Novum: Revelation: (Book 4) (8 page)

After breakfast, and after Jake locked the controls to the rec room, they followed Ash through the door in the back and up the ladder one by one, emerging on another rocky ledge high above the valley. Just as AJ had described to him, it was a short walk up the mountainside to the smooth inner wall of the torus.

When he reached it, Jake couldn’t help but run his hand along the metal surface. At least it felt like metal, but it was warm to the touch, much warmer than it should be if it were being heated only by the sunlight. As his eyes followed the curve of the wall upward, all the way back to the track of the sun behind him, it occurred to him that he was inside a machine, the largest machine he could imagine. It made him miss his ship even more.

“You know what’s odd,” he said to AJ, who was standing a short distance away doing nearly the same thing.

“What’s that?” she asked as she put her ear against the wall and looked at him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, almost laughing aloud.

She closed her eyes and put a finger to her lips. After a minute, she opened her eyes and pulled away from the wall. “Thought I might be able to hear something.”

“Like what?” he asked then put his own ear to the wall.

“Machinery, maybe. You know, rotating gears, water flowing through pipes, whatever.”

“You think a structure this old, this advanced, would be using gears?”

She shrugged. “You said that something was odd.”

He stepped back from the wall and looked up at it again. “It’s odd that I just realized that I’m a shipper like you.”

“Like me? Did you join the Guild while I was asleep last night?”

He looked at her. “I don’t mean that. I mean the lowercase kind, as in someone who would rather be in a ship than an open place like this.” He turned and looked back at the view behind him. “I mean, I’m impressed with all of this, but I would give it all up in a heartbeat to be back inside the
Rogue Wave
.”

AJ turned and looked at the same vista. “I don’t know. Maybe coming here has shown me that I’m not a shipper in that way.” She took a deep breath. “I could get used to this.”

“Well, this is much better than my mother’s village. All the comforts of our ship but no chance of being crushed by water pressure if you spring a leak.”

She turned to him and lowered her voice. “Speaking of being crushed to death…”

“I know,” he said. “I don’t believe him either.”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t say that I don’t believe him, but I have a gut feeling that there is more to this situation than we are being told.”

“You think they are both in on it?”

She looked over at the rest of the crew, who were dutifully walking along the wall, looking for hidden doors. Both Ash and Jake’s father were among them. “I don’t know. They have a lot in common, don’t they?”

He nodded, even though she wasn’t looking at him. “Both damaged beyond what modern medicine could heal, and yet both alive.”

She turned back to him. “Do you think they’re both working for the other side?”

That caught him off guard. “What other side?”

“The side that built that perfect little home for us down in the rock, of course. Do really think it’s a coincidence we have been led to what is basically a mockup of our ship?”

“It doesn’t look anything like the
Wave
.”

She stepped closer. “I don’t mean layout, Jake, but think about it. The seven of us were the only ones unhappy living off the land in your mother’s village. And now here we are, each with our own rooms and private showers, apparently unlimited food and power to run the place. Everything we could ask for.”

“Except our freedom,” he added.

She winked. “Exactly.”

He glanced back at the others, who had taken a break from searching and were looking back at the two of them. “They’re watching us,” he said as he looked back at the wall and began moving his hands along it.

AJ moved to the other side of him and did the same. “So, you think this is a fool’s errand?”

“I’ve never heard of that expression, but yes; I don’t think we’ll ever find a door up here.”

“Then why did Ash mention it?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe they, whoever
they
are, want to keep us busy. Looking for a way into the torus is a good way to do that.”

“Maybe it’s even simpler than that,” she said. “Maybe there is a way inside, but it’s not out here.”

“Inside?”

“Could be,” she said as she glanced over his shoulder at the rest then stepped close and whispered, “Maybe you and I should get together tonight, after everyone else is asleep.”

The image of her wet, glistening body pressed against him in the shower flooded his thoughts. He pushed them away and replied, “Come to my room when you think it’s safe, and I’ll be ready.”

She suddenly coughed and turned away from him. “Sorry,” she said after clearing her throat. “We had better rejoin the others,” she said, stepping quickly to the side.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She glanced at him but then turned away. “Nothing, or at least, nothing we need to discuss right now. For now, let’s pretend to look for this nonexistent door. I’ll meet you later in your room, and we’ll see if we can find out what’s really going on here.”

As she walked away, he wondered if any of them would benefit from finding the truth of their situation. There was an old children’s story called
Pandora’s Box
, and at least in the version his mother told him when he was young, the story didn’t end well for the people who opened it.

The afternoon was spent searching the inner wall of the torus for any signs of a way inside, and as AJ had predicted, nothing was found. By the time they all returned to their new “home” that evening, everyone agreed to eat a quick dinner and then retire early. Neither Jake nor AJ suggested this, just in case Ash or Jake’s father were in on the secret of why they were there, so they were relieved when the crew agreed to it on their own.

Just as everyone was turning in, Jake caught AJ in the galley and whispered for her to wear something green that night. She raised an eyebrow, but he raised one back. She nodded and then casually showed him three fingers and went to her room.
Three hours,
he said to himself, hoping he understood her silent message.

Three hours later, she slipped into his room. When Jake saw that she had nothing green on, he said, “You need to leave.”

“What? Why?”

“I asked you to wear something specific,” he said.

She shook her head. “I didn’t have anything green in my closet, so shoot me.”

He relaxed. “It’s okay. It was just a test.”

She smiled and nodded her head. “That was a good idea. I should have come up with a test for you as well. How do I know you’re not an assistant?”

He looked around. “I’m the only one in here.”

She put her hand to her chin and narrowed her eyes. “How do I know the real Jake Stone isn’t locked in your shower, bound and gagged?”

He shook his head. “Feel free to look for yourself.”

“I have a much faster test,” she said as she stepped up to him and put her arms around him. “Kiss me, Jake.”

“What?” he said as he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away. “How did you know about the color? Where is AJ?”

She started laughing. “So I believe you now,” she said.

“Believe what?”

“That was my test. If you were the same assistant who tried to climb into my bed yesterday morning, you would have kissed me without hesitation.”

“So that’s what you were hinting at up on the rocks,” he said as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “I…I had a visitor here too yesterday…in the morning,” he stammered out.

“Was it me?” she asked.

“Yeah. That’s why I asked you to wear green. To make sure you weren’t just another one of Jane’s toys.”

“Well, I hope you gave your copy of me the boot as fast as I did,” she said.

“Of course I did,” he said, probably a little too quickly. “As soon as I…well, figured out who she was,” he added.

“So it took you a little while?”

He swallowed. “She was…very lifelike.”

“Lifelike?” she repeated.

He looked at the wall, wishing there were a clock there. “We should probably get going, shouldn’t we?”

She nodded. “We are going to continue this discussion at a later date, right?”

“That’s fine,” he said but hoped she would forget.

Back in the main room, it was quiet and empty. Careful to avoid the doors leading to the other bedrooms, they searched the walls for signs of a hidden door, just as they had pretended to do on the surface above.

“I’m not sure why I thought we would be able to find a hidden door in the dark,” AJ said after a half hour searching.

“This place isn’t that big,” he said. “If there’s something here, we should be able to find it.”

She nodded. “Unless it isn’t here, and this is all in our imaginations.”

The room’s main light suddenly flicked on, temporarily blinding them. They both pivoted around to see Jane standing by the switch on the far side of the room. “Turn that off,” AJ hissed, trying to whisper and yell at the same time.

“You can’t find anything in the dark,” Jane replied calmly.

“We don’t want to wake up Ash or my father,” Jake said.

At that moment, another door opened, and Raines stepped out. “Are we having a late-night party? My invitation seems to have been misplaced.”

“Keep it down,” Jake said. “We don’t want—”

“It’s okay,” Jane interrupted. “Ash and your father aren’t sleeping.”

AJ looked at her. “How do you know?”

Jane walked over and opened Ash’s door. “You can go look. They never sleep here.”

“What?” Raines said as he walked over and went inside. When he stepped back out he said, “She’s correct. His bed hasn’t been slept in.”

“So is your father’s,” AJ said from his open door. “Doesn’t look like he’s ever been in here.”

“Come to think of it,” Raines said. “They have both been the last ones up every night we’ve been here. I assumed they were less tired than the rest of us.”

“So where do they go every night?” Jake asked. All eyes turned towards Jane.

“I realize you all think I’m some sort of freak, but I don’t know everything. I just have trouble sleeping at night, so I wander around sometimes.”

“So you never saw where they went?” AJ asked.

She shook her head. “No, I saw them go into the rec room, but I never saw them come out.”

“So you’re saying they’re still in there?” Raines asked. “Running a simulation?”

She walked to the rec-room door and opened it. “No, there’s no one inside, and there’s no program running either. Jake locked it out, remember?”

They all walked over to the door and peeked inside. The small room was empty and featureless as usual, but the door in the back was no longer there. “What’s going on?” Jake asked as he stepped inside. “Where’s the door?”

Just then, Vee and Jessie both emerged from their rooms. “What’s going on?”

“Might as well wake the doctor,” AJ said.

“I’ll take care of it,” Raines said.

“Already up,” Wood said from his door. “I would offer to give you all tranquilizers to help me sleep, but…”

AJ ignored him as she stepped inside the rec room and walked over to the blank wall in the back. “It was right here,” she said as she ran her fingers over the surface.

“They hid it,” Jane said.

Everyone turned to look at her. “Hid it?” AJ asked. “How do you hide a full-size door?”

Jane looked at Jake. “Do you remember how I hid from Captain Steele’s guards when I first joined your crew?” Jane asked.

“How she did what?” AJ asked.

He looked at her and then at the rest of his crew. “I guess maybe I never mentioned that. When Steele sent her people over to search the
Wave
, after they left, I found Jane hiding inside our rec room.” He looked at Raines. “She…somehow was able to program a simulation of an empty rec room to be displayed when the main program shut down.”

“For now, let’s skip the part where you explain why you didn’t tell your first mate about that,” AJ began, “and get to the part where you explain why it has anything to do with why the access door is missing in here.” She pointed to the dark control panel on the wall. “This room is powered down and locked out. There is no program running. You locked it yourself, Jake.”

Jake looked at Jane. “Well?”

She sighed. “I’m tired of being the one with all the answers. Could you please ask Norman to explain it to you?”

When all eyes turned to Raines, he shook his head. “Don’t look at me. I have no idea—”

“Shush!” Jane said as she walked over to stand next to him. “Just repeat after me, okay?”