Chapter 13

Raelin brought his other boot onto the ladder and descended until his pack cleared the opening. Bracing both feet and one hand on the rungs, he reached up, tipped the hatch cover off its stop, and guided its weight down until it settled above him. A weak light rose from the foot of the shaft, catching the damp rungs one by one as he climbed toward it. Near the bottom, a sealed utility lamp came into view above a grated maintenance landing. Its pale light fell across the guardrail and caught the water moving through an open channel alongside the passage.

Raelin stepped off the last rung onto the landing. Moisture gleamed across the grating, but its ridged surface kept his boots from slipping. Beside the access shaft, the wastewater pipes he had followed from the residences emptied into a concrete receiving basin. Water churned beneath a metal hood fitted over their outlets, then spilled into the channel carrying soap foam and strands of pale lint.

The landing narrowed into a walkway between the guardrail and the concrete wall. The utility lamp lit six paces of wet grating before the passage turned out of sight. Raelin followed the channel to the turn, listening as the churn of the receiving basin diminished behind him. Past the turn, what little light remained scattered across the moving water, dwindling within a few paces to faint glints and then nothing. The current continued into pitch-black darkness.

Raelin switched on his headlamp. Its beam showed the walkway continuing ahead beside the channel. GREYWATER RETURN was stenciled along the concrete wall. Above the channel’s splash line, sealed cable conduits labeled TRANSITION LOGISTICS SERVICE followed the same route. A smaller walkway split off to his right and sloped upward beside a pipe marked POTABLE MAIN 7-C TO LOWER HABITATION. Raelin passed the branch and followed the channel-side route toward Transition.

Raelin’s headlamp picked out thick concrete ribs projecting from the wall at regular intervals and continuing across the ceiling. The cable conduits passed through openings cut into the concrete, hugging the wall. Farther ahead, one rib had no opening. There, the conduits were fastened across its tunnel-facing surface on metal brackets, pushing the conduit bank out over the walkway at shoulder height. The gap between the outer housing and the channel guardrail was narrower than his shoulders.

Raelin stopped before the rib and leaned to look past the cable housings. On the far side, the grating returned to its usual width where the conduits drew back to the wall. He tightened the shoulder straps until the bottom of the pack cleared the guardrail’s top rail, then turned to face the wall. The backpack hung over the channel behind him.

Raelin placed one palm flat against the concrete rib before him and reached back with the other hand to grip the guardrail’s top rail. Keeping his chest close to the wall to counter the pack’s pull, he sidled through the gap, planting each boot before shifting his weight. The housing filled his view while water moved unseen behind him. Once he passed the far edge of the housing, he turned forward, bringing the pack back to the walkway side of the guardrail.

A low rumble sounded behind Raelin. He took two quick steps farther along the walkway and glanced back at the conduit bank. It shook slightly, but the vibration continued through the tunnel around him. Then he recognized the heavy, rhythmic clatter of a train approaching on tracks overhead. When it passed above him, the grating rattled in its frame beneath his boots.

The train’s clatter receded along the tracks overhead. A muffled announcement followed through the ceiling.

“Atten… all Transition freight crews. Lane four is clear for outb… traffic.”

Raelin continued while the announcement faded above him. Ahead, both the channel and its walkway curved to the right. Teal light from beyond the curve reflected off the wet concrete across the water. He switched off his headlamp and stopped before the curve, with the inner wall still between him and the source.

Raelin leaned over the guardrail and craned his neck far enough to peek around the inner wall of the curve. Beyond it, grated steps rose from his walkway to a narrow bridge across the water. The bridge ended at a badge-locked door set into the opposite wall. Above it, an Eye watched the crossing. Beneath the raised landing, the walkway continued beside the channel into darkness.

Nothing blocked the Eye’s view of the steps or the walkway beyond the curve, but the channel passed beneath the bridge’s solid deck, below the Eye’s line of sight. Raelin pulled back into cover, climbed over the guardrail, and lowered himself slowly from the top rail until his boots met the channel floor.

Cool water reached halfway up his shins. In the teal light, he could barely make out dark grit shifting around his boots beneath scattered patches of detergent foam and a faint sheen of machine oil. The channel walls rose above his shoulders. Keeping his head below the rim, he waded around the curve and beneath the bridge. On the far side, he stayed low until the channel wall blocked the door and its teal glow from view.

Raelin felt along the channel wall until his hand found a series of metal rungs fixed beneath the guardrail. He climbed until his eyes cleared the rim, but at the same time, the lock at the far end of the bridge released with a click. He quickly descended to the channel, then waded back beneath the bridge, moving each foot carefully to avoid splashing. Two sets of footsteps came out onto the bridge and stopped almost directly overhead.

The footsteps resumed, crossed the rest of the bridge, and clattered down the grated steps to the walkway. They receded around the curve toward the conduit bank Raelin had squeezed past.

A tool case clanged onto the grating.

“What idiot ran it around the rib?” one worker muttered.

“Hold the housing steady. I’ll tighten the bracket,” the other worker said.

Metal scraped, followed by the steady clicks of a ratchet.

Beyond the curve, the workers continued with the repair, their tools and low voices stopping and starting without warning. Raelin considered wading farther down the channel under cover of the noise, but from beneath the bridge he could not see either of them, so he stayed where he was. As the work dragged on, water slowly seeped into his boots and soaked his socks. His feet chilled, then ached, and finally his toes went numb.

At last, the tools fell silent. Footsteps approached around the curve, climbed the steps, and crossed the bridge above Raelin while he remained motionless beneath the deck. The door opened and closed behind them, and Raelin waited until their footsteps faded beyond the wall.

Raelin flexed his toes inside his boots and felt only dull pressure. He waded out from beneath the bridge, sliding each boot across the channel floor before trusting it with his weight. At the metal rungs, the channel wall hid the door and the Eye above it. He climbed and pulled himself over the guardrail onto the walkway.

Raelin switched his headlamp back on and followed the walkway deeper into the tunnel. He walked for several minutes before lowering himself onto the grating. He removed his boots and tipped out the water inside them through the grating. Working one foot at a time, he peeled off each sock, wrung it as dry as he could, and put it back on before pulling his boots on again.

Raelin resumed his route beside the channel. Prickling pain sharpened in his toes with the first steps, but he kept walking until it eased. Then a brief vibration passed through the grating. He stopped, waiting for the clatter of another freight train overhead, but none followed.

A heavy mechanical thud sounded through the concrete. A low roar followed from behind him, faint at first but growing louder. The roar brought back the old drainage culvert near the factory, the route he and Kiri had avoided because it could flood without warning.

Raelin swept his headlamp beam over the wall ahead. A short ladder led to a recessed inspection platform above the dark high-water stain. He ran toward it.

Raelin reached the ladder as the roar filled the passage. He gripped the side rails and climbed to the top. Planting both palms on the platform floor, he lifted one knee over the lip and pulled himself into the recess. He turned and saw a churning front of gray water racing down the channel toward him.

The surge swept past the platform. Water climbed the channel sides, spilled over the rim, and rushed through the guardrail and across the walkway. Within seconds, the grating and the lower ladder rungs disappeared beneath the flow. Cold spray struck Raelin’s face and sleeves as he pressed back into the recess.

The roar receded ahead. Water drained from the walkway through the grating as the level fell below the channel rim. Only then did Raelin lower himself down from the platform.

Raelin walked deeper into the tunnel for several minutes. The water stayed below the channel rim but still moved quickly, carrying broken streaks of foam ahead of him. By the time the passage widened, the rush beside him had softened to a steady wash.

In front of him, the sealed cable conduits turned up the wall and entered a vertical shaft. A faded green service marker showed through mineral stains beside them, and Raelin recognized the junction from his father’s route fragments. He pulled the copied route from his pocket and held it up in his headlamp beam. It showed a ladder climbing beside the conduits. Instead, a pipe nearly as wide as his torso descended through the shaft where the ladder should have been.

Raelin pressed his thumb to the junction on the page, marking where he stood, and traced the intended route upward. Beyond the missing ladder, the line turned left past the cable conduits and entered a service corridor leading toward Greenbelt. He searched the rest of the page for another way up, but it was suspiciously short on alternatives.

Raelin folded the scrap and slipped it back into his pocket. He stepped closer to the shaft. His headlamp caught short metal stubs protruding from the concrete in two rows, their ends cut flat where the old ladder had been removed. He followed them upward until they disappeared behind the new pipe, then swept the beam across the walls on either side, searching for another way up.

Raelin backed away from the blocked shaft and continued along the passage. A short distance farther on, his headlamp caught a ladder bolted to the wall. The mineral crust decorating the pipes, brackets, and conduit around it had barely touched the rungs.

The ladder rose through an opening in the ceiling. Raelin tested the first rung, then climbed. Near the top, dried gray streaks marked the rungs, and grit had collected around the lip of the opening. He pulled himself onto a grated walkway in a higher service passage. An open drainage channel ran beside it, carrying water away into the dark.

Farther along, the passage narrowed until the grated walkway ran tight between the wall and the drainage channel. A stained waterline marked the concrete above his knees, with dried scraps caught around the brackets at the same height. Raelin followed it back with his headlamp. The mark ran along the wall to the ladder opening, then down across the upper rungs. He looked down toward the route behind him for a moment, then turned and continued around the bend.

Beyond the bend, the narrow section continued. Raelin followed it another thirty paces, with the wall close on one side and the drainage channel on the other.

Then a hollow knock carried through the passage. A second followed several seconds later. A faint tremor ran through the grating beneath his boots. Raelin stopped. From somewhere ahead came a low roar, faint at first but growing.

Raelin turned and ran back the way he had come. The grating shook harder beneath his boots as the roar behind him grew louder.

The surge came around the bend behind him and climbed the outer wall of the channel. Water spilled over the rim and swept across the grating. Raelin’s boot skidded sideways. He caught himself against the wall and ran on.

The wider section came into view ahead. Water spread across the grating and dropped through the ladder opening in a gray sheet. It climbed from Raelin’s ankles to his shins as he crossed the widening section, pushing harder against each step. He swept his headlamp over the walls for anything he could climb.

His headlamp caught a steel frame bracing one of the larger pipes against the wall. A crossbar ran just above his waist, with another higher up. Raelin splashed toward it, grabbed the upper bar, and planted one boot on the lower.

A heavier rush swept into his legs before he could climb higher. His right boot slipped from the lower bar, and his knee slammed into the steel frame. Pain shot up his thigh, and his hands tightened around the upper crossbar. Raelin kicked blindly for the lower bar with his other foot as water surged beneath him.

His other boot found the lower bar. Raelin pushed himself higher and reached for the next brace. His fingers failed to catch, and his hand raked across a mounting bracket and its exposed bolt heads, tearing several cuts across his knuckles. He jerked his hand back, then swung it forward again, caught the brace, and hauled himself higher.

Raelin hooked his injured knee over the upper brace. Pain flared as he dragged his thigh across it and wedged his boot behind the frame. The surge churned beneath him, caught the bottom of his backpack, and wrenched it sideways. He clamped one arm around the brace and fought to keep the pack from dragging him back into the water.

The pull on the backpack weakened. Water fell below the lower brace and began draining through the grating. Raelin stayed wrapped around the frame until the roar diminished. Only then did he shift his weight back onto the lower bar. The backpack hung soaked and heavy against his back.

Raelin lowered himself one brace at a time. When his boot reached the grating, pain shot through his knee and he caught himself against the frame. Blood ran over his fingers and dripped through the grating into the runoff below, streaks of red breaking apart in the gray water. He shrugged off the backpack and set it down. Water ran from its seams.

With his uninjured hand, he opened the backpack and pulled out the compact cutter. The outer cloth was soaked, but the fold pressed against the tool was only damp. He tore off a strip and wound it around his knuckles, pulling it snug until the blood stopped seeping through.

He pulled the wrapped folder from the backpack and set it on the steel frame beside him. Then he turned the backpack upside down over the grating. Water streamed from the opening and pockets. He shook out what remained and set the pack open on the grating to drain.

When he picked up the folder again, he wiped the water from its wrapping. Moisture had worked into one corner, softening the edges of the pages beneath it. He peeled the wrapping back just far enough to look inside. One line of ink had blurred near the edge, but the pages beneath were otherwise intact. He folded the wrapping tight around the folder again.

He slid the folder back into the backpack, tucked the cutter away, and pulled the wet pack onto his shoulders. His first step sent pain through his knee, forcing him to catch the wall. He tried again with a shorter stride, then another. Keeping one hand near the concrete, he continued along the passage.

The passage continued upward. The drainage channel narrowed to a shallow gutter, then disappeared beneath metal floor plates. Farther on, the grated walkway ended and Raelin stepped onto dry concrete.

The passage ended at a vertical service shaft. A pipe labeled IRRIGATION SUPPLY: LOWER TERRACE rose along one wall, with a maintenance ladder beside it. Raelin followed the rungs with his headlamp. Several meters above, the ladder ended beneath a closed hatch.

Raelin tightened the damp cloth around his knuckles with his teeth, then pulled the backpack higher on his shoulders. He started up the ladder, using his wrapped hand mostly to steady himself while the other did the pulling. He drove himself upward with his uninjured leg and brought the injured one after it, rung by rung.

At the top, Raelin hooked one arm around the highest rung and pulled himself close to the ladder. He raised his wrapped hand, set his palm against the hatch, and pushed.