Chapter 14
“Outsiders.” I repeated the strange word. “You think the Controllers are Outsiders? How… Why…” The concept was so outrageous, I couldn’t say more.
“Logan isn’t the only one who is good with the computer, Trella,” Domotor said. “I’ve been trying to find a way around the Controllers since they showed up. I managed to isolate a small part of the network, and I traced where the link is coming from and it’s not from anywhere in Inside.”
“Are you sure? Jacy—”
“He could be helping them. It wouldn’t surprise me. That boy’s an opportunist.”
“Do you know what the…Outsiders want?” I asked.
“To come in.”
Suddenly, I was unable to breathe as ice stabbed deep into my bones as if I’d drifted into Outer Space. “Can they?” My voice squeaked.
“Yes they can and will.”
No wondered he looked so haggard. “Maybe it would be a good thing. They could be in trouble or need our help.”
“Then why didn’t they ask? They infiltrated our network, they ordered us to lock down our people and they told us they’re boarding. Not the actions of a friendly group.”
“Can we stop them?” I asked.
“I’ve been trying, but since this last explosion they’ve shut down all access. I can’t get into my isolated system.”
My head spun. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“You need to give this…” He handed me a small round disk. “To Logan.” Domotor studied my face. “He needs this disk to get to the isolated system. I know you’ve been visiting him so don’t lie to me and say you can’t. This is vital to our world.”
“What can Logan do that you can’t?”
“Work his magic, get control back, and stop the Outsiders from coming in.”
“What if he can’t?”
“Then we’re all at the mercy of the Outsiders.”
Logan didn’t mince words. “Holy crap, Trella this is bad.” He had inserted Domotor’s disk into his computer and had been typing away.
“How bad?”
“We’re screwed.” He tapped the screen with a fingernail. “No wonder we couldn’t locate the link. I never considered an Outside source.”
His fingers flew over the keys as he murmured and cursed under his breath.
“But now that you know what’s going on, you can stop them. Right?” I prodded.
“No can do.”
My knees refused to hold my weight. I sank into a nearby chair.
He pushed back from the computer. “We’re blocked out of everything. Domotor isolated an area, but I would need an untainted computer to access it.”
“Untainted?”
“One that hasn’t been hooked into the network.”
“What about the computers in the Travas’s Sector?” I asked. “Anne-Jade said they were cut off from the network.”
Logan fiddled with the ends of his hair. He hadn’t bothered to cut it while in protective custody. “It would depend on when those computers were unhooked. If the Outsiders had already gained access, they won’t work.”
“How do we get you there without anyone knowing?”
His face lit up. “I rigged a device that feeds off the heat from the lamp. It’ll keep the tracer at a constant temperature.”
“If we wait until right after your keepers leave, we’ll have about twenty hours before the game is up.”
I considered the steps needed to get Logan to Sector D4. After I scouted out a computer, he could travel through the air shafts with me. However, what would we do with the Travas in the room?
Time to pay Anne-Jade a visit.
“You want to borrow what?” Anne-Jade sat behind her desk and blinked at me as if she could clear me from her vision.
I had waited until the ISF office emptied of her lieutenants before dropping in on her. Keeping close to the heating vent in case one of the others returned, I repeated my request. “A stun gun, Anne-Jade. Not a kill-zapper. I need it to help Logan.” And when she didn’t answer, I added, “Trust me.”
“Stun guns can kill if set high enough.”
“I know.” Cogan had killed a Pop Cop by accident because the Pop Cop’s gun had been set to maximum. “Can’t you lock it at a certain level?”
She crumpled. There was no other way to describe it.
One second sitting straight and being stubborn, the next a defeated slouch.
“You have the worst timing.” Anne-Jade spun her monitor around so I could see it.
The white screen had a row of black letters that read, Collect all the weapons from Inside and lock them in the safe, including your own.
“Is that—”
“Yes. Orders from the Controllers.”
“Do you know they’re not—”
“Yes. And they know exactly how many weapons we have because our inventory was in the computer.”
“But if you’re locking them—”
“The floor of the safe has a weight sensor in case anyone decides to try to steal anything.”
My mind raced. “Then add in extra weight. You can’t lock up all the weapons that’s suicide.”
“I don’t have much time.” She pointed to the bottom of the screen. A small clock counted down. She had less than an hour. “If I don’t do as they say, they’ll gas Sector D2.”
“Sleeping gas?”
“I wish.”
I sorted through the potential problems. “If I find you the weight, will you loan me a stun gun?”
“Sure.”
Anne-Jade gave me the approximate weight of each weapon. While she called in her officers, I returned to the air shafts.
As I slid through them, memories of other panicked scrambles through the tight shafts replayed in my mind.
I had hoped never to be in this situation again.
In order to put a positive spin on my rushed descent to level one, I considered this trip practice.
If the Outsiders did enter our world, we would have one advantage of being in familiar territory.
The best place to pick up items of various weights was in the recycling plant.
I peered through the vents, searching for a pile away from the bustle of activity and near a vent.
Part of me was glad to see people working to recycle the large amount of waste that had collected during the last six weeks, but the other half worried one of the workers would recognize me.
Too bad I didn’t have time to don a pair of the drab gray overalls and boots.
A few people picked through a couple piles as if searching for something so at least in that regard, I wouldn’t be as noticeable. I spotted a mound of broken glass items. They would be heavy enough to stand in for the weapons.
Easing from the air shaft, I dropped to the floor with a light thump. My heart added its own thumping that I swore the entire recycling plant could hear. A couple people glanced over but resumed working. Careful of where I stepped, I tried to keep the glass pile between me and the others.
I filled my bag with a hefty amount—enough, I hoped for three or four weapons.
The beauty of taking glass was Anne-Jade could break off pieces if they didn’t match the weight.
Tying the bag to my belt, I climbed the wall, using the rivets.
In the recycling plant, the air vents were at the top of the walls and not in the ceiling.
When I reached the vent, I pulled my body in. Except before I could draw in my legs, a hand clamped around my ankle and yanked.
I used my elbows to stop my fall. With the lower half of my body dangling from the vent, I glanced down. Sloan held my ankle and gave me a smirk. Damn.
“Come on out, little bug,” he said. “You aren’t supposed to be down in this level. You’re a bad little bug that’s about to get squashed and not by Chomper.”
The graphic image propelled me into action.
I kicked back with my other foot. My heel connected with his eye.
Not hard because of my awkward position, but it didn’t take much force to temporarily damage a person’s vision.
He yelled and let go of my ankle. Without hesitating, I hauled the rest of my body into the shaft.
His curses followed me, echoing in the thin metal duct. The good news, I escaped. The bad, Jacy would soon know I had bypassed my tracer. Although with the Outsiders poised to enter Inside, I doubted anyone would care about me.
By hour fifty-nine, I returned to Anne-Jade’s office. Through the vent, I spotted a wall gaping open. It was the door to the safe. I had never noticed it before, which made sense.
A line of very unhappy ISF officers relinquished their weapons.
One of Anne-Jade’s lieutenants kept track of the number.
I was about to squirm into a comfortable position to wait when I noticed the stun gun.
Light from the office illuminated the dial.
It had been set to level five intensity—enough force to stun an average-sized man.
I tucked it into my belt and left the glass for Anne-Jade.
I needed to swing by the infirmary to gather a few supplies before going back to Logan’s. Lamont found me stuffing a syringe, tweezers, and sutures into a cloth bag.
“Are you here to help me?” she asked.
“No.”
“What’s going on Trella?”
I hesitated.
“I think I’ve been more than understanding and patient with all your trips these last two weeks, but something zapped the computer and Domotor’s face…” She shivered and wrapped her arms around her torso. “I figured you already found Logan. Did he get into the network?”
I considered what to tell her. “Logan’s working on it and I’m helping him.” I added about the Controllers disbanding the Committee.
A crease of concern lined her forehead as she watched me as I finished packing the bag.
“I can see you’re spooked. What else is going on?” she asked.
“I’d rather not say.” It was an honest reply.
“You’re being smart. I shouldn’t have asked, and I don’t want to know. Because if someone threatens to harm you, I’ll do or say anything to protect you. Go on. I’ll cover for you.”
“Thanks.”
“You will warn me if I need to prep for casualties?”
If the Outsiders come in, there could be panic and injuries. “Yes.”
“Good. Now shoo.”
I arrived at Logan’s room a few minutes after his keepers had left. So far, they kept to their twenty hour schedule, which meant Logan and I had that much time to find him an untainted computer.