A Crack in the Sky

by Mark Peter Hughes

  His words calmed her a little. Besides, she didn’t have much choice except to do this. She bit her lower lip and took another deep breath.

  “Don’t think about it,” he said. “Just jump.”

  She summoned all her courage and leapt into the air, stretching her arms toward the nearest girder. When she felt metal she held tight, let her body slam into it, and then wrapped her legs around it for dear life. She’d made it! She was on the crane!

  An instant later Eli was hanging on to the girder beside her, the strange animal still partly visible, clinging inside his jacket. Somehow Tabitha knew what was coming next. She could see it in the direction of his gaze. He was looking up, not down.

  “You’re not going back to the pods, are you?” she said. It wasn’t really a question.

  He shook his head. “You were right about shutting down the CloudNet,” he answered as the tower groaned again. “That’s what I have to do. But it doesn’t mean you have to come. You can climb down and try to find a path back to the pods. I wouldn’t blame you, and you might even make it. But I can’t do that. I’m a Papadopoulos. My family is responsible for so many mistakes, and I feel like I have to at least try to do something right. I know it must sound crazy, but I’ve made my decision. Now you have to make yours.”

  He started climbing up the crane. Tabitha could hardly believe what was happening. From the moment she’d first found out the kid was a Papadopoulos, she thought she understood everything about him that mattered. She thought he would be arrogant. She was sure he’d be self-centered and tyrannical. But she’d misjudged him. Here he was, ready to sacrifice himself for the Waywards. He was making her question everything she thought she knew. Now she felt awful for the selfish way she’d behaved toward him, and for all the secret thoughts she’d held from him. Suddenly she wanted to tell him everything, to let him know she realized now how wrong she’d been.

  By then he’d reached the girder just above her. She pulled herself a little higher, toward him. “Eli, I don’t think you’d want me along with you,” she said, “not if you realized the truth. Because you’re a Papadopoulos, I was ready to abandon you down at the pods while I got away. Even if we’d made it to the desert, I was thinking of leaving you alone there too.” She paused. “I wouldn’t do any of those things now. And I’m sorry.”

  This seemed to take a moment to sink in. He stopped and looked back. His eyebrows pulled together. “It’s okay,” he said. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  When his eyes met hers, she felt a rush of something she didn’t understand, a dizzy feeling as though she were part of something much bigger than herself. The boy, the animal protector, the storm—was it possible it could all be a coincidence? Maybe the Friends were right after all. Maybe she, like everyone else, had always been a single, tiny cog in a complex system far larger than she’d ever imagined. All at once, with the tower rocking and the sound of waves crashing and wind howling, she had the idea that perhaps there really was a plan, a grand design with a special role she was meant to play.

  She made her decision.

  “Wait!” she called. “I’m coming with you!”

  Trying not to look down, she followed Eli up the crane. It went for quite a distance. Every now and then they could hear the alarm blaring through the walls. Occasionally they even heard shouting.

  “How far do we go?” she asked. “Where are we headed?”

  “Every dome has a CloudNet brain—that’s what we’re looking for,” he called back. “Marilyn says there’s an orange door on the top floor. We have to find it!”

  Tabitha was in a daze now, concentrating on keeping a steady footing on each girder and holding on tight as she moved upward. The top of the crane leaned against a metal rail that wrapped around a steel enclosure. Climbing off was easier than jumping on, as long as she didn’t look down. She followed Eli across a short passage that led to another vent. There were Guardians on the other side of the wall. She could hear them. And yet somehow she wasn’t as worried as she might have been. Eli had already led her this far, with doors that locked and unlocked for them, through dark passageways in hidden recesses of the facility. It was as if his animal companion knew exactly where to go, as if it somehow had the blueprints of the tower and access to the hidden cameras.

  They crawled on their stomachs through the vent. This was the twenty-fourth level, the top floor of the facility. The sound of driving rain filled the air, and the cramped space shook with thunder. Soon the three of them were looking out at a small alcove with a tiled floor. With the animal’s assurance that the passage was clear, they climbed out. Tabitha’s heart was pounding. Just ahead, somebody was shouting orders as waves continued to crash against the dome and rock the tower. The floor listed to one side. Clinging to the wall so they wouldn’t lose footing, she and Eli crept to the end of the alcove. They peered around the corner.

  There it was, just as Eli had said.

  A corridor with a stairwell and a single orange door.

  It was guarded by three beefy kids in white uniforms. From the hint of unease in their expressions, Tabitha guessed the Guardians were as concerned by the storm as she was, but she also knew that, like the Waywards, they were under the spell of the spheres. In the meantime, finding a way past them was the only way to get to the door. It wasn’t going to be easy.

  “What do we do now?”

  Eli was still trying to catch his breath from the climb. “I don’t know. I’m out of ideas.”

  But an idea was beginning to occur to her, and it hit her once again that the Friends had turned out to be right. Everything happened for a reason. All of a sudden she knew what she had to do, though the thought terrified her.

  “Tell me something about the man in the sky,” she whispered in Eli’s ear, although she already knew what he was going to say. “He had a tattoo, didn’t he?”

  He looked surprised at the question, but he seemed to consider. “He did. An orange sun—it was on the palm of his hand. How did you know?”

  Before she realized she was going to say it, she heard herself whisper, “A single thread of reality can be hard to distinguish in a complex fabric of illusion.”

  He must have seen the transformation on her face. “It doesn’t mean anything, Tabitha. Anybody could have a tattoo.”

  But she no longer doubted. In a rush she understood why she was here in the tower, why she’d had to endure all those months on the Learning Floors. This was it. This was her moment. As she started to move toward the Guardians, Eli grabbed her arm.

  “What are you doing? You’ll get caught! Don’t be stupid!”

  “There’s no time to discuss it. You have to shut down the CloudNet.” She turned to gaze into his face, probably for the last time. “I do this for you, el Guía. Everything depends on you. Wait ten seconds and then go.”

  With that she shook off his hand and stepped into the corridor.

  25

  the brain room

  Eli watched Tabitha race toward the Guardians, calling out to them. The moment they saw her, they left their posts. She disappeared down the stairwell and they dashed after her. Eli struggled to stay where he was. There was little chance she could make it far before they caught her. If only there was something he could do!

  Let her go, Eli. It’s too late.

  Marilyn’s voice was so weak, it was barely there anymore. The mental exertion of accessing the tower’s systems had left her gasping for breath, and now Eli worried about losing her too. Why was everything he cared about slipping from him? He put his hand in his pocket and stroked her fur. She was safe—for now, at least. Tabitha had cleared the path to the orange door, and that was all he could allow himself to think about.

  I’m sorry I can’t take down the CloudNet for you, my darling. I would if I could.

  I know, he answered, even though he realized instinctively that it never would have been possible. Even if she were at her strongest, her chip was no match against the power of an entire CloudNet, a
nd the effort of trying to shut it down might even have killed her. Don’t worry, Marilyn. You’ve done plenty.

  He’d waited long enough. The corridor was clear, so he leapt from the alcove and ran to the door. It unlocked just as he reached for it, and after he stepped through, it slammed shut behind him.

  It was the steep drop in temperature that startled him most.

  Right away the sweat on his scalp and back started to grow clammy, and he could see his breath in puffy clouds. In his entire time in the tower, he’d never felt air this cool. He was in a long room cluttered with shiny equipment and flashing lights. There was a musty smell and a deep electronic hum he could hear even over the howl of the wind. Shadows flitted across the low ceiling as the tower creaked again. The place reminded him of where he had met the old Outsider, and he realized this was another sky chamber. He was inside the shell of the tower’s little dome.

  He glanced around at the equipment. Most of it was large and unfamiliar to him. He wondered why nothing appeared damaged or upended from the storm, but then he noticed that everything was bolted to the floor. He stepped deeper inside, following the sound of the electronic hum. Soon he found what he was looking for: near the center of the room stood a gigantic enclosed tank filled with translucent pink liquid, and floating inside was a mass of grayish goo with lights and glowing fibers that jutted in all directions.

  The CloudNet brain.

  He hurried to the tank and began searching for a control panel—any buttons, keypads, or whatever looked like it might help him shut it down. There wasn’t much, just a small, shimmering plate at one side of the base. It had a knob and a couple of switches, so he flipped the switches. Nothing seemed to happen. He spun the knob, and the light in the tank grew a little brighter, but otherwise the brain continued to hum and throb just the same as before.

  How do I do this?

  Marilyn didn’t answer. Eli realized she was unconscious. He was on his own.

  But there had to be a way! The wind rose, and the floor pitched to the side again. Eli gripped the edge of the tank until his knuckles went white. He was so close and yet he was going to fail! He wanted to scream—at Representative Shine and Representative Tinker, at Spider, at every one of his uncles and aunts. Even Grandfather had been so warped with age and disease that he hadn’t helped him. He slammed his fist against the glass.

  And it was then, with his eyes fixed on the throbbing mass of electronics in the tank, that a curious new thought occurred to him. What was it Grandfather had said when he gave him the riddle? Something about how music wasn’t the only key to quieting a troubled mind? At the time, Eli had assumed he meant that the riddle was a diversion to make him feel better, but now, as he watched a cloud of pink bubbles rise around the artificial brain, a different possibility dawned on him: What if it wasn’t Eli’s mind Grandfather had been talking about? What if, like with Grandfather’s music box, the original designers of the domes had built in a Master Key, a secret phrase that could control a dome’s entire CloudNet system? What if, despite the fact that their conversation had been monitored, Grandfather had been trying to help him after all?

  He leaned closer to the glass and said, “Good night, folks. Time to go back to sleep.”

  Nothing happened.

  But of course not, he thought. The Master Key to the CloudNet, if there really was such a thing, wouldn’t be the same as the shutdown words for the music box. It would have something to do with the riddle, or else why would Grandfather have given it to him? Perhaps the question itself was the key. He tried it, careful to speak in a loud, clear voice: “When backward is forward, Alice looks through a mirror. What does she see?”

  Again, nothing. It was no use.

  His thoughts were interrupted. Two figures appeared out of the shadows, one on each side. He spun to look. To his left a hulking boy with an oversized jaw and long yellow teeth was moving toward him. On his right, another large kid, this one missing an ear. Eli’s stomach sank. They were Outsiders, the same two savages who’d first brought him to the facility.

  “It’s all right. Keep your distance, gentlemen,” whispered a listless voice. Eli wasn’t sure where it had come from, but then he noticed something happening inside the tank. A holographic image seemed to be forming in the pink liquid all around the brain. At first he could make out only a giant mouth—two rows of teeth and thin lips forming a wide smirk. But then above it two gray eyes appeared, followed by white hair and the rest of a pale, familiar face.

  Spider.

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” said the enormous, grinning head. “It seems I was alerted to your escape attempt just in time.” On his order the savages had halted in their tracks, but Eli could still hear their raspy breathing and impatient movements, as if they were itching to pounce on him the moment Spider gave permission.

  “Spider, please don’t do this! You don’t understand!”

  “Oh, but I do. I’m told our dear, unfortunate grandfather regained consciousness for a while and that you and he had a little chat. Naughty, naughty, little cousin.” Pockets of gas bubbled up through the goo, and his grin widened. “But I think you’ll find I’m going to be surprisingly reasonable with you. You see, after reviewing your illicit conversation with the old fossil, my father has the outlandish idea that—now that you better understand our state of affairs, not to mention your own hopeless situation at the moment—you might be more open to reason. With the right incentive, of course. My father was never comfortable with my decision to cleanse you from the organization in the first place, I’m afraid. It turns out your uncle Hector is a sentimental man. Foolishly sentimental, if you ask me. Still, there it is. Against my better judgment, I’ve been instructed to offer you a deal.”

  Eli’s muscles went tight. A deal? What was this?

  “Cooperate with the company,” Spider continued. “Agree to come back without causing any more trouble, and my father has agreed to overlook your indiscretions. He’ll ask the Leadership Council to assign you to a position you don’t deserve, something respectable in middle management where you can’t do much damage but you’ll live a comfortable life befitting a Papadopoulos.”

  “What are you talking about? What life? Don’t you hear the storm Outside? The tower could collapse any second! The whole world is falling apart!”

  Spider seemed to shrug. “I suppose there’s no denying that the clock is ticking on the planet. But don’t let this passing Gulf drizzle fool you. The company’s scientists believe we still have time before the curtain closes, time enough for some of us to enjoy the many pleasures InfiniCorp can still provide. And while it’s unfortunate that we can’t shield everyone from the discomfort of the days ahead, the company can arrange it for you, at least for a while, and starting sooner than you think. As we speak, a pod is on its way to fly you from harm. You’ll be safe from the hurricane, I assure you.” Even as Spider made this offer, his expression made it clear that he didn’t approve of it. Still, his tone was rational. Reasonable. “Now, what do you say? Are you ready to return to the family fold?”

  Eli stood there, frozen. Was he serious? After all his time in the tower, InfiniCorp was going to take him back? They were offering him everything he’d always wanted: a life in the city domes, a good position in the company, the respect of his family. And yet even as he tried to take it all in, he couldn’t help thinking of Tabitha, and of his parents. The floor rocked and the walls trembled. There was another crashing wave, and as the tower groaned he pictured all the Waywards, asleep in their bunk rooms. He thought of Clarence and even Geraldine, so lost in their dreams that they would remain unconscious even while the tower sank into the sea.

  It didn’t take him long to make up his mind.

  “You monster! How do you sleep at night?”

  Spider’s expression darkened. “I can’t say I’m surprised by your attitude. I told my father that trying to reason with you was a waste of effort. I think his judgment was thrown by the impressive way you managed to cont
act the old geezer on his deathbed despite the CloudNet restraints. But not me. I always suspected that you and Grandfather were up to something, plotting ways to overthrow my father and me from authority.” At this he raised an eyebrow. “Which leads me to one last piece of business. Tell me, where is that little furry abomination of yours? Marilyn is her name, right?”

  Eli’s face flushed. “Don’t you dare! You’ll never get your hands on her!”

  The holographic head seemed amused. “Oh, but of course we will. Surely you realize that. Now that InfiniCorp understands what she is, we can’t allow her to remain a threat to our systems. Yes, we’ll find her. Even now she must be somewhere nearby, perhaps hiding in this very room, listening to everything we’re saying.”

  The savages took another step closer.

  Eli felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ve put up with you for long enough, troublesome cousin. Now I’m arranging for you to have an accident. Quite unfortunate. Everyone will be so, so sad. But take heart. The Great Savior will be joining you soon, and once you and Grandfather are both dead, you’ll have an eternity of quality time together. In the meantime, don’t worry, InfiniCorp is taking care of everything.” His gigantic, near-transparent face formed a sneer. “All right, boys. He’s all yours.”

  The Outsiders leered at him now, their eyes yellow and cruel. They started creeping in his direction. Eli took a step backward and almost fell. And yet his mind was still scrambling for any way he might be able to shut down the CloudNet. All he had was the vague hope that Grandfather’s riddle meant something. He was desperate to reason it through, to find some hidden meaning he might have missed. After all, the Master Key could be anything, any series of syllables.