Chapter 6

Rosalin is screaming. It’s dark in the room and the sound of her shriek sends prickles along my skin. I open my eyes wide and see nothing.

“Rosalin!” I shout and scramble off my bunk. I bang my knee on the ladder and half fall to the floor. A sharp pain cracks through my ankle as it twists beneath me but I barely feel it. Rosalin is still screaming and I feel like my head is stuffed with a swarm of angry bees.

I slap the wall panel and the lights blink on. Rosalin is thrashing against the covers and her face is twisted in terror. I grab her by the shoulders and shake her.

“Rosalin, wake up!”

Her eyes fly open and she struggles against me, trying to get away.

“Rosalin, it’s me. Wake up!”

She blinks once and stops fighting. She looks confused for a moment and then her eyes clear. She looks scared but no longer terrified.

“Oh Arela,” she whispers and a sob breaks her voice. “It was terrible.”

She starts crying and I climb onto the bed and pull her against me. She wraps her arms around my back and cries against me, jagged and breathless sobs. I’ve never seen her cry like this.

Eventually her sobbing slows, turns into sniffles and then she stop. She rests her head against me for a moment and then pulls away. Her face is puffy and her eyes are red.

“You ok?” I ask.

She nods and wipes the back of her hand across her eyes.

“What was it?” I ask.

She looks away from me and doesn’t speak for a moment. I’m not sure she’ll answer. Then she says. “It’s the same one.”

I know what she’s talking about. Rosalin’s mother died giving birth to her, and even though she was only a baby she’s told me she has memories of the hospital, of the cold grey walls.

“Everything always feels so scary,” she says. “I feel so alone.”

She shivers and rubs her knuckles into her eye sockets as if she can push the memory out through the back of her skull. She sighs and drops her hands in her lap.

“You’re not alone any more,” I say. “I’m here and no one’s going to hurt us. It’s probably the safest place in Osiris.”

Rosalin smiles faintly. “I know. But sometimes I’m scared any way. I can’t help it.”

“You don’t have to be scared. I’ll protect you from the boogeymen.” I lift my arms and box the air between us.

Rosalin laughs. “Boogeymen huh? Are they green?”

“Well I was thinking more of a purple color. You know, non standard issue.”

“Right,” she says. “They wouldn’t wear Osiris green, would they?”

“Of course not. They’re rebels after all.”

I enter the building with the narrow windows and bypass the library section altogether. I head straight to the basement and the power transformer. The building is exactly as I left it two days ago but I feel uneasy. Like someone is watching me again.

I shine my illuminator behind the transformer and a wave of relief washes through me. The device is still there, connected to the transformer by the inductor cord. I crouch beside the transformer and pop the illuminator between my teeth. I press the power button on the device and watch as it lights up. It runs through it’s booting cycle and the home screen displays with the same icons from before. The battery icon at the top of the screen shows one hundred percent and I want to cheer. I’m not sure how long that will give me but it’s definitely more than five minutes. Enough time to hack the system and find out something useful.

I pull the inductor’s charging flap from the device and leave it hanging from the transformer. There’s a small chance the wire connectors could spark a fire, but it’s so remote I feel safe enough leaving it in place. I’ll have to charge the device on a regular basis and I don’t want to reconnect to the transformer every time. I’m not sure my nerves could take it.

I press the edges of the tablet together until the plastic case clicks together. It’s not as sturdy as it was before I pried the pieces apart but it will hold together if I don’t jostle it.

It‘s cold in the basement area so I take the device with me and climb the stairs. I’m about to enter the library but I change my mind. The metropolis wifi will be stronger at the top of the building, so my best chance is from the rooftop.

The building’s elevator still works but it’s been so long since anyone used it that I’m worried it will get stuck half way and strand me between floors. It’s safer to take the stairs. I’m out of breath by the time I make it to the top, thirteen stories up. I push open the fire escape and walk out onto the roof of the building. It’s not the tallest structure in Osiris but it’s close. The city is ranged out to the south of me in a jagged series of metal and concrete lines ranging in color from palest cream to charcoal. It’s beautiful, even in the hazy light from the perimeter. All of humanity lives within this cluster of buildings. The final frontier.

I walk to the edge of the rooftop and lean on the stone barrier. I feel like the heroine of a movie, staring off into the distance as the breeze stirs her hair. Except there’s no breeze in Osiris’ constantly controlled environment.

I turn away from the view and hunker down with my back against the barrier. I place the tablet on my knees and tap the screen. I have a strong impulse to look at the photos again but I ignore it. I don’t have time today.

It’s not immediately apparent how I’m going to access the back end system. I start by connecting to the wifi signal and opening a browser window. I bring up the on screen keyboard and enter the IP address of the public domain. From here, I can access my cloud-based storage files. Files I’ve been saving for exactly this moment. I navigate through the directory and select the script I’ve written to access the networks command center. I let it run. I bite my nails as the hard drive whirs against my thighs. I’ve never run this script before and I’m not a hundred percent certain it will work. After three minutes a black command window pops open and I let out a whoop. The blinking curser awaits my instructions. I get to work. It takes some finagling with the data structure but twenty-six minutes later, I crack the firewall and I have access to the universal network. Osiris’ entire technological system is controlled from a central repository, the network. It’s supremely dangerous, having a single point of failure, but Osirians would never consider hacking into the network. They certainly wouldn’t think about compromising it. If the perimeter or water mains or eco-techs failed, we would all die from affixation, dehydration, starvation. It’s a real threat we live with every day. I glance up at the perimeter and shiver.

I start browsing the root files of the network until I find the directory for the allocations department. The system runs on old DOS prompts and it takes a while for the commands to come back to me. It amazes me that Osiris programmers didn’t upgrade the entire system after the collision.

I’m about to access the allocation files when an unusual directory catches my attention. ALERT/x302/EMERGENCY

I change tact and open the file. A list of text entries fills the screen and keeps scrolling. I realize it’s a live feed from the security department, response messages and directions for the city guard.

ALTERCATION ON S325 AND 4.2. RESPOND IMMEDIATELY.

INJURY AT S526 AND 780EAST. MEDIC REQUESTED.

STRUCTURE DAMAGE AT N203 AND 5. SEND CLEAN UP.

CROWD CONTROL REQUIRED AT SQUARE ONE. SEND ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL.

The list continues scrolling and I watch in amazement as the city around me rises up in revolt. I explore the folder and find the live security cameras. I download the corresponding codec and open the first video feed. The camera shows a high level view of the main square in the center of the city. Square One is the central location of the government and policy allocations. Highborn families live in the apartments clustered around the square and the area is only open to people with high-level access, people who work in policy or security.

The square is now full of people, a sea of green and brown. The mass surges toward the large columned building at the other end of the square and a line of city guards pushes back. There’s no sound with the video feed but I watch people’s mouths open wide, and I know they’re shouting. Men and women raise their arms in the air, their fists clenched. I’ve never seen so much anger on so many faces. It scares me, this outpouring of emotion. Osirians are stoic and good-natured. They are kind. These faces don’t belong to the people I know. They belong to strangers.

I’m about to tap to a new video feed, when an error message flashes across the screen.

ACCESS DENIED.

I try opening the main directory again but I’m barred.

ACCESS DENIED.

“Damn.”

They identified me. I close the network window and disconnect the wifi. I should have realized they would monitor the system. The unusual activity must have triggered a sniffer script and when they found my location, they cut me off. I hope they don’t have geo location set up or they’ll find me quickly.

I decide it’s safer to leave than risk being discovered by security. I’ll have to hack my way in again tomorrow and consider a better option for hiding the evidence.

I jog down the darkened stairs and I’m about to turn toward the locker room when the hair on my neck prickles suddenly and I duck through a doorway on my left instead. I kill the light from my illuminator and stand perfectly still. I strain to see in the darkness, wondering what triggered my feeling of unease. Then a service entrance panel beeps and slides open. Weak daylight filters through the opening and I see a monitor-bot hovering at eye level, it’s red light blinking.

I gasp and shrink away from the sight. They took my system breech seriously and sent a M973 bot to investigate. Not just a surveillance bot, an eradication model. If the bot reads my heat signature, I’m as good as dead. My nerve endings tingle with the realization.

I move away from open door and feel my way along the wall. I’m blind in the darkness. I can hear the faint whir of the monitor-bot as it moves into the building, scanning its surroundings. It’s looking for a live body to incinerate.

I keep moving along the wall, trying to get as far from it’s sensors as possible. The bot’s red light shimmers through the doorway and it pauses for a moment, it’s round metal body swiveling in the air, processing its next move. Forward, or left through the doorway I just entered. If it moves left, I’m caught.

I hold my breath.

The bot beeps once and moves forward. I let my breath out and sag a little in relief. But I don’t have time to relax. I have to get out of this building before it returns and sweeps this room. I can’t go back the way I came so I move around the room until I find a door leading to a new section. I’ve explored this part of the building but I’m not as familiar with the warren of corridors and sections on this side.

I tuck the tablet into the waistband at the back of my pants and make my way through an endless loop of connected rooms, until I arrive at a staircase. I can either go down to the basement or up. Neither direction is a likely exit but I take up. If I’m forced back onto the rooftop, at least I have the option of jumping to the next building. Not the safest escape route but better than being trapped underground. I climb the stairs at a run and I’m breathing heavily when I reach the eleventh floor. I’m about to go higher when I notice light coming from a corridor to my right.

I poke my head around the staircase entryway. Silence.

The light is coming from a glass-paneled skywalk connecting this building to its neighbor. I wonder how I could have missed the above ground connection, but I don’t have time to consider why this wasn’t shown on the building plans. I’m just lucky it’s here. I leave the stairwell and cross into the tunnel. I should hurry, the further away from the monitor-bot I get the better, but I can’t resist looking down through the glass to the street below. It’s strange seeing the city from this angle, poised directly above the pavement. I’ve gazed over the edge of a hundred different buildings but I’ve never felt suspended in mid air like this.

I tear myself away from the skywalk and cross to the other side. I haven’t explored the library’s neighbor, building 947. It never seemed that interesting. It’s a small, narrow column of concrete, with dark empty rooms circling a defunct elevator shaft. It was another public building used to store old world records and paperwork. At least that was it’s official listing in the city register.

I’m standing in a small vestibule and the door opposite me looks like paneled wood but when I knock, the dull thump sounds like solid metal. Well, someone wanted to protect this building. I wonder what’s so important it needs the extra security.

I flip open the access panel cover and I’m surprised to see there’s no keypad, only a dark plastic pad. I stand for a moment considering. All of the access codes in the city follow the same pattern based on their building number and their latitude, longitude coordinates. Once I figured out how to crack one building’s security code, it was easy enough to figure out the rest. But I’ve never seen a blank access pad before. I don’t know what to do with it.

I glance over my shoulder. I don’t see the monitor-bot, but it won’t take long for it to reach the eleventh floor. I can almost feel it drifting closer as I stand in front of the locked door. My chest tightens and my heart rate rises in response.

I try pressing my index finger to the pad but nothing happens. I try all my fingers. Still nothing. I’m still standing in front of the access panel when I hear the beep of the monitor-bot behind me. I glance over my shoulder and see the reflection of its red light on the glass of the skywalk. It hasn’t identified me yet but it’s not far away.

In desperation I slap both hands against the pad and push.

“Open!”

The door slides open and I almost whimper as I lurch across the threshold. The door whispers shut behind me and I sag against it in relief. I’m almost certain the monitor-bot won’t cross the skywalk to investigate. It was sent to building 949, the library, and its protocol doesn’t allow it to veer from instructions. The programmers didn’t think to program the bots with machine learning and they take their orders literally.

I click on my illuminator and shine it outwards. I’m confronted by another dark corridor and a series of closed doors. According to the building plans, the stairwell is on the opposite side. I make my way toward it at a fast walk, sweeping the light across my path. A thick swelling of dust kicks up around my feet and I cover my nose and mouth. I push open the door to the stairwell and start jogging down. I’ve rounded the curve to the seventh floor when I realize there are footprints in the dust. I stop to examine them in the glow of my illuminator. The footprints are overlapping in an irregular pattern, made by the same set of boots. And they’re fresh. Someone has been traveling these stairs and doing it recently. Who would be visiting an abandoned building in the nine hundreds? There’s nothing but dusty paper records in this building.

I know I should be leaving but I can’t help myself. I turn around and climb back up a flight of stairs and follow the footprints where they exit the stairwell on the eighth floor. The tracks move along the corridor and into a room on the left. I stand in front of the closed door, my heart pounding. I slide the door open and step inside.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7