Chapter Thirteen Blue Tower
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Blue Tower
The blue tower leaned nine degrees west.
Eden measured because not measuring would have annoyed her.
It had once been a pressure telemetry mast, thirty feet of steel with a faded municipal stripe around the base. Most of the antenna array was gone. The lower cabinet remained.
Caro's key fit.
Inside, a hand pump, emergency gauge, and a mechanical odometer waited under twenty years of dust.
Rhett whistled.
"Pre-Burn people liked labels."
"They expected employees."
"Same thing?"
"Some days."
Eden turned the hand crank.
Nothing.
Again.
The gauge needle trembled.
Rhett crouched beside her.
"Pressure."
"Residual."
"Water?"
"Somewhere."
She cranked harder.
The odometer advanced.
A strip of paper emerged from a slot.
Eden stared.
Mechanical recorder.
No electricity required.
Caro would have loved it.
On the paper, faint blue numbers marked last pressure values.
P6 WEST FEED: 18 PSI.
R3 RESERVOIR FEED: 34 PSI.
Rhett read over her shoulder.
"R3."
"Reservoir Three."
"Not Pump Six."
"No."
Caro had been right.
Pump Six was a door.
The water was farther west.
Eden's pulse quickened.
Another line:
MANUAL BYPASS: SAINT MERCY GORGE. SERVICE DISTANCE: 76 KM.
Forty-seven miles.
Rhett exhaled.
"That's farther."
"Yes."
"How much water do we have?"
"One day if careful."
"Utility cart range?"
"Ask the mechanic."
He opened the battery housing.
"Thirty miles if the cells are healthy."
"They aren't."
"No."
Eden stared at the recorder.
"Pump Six first. It should have a maintenance cistern."
"Enough?"
"Maybe forty gallons."
Rhett said nothing.
She looked at him.
"I know."
He smiled faintly.
"You said it."
"Don't enjoy this."
A radio receiver sat inside the cabinet.
Rhett tried it.
Static.
Then a voice.
Thin.
Broken.
"...Dustline lead... anyone..."
Rhett froze.
"Mina."
He adjusted the dial.
"Mina, Rhett. Blue Tower One-Seventy. Respond."
Static.
Then Mina's voice came back.
"Rhett?"
Relief changed him so visibly Eden had to look away.
"Alive."
"Idiot."
"Also alive."
"Where are you?"
"Northwest. Asterline."
Silence.
Then, "You found it?"
"Part."
Mina's voice turned businesslike.
"Cinder Step was Tollhouse. Tried to lock us behind fee gate. Pax put the tanker through their south fence."
Eden smiled.
She had not met Pax long enough to be surprised.
"Casualties?" Rhett asked.
"One broken arm. They shot two tires. Water at twenty-eight percent."
"Where now?"
"Moving west toward Split Rock. Got your warning."
Rhett looked at Eden.
Split Rock lay thirty miles southeast of Pump Six.
Closer than Deadpost.
"Mina, turn northwest. Follow old collector poles to blue tower if safe."
Eden grabbed the radio.
"No."
Rhett frowned.
"What?"
She keyed the microphone.
"Mina, this is Eden Cross. Do not approach blue tower. Tollhouse knows we're here."
Static.
Mina answered.
"The Glass Road one?"
Eden closed her eyes.
Rhett looked delighted.
"Yes."
"Fine. Why should I listen?"
"Because eight Tollhouse riders are circling from the east, maybe more. Hold Split Rock until sunset. We'll send new coordinates from Pump Six."
Mina was silent.
Then: "Rhett?"
He took the radio.
"Do it."
"All right."
Trust traveled through the speaker.
Mina did not ask for explanation.
Eden felt something tighten in her chest.
The transmission broke.
Rhett closed the cabinet.
"Forty-six."
"What?"
"Still counting."
He nodded.
"Forty-six."
Eden looked west.
"Then we move."
The utility cart died six miles later.
No drama.
No final groan.
The motor simply stopped.
Rhett coasted to a halt.
He opened the battery case.
"Dead cell."
"Can you fix it?"
"No."
The answer shocked her.
He looked offended.
"I am capable of saying it."
"Rare."
They unloaded.
Water.
Tools.
Rifle.
Caro's film.
Blue key.
Fuel cells.
Eden looked at the three salvaged cells.
"Why are we carrying those?"
"Energy."
"They're heavy."
"Energy is heavy."
"I hate mechanics."
"Mutual."
They began walking.
The sun fell behind them.
The Asterline corridor was visible only as a line of old maintenance mounds.
Eden set the pace.
Rhett's shoulder slowed him less than her ankle now.
She pretended not to notice.
Two miles in, he said, "You can stop pretending."
"What?"
"Your ankle."
"I can walk."
"Didn't say you couldn't."
"You were about to."
"I was about to suggest we rest."
"No."
"Fine."
Another mile.
Eden's limp worsened.
Rhett said nothing.
That annoyed her more than nagging.
At the next maintenance marker, she stopped.
"Five minutes."
"Of course."
He sat.
Eden unwrapped her ankle.
The swelling had returned.
Rhett handed her water.
She took one mouthful.
He took one.
The remaining water sloshed low.
"Tell me something," he said.
"Why?"
"Distraction."
"From what?"
"Your ankle. My shoulder. Impending dehydration. Choose."
She looked at the blackening sky.
"What?"
"Something not about routes."
Eden almost said there was nothing.
Then she remembered peaches.
"My mother played violin."
Rhett's face changed.
"Before the Burn?"
"After too. For a while."
"Where is she?"
"Dead."
"Sorry."
"Year four. Fever."
He nodded.
No questions.
Eden continued anyway.
"She carried the violin through two evacuations. Everyone told her wood was useless weight. She'd play at night and people would stop fighting for twenty minutes."
"Sounds useful."
"Yes."
"Did you play?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I was terrible."
"That hasn't stopped most musicians."
She smiled.
"Your turn."
Rhett leaned back on his hands.
"Lyle kept a chicken."
Eden stared.
"In a convoy?"
"Named General."
"Of course."
"General survived three raids, two engine fires, and Lyle."
"What happened?"
"Mina ate him."
Eden laughed so hard her ankle hurt.
Rhett laughed too.
The sound traveled into open land.
For one second Eden worried about giving away position.
Then she did not.
They had been hunted for two days.
They were thirsty.
The world was still broken.
She wanted the laugh.
When it faded, Rhett looked at her differently.
Not enemy.
Not navigator.
Woman.
The awareness arrived clear enough that Eden's mouth went dry for a reason unrelated to water.
She looked away.
"We should move."
"Yes."
Neither stood immediately.
Then a distant engine echoed from the east.
Reality returned.
Rhett rose.
"So much for music."
Eden wrapped her ankle.
They walked west into darkness.
Behind them, Tollhouse had found the blue tower.