan’s body relaxed from its tenseness. Inside she was pleased that it was such a small thing, but she couldn’t let Sofia know it.
“Sofia, I can’t believe you would do such a thing? You know that games like that are illegal?”
She struggled to get the words out between the tears, “Yeah, ma… ma… mommy.”
“Is that all? Or is there more?”
“Uhh…”
“Sofia, I know there’s more. You wouldn’t be acting like this if that was all.”
“I also went online with camp men.”
“What?”
Sofia looked at her, realizing she had said too much. She couldn’t stop sobbing.
“I knew that it was wrong, but I wanted to see what it was like.”
“I can’t believe you did this? And with Samitha! I thought that Samitha was one of the good ones.”
“Samitha showed it to me. I told her that we shouldn’t, but she started calling me names.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true, mommy. I promise.”
Susan calmed down. “Did anything happen? You didn’t tell anybody where you lived, did you?”
“Only that I live in San Diego.”
“But not the address, right? You didn’t give our address?”
“No. I’m not stupid.”
“OK, that’s good. How much did you tell them about yourself or about your mommy?”
“I didn’t tell them anything. I only told one boy a little bit about the real me. That I was a girl. I told everybody else that I was a boy on the grid.”
“What did you tell about being a girl?”
“Nothing, Mommy, I promise. He figured out that I wasn’t a boy. He said that if I was, I couldn’t live in San Diego. That I would be somewhere in San Francisco.”
“Well, he’s right about that. You’d be at Alcatraz.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry about things like that. You’ll learn all of that when the time is right. I’m really disappointed that you did these things behind my back.”
“I’m so sorry, mommy.”
“I’m disappointed. I want you to be truthful with me in the future. I need to know that I can trust you. Is there anything else I need to know about?”
“No.”
Susan looked into her eyes and believed that she was being honest. There really wasn’t anything else. She dried Sofia’s tears and held her small hands.
“I guess since I’ve been traveling so much lately, you started spending more time on the grid.”
“Yes, mommy.”
“I forgive you, Sofia.”
“Thank you, mommy.”
Susan thought for a second about her own news. Maybe now was the time.
“I have something to tell you too. Something that I hope will make you excited. It’s good news.”
“OK,” Sofia replied.
The red in her eyes was starting to dissipate and a trace of a smile came to her lips.
“M
ommy got another promotion. I’m going to be the new Under Secretary of Defense. It is a very high position.”
“Will you make more money?”
“A lot more.”
“Will you travel more?”
“Well, that’s the thing. I’ll probably travel less.”
“Yeah!”
“But, we’ll need to move to Washington.”
Sofia gulped. “Move?”
“Yes, next month.”
“But, but, but my friends are all here. My school. What about my school? I don’t wanna move.”
“Your friends will still be here and we’ll come back and visit. We’ll find a great new school for you in DC and you’ll make new friends. Then you’ll have double the friends.”
“Mommy, I don’t want you to get a promotion.”
Susan smiled at her. “I love you, Sofia. It’s a lot to take in right now. Why don’t you play your new game and we’ll talk about it more in the morning.”
“But, Mommy!”
“We’ll discuss it tomorrow, after you’ve had a good night’s sleep.”
Susan got up to leave.
“Mommy, no!”
“Go play your new game. I need to get some sleep. I love you.”
“I don’t wanna move.”
Susan walked out of the room and said, “We’ll talk about it in the morning. Love you.”
87
THE BLACKNESS DIDN’T last long. The front of the cart had lights that turned on shortly after they entered the tunnel. Thomas couldn’t see or hear Julia, but his heads-up display let him know that her cart was secure.
He didn’t feel right about her going first in the tunnel. It had happened so quickly, but he felt like he should be taking the risk of being out in front. If something happened, the person behind had a slightly better chance of success.
He could hear the grinding sound of the cart’s wheels turning inside the tunnel. As it sped up from a few miles per hour to twenty mph, he could sense the speed mainly through the vibrations under his body.
He remembered the training and moved his eyes toward the bottom left of the heads-up display. An option to communicate came on the screen, and he stared at it a few seconds to select it. Suddenly, he was in communication with Julia.
“Hey there, baby. How’s it going?”
“Hey slow poke. What took you so long? Did you have too much rum?”
He laughed. “I was a little nervous, tell you the truth. I triple-checked everything.”
“I can just taste Cuba. I’m so excited, baby. I want to get a nice meal right when we get there.”
“It’ll be three AM. Let’s get some sleep first.”
“Ay, no, Papi. Let’s celebrate tonight. We’ve earned it. Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas to you, babe.”
He looked at the tunnel all around him. It was a big black tube, mainly empty, with a little water on the bottom. His cart was designed to move in the water, even if the whole tunnel was filled. All of its chambers were hermetically sealed and the tires adhered to the CNT structure like light magnets. The team that had engineered this had done an amazing job with very little time. The tunnel was shorter than they had wanted, but it was still long enough to protect the fishing boats from suspicion. The team planned to add another ten miles of length over the next six months, on the Havana side of the ocean.
“Three hours of blackness,” he said.
“Did your lights not turn on?” she asked.
“They turned on, but all they light up is blackness.”
“Aren’t you excited, Thomas?”
“Of course I am,” he replied.
“You sound like a curmudgeon.”
He laughed. “That’s a big word for you.”
“I like it.”
“How do you say curmudgeon in Spanish?”
“I don’t know. It isn’t said much.”
“People don’t say it much in English either.”
“Cascarrabias.”
“That’s curmudgeon in Spanish?”
“Close enough.”
“Why are you calling me that anyway? I’m in a good mood.”
“You should be more excited. We’re going to Cuba! Cuba, baby! Have you ever been?”
“You know I haven’t.”
“I know. You never left Tennessee. Then you met me, and we’ve been to Alabama and Georgia and Florida and the Keys. You’re a world traveler.”
“And this tunnel.”
“This tunnel is amazing, even if it is all black. And we’re gonna have Arroz con Pollo tonight. Do you know what that is?”
“Chicken with rice. Doesn’t sound like anything to get excited about.”
“Not the way you say it, Mr. Curmudgeon. But when made right, with some Cuban flair, some Alma de Cuba, well… It will be very good, I promise you that. And then Arroz con Leche for dessert.”
“What is that? Rice with milk? Who has rice for dessert?”
“It’s like a bread pudding, but we can have Tres Leches instead. You’ll like that too. Do you know Tres Leches?”
“Three milks? I definitely like three milks instead of one milk with rice. What is it, goat’s milk, cow’s milk, what else? Mother’s milk?”
“No, silly. It’s a cake and it is delicious. You aren’t excited?”
“Of course I am. I just tried to do a flip on the cart, but my oxygen cord wouldn’t let me turn over all the way.”
“I’m gonna show you my apartment too. You’ll get to see that for the first time. It’s probably a disaster area.”
“They probably kicked you out for not paying the rent.”
“No, Papi. Vanessa took care of the place while I was gone, and Tito paid the rent for me.”
“Tito is a great guy,” Thomas said.
“He’s the best,” she agreed.
JULIA HAD LOST track of time talking to Thomas about Cuba when her heads up display started beeping wildly.
“Thomas, what is this? Are you hearing these beeps? Do you have beeps?”
“I hear yours through the microphone. I don’t have any. What do you see?”
“Ay, Dios mio. Que pasa?” Her eyes scanned all over the heads-up display.
“Wait. I’m slowing down,” she said. “Baby, it’s good news. I’m almost there.”
Within seconds, her cart was rolling into the inner chamber of the second fishing boat, sitting twenty miles off the coast of Havana. As it rolled into the boat, she could see Tito and Vanessa standing to greet her, along with another man. She got up and took off her helmet. Tito, wearing a diving suit, ran to her for a big hug.
“Ay, Tito. It’s so good to see you again. I can’t believe it,” she said in Spanish. “Diving suit?”
“I had to be prepared for anything,” Tito said.
Julia made a gesture of thanks and then hugged Vanessa.
“This is Cardinal Mark from the Vatican,” Tito said. “He has come to help us directly in Cuba.”
“I’m not sure if I’m a Cardinal any more,” he said. “You can call me Mark.” He put out his hand to shake hers.
“We don’t shake hands,” she said as she hugged him and then kissed him twice, once on each cheek. “Welcome to Cuba, Mark.”
“I like your style,” Mark said. “I’m really happy you made it back safely. There were a lot of scary moments.”
“Yes, there were. Yes, there certainly were,” she said, moving her cart out of the way. “Thomas must be close.”
THOMAS HEARD Julia saying hello to Tito before she took off her helmet. It was the same moment that his cart collided with a large sea shell on the floor of the CNT tunnel. A sea shell that Julia’s cart had narrowly missed while she joked with him over the radio.
Thomas felt the normal rumbling vibrations of the cart abruptly stop as his body was thrown upward into the top of the tunnel. Since the tunnel was only a three foot diameter, both his body and the cart slammed into the top instantaneously. His body flew slightly ahead
of the cart and when they both crashed again on the bottom of the tunnel, the front tires smashed into his helmet, knocking out his communications and giving him a concussion.
Though Thomas was unconscious, the safety cord was still engaged. The cart continued moving, rattling and banging from side to side and top to bottom in the tunnel. After a few bounces, Thomas’ body was under the cart with his right knee crammed into the gears. Unfortunately for Thomas, the autonomous software assumed that he was safely on top of the cart, and it interpreted his body as a rough patch. The software applied maximum power and torque to overcome the obstacle. This was when the gears cut into Thomas’ diving suit and sliced his knee in half.
When his right leg was severed from his body, adrenaline and neuron firings kicked in, and Thomas became conscious. The pain was agonizing. He screamed into his helmet but there was no one to hear him.
The cart rolled over him and cut the tube that supplied his oxygen. It then pulled far enough away to disengage the safety cord between his wrist and the steering wheel. The cart’s power turned off.
“Arhhhh!” he screamed into his helmet. He looked for the heads-up display, but all he could see was black. The cart in front of him had lights shining forward, but it didn’t help Thomas see anything. Something had happened to his helmet. He had lost communication with the outside world.
He was lost here in this tunnel, in complete darkness.
88
SOFIA WAS IN her room, brooding over the news about moving to Washington.
I don’t wanna move.
She didn’t feel like playing her new game. Instead, she locked her doors and logged into Spaceship Battleground.
“Where’s Brice?” she asked the AI.
If she’s gonna force me to move to Washington, at least I can still play with Brice.
“He’s on board a small ship, orbiting Mars,” the AI responded.
“Always Mars,” Sofia said. “Take me to him.”
In seconds, she appeared on the ship and saw Brice looking through the window at the red planet.
“You haven’t gotten bored with Mars yet?” she asked.
He turned and saw her. “Hey, Sonny,” he replied warmly.
“Do you wanna know my real name?” she asked.
“What?”
Escape The Grid: Volume 1 Page 38
