I supposed it was possible to turn back and try to climb up through the inner part of the shell, but when I put my mind to what that would entail, I felt the bite of impatience surge through me. I didn’t want to go back. I knew what was back there. I had to move forward, had to make it to the others. They needed me.
And, to be perfectly honest, I needed them, too. They were my family, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing a single one of them.
“We need to move,” I told the others, continuing to head up the flooding stairs, ignoring the water splashing around me. “Tony tells me that Sage is behind this. It’s acting as a cooler for the Tower. Rose, leave the door open. Odds are, someone will come along before too long to close it, but it might slow Sage down; he’s not going to risk drawing more power until he can ensure he doesn’t melt everything at the same time. At the very least, it’ll divert a couple hundred gallons of water.”
“It’ll damage the inside of the shell,” Dylan pointed out.
“Better than letting Sage kill Scipio,” I replied, continuing my climb. Inside, I was already asking Tony which door would put us out over Greenery 3. I had a plan.
18
The door pushed open, letting in a blinding white light that had me squeezing my eyes shut, the contrast with the darkness we had been encased in causing them to ache fiercely. Even with my eyes closed, I could see the glow of it through my eyelids, and I kept them that way for several seconds to let them adjust, before sliding them open.
It took me a second to realize that even though the sun had blinded me, the position of it over the Tower was still casting shade across the door and a small section of the glittering brown expanse of Greenery 3’s roof, stretching out from the side like a massive diving platform. There was no sign of movement from our vantage point, and I felt confident that Sage had his eyes inward, focused on getting control of the Tower.
I stepped outside, taking care not to slip on the smooth glass. The water we’d been walking through had definitely gotten us a little water-logged, and we’d need to take a moment to dry our boots off and make sure our lash ends hadn’t gotten wet.
I scanned the rest of the greenery to make sure it was clear, and then turned around to face the Tower, taking a few careful steps back to examine its edifice. It was forty stories until the next greenery—Greenery 7—which meant almost five hundred feet, straight up. We’d make about three or four feet per line we threw, and if we threw two lines every second…
I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly noon. Eustice and the legacies had been unleashed on the Citadel nearly three and a half hours ago. They’d had to climb to get to my quarters, but even still, if the Knights hadn’t been able to coordinate a defense against them, they could be inside my quarters right now, trying to get to my friends.
And if Sage had control over Cornelius, the defenses I’d put in place would be useless.
But I couldn’t think like that. Quess and Leo both were excellent coders, and Zoe could do damn near anything she wanted with machines. With Maddox in command, keeping them together, I had no doubt they were holding their own. Hell, the evidence was already there, with the Citadel still having power though the rest of the Tower had lost it. Dinah had said they were mounting a defense, fighting back…
I put my fears into a box and packed them up, then turned back to the wall in front of me.
“I’ve been out here before,” Dylan breathed from beside me, and I glanced over to see that she had moved next to me to stare at it as well. “I’ve gone under a greenery, even climbed a few stories up to help replace one of the panels, but this…”
She blew out a deep breath, and I found myself nodding in complete understanding. If we managed to survive, we’d be famous. No one else had ever tried it in the history of the Tower, partially because the lash technology was still fairly new, but also because it hadn’t been designed with anything like this in mind.
“We’ll change out our lash ends now,” I told her, pulling one of my lashes from my sleeve and unscrewing the end. They were Quess’s special ones, designed to resist the effects of humidity, and were unnecessary for this particular climb. So I tucked them away in pockets—one on each hip, for easier access in case I had to change them out during the climb—and then pulled two fresh ones from a different pocket and screwed them on. As I did this, I kept talking, instructions coming to mind as I considered the temperature of the air, the surface temperature of the glass, the wind’s speed and direction. All the things we needed to do to be safe.
“We’ll stop and change our lashes every seventy-five feet. I’d push it to a hundred, but the sun is going to be overhead, which means the surface temperature is going to increase. When we change, we’ll do it one at a time, using the second line as a safety. Rose, you’ll go beneath us and be prepared to catch either one of us if we fall. We work on a four-foot lash only, and disconnect the secondary line only once the primary one is fully reeled in.” I paused as I tightened the final lash bead onto the threaded end of the line, and gave it a sharp whirl, checking to make sure the end glowed blue with a static charge before letting it retract into my suit. “Questions, comments, concerns?” I asked, looking up and over at both of them.
Dylan was already in the process of doing the same thing I was, and she paused, flashing Rose a good-natured smile. “Sure you can’t carry us up?” she asked, and I could tell she was half joking.
Rose “blinked” at her, and then clasped her hands in front of her body, shaking her head and looking down. “It would be even more dangerous for the both of you. As it is, I might not make it up. There isn’t much of a grip.”
I frowned. I hadn’t considered that Rose might have difficulty climbing the Tower, but she was right: the surface of the Tower was mostly smooth, so Rose would need freedom of movement to try to find the best way up.
“I can’t say that I’m not disappointed, but at least my Champion has some very wise precautions in place, so I should be fine. What I can say is… this is really going to suck. Water?”
“Please,” I said, and she reached into the bag she had taken from Lynch, filled with food and supplies, and handed me a bottle. I drank half of it quickly, using the angle to study the wall some more, and then capped it and tucked it into my pocket. I’d need more on the climb, and stopping to reach into our bags would be dangerous.
Speaking of which.
I unshouldered both the bags I’d been carrying since Cogstown—one medic kit, and the tech bag I’d taken from Lidecher earlier—and set them on the ground, quickly opening them up and readjusting the contents to make them more balanced and secured. As soon as I was done, I zipped them closed and stood up, a bag in each hand. “Rose, do you mind carrying the bags?”
“Not at all,” she said, stepping forward. I had to adjust the straps to fit the sentinel’s wide chest, but we managed, and within minutes, she was carrying all three bags on her back—two just under her shoulders, and one fitted on the small of her back, the strap wrapped tight around her waist. Dylan and I took a few more minutes to stretch our muscles, knowing that the intensity of the climb demanded that we both be limber, and then we began.
To say it wasn’t easy would be a massive understatement.
Each line we placed had to be disconnected first, leaving us dangling by one line from the sheer face, being pushed around by the wind. Then we had only six inches of line to work with to build up a static charge, so we had to spin the lash end faster than we would normally do, to build up enough energy for it to stick fast and hold our weight. After that came the agonizingly short ascent, pulled up by the winch in our harness, only to stop and repeat the whole process all over again.
I normally loved lashing—the thrill and speed of it—but this was something totally different, and frustratingly slow. I couldn’t race through it, like I would down a hall if I were inside the Tower, and there was no direction to go except straight up. No corners to maneuver around, or obstacles to use to speed up
the process.
Nothing but flat solar panels, as far as the eye could see. The minutes turned into an hour, and then two. My shoulders, arms, wrists, and legs ached from the repetitive motion of the climb and from where the harness was digging in. Sweat seemed to pour off me in sheets, especially when the sun finally reached its zenith in the sky, and the tips of my ears and back of my neck felt hot, telling me I was getting sunburned as well.
I threw my next line with a grunt, tugged it lightly to make sure it was fixed, and then retracted the line, taking a moment to look up and check our progress. The shade from the next greenery was my current goal—really the only one to pick from—and it was only three more good lashes up.
The gyro whirred to a slow stop as I neared the end of the line, and I looked down to disconnect the previous line, checking on Dylan and Rose. Dylan was keeping pace with me, and was somehow managing to make it look easy. For a second, I was extremely irritated by how well she seemed to be doing with everything. Not just the climb, but with the truth about Scipio, and how quickly she’d adapted to it all.
I pushed it aside, recognizing that the frustration had less to do with Dylan and more to do with myself. I was tired. No, scratch that, I was beset by pure, mind-numbing exhaustion. Ever since Devon Alexander had set me up for my former commander Gerome’s murder, my life had turned upside down and inside out. All over a period measuring a little over a month. Everything had been nonstop, nearly each day filled with a new disaster that seemed insurmountable.
I supposed, in a way, I was grateful that Sage had finally shown his true colors and clued me in to his plan. At least I knew whom to target, and how to end it. If I succeeded, then I’d sleep for a full week. If I didn’t…
Well, I’d be dead, and I supposed I could get all the sleep I wanted then.
I lowered my gaze to look at Rose, making sure the sentinel was still a few feet down, and then gathered up the line with my free hand, retracting the cable until I was left with six inches of length. I started to spin it up, keeping an eye on the tip, when a flash of something from down below caught my eye.
I lowered my arm and squinted toward where I had seen it, using one hand to shade my eyes against the sun above. The sun washed out everything, making colors muted and dusty. At times, it was hard to tell where the Wastes ended and the Tower began. During others, the heat coming from the surface of the glass distorted the air, making it impossible to see what was on the other side.
For several long seconds, I couldn’t see anything. I waited for what felt like eternity, and then started to turn away, certain it had just been a reflection from one of the panels below, when Tony stopped me.
Wait, he urged, stalling my hand when I went to wind up another lash. There is something. Look there, to the left.
I continued to search the area below us, and then finally spotted it: a small white drone. The sight of it gave me pause, and I studied it for several seconds, wondering how on earth it could’ve gotten out here. Drones were only used in events like the Tourney, or to record interdepartmental elections for posterity, and were only operated by the Knights Department.
I was immediately suspicious. Sage had proven he had access to almost every department in one way or another. Why wouldn’t he have a drone?
I carefully retracted the line, and then reached into my pocket, intending to shoot it down. I didn’t care if it was suspicious or not; I didn’t want it transmitting to—
It’s not Sage’s! Tony cut in excitedly, overriding my thoughts. It’s Lionel! He sent us instructions!
Disbelief coursed through me, strong and irresistible. I knew Tony was the creative element in the cadre of AI fragments, but apparently he was also given to flights of fancy. Tony, it’s not possible. Lionel is—
You don’t understand anything, he interrupted. Look at the lights on the front. See how they are flashing? It’s Morse code, not Sage. It wants us to follow it.
I looked down at where the drone was slowly ascending up to us, and noted that the lights on it were flashing. While I had studied Morse code in the academy, it wasn’t exactly my strong suit, so I couldn’t really tell if the phenomenon was a message or a malfunction, but I also didn’t care. I was climbing this Tower. My friends were in danger, and I wasn’t about to get delayed again by another fragment AI—
I’m sorry, but you have to, Tony interrupted again, just as I was reaching the cusp of my decision.
I was opening my mouth to tell him no when I felt his presence loom up from the back of my conscious mind—and crash down over my own with the force of a massive tidal wave. I fought it, but it was like I was a small fish in a torrential stream. Suddenly hands that had been mine a second ago were under his control.
My mouth moved, but I didn’t think the words that came out of them.
“Hey, guys, Tony here. Liana and I have to take a little trip to figure out how Lionel wants us to fix Scipio! Rose, you and Dylan keep climbing, no matter what. When you get to the next greenery, you need to shift to the east face of the Tower, so that you’ll be out of the heat, and get to Greenery 9. From there, you’ll be able to gain access to the Attic. Hopefully, Liana and I will catch up to you by then, but if we can’t, I know she’ll want you to keep going to help her friends.”
“Wait, what?” Dylan asked, but it was too late. Tony was disconnecting the line holding us fast to the Tower, and then pushing off with both of my legs.
Then we were falling.
19
“Woo-hooooooooo!” Tony screamed, the wind already beginning to whip past our face.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! I shrieked internally, fully understanding what pure terror felt like without the assistance of a body to interpret it. It was like my soul itself had been infused with ice, and I knew with dead certainty that I was going to die.
Killed by one of the AIs I had been trying to save. Irony, my name is Liana Castell, pleased to friggin’ meet you.
Tony laughed as he twisted my body in midair, positioning it in a nosedive and causing the icy feeling to fracture and then burst apart in panic. I could see the greenery below glittering brightly, and knew that what had taken us hours to climb would only take seconds to kill me.
Relax, Liana, Tony said warmly. I’ve got this.
No, you don’t! You do friggin’ not, I snarled at him, like a wounded animal. I felt like one, too, trapped in my own body with an insane AI fragment controlling my every action. There’s nothing for us to hook on to but the Tower, and going at this speed will mean that you will shatter every bone in my body trying to stop us. I’ll be lucky to survive, but we’ll both be helpless and… What are you doing?
Tony had changed the angle of my body slightly, and we were now steadily arcing toward the edge of the greenery—toward where the drone was now descending. If I had control, I would’ve swallowed and then squeezed my eyes shut, preparing to make my peace with the universe. As it was, I could do none of those things.
So I screamed instead, letting Tony know exactly how much I hated him for this.
Tony just laughed and flicked my hand out in a move that I felt only dimly. I recognized it—he was throwing a lash line out so he could grab it and spin it up in his hand.
A second later, he was casting it, slightly down and in front of him. There was a high-pitched whistle as it cut through the air, and then it stuck to a panel a few feet down from us, about forty feet above the roof of the greenery. Before I could fathom what he planned to do, Tony began to retract the line, reeling in the slack. As soon as it was taut, he stopped, and we began to swing into an arc. Tony looked up to check the lash bead, and I saw that it was wobbling a little, the force of the impact likely causing it to expend some of the static energy it had collected, and then, to my surprise, he disconnected the line, putting us in a dive again, this time a few feet over.
He did this two more times, somehow using the swing to slow us down, then dropped us both seamlessly on the platform, where we landed lightly on my feet.
br /> I suddenly realized that I was referring to him as “we,” and felt like I could understand a bit more about what had happened between Leo and Grey. It already felt invasive, and we’d been joined for only a few hours.
I put that aside and focused on what Tony was doing to my body. He was running, racing toward the edge of the greenery like some sort of maniac. The drone was waiting there, its lights flashing repeatedly.
Only this time, I was able to understand it, thanks to Tony.
L-I-O-N-E-L-S-O-F-F-I-C-E-P-R-I-O-R-I-T-Y-A-L-P-H-A-E-P-I-S-O-L-O-N-T-H-E-T-A.
Lionel’s office, priority alpha-epsilon-theta.
Tony absorbed it all and continued to run toward the drone, but I felt suddenly heavy. I knew exactly what the priority was. The drone was trying to lead Tony to the backup version of Scipio that Lionel had kept in defiance of the council’s orders. Only I had found it long ago. He was my boyfriend now, and I already knew that he was the failsafe. Even if Lionel had somehow left instructions on what to do, I’d pretty much had that information for some time: use Leo to replace Scipio, and reintegrate him with the other fragments to form the “new” Scipio.
Tony, I thought more purposefully, when Tony made no move to stop. I know you’re aware of my thoughts; you’re constantly interrupting them. What we need isn’t down there. He’s up with my friends in the Citadel! We’re losing time. We need to turn around and head back.
Oh, ye of little faith! Tony laughed. I doubt very much that Lionel would take a break from his afterlife to tell us something we already knew.
LIONEL SCIPIO IS DEAD, I shouted as he flung us over the edge, one lash already flying to hook the panel at the corner of the building and swing us around it.