A Crack in the Sky (21 page)

“Ben wasn’t a traitor. He didn’t give anybody away. He tried to find you. After you were taken, he disobeyed the Friends and snuck Outside to search for you. He called out your name in the ruins. That was how he ended up getting captured, and then soon afterward he died trying to escape. But it was all for you. He did everything he could to try to get you back.”

She felt like the air had been knocked out of her. So she’d been wrong to lose her trust in Ben after all? After weeks of believing that he betrayed her, now she was supposed to switch gears again and accept that he’d been a good friend—and a good
Friend
—all along? As much as she wanted to, it was hard. She’d been twisted back and forth so many times, she wasn’t sure whom or what to trust anymore. Why should she doubt the Friends any less than she doubted the company? Hadn’t they
both
done enough damage to her already?

“Ben devoted his life to serving the Greater Purpose,” continued the whispering Friend. “He would have wanted you to do this for us. Now is not the time to lose faith. You know what’s coming. You know that securing any future at all will require personal sacrifice from each of us.” She leaned in closer. “We all have our tasks, Sister Tabitha, and this is yours. The Friends are counting on you.”

Tabitha’s jaw tightened. Where were the Friends when she’d been surrounded by company thugs Outside by the St. Louis dome? Where had they been all this time she’d been in the tower, counting on
them?
The girl with the mole went silent, waiting for an answer, but Tabitha was struggling with the wave of heat rising inside her. She clenched her fists.

“What’s wrong with you people?” she said at last. “How could you use me like this? How can you ask me to stay here, rotting my life away for you?”

“Sister, you made a solemn oath. If you really believe, as the Friends do, that el Guía is coming, then why should you doubt the wisdom of the Elders?”

Tabitha blinked at her. She realized that this was the problem. She
didn’t
believe. After all she’d given up for the Friends, she wasn’t willing to give any more for a savior who wasn’t coming. It was just another illusion. She spoke through her teeth now: “You’re as bad as they are.”

Suddenly she reached back and slammed her fist into the girl’s face. The fake Cleaner’s hand flew to her nose. She staggered backward, sinking against the wall.

Tabitha took a step forward and stood over her. “Tell the Friends no thanks. I’m done making sacrifices for them or anyone else.”

The girl gaped at her, eyes wide. A thin line of blood trickled down her wrist. After a moment she pulled herself to her feet. With Tabitha still glaring, she wiped herself with a napkin and then wheeled her cart back to the door. She turned to Tabitha one last time.

“The Elders won’t take this lightly.”

When it was clear she would get no answer, the fake
Cleaner wheeled her cart into the corridor and closed the door quietly behind her. Tabitha’s fists were still clenched. She almost wished the Friends hadn’t woken her. At the end of all things that mattered, would it really have been so wrong to leave her feeling okay? Maybe it would have been better that way.

She didn’t know.

All she knew was that she was alone. Nobody was looking out for her. Not the Friends. Not the company. Nobody. She’d almost let herself forget that nothing was black and white, just shades of gray everywhere you turned. But she was done trying to figure out what was right and wrong. So little was in her control, anyway. She couldn’t save the world any more than she could have saved Ben. The only future she had any chance of rescuing was her own.

If she was ever going to find her way out of here, then she couldn’t count on help from anybody else. Which was fine by her. Because from now on the only person she was going to look out for was herself.

12
through the looking glass
and what eli found there

The reflecting door swung shut behind him. Eli and Marilyn found themselves in a long, cramped room with a low ceiling and a musty odor. In here the coolers were so strong, there was a chill in the air. From somewhere up ahead they heard a soft mechanical hiss, followed by silence, followed by another hiss, at regular intervals. Eli squinted into the gloom. Across the long walls were shelves piled high with what looked like salvaged parts from electronic equipment: burned microchips, light generators, wire scraps, lengths of pixel tubing, and countless other gadgets and electronic parts Eli couldn’t even identify.

“It looks like a high-tech junkyard,” Eli whispered.

What now?
Marilyn asked, hiding under his cloak.

“I don’t know.”

He took a tentative step into the clutter, then another, squeezing his way between wooden crates that were scattered all over the floor. The room seemed to go on so far that he
couldn’t even see the opposite end. The intermittent hiss grew louder as he moved deeper in. Long shadows flickered across the ceiling like ghosts.

Suddenly Marilyn squirmed.
Wait! Don’t move!

Eli froze. “What’s the matter?”

We are not alone
.

Eli peered across the mess and tried to scan the room, but he didn’t see anything that caught his attention. What he heard, though, was the hissing machine, close now, cycling through its repetitive process.
Hisss
. Stop.
Hisss
. Stop.
Hisss
. What was it, anyway?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move.

Eli!

He spun around. A figure was crouched on the floor. Eli’s breath caught. It wasn’t just that somebody was there, watching him from the shadows; it was that this stranger was one of the most frightening visions Eli had ever come across. His face was covered with so many leathery scars, it was painful to look at. He had long gray hair and a dirty white beard. He was obviously an Outsider. He wore a hooded environment suit, threadbare, and a menacing black glove that went all the way up his left arm. His other hand was exposed, and the skin was wrinkled and lined with veins. He looked ancient, at least as old as Grandfather. Then Eli noticed something hanging over his shoulder, a metallic cylinder that swelled and shrank with each breath the savage took. It appeared to be some kind of respirator, and Eli realized it was making the hissing sound.

Eli felt his courage return. Whoever this poor creature was,
he was too old and frail to be dangerous. “What are you doing here, Outsider?”

“Waiting for
you,”
he said, his voice as raspy and dry as the desert, “the errant Papadopoulos, the grandchild who called out for the truth. I wanted to meet for myself the boy who would risk climbing the sky just to find out what nobody else would tell him.”

Eli stared. He had only just finished climbing the sky. How could this old man have known what Eli would do before it even happened?

“No,” he said. “I meant, how did you make it past the perimeter Guardians?”

“There are ways. Hidden paths. If you know where to look.”

Eli couldn’t help shivering. He’d been in here only a short while and already he was cold. He glanced around at the jumble of boxes and equipment again. “What is this place?”

“This is a sky chamber, one of several hidden in the inner crust of the dome.” His respirator hissed. “Some are for sky control, some for storing test equipment. This one holds refurbished dome parts.” He gestured at the space on the floor beside him. “Sit.”

Eli took a step forward.

Don’t, Eli! I don’t trust him
.

Marilyn had kept so still under his cloak that he’d almost forgotten she was there. But Eli didn’t need the warning. This was only the second Outsider he’d ever spoken with, and he was already wary. He squatted to get a better look at the decrepit old man, but he wasn’t about to sit next to him.

“So,” he said, “do you believe the same crazy stuff the kid on the Bubble does? About how the world is about to come to an end and all that?”

The Outsider smiled, revealing two uneven rows of jagged yellow teeth. “Tell me, in your InfiniCorp training, have you learned much about the rapid rise of carbon levels in the planet’s atmosphere? Have they shown you charts or graphs or anything that demonstrates its alarming rate of increase over the past few decades?”

Eli considered but shook his head.

“Then let me be the one to enlighten you.” The old man paused while his respirator expanded again. “The point of no return for Earth is about four hundred and fifty carbon-equivalent units per million. Do you have any idea what that number is at the present time, Eli Papadopoulos, as you and I sit here in air-conditioned comfort?” He bent forward so that his nose was uncomfortably close to Eli’s. “Nine hundred and eighty.”

Eli rose and took a step back. This Outsider was giving him the creeps.

“There’s something very wrong out there,” he continued. “Long after the passing of the Great Sickness, it’s still gathering strength. For now, the machine that runs your life keeps your attention elsewhere, but just beyond your vision lies an ever-expanding wasteland of desert and death. Eli, the end of the world as we’ve known it has already happened, you just haven’t realized it yet. You’re like an oyster in a steaming pot, blissfully unaware that you’re being cooked alive.”

Eli studied him. “If it’s already over, then why are you
here? What do you and the other Foggers hope to gain by coming into the domes?”

The old man’s lip curled. He pointed a gnarled finger at Eli. “If your house was on fire and your family were asleep inside,” he shouted, “would you do
nothing?”

Eli took another step backward. Coming here had been a mistake. He spun around and dashed to the door. It wouldn’t budge.

“It’s locked!” When he turned to look back again, the bent figure was standing. His nose stuck out from between the two curtains of dirty gray hair that framed his face. Eli felt his blood rush. “You did this!” he shouted. “You can’t keep me here—my family will never let you get away with it! Unlock the door!”

The Outsider’s voice was calm. “I didn’t lock it. If it won’t open, it means the sky must be rebooting.”

“Rebooting? What does that have to do with anything?” Eli grabbed the knob again and started yanking with all his might, but it wouldn’t move. “Let me out! Let me out!”

“Listen to me, Eli. When the system resets, the dome is at its most vulnerable. It’s standard procedure for the company to secure all the sky chambers during any reboot. In a few minutes they should be released automatically, but in the meantime both of us are locked in here.”

Eli slammed his fist against the door. “Why should I believe you? How would you know how the domes work?”

“Because,” he answered, “I designed them.”

Eli felt Marilyn scrambling under his cloak.
Enough lies! I’ll make him open the door!
She burst into the air, baring her teeth.
In an instant she bounded across the tops of the crates and flew at the old man. He held up his gloved hand, so she sank her teeth into his forearm. But the Outsider didn’t even flinch. While Marilyn dangled from his arm, hissing and scratching, he calmly reached with his free hand and dislodged her as if he didn’t feel a thing.

Marilyn’s whole body went rigid. Eli watched the grizzled figure lift her by the scruff of the neck, dangle her, helpless, in the air, and then gaze into her face with what looked like a strange mixture of amusement and reverence.

“There you are, little altered creature, cheated queen of the wild. I was wondering when you’d come out of your hiding place and say hello.”

Panicked, Eli charged across the room. “Don’t you dare hurt her! Leave her alone, filthy desert snake!”

Before he was even halfway to Marilyn, though, the Outsider had already lowered her gently to the floor and let her go. The instant she was free, she dashed at Eli and leapt into his arms. He pulled her close.
Are you all right?

Her orange eyes were wide with surprise and fear.
I think so … There’s something wrong with his arm. It’s—it’s not alive!

Eli looked her over. She appeared dazed but okay. He glared across the room again. “What just happened? She tells me your arm isn’t alive.”

“Does
she, now?” He raised his glove and gazed at it. “Well, she’s right. I lost my original years ago. This one is a prosthesis, a mere substitute.” He flexed the fingers and tapped his forearm. Where Marilyn’s teeth had torn through the leather, Eli could now see shiny blue plastic. It looked like the same material sometimes used for droid casings.

The Outsider’s left arm was robotic.

“I assure you I mean Marilyn no harm,” he said, his respirator still expanding and contracting on his back. “After all, I believe that before this is all over, she’ll have an important role to play.”

“How do you know her name?” Eli demanded. “And what do you mean, she has a role to play? How could you possibly know what’s going to happen?”

“Know?” He shook his head. “I don’t
know
anything. What’s yet to come isn’t fixed like the scenes of a play, waiting only to be acted out onstage. The future is misty and forever shifting with the changing tides of the present. What little I have foreseen came to me only as a possibility in a vision—as fixed as the wind, as substantial as a cloud.”