City of Light

by J J Hane

  I knew I should try to get some sleep. Instead, I sort of wandered around the little apartment, thinking about what I would do if Mr. Moore asked me what I was doing.

  What if they saw Serenity? I would be in a lot of trouble, even if they didn’t know that she was from outside the city. How would I explain it?

  Finally, I decided that I needed to stop. I dimmed the lights, stretching out on the couch. Grabbing Mr. Moore’s tablet from the little end table by the old sofa, I set it on my chest as a prop. Hopefully, if anyone saw me they would just assume that I had fallen asleep reading.

  With all the tension of the past few days, I was surprised that I was able to sleep at all on that couch. When I startled awake to the sound of my foster parents moving around in their bedroom, I was shocked to find that it was already half past five in the morning.

  Keen to avoid any encounters that might lead to questions with difficult answers, I slipped back to my room unnoticed. The simple wooden door was shut, no light coming from within. I tapped gently on the door before entering the dark room.

  “Serenity?” I whispered, shutting the door behind me. “Are you awake?”

  No reply.

  I crept closer to the bed, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. I wondered if Serenity would have the sort of manic self-preservation reaction to being awoken that I’d seen in movies. It seemed likely that she would wake up, knife already swinging, and leave me with a wound that would scar if I didn’t get to a medical facility. The somewhat grisly mental image of the damage she could do to my face with her knife kept me at bay for a moment.

  “Serenity?” I said again, a little louder this time. I was inches from my bed. I stood at the foot of the bed, reaching out to the rumpled blanket where I expected to find her leg. Instead, the little wrinkle collapsed under my hand. I reached frantically around the bed, even as my eyes finally adjusted enough to the darkness to see that there was no one there.

  “Crap,” I said, looking around despite the fact that there was nowhere to hide in my tiny quarters.

  The bathroom door was open, the room beyond just as dark. Knowing that I wouldn’t find anything, I still flicked on the light, peeking in quickly. The shower stall was still wet, and there was a damp towel on the floor.

  So. Serenity had woken early, showered, and left. That seemed like a bad thing, but what did it really mean?

  Well, she had been planning on just hiding out in the city, somehow living on whatever she could find. She would be fine, I was sure of it.

  On the other hand, she was from the tribes. She had already confessed to wanting to destroy the Martyrion’s defenses. I doubted she could, but she didn’t lack for self-confidence, and confidence can make a person do stupid things.

  Almost as stupid as smuggling an outlander into the city just because she was pretty and asked for your help…

  Either she had snuck out in the hopes that she wouldn’t be a burden on me anymore, or she was on her way to do something very bad. Standing there in the darkened bedroom, light spilling out from the bathroom behind me to make my shadow loom large on the opposite wall, the second option just felt more likely.

  I grabbed a jacket, noting that one of my jackets was missing, and went out to the street. Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of Serenity anywhere. Pausing to think, I decided that, if she was out to destroy the Martyrion, the most likely place to do that would be at the tower itself. I would go check for any sign of her at the tower. If she wasn’t there, I would go home, get ready for school, and pretend like none of this ever happened.

  I took a bus to the city center, practically jumping off when I arrived at the stop nearest to the Martyrion tower. That early in the morning, the air was at its coldest. Pulling up my hood and shoving my hands in my pockets, I kept close to the buildings surrounding the tower, my eyes scanning the mostly empty streets and alleys.

  I’m not sure if I was more relieved or afraid when I saw Serenity at the head of a nearby side street, peering up at the tower. She was less than a hundred meters away, close enough that I could see her determined expression in the streetlights. While I was trying to figure out how to approach her, she suddenly moved, crossing the street with quick, purposeful strides.

  I muttered something under my breath that would have been considered impolite but was most appropriate to the situation. I had a few options, none of them good. I could call security and let them handle whatever Serenity was up to. That would result in strict scrutiny and me probably being put on some sort of watch, if not exiled entirely. I could walk away and let her do whatever it was she came for, doubting that she would succeed. That would lead to her getting caught, though, and would bring the same sort of questions about how she got past outer security in the first place.

  My final option was the one I ultimately decided would be least likely to get me further into trouble, which just goes to show how little foresight I actually had at the time. I went after her.

  Chapter 13

  Figuring that getting punched again wouldn’t be the best start to my day, I decided to keep a little distance between us. My hope was to warn her of the danger she was putting herself in without getting close enough to put myself in danger.

  Serenity boldly entered the front doors, seemingly finished strangling whatever fears had caused her to hesitate in the first place. I realized how fortunate it was that she had decided she didn’t like busses: if she had taken one to the tower, she would already be inside, probably arrested.

  I followed her into the nearly empty lobby, the entry doors sliding silently open and closed. The woman and guard behind the desk were different from my last visit, although they could almost have been from the same family. When Serenity passed them on her way to the elevators, I expected the guard to stop her. Her apparent confidence was enough to get through the bored once-over the man gave her, though.

  So much for our unbeatable security forces.

  Feeling nervous, sweating with anxiety despite the cold outside, I figured there would be no way for me to walk by without rousing suspicion. It seemed like as good a time as any to stop her.

  “Hey Serenity!” I called. “Wait for me!”

  Serenity missed a step, her head whipping around fast enough that her hair could have lacerated an unsuspecting bystander. Her dark brown eyes narrowed when they settled on me. If she had turned so that the guard could see her, he might have blasted her with a stunner to keep her look from killing me.

  I gulped, crossing the marble floor with irritatingly loud steps. “Sorry I’m running late,” I said loudly for the benefit of our audience of two. “Let’s get going.”

  I took her arm, walking her back to the bank of elevators where she had been heading before I stopped her. Her upper arm was hard with tension, and I could feel the warmth of her body heat even through the jacket. There is something instinctual in every human being that raises our stress levels when those around us are stressed. My instincts were definitely kicking in.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed when we were out of sight of the secretary and the guard.

  “What am I doing?” I asked. “What are you doing?”

  She jerked her arm away from me, slapping one of the elevator call buttons with much more force than it needed. “Nothing,” she spat. “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Serenity, look,” I said, trying to imitate the calming tone my teachers often used when dealing with Abishai’s antics. “Whatever it is you’re up to, Martyrion Security is going to find out, and then you’ll wind up back outside where Azrael will try to kill you. Just come with me and we can figure out a way for you to be okay here.”

  A little chime announced the arrival of the elevator.

  Serenity looked at me like I was a complete idiot. “I’m not leaving until I’ve done my part.”

  She pulled her knife out, keeping it mostly hidden in the sleeve of her borrowed jacket. She backed into the elevator, her eyes flicking between me and the control panel within.<
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  My heart was hammering in my chest as I stared at the young woman I’d brought here. There was no doubt that she could kill me if she chose to. I also suspected that she might be trying to kill someone else. I decided that since she hadn’t killed me yet, there was a reasonable chance she wouldn’t kill me at that moment, either. I was almost convinced that she was just putting on a show of violence, that, deep down, she was actually terrified.

  Of course, almost convinced that she wasn’t going to kill me is not quite the same as completely convinced.

  I waited until she reached for one of the buttons, then I practically jumped into the elevator.

  Serenity swiped at me out of pure reflex, nearly cutting my arm open, but I pressed myself back against the side wall of the elevator. The doors closed.

  My heart was pounding hard enough that I worried it might just crack open my rib cage. Part of me was worried that Serenity might attack me. Mostly, though, I was worried about what was about to happen. I was much more frightened of the MSF than of the young woman with the knife. Or so I told myself.

  “Okay, now we have some time to talk,” I suggested, imitating the soothing voices of hostage negotiators I’d seen in movies.

  Serenity gaped at me. “You are out of your mind, city boy. And stop using that stupid voice. You sound like you have a cold.”

  Keeping an eye on me, she tapped in a code on the keypad, much like Mr. Holt had when he was taking us up to the control room. The keypad chimed and we began to rise. A thought struck me.

  “How did you know how to do that?” I asked.

  She smirked. “I hate to tell you this, Raph, but your little utopia here isn’t as perfect as you want to believe.”

  I shook my head, trying to deny and dismiss her claims at the same time. “It doesn’t matter, Serenity. If you go charging into the control room, Security will lock everything down and you’ll be lucky to get out alive.”

  “Good thing I’m not going to the control room.”

  The elevator came to an abrupt halt, doors swishing smoothly open. Instead of the huge room filled with computers and screens, we were in what must have been a maintenance area. Despite being hidden high within the Martyrion Tower, out of sight of all but the maintenance crews, it was still designed to be aesthetically pleasing. Thick cables, heavy conduits, and rows of machinery I was vaguely familiar with lined the gently curving walls and shiny concrete floor, wrapping gracefully around the metal superstructure of the tower. Everything was laid out perfectly, with precisely measured gaps between each straight line, giving the impression that even the hidden parts of the tower had taken months or years to get just right.

  Serenity sidestepped out of the elevator, knife held loosely between us. “Don’t try to follow me, city boy.”

  Since she still hadn’t actually killed me, I stepped out after her, trying to ignore the implied threat. “I’m not going to let you sabotage the tower,” I told her. “You’re putting a lot of people in danger, Serenity. If I just walk away now, those deaths will be on my hands, too.”

  She ground her teeth, glaring at me. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry about this, Raphael. But it has to be done. My people can’t live like this anymore.”

  “Serenity-” I began, but she turned and ran down the bare, narrow hallway. I chased after her, although I had no idea what to do if I actually caught her.

  She seemed to know exactly where she was going, reaching a section of whirring servers covered in little green and yellow blinking lights on the interior wall of the tower. She produced a small black rectangle from her pocket, using her short lead on me to quickly look over the terminal in front of her. Just as I reached her, she jammed the device home into a slot on the computers, eliciting a little beep.

  I slammed into her with my full weight, knocking her roughly to the floor while barely keeping my own balance. Her knife clattered out of her hand, skittering across the floor. I turned, found the little device, and yanked it out of the slot. The green light beside the now-empty slot blinked once, then turned red. Then another green light turned red. Then another, and another, and some of the yellow ones. In less than ten seconds, every light on that server had turned red.

  “Too slow, city boy,” Serenity said, pushing herself back up. She went for her knife, but her sudden movement broke me out of my shock and mounting fears. I didn’t know what those lights were, but red didn’t look like a happy color.

  I dove for Serenity’s knife, kicking it further down the hall before she could grab it. She bounced up to her feet, taking up a fighting posture. I tried to imitate her, but I already knew that she would win. She opened her mouth to speak, but her words were drowned out by a sudden high-pitched, pulsing noise. It was loud enough that it seemed to come from every direction at once, almost instantly giving me a headache.

  “Oh crap.”

  Serenity glared around us as if she would punch the source of the noise. “What is that sound?”

  “It’s an alarm,” I told her. “You must have set it off with whatever you did! Security will be here in a second, and then you’ll end up in jail, at best.”

  “Me?” she asked. “You’re the one holding the stick.”

  I looked down at my hand to discover that I was, indeed, still holding the offending device. The pounding of footsteps alerted me to the fact that Serenity was running away, back toward the elevator.

  “Are you insane?” I demanded, staying put. “The first thing they’ll do is shut down the elevators!”

  Serenity stopped, looking uncertain. “I’m not just going to wait around for them to come and kill me.”

  “They’re probably not going to kill you on sight,” I assured her, very aware of the distinct possibility that we were both about to end our day in custody. “Come on. Let’s head back this way.”

  Serenity cocked an eyebrow. “You’re going to help me escape?”

  “Just until I can figure out how to get you arrested without also getting myself arrested,” I shot back as I went to opposite direction down the maintenance hallway, shoving the device into my pocket. Serenity followed, scooping up her knife as we went.

  “I’m supposed to destroy that,” she said, almost offhandedly. I could tell that she had already taken my statement that I was stuck with her to heart. I already regretted saying it.

  “It’s already done its job,” I snapped. “What more do you want?”

  Down the hall and around the bend, I searched for any way out of the maintenance area. The blaring alarm made it difficult to focus, increasing the sense of urgency. Everything around us looked important and sturdy. There wasn’t a single spot to hide in, thanks to the perfectly arranged machinery.

  Finally, I saw what I had been looking for: an emergency access hatch on the interior wall.

  “Here!” I called. The hatch was small, just barely big enough for a grown man to squeeze into. Set low against the wall, it was almost invisible behind the pipes and conduits that webbed their way between the servers. I dropped to my knees and began working at the edges of the hatch, trying to get it open.

  Back the way we had come, between alarms, I heard the friendly chime of the elevator.

  “Hurry up,” Serenity hissed.

  The hatch finally popped open. I sat down, slid my legs in first, and then awkwardly shimmied down into the access.

  It was dimly lit, not much bigger around on the inside than it was from the outside. An endless set of rungs extended above and below, with little glowing panels lighting each access point. The ladder spiraled gently around the tower, giving the walls a curved aspect that would make it a little easier to keep from falling. All I would have to do would be to throw my body in any direction and catch the rungs with my feet or hands.

  “Get out of the way!” Serenity said, nudging me in the back.

  I immediately started working my way down. Serenity did not give me time to get far. She slid in after me, forcing me to lean back when she dropped her feet onto the rung at che
st-level for me. She gently pulled the hatch closed behind us.

  “We need to move,” I told her, starting to head down.

  “Not that way,” she replied, her voice just above a whisper. “They’ll expect us to try to get out. We should head up.”

  Her suggestion made a kind of desperate sense. Besides, she suited actions to words before she had even finished speaking, swarming up the rungs with ease. We went up a couple of levels, my sweating palms slipping on the smooth rungs. Serenity reached the second hatch above our entry point in a few seconds, opening it almost silently and sliding out. I wasn’t nearly so graceful, but I did manage to remain relatively quiet. I carefully closed the hatch behind me. A moment later, I heard a bang from the other side as someone looked into the enclosed ladder.

  There was no time for a sigh of relief. When I looked around, my breath caught in my throat. We were in the control room. Technically speaking, we were above it, on a catwalk above the light fixtures. We had an excellent view of the chaos below, while the lights hanging from the underside of the walkway would effectively obscure us from anyone looking up.

  There were more staff in the control room than I had seen before, everyone evidently hard at work at the various stations around the concentric half-circles. The big screen facing the stations still showed the map of the world and locations of satellites, but the map had been shrunk down and moved to the side. The center of the screen was nothing but an angry red rectangle. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, throwing out phrases I couldn’t quite catch from our position.

  Director Kelley stood in the center of the floor at the lowest level, hands on his hips, spindly arms sticking out to either side like broken branches. While he peered up at the screen, I could make out just enough of his face to know that he was still scowling. He looked like a child’s stick-figure drawing that had come to life against its better judgement. His voice rose about the human- and computer-generated noises.