Chapter 4
All tingly-warmth fled my body. “Sabotage?” I asked. “I didn’t feel—”
“Come to the control room, and I’ll explain,” Logan said.
“Why can’t you tell me now?”
“This frequency isn’t secure.”
The click from Logan switching off sounded in my ear. I met Riley’s resigned gaze. He buttoned his shirt. I pulled up the top of my uniform and zipped it.
“Promise me we’ll continue this…conversation later.” Riley’s mournful tone made me smile.
“That’s an easy promise to make.”
I glanced at the air vent in the ceiling. Riley’s broad shoulders would never fit. Gesturing toward the door, I asked, “Did anyone see you come in here?”
“Nope.”
“The corridors should be patrolled by ISF officers.”
“They are. I told them I was checking the wiring. As soon as they lost interest in me, I ghosted down our hallway.”
“Ghosted? You’ve been hanging around Logan too much.”
“I’d rather be…exploring with you.” He ran his hands down my sides and rested them on my hips. “There may be other surprises under your jumpsuit just waiting to be discovered.”
I slipped from his grasp and stood. “Key word, waiting.”
He groaned. “If Logan’s exaggerating, I’ll pound him.”
Picking up my tool belt, I clipped it into place. “Can you leave here without being seen?”
“Yep.”
“Great. I’ll meet you in the control room.” The ladder I had used before leaned against the far wall. I set it up under the air vent and climbed. Before I entered the duct, I caught Riley staring at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just wondering.”
“About what?”
“If you’ll keep your promise.”
“When have I ever broken a promise?”
“What about leaving the Committee?” he asked.
“I didn’t promise them anything, just offered to help.”
“I didn’t mean the Committee members, but the people of Inside. By freeing them from the Travas’s control, you promised them a better life.”
“First off, the Force of Sheep freed them, not me. And second they have a better life. No Pop Cops, grueling work schedules and we’ll soon have plenty of room. How could you possibility see that as breaking a promise?”
“There wouldn’t have been a rebellion or the Force of Sheep without you. You started everything and you need to finish it.”
Words jammed in my throat. How could he think I didn’t finish it? I shook my head. “We can argue about this later. Logan’s waiting for us.” Before he could reply, I slid into the air duct, heading toward the control room.
Riley’s voice followed me, echoing through the metal shaft. “Logan called you, Trell, not me about the sabotage. Think about that.”
As I traveled in the duct, I dismissed his comment. It was a matter of semantics, nothing more.
I arrived at the control room and took a few seconds to see who worked below. Logan sat in front of a computer, frowning at the monitor. Riley hadn’t arrived. No one else was in sight.
The noise from opening the air vent should have alerted Logan to my presence, but the poor guy jumped a meter when I landed behind him.
“Would you stop doing that?” he asked. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“You knew I was coming.” I studied him. He still had dark circles under his eyes, but he no longer looked as if a hundred-week-old could knock him over.
Logan flinched when the door opened, but relaxed when he spotted Riley. Something had him rattled.
“Time to explain,” I said.
He typed on the keyboard for a minute. The screen changed to tables and charts that meant nothing to me.
“The explosion in the power plant was caused by sabotage,” Logan said.
“That’s—”
He cut me off. “It’s the only explanation. My first clue was the location of the blast. Damage to the plant itself was minimal, but it hit the Transmission in the perfect spot.”
“The Transmission?” Riley asked.
Logan glanced at me. “Didn’t you tell him?”
“You made me promise not to.” I shot Riley a significant look. “And I keep my promises.”
“Oh. Well you could have told him,” Logan said.
“Then next time you swear me to secrecy, you need to include that exception.” I quickly explained the Transmission to Riley. “Did you fix it yet?” I asked Logan.
“No.”
“What about being on a collision course?” Riley asked.
“We should have plenty of time to avoid it. As I was saying, the Transmission’s controls were damaged, but not the equipment. Repairs should be easy if we knew how the controls worked.”
“I could look at it for you,” Riley offered.
“It couldn’t hurt,” Logan said.
“How do busted controls lead you to sabotage?” I asked.
“Second clue, is this.” He pointed at the screen.
Riley bent closer, but I wasn’t going to try and decipher it. “And?”
“Operating data for the plant right before the explosion,” Riley said.
“And?”
“All the machinery was operating within normal parameters,” Logan said. “There is nothing here to warn of an impending explosion. No spike in power, no jammed valves, no fire or anything unusual.”
“But the computer might not have registered it in time. Did you examine the plant?”
“Of course. Went over it with a couple of the supervisors. They’re equally puzzled about the cause.”
“But that isn’t enough to suggest sabotage,” Riley said.
Logan uncovered a glass container. “Final clue. At the explosion site, I found an oily residue coating the walls, and pieces of a timer and switch. And before you try to explain them, I tested the residue and it’s a flammable substance not found anywhere in the power plant.
It’s used in the recycling kilns on level one. ”
Riley picked up one of the twisted hunks of metal from the container. As he examined it, a shocked horror filled his eyes. “This could detonate a bomb.”
A bomb. Spoken aloud, the words slammed into me. Someone had set off a bomb, killing people on purpose, risking all our lives—thousands of people. I let the stunned outrage roll through me. It took me a few minutes to pull my emotions together and think.
“Who did this? Why?” I asked.
“Who, would have to be someone who knew about the Transmission, and had enough knowledge to make and place the bomb so it didn’t blow a hole to Outside,” Logan said.
“As for why, I can only guess. Since the Transmission was the target, either someone doesn’t want us traveling through Outer Space or someone wants to get our attention. ”
“Do you think they will make demands or threaten to damage another system if we don’t comply?”
“I’ve no idea, Trell. This is all new territory for me.”
“If they plan to make demands, it should be sooner rather than later,” Riley said. “Actually, if they do contact Logan or the Committee, we might be able to find out who they are.”
“Have you informed the Committee?” I asked Logan.
“No.”
“Why not?” I demanded.
“I just connected the clues. And this information needs to be handled with care. Knowing we’re dealing with a saboteur gives us an advantage. If nothing is said, maybe the person will relax and give themself away.”
“And if word gets out, there could be panic,” Riley added.
“This is too big. The Committee needs to know.”
“Nineteen people can’t keep a secret. It’s statistically impossible,” Logan said.
“What if the saboteur makes a demand?” I asked.
“The Committee will know then, won’t they.”
I huffed in frustration. “You need to tell someone,” I said.
“I did.”
“Besides us.”
“I think that’s unwise.”
“Do you have any suspects?” Riley asked.
“Don’t encourage him,” I said.
“He’s right and you know it.”
“I can pull together a list of all those who know about the Transmission for you and Trella,” Logan said.
“Us?”
He ignored me. “Anne-Jade is still trying to find out which Travas worked on the Transmission equipment. Once we have those names, I’ll add them to the list. It’s doubtful the Travas pulled it off, but one of them could have given the information to someone who isn’t under constant surveillance.”
“I can talk to the maintenance scrubs, see if they know more than they’re letting on,” Riley offered.
“Are you going to tell Anne-Jade?” I asked.
“Of course. She can be trusted.”
Still not convinced we were doing the right thing, I knew when I was outnumbered. “We’re going to need Jacy’s help. He has kept his network of contacts.”
“Is he trustworthy?” Riley asked. “He’s on the Committee.”
Remembering how he had bartered and traded for services and favors, I said, “I’ll talk to him.”
From the air shaft, I searched for Jacy among the Committee member’s offices in Sector H3.
Each of the nineteen had been given a small space and computer to use when they weren’t sitting in meetings.
Using the ducts had been a cowardly act on my part, I didn’t want to encounter any of the other members.
I didn’t want to be questioned about why I left or guilted into returning.
Jacy’s office was empty. I debated waiting or leaving a note.
Neither appealed to me, so I found a vent in the main corridor between Sectors and dropped down.
He could be in the upper’s dining room next door in Quad G3, but my skin-tight jumpsuit would draw everyone’s attention.
Since I needed regular clothes anyway, I headed down to the laundry in Sector B1 via the stairs in Quad I.
When I reached level one, I almost tripped.
Huge mounds of glass, metal and clothing filled most of the floor space.
The recycling plant in Quad I1 remelted glass and metal and turned clothing back into thread.
Usually a busy place with scrubs sorting and carting items to the kiln or the furnace or to Shredder, only a few people worked among the piles.
I put my moccasins on, but was still careful to avoid the sharper objects as I skirted the heaps. The recycling scrubs were required to wear thick boots for a good reason.