Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
She scoffs, then full-on laughs. “If they don’t already know that, they’re kinda stupid, aren’t they?”
I laugh too. “Probably right. Anyway. You wanna tell me how to get to sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2?”
“No. But I’ll show you.” She turns and starts running, weaving her way through people in the crowded hallway. I just watch for a moment, trying to decide if I should play this little game with her. But then she looks over her shoulder and yells, “Come on, Tyse! I’m the white rabbit and you have to follow me!”
A part of me knows this is just another tea party invitation, something I should definitely decline. But it could take me hours to find sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2 on my own. And she’ll probably get me there in ten minutes.
So I follow, losing sight of her several times when the hallway splits and zigzags. And I realize that the hallway is kind of a ramp. Slowly, very slightly, angling downward. At the bottom of this gradual drop Anneeta is waiting, sitting on a concrete step. Her right arm is raised over her head and her finger is pointing up at the ceiling.
Not all the lights are working down here—the spark must be low—but there are enough still sputtering for me to see that it’s not the ceiling she’s pointing to, but something spray-painted on the door she’s resting against.
It’s a circle with a lightning bolt crossing through it from left to right. “What’s this?”
“The rabbit hole. Do you want me to go with you?”
I reach for the door handle, find it unlocked, and pull, forcing Anneeta to get up and get out of the way as I open it.
Looking in, I find that it’s pitch black and smells stale. “Where does this lead, Anneeta?”
“Down.”
“Down how far?”
“Mmmmm.” She hums a little, shrugging up that shoulder again. “Maybe… six levels.”
“Is that sector 4?”
“Nope. It’s Sector 1. All this is sector 1.”
“Sector 1 is six levels? Fuckin’ hell. How many levels down is sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2?”
“Umm…” She shrugs again, but with both shoulders and hands this time. “A bigger number than I can count. A lot. But I can take you, if you want.”
“You’ve been down there before?”
“Of course. I’ve been everywhere. But down here, mostly in my dreams.”
“I’m not sure that’s helpful.”
“You say that now because you don’t dream the way I do. But if you follow me, you will.”
“I will what?”
“Dream the way I do.”
“Am I gonna get zapped with spark, or something?”
Anneeta laughs, a very childlike giggle. “You’ve already been zapped with spark, Tyse. That’s why you live here.”
“Right.” I’m suddenly very sorry I agreed to this job. “How high can you count?” I ask just so I can get an estimate of how far I’ll need to go.
“Twelve.”
I squint my eyes at her. “No one ever told you about thirteen, eh?”
“Thirteen is forbidden. It’s bad luck.”
“Well, it’s still a number. And if you know thirteen, you know fourteen. Then fifteen. Can you see the pattern?”
“Yes. But thirteen is forbidden.”
“Whatever. Lead the way. Let’s do this.” I wave a hand into the darkness, inviting her to go first.
I expect her to balk at least a little. But she just takes off into the black without hesitation. A moment later, just as I’m pulling a torch off my belt, the way forward illuminates.
Again, like back outside, not all the lights are working. So it’s a disorienting sputter of semi-darkness instead of actual illumination. “Are you doing this?” I point up at the lights when she looks over her shoulder at me.
She stops, waiting for me to catch up. “No. It’s just the god.”
“There’s no god here, Anneeta.”
“Then how do the lights come on?” She falls in next to me, walking again.
“Some kind of sensor? I’ve seen them before. Where I grew up, there was a god. And there were sensors for everything. All the lights were automated like this.”
“Really?” She sounds astonished. “Did you ever meet the god?”
“Oh”—I laugh—“hell yes, I did. I was always in front of that fucker being punished.”
“Punished?” She stops walking and looks up at me, hands on hips. “For what?”
“For… whatever. He was an asshole.”
“What city did you grow up in?”
“Delta.”
She’s standing right under a light so I get the full effect of her crinkling nose as she stares up at me with squinted eyes. “Where’s that?”
“All the way across the sand sea.”
“Really? Did you come here in the tunnels?”
“Yep. I sure did.”
“One day I’m gonna leave and I’m gonna use those tunnels to do it. Maybe I’ll go to your city. Would you like me to say hello to anyone when I get there?”
I grab both her shoulders and turn her around. “Less talking, more walking.”
She laughs a little, but does as she’s told, keeping quiet and on task until we reach a real stairway. “This is the way down to the lower sectors.”