Quake (15 page)

“You guys really know how to blow your cover in style,” he said, laughing. “We got out into the foothills in time. Thanks for the warning.”

“Glad you're okay!” Dylan answered. “We're on top of the tower, heading in.”

“Better hurry. No doubt this place will be crawling with Western State military in no time. Get out of what's left of the city fast.”

They arrived at the base of the Koin Building and tried the first door they came to. It was locked, not surprisingly. A lot of urban buildings were locked up and deserted when the last group of people left. Portland had been, Faith remembered from history, one of the earliest pilot cities and had emptied out almost overnight. The Western State held lotteries with the biggest western cities. If a city could agree to come in all at once, its residents were given a better set of buildings to live in, more bonus coin for buying merchandise, guaranteed employment. All of Portland, at the time nearly half a million people, had fit into one-twentieth of the space it had occupied outside the State.

They circled the building searching for a way inside as Faith searched for any kind of heat signal that might represent a person moving around.

“Would the old alarm system still go off if we broke a window?” Faith asked anxiously. “Or is this one off the grid completely?”

Dylan didn't know. “I wish Hawk were here. He could tell us.”

All the doors were locked at the street level. Peering inside, they saw that there was power from the old grid lighting exit signs and small corridor lights.

“Aren't we past the idea of keeping a low profile?” Faith asked. “Let's just throw something heavy through a window.”

Dylan wasn't so sure. He looked toward the peak, squinting into the sun.

“I know we just dropped a mountain on Portland, so it's kind of obvious we're here, but I think that's all the more reason to lie low. If the Quinns are anywhere nearby, they might come looking for us.”

“That would be bad,” Faith agreed.

They milled around, searching for a broken window they could climb through and getting more frustrated by the second. These old buildings were airtight, frozen in time.

“Clay, how are you guys getting into buildings?” Dylan asked, using the two-way.

A few seconds passed and then Clay answered, “Hang on.”

They waited, Faith growing more impatient by the second, and then Clay was back.

“Doors will set off an alarm if you break the glass, but the windows should be fine. They're double pane, but you should be able to punch through one.”

“Is it worth risking the pulse being detected?” Faith asked, opening and closing her fist at the excellent thought of putting it through a plate-glass window.

“It's so fast, just a blip. And you're down low surrounded by buildings—that'll cut the signal for sure. I think you go for it.”

Faith didn't need to be told twice. She nodded and walked to the closest window she could find.

“I'm sensing you want the honors here,” Dylan said. He didn't have to wait for an answer. Faith reeled back and punched the glass, hitting it as hard as she could with a balled-up fist.

Nothing happened.

“Step aside, little lady. I got this.” Dylan's arms flexed as he pumped his fist, and then he let fly a punch that shattered the glass into a million little squares.

“I weakened it for you,” Faith said. “It was ready to blow.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Dylan joked, flashing one of his million-dollar smiles in Faith's direction.

They climbed through the opening, kicking bits of broken glass onto a carpeted floor inside, and found themselves inside a uniformly boring office. Light streamed over rows of cubicles, each with an empty desk and a matching chair. Old computers and printers remained, boxes of office supplies that had never made it out the door, a golf putter that someone had left behind, a Starbucks cup.

“I'd have gone to the Western State if this was where I locked and loaded every day,” Dylan said. “Talk about depressing. At least we don't have a nine-to-five desk job anytime in our future. Things could be worse.”

“Maybe they abolished all cubicles in the States, but I doubt it,” Faith halfheartedly agreed, thinking the exact same setup had probably been replicated a million times over inside the world of the States.

When they reached the lobby the elevator wasn't in service, so they started up the switchback service stairway on their way to the eleventh floor. When they rounded the corner for floor number six, they took a short break and Dylan saw a vending machine through the security glass in the landing door.

“Wait here,” Dylan said.

“Dylan, don't—” But it was too late; Dylan was already through the door and it was shutting behind him. Faith didn't see why she should wait, so she grabbed the edge of the door and swung it open about the time Dylan put his fist through the glass of the vending machine.

“That right hook of yours is going to get us into trouble if you're not careful,” Faith said, but she was also interested in what the vending machine had to offer. Her stomach growled.

Dylan ripped open a box of Mike and Ikes and poured seven or eight of them into his mouth. They were hard as rocks, but they still tasted pretty good. He opened a Snickers bar and touched it with his fingers.

“It
looks
okay,” Dylan said through a slurry mouthful of Mike and Ikes.

“I'm pretty sure the half-life of chocolate and peanuts is nowhere near forty years. Don't do it.”

But Dylan took a bite anyway, made a weird face, and then kept chewing.

“I think I'll stick with the gum and the Life Savers,” Faith said, pocketing a packet of each.

Dylan thought better of the candy and left it behind, but he did take a bag of pretzels before they went back to the stairs.

“These can't go bad, can they? I mean, they're basically twigs.”

Faith didn't answer as she motioned for Dylan to close his mouth and quiet down.

“If someone is on this floor they definitely know we're here, fists of fury,” Faith said.

Dylan chewed as fast as he could and swallowed hard.

“Let's just go. No reason to wake an urban zombie if there's one living in this building. We don't need that kind of distraction right now.”

Faith leaned in and kissed Dylan. His lips tasted like candy and she lingered.

“Okay, give me one of those Mike and Ikes. It's been too long, even if it is petrified.”

They continued their journey up to the eleventh floor, pausing twice to kiss the candy flavor off each other's lips. Dylan knew the door when they saw it, because it had a Star Trek symbol knocker.

“Let me guess,” Dylan said. “You don't know who Spock and Captain Kirk are?”

“Ummmm.”

Dylan shook his head. “It's a good thing your kisses taste so sweet. You're not so hot in the retro nerd department.”

“You're spending too much time with Hawk,” Faith said. “It's turning you into a dork.”

The geeky banter was helping Faith feel better and more herself, less focused on all the bad things that had happened. It made her feel guilty, as if she should be sitting in a room crying all day instead of eating candy and kissing Dylan.

“No way this door is going to be unlocked,” Faith said. “Do we break it down?”

“I have a sugar high going,” Dylan said. “Let me see if I can do it without using a pulse.”

Dylan moved to the other side of the hall and bolted for the door, shoulder lowered. The door jamb cracked but didn't break, so he tried again. This time the door flew open and they entered the most unique apartment either of them had ever seen. It was sleek and open, with floor-to-ceiling windows that seemed to go on forever covering the back wall. The floor was white tile. A few pieces of modern furniture dotted the space, but the room was mostly filled with hip-high platforms holding different pieces of technology hardware. There were placards that described what sat on top of each platform.

“This guy really was loaded,” Dylan said as he looked around. “It doesn't look like he even lived here. It's just a space to keep a collection of stuff and throw a party once in a while.”

“This one has electric power,” Faith said, picking up a gray cord and dangling it like a tail. “Talk about ancient. Can you imagine having to plug our Tablets in? That would be . . .
weird
.”

They searched the room and found more computers with cords. Half a dozen Mac models, lots of old PCs, and a whole wall full of Tablets.

“Check it out,” Dylan said, his eyes lighting up. “An iPad.”

“First-generation Tablet,” Faith said, also feeling a slight pang of nostalgia for something so old and foundational to her way of life.

“That Steve Jobs guy was a genius, no doubt,” Dylan said, mesmerized by everything he saw.

“There,” Faith said, reaching out and taking a Tablet with a dust-covered black casing. It was four by six inches, thin, not bad to look at. “This is it. The Tablet Hawk said we'd find.”

Faith looked at the expansive window and knew that if the Tablet still worked, it would have been charged by the solar energy over these many years. She found a button on the top edge and pressed it, holding for a few seconds. The screen came to life.

“I hope it has a better shelf life than a Snickers bar,” Dylan said. They moved to the leather couch together and let the sunlight warm their faces as the Tablet booted up. Faith ran her forearm across the glass screen, wiping away dust that had gathered for decades.

“I can't believe all this stuff got left behind. It's crazy,” Faith said. “I guess even the super rich had to leave things behind when they transitioned into the States.”

“As I recall, Paul Allen was worth like a trillion dollars. This was probably one of twenty places he owned. A guy like that? He was part of the problem. Who needs twenty houses and warehouses full of possessions? Rules are rules with the States—you get one bag, period. This guy had more important things to carry.”

“He probably filled his one bag with diamonds,” Faith said, thinking as she often had about what she would take inside if she had only one bag. “Books. I'd take books. Those are the real treasures.”

“Nice view,” Dylan said. “Maybe we should move here when we finish saving the world.”

Faith had closed her eyes, letting the sun wash over her, but her eyes flashed open at the idea of living in the city. She hoped he wasn't serious.

“If it's okay with you, I'd like to go back to the lodge. The mountains agree with me.”

Dylan nodded. “We can come down here and get candy on the weekends and play video games on these old computers.”

“And search for zombies and watch
Star Trek
reruns,” Faith added, starting to see a distant future in which happiness in silly, useless things might be found after all.

Dylan kissed her and touched her face as the Tablet sent out a soft
ping
sound, like a tiny bell being struck three times.

“Here we go,” Faith said as she began searching for the network settings. She found them quickly and began entering the codes Hawk had provided them with.

Relay one: 342459

Relay two: PPd23ed

Relay three: WS404.12.7.8

A user-name and password screen appeared, and Dylan pulled out his own Tablet, reading off the information he'd stored there.

“User name is [email protected].”

“Password is if6was9,” Faith said, typing the password in as she said it.

They both watched as a small, spinning wheel appeared on the screen. It was searching for mail.

“Slow,” Dylan said as he waited impatiently for the message they hoped had arrived.

“Three routes, all different systems,” Faith said. “Still, shouldn't take more than ten seconds.”

“I love it when you speak nerd to me,” Dylan joked. “Don't stop.”

The wheel stopped spinning before Faith could come up with another goofy thing to say and a message appeared. It was from [email protected].

“It worked,” Dylan said, surprised once again at Hawk's ability to hack into things. “We just bypassed the most secure data system in the world and found our little buddy. Awesome.”

“He once bought me jeans on the State system for almost nothing,” Faith said. “The Western State can't hold Hawk, at least not digitally.”

They leaned close, their heads touching softly as they peered into the screen and read Hawk's message from inside the Western State.

Why didn't someone tell me this place was so kickass? Check it out!

Dylan clicked on an animated GIF Hawk had attached, expanding its size and showing the inside of a vast room filled with row after row of rack-mounted server hardware. Thick ropes of blue cord snaked along the floor as thousands of red and green server lights flashed.

“I was thinking he'd take pictures of State Disneyland or a five-D movie theater,” Faith said. “Should have known better.”

“He's found hacker nirvana. That's gotta be a good thing.” Dylan tapped the animated image back to small and Faith read the next section of Hawk's message.

They took me straight into testing when I showed up, must be a thing they do. I completely wiped my Tablet before heading in, but man, they had a load of prebaked questions designed to trip me up. They're on high alert with everything going down. They even body-scanned me in case I swallowed a bomb. So that was weird.

They bought my story—I liked it outside the States until the crazy wolves showed up and I couldn't leave my house anymore—and I checked out clean of any nefarious activity. Then they took me to an intake room with metal walls and a white table and a guy in a white lab coat tapped a few commands onto his Tablet. My Tablet screen filled with a test that was obviously for monkeys and dipshits (tell Clooger he would have failed it).