VI #2
The light that came on confirmed she'd been out of power, and the radio immediately came on.
"…enough." Laughter reached her. "And at the end he adds that you should come up with some places for us in that council too."
Static confirmed that Nick had stopped transmitting.
She wondered what she might have missed, but decided not to ask him now. She'd rather wait for a moment alone with Tomi and ask him. She'd embarrassed herself enough in front of Nick for one day. She put the radio away and started down the staircase to the fourth floor.
The gate was under guard, as she'd expected.
Nika quietly got the guard's attention and instructed him to bring Ana.
It didn't take long before the guard returned with a thoroughbred red-haired girl, behind whom loomed protectively the enormous bulk of the young man in the leather jacket she'd seen earlier. The redhead spoke:
"I'm Ana, and this is Erik," she pointed at the hulk, who only nodded his bearded face.
"Nika, nice to meet you." Nika reached her hand through the bars and shook the girl's hand.
Her grip was strong and her gaze piercing.
She seemed sure and confident, and Nika thought this girl clearly had experience with people and knew what she was doing.
She quickly added: "Nick sends me with this." She handed the girl a radio.
Ana took the radio and turned it over in her hands a few times.
"Okay, and how does this thing work? I've never seen anything like it," she asked as her gaze ran over the radio.
Nika quickly explained. Ana looked at her companion across the cold metal of the gate.
"You're the voice from the speakers?" she asked.
"Yes," Nika confirmed, blushing a little. Ana had a formidable gaze that frightened her slightly.
"And what's the situation up there?"
"The shelter is sealed, we don't have access to the systems. We only figured out how to turn on the power half an hour ago."
"And how many of you are there?" Ana was curious.
"You mean besides me?" Nika looked at her.
"Yes, I know Nick's tangled up in it and that scoundrel Tomi is underfoot. Leave those two out — how many of you are up there?"
"Well, if you include me and exclude those two, then one person," Nika said dejectedly.
"Then it's worse than I thought," Ana bit her full lip, thinking. "You say there's currently no way out of the shelter, and at the same time we're locked in this space?" Ana looked at her through the bars.
"I think the main elevator works, but activating it could create problems for you and yours," Nika explained.
"Hmm… you're right, the boys are dancing on a thin wire as it is. When people realize there are only about fifty in security…" Ana was still pensively nibbling her lip.
"Yes, the only hope is this staircase, to create a bottleneck," Nika shook the metal gate of the entrance and noticed the electronic lock blinking green. "Look, the locks are working — must be connected to the power coming on."
"And where are the cards?" Ana asked.
"With Nick, he's carrying all the keys and cards."
"And where's Nick? Why isn't he here?" Ana wanted to know.
"The last time I saw him was in maintenance, three floors below us," Nika grew excited. "Down there is a whole little town, everything's set up, there's even a kind of shopping mall — only for equipment, granted, but that can be repurposed," she described with enthusiasm.
Ana listened to the girl. She looked like a teenager, but something in her behavior betrayed that she wasn't the usual flirt Nick would use for one night.
She was attractive, Nick's type, and such girls he not infrequently left brokenhearted after sleeping with them.
But this girl seemed different. Her body movements, as well as her choice of words, betrayed a self-aware woman with a goal in life, and it could easily happen that she'd break Nick's heart.
Ana liked the girl and decided she had to get to know her better in the future. She returned to reality.
"So, we're currently localized to this spot — just tell me one thing…" she stared into the girl's eyes, "who came up with the idea of guilds and introducing technocracy?"
Nika blushed and stepped back slightly from the bars. Still, she looked Ana in the eyes decisively and answered proudly:
"The guild thing is my idea. It seems to me the best solution at this moment, while Tomi proposed the technocracy, which I only added to."
"That's what I thought…" Ana nodded in understanding.
"Nick's too busy with practical problems and finding solutions to think visionarily, while Tomi surprised me a little, because I always considered him an ordinary layabout interested in nothing but pornography and computers," she snorted contemptuously.
Nika looked at her. Tomi didn't seem that way to her, though admittedly she didn't know him well. So she asked her:
"You don't have a very good opinion of Tomi? What's he like?"
"Tomi? Ugh, where do I begin? If you can imagine a man so fixated on masturbation, one who doesn't shrink from spying on girls in the toilets while they relieve themselves and later selling it to the highest bidder — that partly gives you the picture of that moron."
Nika was surprised, she hadn't expected that, but still she interjected:
"Maybe so, you probably know him better than I do. But what I saw is that the guy has enormous knowledge of electronics and is literally like an encyclopedia, he knows a lot about all sorts of things."
Ana looked at her in surprise.
"Are we talking about the same man?"
"Yes, Tomi solved quite a few electronics problems to make it possible for everyone to have power. You should see him when he gets going."
The girl's voice unconsciously took on a soft note, which didn't escape the experienced Ana.
She smiled. Well, wouldn't you know it — had the girl taken an interest in that pervert?
In Tomi? Oh, this was getting more and more interesting.
She decided to keep her observations to herself, because the girl wasn't even aware of her own feelings yet.
It was too early, and she was too busy, but in the days and weeks ahead this situation could be worth watching, because it could create drama worthy of a TV soap opera. So she agreed with the girl.
"Okay, Tomi is quite useful in this situation. Which brings us back to our problem."
Ana looked around the room behind her — the flow of people had lessened over the past few minutes, but the clamor in the rooms had grown.
Nika's plan was slowly developing, and people were deliberating.
Soon the first representatives would appear, demanding attention.
"The time you bought us with those guild elections is running out. And the day's not getting any younger — we need to act while everything's still fresh, we need Nick!" Ana looked at the radio.
Nika agreed with the girl; Nick seemed like someone who could handle any situation and probably already had something in mind. So she nodded to Ana, pointing at her radio. Ana charged the battery, found the right frequency, and, glancing at Nika, pressed the transmit button.
"Nick? Are you there? Can you hear me?"
The usual static, then Nick's cheerful voice came on.
"Hey beautiful, we're finally in touch."
A smile spread across Ana's face. Her heart beat faster and she immediately felt better; even the pressure of the mountain above her head now felt lighter. Nika noticed the change in Ana, and the sincerity of the obvious feelings of love clearly visible on Ana's face surprised her.
"Hey bro, how's it going?" Ana chirped, suddenly cheerful. Behind her, Erik snorted in a gesture of feigned contempt.
"Aside from the world exploding above our heads, things are going pretty well down here — we're getting the general systems working, there's a lot to do," came from the radio.
"Is Tomi with you?" Ana's tone unconsciously changed, while her face tightened into a grimace.
"Without him this would never work."
Ana decided to change the subject.
"Hmm… I met Nika…" she sized the girl up, "looks like there's something in her head, unlike the previous ones." A mischievous smile returned to her face.
Nika blushed, but listened carefully and didn't interrupt. For a moment only static came from the radio, as if Ana had struck a nerve, but a moment later Nick came on again:
"Nika is a very interesting person and has a lot of knowledge that can be useful to us, and evidently… Hmm, I'd rather not," Nick replied cheerfully.
Nika thought Nick had diplomatically extracted himself from the conversation Ana had drawn him into.
He hadn't fallen for the tactical trap of sexualizing Nika with his statements, but had chivalrously withdrawn.
Nika looked at Ana, who was watching her.
It looked like these two knew each other very well, and she'd have to be careful in her approach to them.
She had the feeling the two of them did everything in life together and that there were no secrets in their relationship.
Almost like a married couple, though they didn't seem to be in a relationship.
An interesting situation worth exploring, but not now — now there was too much work. She lifted her radio and cut in:
"Enough talk for now, time is passing and it'll get busy here soon."
Ana turned and noticed a few people pushing through the security with an obvious purpose.
They were asking the security something, who nodded or pointed in the direction of Erik and Ana.
Ana straightened, her face tightening into a cold grimace.
She decided to use the fact that she was very provocatively dressed to win the trust of the approaching people.
Nika admired the older girl and her confidence, because she herself wouldn't have known how to react in such a situation.
At work she wore white coats and sterile suits that would probably put people off.
But Ana, even in such garments, could probably influence someone to do what she advised.
There was a lot useful to learn from Ana.
But that school could wait a little, because right now Nika had other business.
"Representatives of some guilds are approaching, by all appearances. I think you should come back here and unlock the gates," she reported over the radio.