Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (4 page)

A hose from one of the industrial bots snaked
out as water began pouring out of the released valve, sucking it up
with a powerful vacuum. Even so, the water hit her pants and ran
down her boots. Both waterproof. They had to be, with her
job.

Her bot hissed again.

Rachel twisted the joint and pulled it back.
One of the pipe lengths separated from the valve, allowing even
more water to flow out. Another industrial robot joined the efforts
to suck up the spilled water. No clog there, as the water of the
entire pipe poured out.

She moved to the other side of the valve,
releasing the other pipe. It dropped away from the valve still
attached to the wall, and with it another good healthy flow of
water. Again, no clog in the length.

Rachel glared at the valve. Another failure?
Couldn't she have a different kind of problem today? Well, other
than a massive hole in a water main. She didn't want to see another
one of those for a good long time.

"New valve, please, Sunset," Rachel said out
loud.

Her bot glanced up her, giving an inquiring
chirp. Rachel sighed, wondering if she would ever find a name for
her bot that both of them liked. After Tish's success in naming her
bots, she'd tried to do the same with her own. So far no name she'd
tried worked.

She asked for a new valve again without the
name. Her bot gave one more hiss towards the valve before turning
away to head for the supply cart.

She jumped back at the movement of something
dark at one opening of the valve. Another bit of dark on the other
side emerged from the valve only to draw back. Not a bot, not
anything that should be in a fresh water pipe, or any
pipe.

A tail sprang out of one side of the opening,
the mottled gray tail with short red stripes whipping out as the
long flat toes of a thin leg emerged to grab at the edge of the
valve.

Rachel couldn't believe her eyes. An animal?
In the pipe?

CHAPTER THREE

THEN HER EYES narrowed even as her bot started hissing again,
realizing the colors and patterns of the tail looked familiar. Oh,
she knew this creature. Knew it well.

"You stupid thing, get out of there." Rachel
put a hand over one side of the valve so it couldn't get away and
reached in the other.

Her hand closed around a wet and silky
wriggling body. A hiss emanated from the valve as she pulled it
out. The flattened toes of all four legs clung to the pipe so
strongly that it took a steady pressure with a little wiggling to
get the creature out.

In the end, she held a glaring newt with
bright yellow ruffled gills flapping in the air. The feet tried to
pry her hand from around its body.

Hissing came from both directions: from her
bot and from the newt.

"What are you doing in my pipes? Again?"
Rachel demanded of the creature. The newt hissed back, its tail
whipping back and forth in its agitation.

She should have known the moment she heard
Arthur mention the problem in the pipes appeared to be moving, but
she just wasn't accustomed to finding living creatures as the
source of the problems. Clogs of icky stinky gooeyness, sure, but
not an animal.

Her bot held up two metal arms as if to grasp
it, even while continuing to hiss.

"Oh no. This time I take care of it myself,"
Rachel said.

She pulled one of the buckets from the cart
and put a little water at the bottom. She settled the newt to the
bottom and quickly covered it before it could get out
again.

With the problem found it was a simple matter
to hook back up the pipes and start the water flowing again. Which
left only one last part of this repair: getting the newt back to
where it belonged.

"I'm going to give the owner a real piece of
my mind," Rachel raged as she returned all the tools to the cart.
Her bot stopped its intermittent hissing to help out, following her
back and forth in a more subdued manner. "Is it too much to expect
people to keep their pets under control? Of course it
isn't."

She'd made a mistake the last two times in
allowing a bot to return the newt to the location on its leg-tag
while she finished repairs. This time she would personally deliver
it home and make sure the problem didn't happen again. She didn't
need an animal contaminating the fresh water, much less playing
with the valve system.

A valve system that was aware of a living
creature inside and locked open to make sure it didn't crush the
stupid creature, and therefore messing up the entire pressurizing
system in the sector. Inconveniencing everyone around them when the
water pressure failed or grew too strong. For any weakened valve,
the additional pressure in surrounding areas would be just enough
to break them.

Her bot followed her as she stalked away from
the repair side, the bucket riding right on top and in the front of
the cart. She didn't need to fish the newt out to look at the tag
again. She had the number memorized.

"Apartment CFI-920, you better have a good
explanation," she said towards the ceiling. Her bot answered with a
muted beep.

The bucket shook and rattled. Rachel turned
and grabbed it before it could topple off the cart. She wrapped an
arm around it and used the other hand to keep the lid on
it.

The bucket continued to shake and shiver as
the newt inside moved around with sharp movements. With each escape
attempt Rachel's mood grew darker, until she found herself talking
to the thing, scolding it and telling it off.

As she arrived at her destination she finished
with, "Don't you dare mess with my pipes again if you know what's
good for you."

Her bot gave an agreeing chirp, followed by a
hiss.

"Note to self: remember what hissing can mean
around water pipes," Rachel muttered as she took her hand off the
lid long enough to ring the door chime. Not that the hissing would
always mean a newt in the plumbing. The bots often hissed at things
and people they didn't like.

As she waited for someone to answer, she
realized they weren't in an apartment block at all. Rather, the
home of the newt sat in the middle of a warehouse area. What a
strange place to list on the tag.

The door slid open to reveal a man slightly
taller than herself, his short black hair wildly askew. He glanced
at her and the cart behind her and shook his head. "The janitorial
supply warehouse is three doors down."

The door slid closed, leaving Rachel with an
impression of worried distracted brown eyes and a well-worn blue
and white pinstriped apron over a rumpled white business shirt. She
stared at the closed door as the newt rattled around in the
bucket.

She jabbed at the door chime again, breathing
deeply and trying to count to ten slowly. Her bot waited silently
behind her. The newt continued its escape attempts.

The door slid open again. The same man as
before stared at her, blinking at her in confusion. "Weren't you
just here?"

"Yes, sir, I was. I am Rachel Henderkito,
Redpoint One's head plumbing system engineer. I am returning your
property." She held out the bucket. "We need to talk,
sir."

The man turned his confused expression to the
bucket. "I'm not missing a bucket."

"It's what is in the bucket." As if knowing of
the sudden attention the newt started rattling the bucket so hard
Rachel wondered if it were doing laps inside. "A newt, I believe?
With bright yellow gills?"

The man's eyes closed in weariness. "Irvine. I
am so sorry."

"Wonderful, the thing has a name. Do
you?"

"Ignacio Manetti. I'll take care of him." He
reached out for the bucket.

At first, Rachel considered holding it hostage
until she could talk to him, as she doubted he'd heard anything
she'd said. In the end, she let him have it. Better to get the
thing into a cage where it couldn't cause more trouble for the
day.

He mumbled a thank you, and before he could
close the door on her, she stuck her foot in the opening. The door
slid back open. "Mr. Manetti, we need to talk."

He disappeared through a doorway to the left,
not even bothering to look back at her. "I'm sorry, but I am
extremely busy. Can you come back tomorrow?"

The quick dismissal did nothing for her bad
mood. She pulled the cart inside and parked it near the door,
ordering her bot to stay with it. As she moved to follow the man
she realized the front room of what should be an office of the
warehouse had instead been set up as a living room. A wide arched
door leading back into the back offices revealed a spacious dining
room and kitchen.

He'd turned the warehouse into living
quarters? That didn't make sense. The zoning wouldn't allow it.
Setting her chin, she pushed through the door where the man
disappeared. First, a talk about his newt, and then ask if he
possessed a zoning exception.

On the other side of the door came another
surprise. The main warehouse stretched back, the walls lined with
large elaborate glassed-in cubicles. Mr. Manetti stood next to one
of them, releasing the newt she'd fished out of the pipes into a
rocky watery environment.

The newt scampered to a top of a rocky cliff
to sit half-submerged in a pool right next to a small waterfall. It
flashed its bright yellow gills, turning to hiss right at
her.

Oh, that was it. The thing was safe at home,
and still giving her attitude.

Mr. Manetti closed the door and set the bucket
next to it. He turned and hurried to an enclosure on the other side
of the warehouse, stopping to kneel in front of it.

Rachel followed him, passing by a line of
enclosures, each of them holding different groups of lizards, all
of them with a watery environment. None of the lizards were plain.
Each sported bright color and some included odd-shaped
protuberances from their heads, feet, or tails.

"Come on, you can do it, pretty girl," Mr
Manetti muttered as she came to a stop next to him.

"Mr. Manetti, we need to speak," Rachel
started repeating. She stopped, realizing something was stirring up
the water inside the pond inside the enclosure.

A long bright blue and green lizard, with skin
as smooth as the newt she'd just dealt with, thrashed in the water.
It came to a stop on top of a flat rock at the edge of the pond
under the shade of a plant with huge leaves. It panted, the gills
moving in and out against its skin.

As it returned to the water to splash around
again, Rachel asked, "What's wrong with it?"

"Almost birth time. She should have had them
by now." Worry infused his voice.

Rachel's attention returned to the little
lizard, its movement now meaning something totally different to
her. With it, her anger evaporated.

She kneeled down next to him. "Can't you do
something?"

"This is her environment where she's most
comfortable. It's best I interfere as little as possible," Mr.
Manetti said.

"We still need to talk when this is all over.
I'm serious, Mr. Manetti."

"The name is Ignacio." He moved to the side to
open a small hatch at the base of the door leading into the
enclosure. He reached in to reposition the leaves of the large
plant shading the rock.

The newt inside paid no attention at all. It
started swimming through the water, gliding through it smoothly,
sometimes taking small shallow dives. Then it would emerge at the
surface to splash around again. It came to settle at the base of a
small waterfall, allowing the water to fall over its skin, its back
arched.

In the arched posture Rachel could clearly see
the extended belly. A loose flap of skin from the back of its head
flared up and flashed red and purple. With a leap, it splashed back
down into the water, swimming back to the shaded flat
rock.

"Red is a warning to enemies and others of its
kind," Ignacio said. "Purple is distress."

"What if she has a problem. Can you do
something?" Rachel asked. "Rachel, by the way."