Cathedral of Dreams (26 page)

“How do you know?”

“Because I'm doing it. I don't know how or why, but I must follow my own path back in.” He swung her around. “The others were supposed to meet me where the flowers are brought in. If they were able to lose the police.”

Nellie laughed. “They're Newcity Police. They only pursue until they become confused. They've probably gone back to their posts by now. Trust me, it's when you cross from here to out there that they send the big guns.”

Keith didn't understand what she was suggesting. After all, he got out through a side door with little effort. And others had escaped, too. Unless it was some sort of lottery and they were allowed outside, what she said just made things more confusing. He had no time to think about it anyway. They made their way back to the selection table, where the others were waiting in a large group.

When Keith turned the corner and saw them they were huddled close together, as though they didn't know where they were or what they were supposed to do.

Will had his hand near the gun hidden under his shirt.

Keith waved them to follow him and Nellie. They were noisy as a group, but they didn't have to go far. “The police?” Keith said.

Brent shrugged his shoulders. “It's a big warehouse.”

Nellie clicked her tongue. “They went back to their posts. Trust me. They may have called it in, but they aren't looking for you.”

“Makes no sense,” Keith said.

As they approached the door being maintenanced, Keith and Nellie walked ahead of the group. Nellie said to the man, “You almost finished here?”

“Almost. I have to set the door and pin it.”

“Nice job. Before you're done though, these people have to be escorted back in.” She turned to Keith. “You'll return as soon as they're back to their posts?”

He saw her plead with her eyes and knew what she was asking, that he help her and the others to get out. “I'll be back as soon as I'm finished,” he said. Keith had no idea why it was so easy for him to get in and out of Newcity when so many others, like Nellie, couldn't. He motioned for the others to follow him, then turned back to Nellie and took both of her hands into his. “Tell me. Have you always known that I was the boy with the bullet hole in his forehead?”

She closed her eyes and lowered her chin. “Yes. We all knew. We have theories about it, but there's no telling what's going on. And to tell the truth, I doubt that we'll have to worry about being attacked from the outside. We're already breaking down in here.” She let go of his hands and patted his chest. “Good luck and hurry back.”

Keith rushed into the hallway. After the last of them were in, the door was replaced. Minimal lighting fixtures were set above them every twenty feet or so. The dim light caused shadows to lengthen and shorten as they traveled. Keith followed his instincts, but kept alert for the boy. They went up numerous flights of stairs, down halls, around corners, and into Newcity for short stints before going back into the wall areas. The place was a maze of corridors and passageways built for maintenance purposes. Pipes and wires ran along most of the inside walls.

Harold, his brother, wife, and children looked out of place when they were inside Newcity proper. They had been told not to stare or look around too much, but they didn't seem to be able to stop themselves.

Keith had everyone separate into their smaller groups too, in case the police noticed something odd and came over to investigate. At this point, he couldn't feel responsible any longer. He had helped them get inside; it was up to them now. He stopped walking.

“Where to now?” Brent said.

“I don't know,” Keith said.

They stood near a crossroads of residences. Few people were in the halls. When a couple walked past, Harold followed them. Surprised at his aggressive approach, Keith and the others followed.

The couple entered an apartment and Harold forced his way in behind them. Brent, Stacy, and Keith were next. The others soon followed, filling the room that looked like every room Keith had ever seen in Newcity. He was shocked by the lack of color and by the familiar shapes of the furniture, the similarity to what he had lived in.

The man they had followed turned around and bowed to Harold. “I'm sorry, but we didn't request that you come in. Could you leave now?”

“Sorry buddy.” In one smooth but violent motion, Harold removed his short club from his jacket pocket and slammed the man across the head, knocking him out. As quickly as he did that, he back-slapped the woman and knocked her out, as well.

Dropping the couple happened so quickly that their chips would not have had time to register an emotional peak. And, even if they did, the peak would drop to normal as they slept on the floor.

Keith grabbed Harold's arm and swung him around. “What do you think you're doing?”

“I'm not an idiot. I knew I had to take care of this quickly,” he said.

“Now what? When they wake up…”

Will strolled forward past Harold and pulled the pistol from his pants. “They won't,” he said, and shot each of them in the heart without shying or hesitating a bit.

Keith heard the door click behind him.

Brent turned to Robert and ordered him to find an empty apartment down one of the other halls. Robert rushed from the room.

Keith knew what they were going to do. They were going to plant the dead bodies in someone else's apartment to be found when they arrived home. The chip would alert the police and the other person would be arrested.

“You're going to have to give up that gun now,” Brent said.

Will looked at the pistol. “I didn't think of that,” he said.

“You won't need it in here anyway,” Stacy said.

Will handed over the pistol. Robert returned with a find, and Harold and his brother rolled the bodies into a couple of sheets.

It didn't seem like more than a half hour for the place to be cleaned up and they were all sitting around. Brent had already ordered food. Stacy was hungry.

Keith didn't like any of it. And when the food came, he grabbed a sandwich and said that he had to go. No one appeared to care if he stayed or left. They had settled in and were feasting on food the other couple's terminal allowed them to order.

Brent stood and asked him one question. “Are you going through with your end of the deal?”

He looked over at Will, then scanned the others. They were all looking at him. “Of course,” Keith said. Then he slipped out the door. As soon as he was in the hallway, the boy with the bullet hole in his forehead appeared at the end of the hall. “Are you me or the machine?” Keith whispered as he followed the boy.

It didn't take long before he found himself back inside the walls where all the plumbing and electrical was located. A heaviness in the air made him feel as though he was headed farther into the complex, closer to the hub of the world, where the city had started. But then they started to go down the stairs. As he followed the boy lower into the building, Keith lost count of which floor they were on. They could have been underground by the time they exited into one of Newcity's standard staircases.

The boy stood next to a door into Newcity and Keith didn't hesitate to walk toward him. The boy faded away as Keith met and pushed against the door. He stopped just inside a wide room filled with terminals. Several people sat in front of a couple of the displays. One man turned and, on seeing Keith, said, “Here he is,” as though Keith had been expected.

Chapter 19

E
veryone in the room was dressed similarly. A few more of those who sat in front of terminals twisted around to look at Keith, but the others continued to stare at displays, focused on the work in front of them. Keith stood above the room by a few steps and couldn't see the terminals well enough to know what they displayed.

Another man walked from the right toward Keith, who pressed his back against the door that had closed behind him.

“Rodger,” said the man coming toward him while holding his hand out. “And you are Keith.”

Keith took the man's hand and shook it. “Are you friends with Nellie?”

Rodger cocked his head. “Nellie? Is this someone new?” He turned toward the group below them. “Who's Nellie?”

“I'll look her up, sir,” a young woman said.

Rodger still held Keith's hand. He leaned back slightly and looked Keith up and down. “Follow me, son.” He let go of Keith's hand and walked along the aisleway that surrounded the terminal banks. An open door stood twenty yards away. Before they reached the door, the young woman yelled, “She doesn't show up anywhere.”

The man stopped at the doorway and motioned for Keith to step inside. He turned toward the group and said, “Scan the monitors for another IFI.” Swinging the door shut, he asked Keith to sit down at an oval table made from a brown plastic material. The chairs were brown plastic also, but worn and stained. The seat was uncomfortable. Rodger took a position at the end of the oval desk adjacent to where Keith sat.

They sat together for a few seconds before Rodger said anything. He had his elbows on the table and appeared to be deep in thought.

Finally, he tapped the table with the fingers of both hands and then sat back into the chair, letting his hands rest on the edge of the table as though he were barely holding on. “What's going on?” he said. “What are you doing to the system?”

Keith was confused.

“Don't look like you don't know what I'm talking about,” Rodger said. He leaned forward but still held loosely to the table. “The others might not be so nice. Just tell me what you're doing and how you're doing it.”

“I honestly don't know what you're talking about,” Keith said.

“How'd you find us, then?”

It seemed like an odd question. According to Nellie, the image of the boy showed up on the video cameras. This man should have known that. He should have seen those images.

“Well?” Rodger said.

“You know how,” Keith said.

The man slapped the table and stood up. “Don't fuck with me, young man. How did you get here? How did you know which doors were safe and when they were safe?”

“I didn't. I followed the boy.” Keith stopped there, not because he was finished talking, but because of the look on Rodger's face. “I'm sure you've seen him on your monitors. There's video, right?” Keith said.

“How would you know that?”

“Nellie,” Keith said.

Rodger rushed to the door and opened it. He stepped half way out and yelled, “Who the fuck is Nellie?”

“We're looking sir, but there's still nothing,” came the voice of the girl.

Rodger slammed the door. He paced at the end of the table for a moment, then yanked the chair out and sat down again. “Sorry. I don't mean to get upset, but I thought you came here to tell us what was going on.” He shook his finger at Keith. “Unless you don't know you know.”

“What's an IFI?” Keith asked.

“Internally Fabricated Image. It's when the system creates an image that isn't there.”

“If it isn't there, how can it open doors?” Keith said.

Rodger didn't look happy. He didn't say anything either.

Keith glanced at Rodger's forearm, which was smooth. The man had no chip.

Rodger recognized what Keith had done and jutted his chin out. “Only residents get chipped,” he said. “We control the complex. If they chipped us, this whole place would collapse. Not that it isn't on its way to collapse already.”

“You mean the increase in violence?” Keith said.

“What the hell are you, psychic?” He raised a hand to stop Keith from saying anything else. “Don't tell me, Nellie.”

Keith smiled. He didn't know how Nellie and her friend did it, but somehow they worked in the system yet were invisible to it, or not listed. That's how the others would be, too. He wondered how many others were wandering around inside Newcity without chips.

A knock came to the door and Rodger said, “Come in.”