The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (15 page)

“Did Toll see you?” Theodore asked.

“I . . . don’t . . . know,” I repeated as Switzer entered the room behind Dalton.

“What else is new?” Dalton said. “You’re right, Switzer. He doesn’t know anything. He just admitted it.”

I watched Switzer follow Dalton to his sleeper, where he grabbed a small, soiled bag from under the sheet. Max saw it, too.

“What’s that?” she said, pointing to the bag Dalton cradled as if it were some precious treasure.

Switzer looked at the bag and then back to Max. “That? That’s nothing,” he said, and glared at Dalton. “Are you an idiot?” he said with his teeth clenched.

Now I was curious. “What is it?” I asked.

But before I got my answer, Odran entered the room in his support glider. “There are two unopened food crates in the delivery area. What are they doing there?” he asked me.

“You’re asking me?” I said.

“You are the controller; find out. Or is the simple task of feeding the Samirans too much for a human to handle?”

“No, it’s not,” I replied.

“Then what are the crates doing there?”

I didn’t have an answer. I looked at Theodore, who simply shrugged. The other kids acted as if it was none of their business.

“I’ll take care of it myself,” I told him.

“Or else someone will have to be punished,” Odran threatened. “You, the telepath,” he said, pointing to my sister on her sleeper, “what is your name?”

“Ketheria,” she said.

“Follow me, Ketheria.”

Odran turned to leave the room. Ketheria did as she was told and followed the alien. It felt wrong.

“Wait!” I yelled. “I’m going to take care of the crates. Leave her alone; she didn’t do anything.”

Odran turned slowly.

“Unless I ask, I see no need for you to speak, Softwire,” he said.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want him to take Ketheria away. I had to stall him. “But what am I to do while the Samiran is pulling the crystal?”

“Wait.”

“Is there anything more than that?” I asked. Now I was pushing it.

“I will forgive you for your actions this once,” he growled. “I can see through your foolish games. Your sibling will not be punished. She is not your responsibility.

“The core crystal will be arriving within this rotation, and with it, the Festival of the Harvest. It is an extremely important crystal, and the Samirans are allowed a rest period prior to its arrival. You will have plenty of time to talk to them and make your reports to the Keepers. Their wounds from the pull ropes will need more tending to, and our situation will be explained to them during this period.”

“What situation?” I asked.

“Their release,” he said, and turned away.

“Is something wrong with their release?” I shouted, but Odran did not respond. I watched him leave with Ketheria.

“Better go check on those crates,” Switzer said. He was smiling and whispering to Dalton.

Another girl said with a snicker, “Yeah, and I don’t think that’s going to be the last time either.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“I’m not going near those creatures again. I’d rather get zapped by the enabler.”

“But don’t you see? That’s what they want — to prove that we can’t do anything right. They want to keep us as second-class citizens. We’re never going to finish our work rule if we don’t do a good job.”

“That’s your battle, not mine,” Switzer said. “I could care less what these malfs think about me. C’mon, Dalton.”

“Where are you going?” Max asked.

“None of your business,” Switzer spat and dragged Dalton, clutching the soiled sack, from the dorm.

“That scares me,” Max whispered.

“Me too,” I said. “Switzer usually brags about anything he finds.”

“I wonder what they have,” Theodore said.

“I think we should find out,” Max said. Her eyes widened as she smirked, nodding slowly.

Theodore’s tone changed when he saw her doing this. “I don’t know about that,” he said. He always became hesitant when Max had that look.

“What do you want to do? Take the bag?” I asked.

“No, I want to follow them,” she said.

When I turned around, Max was up and getting dressed.

“Where are you going?” I asked her.

“To follow.”

“Odran?”

“No, silly. Switzer and Dalton.”

Was I the only one who cared about what the Citizens wanted us to do? I started to think that maybe I was. Yes, the other kids complained, some even joked, but none of them seemed concerned about the threats the Citizens made if we didn’t do the work assigned to us as knudniks.

“I have to check on the crates that were left out,” I said rather loudly so everyone heard me.

One of the boys said, “Enjoy yourself, Mr. Controller.”

“We’ll come with you,” Max offered.

Max took the lead, and we left the rest of the kids in the dormitory.

“I appreciate you showing the other kids we have to get this work done,” I told her.

“Oh, we’re not going to check on those stupid crates,” she told me. “I’ve already had my beating this phase.”

“Where are we going, then?” Theodore asked.

Max turned and grinned, wiggling her eyebrows a little.

“No, Max,” I said. With everything going on around me, chasing after Switzer was the last thing I wanted to do, but she was already scouring the hallways, sniffing out Switzer’s trail.

“Max, I can’t use that enabler again. If no one is going to do the work, then I have to do it. I thought you understood that.”

“But what if Switzer
is
up to something? You don’t want him and Dalton getting in trouble while you’re the controller now, do you?”

I looked at Theodore. He just shrugged. She made a good a point. “Where
do
you think he’s going, then?” I asked her.

“Wait,” Max whispered. She tucked behind one of the carved stone columns, dragging Theodore with her.

“Again?” I heard Dalton say.

“Shut up,” Switzer said. “We have to get as much as we can now.”

Max peeked around the corner.

“Come on. They’re heading this way,” she said.

We hid in the shadows as Switzer and Dalton marched past.

“What are they doing?” Theodore whispered.

“Shhh, we’ll know soon enough.”

But I couldn’t help thinking about Ketheria. What was Odran doing? Why did he single her out? Should I have forced the issue with Odran? Maybe I could have gone with her. Max motioned to me, and I snuck under another archway into a room I’d never seen before. The three of us hid near the entrance to the vast and empty room until Switzer cleared the other side.

“Keep up,” Max whispered.

“Sorry,” I said.

It was hard to focus on Max’s adventure. If I wasn’t worrying about my sister, I was thinking about my father. Questions actually, just more questions. What if Toll was right, for instance? For that matter, let’s say Madame Lee was telling the truth as well. What did it mean to me?
He’s still dead,
a voice inside my head reminded me. And I was still just a knudnik on the ring. At best, the information only gave me a possible explanation for my softwire abilities. Nothing more.

“JT!”

Max and Theodore were halfway across the room.

“C’mon,” Max said, and waved at me.

I raced after them to the other side. Max opened a door that led to an unlit narrow flight of stairs.

“They went down there,” she said, pointing. “There’s no other place to go.”

I couldn’t see a thing. “But they don’t have a light.”

“We’re not supposed to do this, guys,” Theodore reminded us. “We should go back.”

“Come on!” Max begged. “If we get caught, just tell Odran that you saw them wander off and you took the responsibility to chase after them.”

“That’s weak,” I told her.

“It’s good enough,” she said, and headed down the stairs.

I looked at Theodore and shrugged. “We shouldn’t let her go alone,” I said, and I nudged him toward Max.

“Hey,” he protested.

“Don’t worry — I’m right behind you.”

Each step began to glow as Max stepped on it.

“They’ll see the light and know we’re following them,” Theodore said.

“If I can’t see Switzer, how’s he going to see the lights?” she said, and continued her descent.

When I reached the bottom, I tapped Theodore on the shoulder and asked, “How many?”

“Fifty-two,” he replied. “We descended fifty-two steps.”

The staircase opened into a small atrium, from which three round tunnels, each about three meters tall, branched off into different directions.

“That’s convenient,” Max mumbled.

“I’m not splitting up,” Theodore said, sounding panicked.

“How are we going to find them, then?” she asked.

“We’ll pick one,” I offered. “Which one would they pick?”

All three of us headed for the middle tunnel.

“Easy enough,” Max said.

The tunnel widened and curved upward. The thoughts of my father and my sister were now replaced with a genuine curiosity about what Switzer was up to. How did he find this place, and better yet, why?

A neon-blue light sliced the sides of the passageway, illuminating the tiled walls as we ventured farther into the tunnel. The ground was covered with debris. Rotten stuff that looked old. Moss grew in the cracked tiles, and many broken tiles littered the ground. Everything smelled stale, as if it was just about to start rotting. I turned back to see how far we had traveled, but there was only darkness.

“What is this place?” Theodore said.

“I don’t have a clue,” I replied

“I don’t think anyone uses it anymore,” Max said, and stopped. “Did you hear that?”

“No,” Theodore and I both said.

“Come on. I heard them. They’re down here,” she whispered, picking up her pace.

Max was quick.

The intricate stone carvings I had seen on the ceiling of Odran’s were nowhere to be found here. Instead, rows and rows of patchy, dirty tiles spread out in front of us with the odd rusted grate poking out every few meters.

“Wait!” Max stopped and threw her hands up.

Max stood at the very edge of a large hole. It was at least four meters in diameter.

“That was too close,” I said.

Our tunnel ended, and the lights that followed us now circled the top of the hole. I stood at the edge and looked down, and then I looked up. The hole was really another tunnel slicing off the one we had come down. Thick metal chains with heavy-looking rings placed about every two meters hung down the tunnel. Where these chains started though was anyone’s guess.

“Look,” Theodore exclaimed. One of the chains wiggled slightly, twisting in the open void.

“Someone’s on that chain,” I said.

“It has to be them,” Max said.

“Are they crazy?” Theodore protested.

“Listen.” Max got on her belly and hung her head over the hole. “I can hear them.”

“Are you sure it’s them?” I questioned her.

“Listen yourself,” she said.

I lay on my belly, too, and listened very hard.

“More . . . try . . . Dalton . . .”
I heard these words come up the tunnel.

“It’s them all right,” I said.

“They
are
crazy,” Theodore said.

“They used that rope to lean out and grab the chains,” Max theorized. She pointed to a metal grate in the wall on her right. Someone had tied a rope to it.

I asked her, “How do you know?”

“Because that’s what I would do,” she said.

“What are we gonna do now?” Theodore asked Max.

“We’re getting our own rope,” she said, jumping up and running back the way we came.

“What? Max, wait,” Theodore yelled, running after her.

I lay there listening for more. What were they doing? Were they trying to escape? Would Switzer really do that? He knew the punishment if he got caught. Even I didn’t think Switzer was that dumb.

“Almost . . .”

I jumped up and chased after my friends.

The lights along the tunnel kept pace with us as we retraced our steps back to Odran’s. When we got there, Ketheria was pacing in the doorway of the dormitory.

“Hurry, they’re waiting for you at the tank,” she said to me anxiously.

“Who?”

“Odran and some of the Trading Council,” she said.

“Where were you?”

“Don’t worry. I’m fine. Odran is angry. You need to go. I’ll tell you later.”

Max and Theodore followed me to the tank. Odran hovered near the edge as four members of the Trading Council posed behind him. I recognized one of them immediately — it was Pheitt, one of Odran’s dinner guests. Each council member was quietly shifting in front of the other, never making eye contact with anyone. Occasionally one would glance down at me from the corner of their big eyes. Odran whirled around as I came up the stairs.

“Where have you been? It is forbidden to wander off. You have been told of this,” Odran scolded me. His voice was harsh but restrained.

One council member turned its back to us and slinked away as if our presence was offensive.

“Your controller told us you needed the garbage from the new shipments discarded,” Theodore said. Max and I both turned when we heard his fib.

Max added, “We were looking for a place for the garbage.”

“Convenient,” Pheitt scoffed. “Can we proceed? Punish them later, Odran.”

I moved toward Odran. “What’s this about?”

“We need information from the Samiran,” he said.

I looked at everyone in attendance. “Shouldn’t a Keeper be present?” I asked.

One alien looked at Odran and frowned. Another, an alien with wet-looking skin, stated, “This is none of their business.”

“Council member Burash is stating the obvious,” Pheitt said. “Do we need to be explaining this, Odran? To a knudnik?”

Odran sank into his tank and came up spitting, “How dare you question me, child?” he growled. His bloodshot eyes shifted quickly from the Trading Council members to me. “I do not need the authority of the Keepers. I am the Samiran Caretaker. You will do as you are told, or you will be punished severely!”

“It is incredible what we must endure from these ungrateful creatures,” a council member said.

“I assure you this was not my idea,” Odran countered. “These creatures are worthless, in my opinion. If it were not for this one’s softwire abilities, I would have fed them to the Samirans long ago.”