III #3
"What barrier? A truck?" Nika looked completely confused.
"Yes, a truck stands beneath a barrier that won't close," he replied calmly.
Nika paused. She knew he functioned in a different way, so she had to think for a moment.
A cement factory, piles of metal and metal beams, and a barrier with a truck parked beneath it.
Tomi didn't look like he was joking, and what he'd said led to only one conclusion.
The truck said there was another entrance somewhere, because you couldn't drive vehicles to the lower levels.
The elevator was too small and the staircase too narrow.
So there had to be either another entrance somewhere, or they'd disassembled the truck and later reassembled it, which was completely incredible. So she asked:
"Is there another entrance?"
"Nick claims so," he replied at once. "He wants to find it."
"Another entrance, interesting." Nika fell to thinking.
Another entrance opened up so many possibilities, but also uncertainties.
As a botanist she immediately wondered how far that entrance was and whether they were far enough from the spread of radiation, which would definitely advance from that side.
She knew the possibility of meeting other people was completely improbable, but pests and various mutated animals posed a serious problem for her farm project.
Just a small invasion of some pest could mean hunger in the shelter.
And what about illnesses caused by radiation?
That was a problem. And such a one that it had to be resolved as soon as possible.
And it was good that Nick was down there.
He was in fact the only person who gave an impression of competence and relative knowledge sufficient to face that problem.
"Nick will know how to solve it," she added.
"Yes, he was in the army and knows how to deal with radiation," Tomi agreed.
"Still, he should be careful. Do we have a Geiger counter in the shelter?" she asked.
"There should be, this is a shelter after all."
"Yes, maybe Nick or Erik knows. They're in charge of the armory."
"Probably," Tomi agreed shortly.
"Another entrance, incredible." Nika was still fascinated by the idea.
"Yeah, and nothing good will come of it," Tomi added ominously.
"You think?" she asked him.
He didn't answer. But that was Tomi. So a minute later Nika asked:
"How is that project with the phones and the light coming along?"
"Good," he replied shortly, which irritated Nika, because she wanted a little more information about the subject her whole project of growth and germination depended on.
"What good, do the lamps work or not?"
"They work." Tomi didn't grasp that he was only provoking Nika with this.
"Tomi, how many modified phones are there?" Nika raised her tone. That worked.
"Well, for now we have about two hundred pieces, and the work is going smoothly, I don't even need to supervise the people assembling them down there," he dictated, unaware of where the nervousness in her voice came from.
"Now that's how you tell me." She calmed and immediately asked: "Will it be finished on time?"
"It should, I see no reason to drag it out." Then his face suddenly brightened as he remembered. "Hey, Nika. We can have television again."
"What?" Now it was her turn to be surprised. "How?"
"Well, the components left over from the phones can be modified to receive a signal I'd broadcast from a laptop," he explained quickly.
"Broadcast how? Laptops can do that?" She didn't understand.
"Simple, something like WiFi. And the phones would catch it and reproduce it on the screen. Like television." Tomi seemed very pleased.
"Well, well. Something will come of you yet," she praised him, sincerely impressed.
"And that's not all, the devices can be repurposed to work as radio receivers and transmitters too," he continued.
"Like a walkie-talkie?" she asked him.
"Exactly, and that's even completely simple, you just need to tune the frequencies. And those devices can also be used as an ordinary radio that would catch music via antennas, which I'd likewise reproduce on the laptop and send via signal."
"And that would work in the shelter?" Nika was impressed.
"Of course, you'd just have to put together some makeshift signal amplifier, but that's no problem."
"You really are gifted with electronics," Nika praised him.
"Thank you." Tomi seemed sincerely pleased.
"Another entrance. Who knows what hides there?" Nika sank into thought while Tomi watched her.
He was happy he'd managed to impress Nika.
She looked completely satisfied and happy, and that was all that mattered to him.
He noticed Nika had completely lost herself in thought and figured it was high time to withdraw while he was still positive in her eyes.
So he rose from the chair, smoothed his clothes, and said goodbye to the girl.
"I'm going down, I need to check how the work with the phones is going."
"Huh? Oh, okay, see you," Nika replied, flustered, and headed toward her machines.
He watched a moment longer as she gracefully moved away from him, but then he sighed and headed toward the exit, still stubbornly ignoring the nearby young man who was looking at him reproachfully.
END OF PART ONE