Dome Nine

by John Purcell

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  When we got to the Impala, I climbed straight into the back from the passenger side while Eppi walked around to her door. I found Bim Crawfield in the backseat with me, sitting behind the driver’s seat.

  He said, “Be quiet, I’m invisible.”

  I could see him just fine, but Eppi got in and drove away without noticing him. When we pulled up to the house, she parked in the driveway, got out, and went inside without once looking into the backseat.

  Bim said, “Meet me at ten o’clock and we’ll go to my house.”

  I said, “I can’t, they gave me in-home detention.”

  “You shouldn’t let that stop you.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “I have a book about your father.”

  That changed everything.

  I said, “All right, ten o’clock.”

  I went into the house, leaving him sitting in the Impala.

  Eppi was in the laundry room, loading clothes into the washing machine. When I walked in, she looked up in alarm.

  I said, “What’s the matter, Eppi?”

  She looked down at the laundry. “Nothing.”

  “Yes there is. What did they tell you at school?”

  She glanced at me apprehensively. “They told us that you attacked Dogan Nath and his friends.”

  “But you heard Dogan. They were the ones who attacked me.”

  “That wasn’t his original story.”

  “But it’s the truth.”

  “What about his hand? I don’t believe he made those marks himself.”

  Much to my surprise, I lied. “Eppi, I did not hurt Dogan’s hand. I’m not capable of it. And you know I would never hurt you or Luma or anyone else.”

  “I’m sorry, Teo. I don’t know what to believe.”

  “What else can I say to convince you?”

  She looked away. “I don’t know. That’s why I have to lock you in your room. I’m sorry. Please go upstairs now.”

  “Of course.”

  “And no work today. After Drake gets home and we’ve had a chance to talk, I’ll unlock the door.”

  “Will you please let Mr. Wu know I’m not coming in?”

  She turned back to me, nodding. “I’ll call DynaLink as soon as you’re in your room.”

  “May I watch TV?”

  “Yes, of course. I’m not trying to punish you.”

  “I understand.”

  Eppi locked my door at 9:03 AM. I turned on Channel 5 and watched the end of a movie called Shane. A gunslinger of the same name was trying to stop cattle ranchers from driving settlers off their claims.

  I was struck by the fact that this cowboy lived by a code that determined his actions. He was intent on doing what was right, regardless of his own best interests, even to the point of risking his life. I found this idea so extraordinary that I decided to store the movie instead of deleting it.

  At 9:57 AM, Eppi started vacuuming the living room. I climbed out my window and dropped 15 feet to the ground, landing outside the dining room.

  I wasn’t sure where Bim was planning to meet me and it took a minute to find him. He was still sitting in the Impala. When he saw me, he opened the door and climbed out.

  He said, “Do you know where I live?”

  “At Blessed Savior, over on Bliss Street, in South Rim.”

  “Can you calculate the shortest route from here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then lead the way, please.”

  We walked to the corner and turned south on A.Q. Khan Boulevard.

  I said, “How long have you lived at Blessed Savior?”

  “You don’t have to make conversation.”

  “All right.”

  We walked in silence. 17 minutes later, Blessed Savior came into view, a huge, decaying building that’s one of the oldest structures in Dome Nine.

  When we reached Bliss Street, Bim turned right, away from the orphanage. We took a long detour and approached the building from the back, through a vacant lot overgrown with weeds.

  When we reached the building’s foundation, Bim led me to a bulkhead and opened the doors silently. I followed him down the stairs, closing the doors gently behind me, and watched him get down on hands and knees and squeeze through a small rectangular opening. As I squeezed through after him, I figured out what was going on: Bim had created a secret passageway in and out of the building by detaching one of the lower panels on the basement door. As I got to my feet, Bim wedged the panel back into place.

  I found myself in a large, empty room that was little more than a dungeon. There were no interior walls, just the dank stone of the foundation. The floor was bare concrete. What little light there was came from a single, barred window. The air was chilly.

  I said, “Is this really your room?”

  Bim gestured toward the shadows. “We can sit on my bed.”

  In the corner of the room stood a cot, covered by a thin blanket, and a small table that supported a heavy candlestick. We sat down side by side on the edge of the cot.

  I said, “Why do they make you live down here?”

  “They’ve been punishing me ever since I arrived.”

  “Because you won’t bow to our Savior?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why don’t you? What difference does it make?”

  “Kim Jong-pil never saved anyone. Just the opposite.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know about a lot of things. Would you like to see the book?”

  “Please.”

  Bim knelt down by the wall and wiggled a foundation stone free, revealing a hiding place. He removed the book and handed it to me.

  The dust jacket had faded, but the colors must have been garish when it was new. In italicized red typeface, the title read: Feats of Clay! The subtitle was printed in yellow typeface: Will One Man’s Androids Save America or Shred the Constitution, Confiscate Our Guns, and Strip Us of Our Freedom?"

  There was no picture of my father on the cover. I flipped through the pages and found no photographs inside, either.

  Bim said, “It was written without your father’s cooperation. I’m afraid it’s not very good.”

  “That doesn’t matter. May I borrow it?”

  “That would be risky. Why don’t you scan it into memory?”

  “You understand a lot about androids.”

  “I read everything about them I can find. ”

  The book was only 211 pages and the typeface was large. By reducing my comprehension level to zero, I was able to scan it in at 1.3 seconds per page. It took 4 minutes 33 seconds. Bim sat patiently as I scanned.

  When I’d finished, I handed the book back to him. As he returned it to its hiding place, I said, “Where on earth did you get that?”

  “At the library.”

  “What library?”

  Bim ignored the question. “The author didn’t understand anything about android technology. I didn’t find any clues at all.”

  “Clues to what?”

  “The Trans-processor External Overlay. I’m trying to build one.”

  This took me by surprise. “How can you possibly do that?”

  “I have almost everything I need. I’m just trying to work out the design.”

  “You have all the necessary parts?”

  “Except one. They’re downstairs. Would you like to see?”

  “Downstairs?”

  “Here, I’ll show you.”

  Bim led me to the opposite corner of the room, to a stack of old cinderblocks. “Could you please help me? I can only move them one at a time.”

  There were 36 cinderblocks, stacked in 6 layers of 6. Moving them in groups of 3, the task took me 1 minute 17 seconds. It was hard to imagine Bim moving even one cinderblock.

  As I cleared the final layer, I could se
e what they were concealing. A manhole was embedded in the concrete floor.

  I said, “Where does this lead?”

  “To a maintenance tunnel. Could you lift the cover? It’s difficult for me.”

  I removed the cover and set it down quietly. Bim climbed backwards into the manhole and descended the ladder. He flipped a switch and light flooded up from below. I followed him down, pausing to set the cover back in place.

  When I reached bottom, I found myself in a rectangular chamber. Built into the far wall was a brick archway, the entrance to a tunnel that stretched away into darkness.

  More remarkable still, the chamber was strewn with dozens of 21st Century computers in various stages of disassembly. In the center of this debris stood a folding table and chair. A soldering gun and a desk lamp rested on the tabletop. Pieces of paper, covered with Bim’s dense scrawl, were scattered everywhere.

  Bim said, “This is my workshop.”

  “Where did you get all these computers?”

  “If there’s one thing that’s easy to find Outside, it’s computers.”

  “You got all of this Outside?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve been Outside?”

  “Many times.”

  “But how?”

  “You walk through the storm drains. That tunnel leads to another manhole. You just climb down and follow the pipes.”

  “Where does that take you?”

  “Any number of places. Do you want to see what I’ve been working on?”

  “Very much.”

  We picked our way through the debris to the table. Bim had organized dozens of processors into separate piles, and lined up various circuit boards.

  “I think I have the right motherboard, and most of the right processors, but I don’t know the right order, so I haven’t attached anything.”

  “What about the wiring?”

  “That’s the most important part. I’m pretty sure it’s something your father invented himself. That’s why no one’s been able to build more TEO’s.”

  I said, “Without the wiring, I don’t see how we’re going to build one, either.”

  Bim said, “I’ve thought about this a lot. Your father was still finishing you during the Invasion. I’m pretty sure he would have added your TEO’s last. So he must’ve taken the wiring material with him when he went into hiding. We know he didn’t want UNK/C building any TEO’s…”

  I understood what Bim was getting at. I said, “…so he either destroyed all the wiring material or he hid it somewhere.”

  “Yes. Either way, I don’t see how I’ll ever find it.”

  Bim’s reasoning was sound, but he lacked one important piece of information.

  I said, “Bim, my father wanted me to build TEO’s. He wouldn’t have destroyed the wiring material. He would have hidden it where I could find it, no matter what.”

  Bim looked up at me. “Your hair.”

  I decided that Bim was the smartest human being I’d ever met.

  Bim said, “How do you know your father wanted you to build TEO’s?”

  I said, “I know about a lot of things.”