“Anne-Jade? What are you doing here?” Logan asked.
I looked over my shoulder. Barefooted, Anne-Jade wore a skin-tight dark blue work uniform. Her thick hair had been wrestled into a single braid.
“I need Trella’s birth week and barrack number,” she said.
“Why?” Logan asked.
“Good idea,” I said, rattling off my stats. “I’m supposed to be in?—”
“Shaft one eleven. Got it.” She hurried off.
I reviewed my cleaning schedule in my mind—two water pipes and a bunch of air ducts on level one. Nothing too challenging for her.
The decoder had finished. I unlocked the door and pulled Logan into a small storage room filled with stacks of linen diapers. Closing the door, I switched on my light. Situated under the shelves was a heating vent. My fellow scrubs didn’tbat an eye when I wormed into the heating system, but Logan’s presence would draw unwanted attention. I had thought ahead, remembering this closet. However I had failed to find a solution for missing my shift, hoping we would be done in time for me to finish it. But Anne-Jade figured it out.
“Oh,” Logan said. His puzzled expression smoothed. “She’s pretending to be you so the Pop Cops won’t be suspicious. Smart!”
“So are you,” I said.
“Not that kind of smart.”
“There’s another kind?”
“Oh yeah. I know the tech stuff, but she’s the one who disguises it. The Pop Cops walk by our stuff all the time and don’t know it’s there. She’s the one who figures out what we can take from the recycling plant and when. She’s the one who insisted that we didn’t tell the other Tech Nos about us so they couldn’t rat us out.”
“That is smart,” I agreed. Pulling the vent cover down, I pointed. “Follow me, it’s not far. Close the vent when you’re through, and keep quiet. Voices carry in there.”
He nodded and then gnawed on a fingernail. I squirmed into the vent and moved ahead to give Logan room. My sore forearms protested. From all the time spent in the ducts, I would develop calluses on my elbows and wrists. How would I explain them to LC Karla?
The trip to Domotor’s room took twice as long as usual. Logan’s slight build fit into the shaft, but his arm muscles weren’t used to pulling his weight. When we finally entered the hideout, Domotor woke with a jerk. He had been sleeping on the couch. He pushed into a sitting position, and studied Logan in alarm.
“I hope he is one of the ‘few things’ you needed to check on. And not a Pop Cop in disguise?” he asked me.
“Yes. Logan’s here to see if he can help with the computer system.”
“Unless he’s a technological wizard, he?—”
Logan spotted the computer and wasted no time. He settled before the monitor. I helped Domotor into his chair and wheeled him closer to Logan.
The Tech No squealed in delight. His fingers flew over the keyboard. “You have a port!” He grinned.
“Yes, but you can’t?—”
“I know stealth mode. I’ll be like a ghost. What are you trying to do?”
Domotor launched into technical double-talk. Logan’s eyes lit with the challenge. The prophet nodded and made impressed noises as they worked. I settled on the couch. My desire to interrupt to inquire about clothes for Cog’s ruse warred with my desire for sleep. I tried to remember the last time I slept. The effort needed to calculate proved too much for my exhausted brain, so I rested my head on the couch’s arm.
“… need an upper computer to access the data,” Logan said.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. The vision of Logan and Domotor peering at me with twin concerned expressions failed to dissipate.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We figured out where the information is,” Domotor said.
His demeanor didn’t match his words. “But…”
“It can only be accessed from a computer on the upper levels.” He gave me a few seconds to let the news sink in. “Can you get Logan to level four?”
