“Do you always know where she is?”

“No. I only have second degree security clearance. The hour sixty meeting and its attendees are general knowledge.”

General knowledge to the uppers. The scrubs hadn’t a clue, and what we did know was doubtful. So much for reporting to my shift on time.

“Get in position now,” Riley said. “I don’t want to open the door until you’re hidden from sight. Just in case someone is out in the hall.”

“How come you’re the only one who uses this room?”

“It’s hard to find and has been forgotten. I doubt anyone is outside, but it never hurts to be too careful.”

I agreed with him, being extra careful should be our motto. Turning away so Riley couldn’t see my smirk—our motto, like we were a gang—I opened the heating vent and slipped inside, taking Zippy with me.

Riley crouched down to help replace the cover. But before setting it in place, he touched my arm. This time I didn’t flinch as the heat from his hand sizzled in my blood. I met his gaze.

“Be careful,” he said.

Cog constantly told me to be careful, but Riley’s voice sounded different. I wondered if it was fear or genuine concern.

“You, too,” I said.

He nodded then replaced the vent’s cover. Rolling Zippy ahead of me, I slid through the tight space toward Karla’s office, but my mind reviewed the strange conversation with Riley as I traveled. Could the Controllers be as bad as the Pop Cops? It was hard to imagine and yet I couldn’t shake the image of blood dripping from his arm, nor could I forget the warmth that still lingered on my skin from his touch.

I reached Karla’s office and slowed. Creeping toward her vent, I listened for any noise. The soft bluelight shone through the vent cover, signaling an empty room. My body was so used to the ten-hour system, I felt rather than knew when it was hour sixty. I hoped my supervisor wasn’t looking for me.

The glow remained steady. After a few minutes, I removed the vent’s cover. Another couple passed before I turned Zippy on and pushed him out. When the alarm failed to sound, I hurried over to the gray evidence closet. Opening the doors, I pulled out Logan’s device and placed it under the keypad, pressing the button.

It hummed and a series of numbers filled the small screen. Typing in the code, I braced for an alarm, but the bolt slid back. I exchanged the fake port for Broken Man’s, checked the ID numbers twice, then relocked the closet.

The room’s daylights flashed a few times. I grabbed Zippy and dove into the vent. Voices sounded beyond the office door. The vent cover stuck in the hole. I tugged on it as the pings of someone entering a code rang. It jerked free. I placed it over the vent as the door opened.

“Alarm off,” Lieutenant Commander Karla said.

Daylights swept over the blue glow, trapping me and illuminating a frowning Karla. I couldn’t ever recall seeing the woman smile.

“This had better be important,” she said to the lieutenant following her into the room.

“Our detainee just gave us a clue to Domotor’s location. I need your permission to assign a search team,” the lieutenant said.

“Has he implicated anyone else?”

“No, sir.”

“Hard to believe he managed to hide a physically disabled man without help.” Frustration tainted her voice.

“He’s strong and has a high pain tolerance, sir.”

My heart stumbled. Only one way to discover how much pain a person could tolerate.

Karla grunted. “But he’s too big to fit in the air shafts. Another scrub had to be involved.”

“But we have no real evidence, sir. That cloth bag could have been blown down to the floor. It’s light enough to have been sucked up by the return air.”

“No. I know a scrub was there, and I’ll find out who was in the air shaft,” she vowed. “No scrub gets away from me.”

“What about the search team, sir?”

“Take team four and report back to me immediately. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The lieutenant strode from the room.

The LC scowled at his retreating form. She stood gazing at the door as if lost in thought then left her office, pausing only to reactivate the alarms.

I waited a few minutes to ensure she was gone. The need to act pulsed in my body. Cogon suffered while I wasted time. I headed toward Riley’s room with reckless speed. Even knowing Riley wouldn’t be there, disappointment still jabbed me when I reached the place. I hid Zippy under the couch and hurried to Domotor’s room. My shift be damned. Cogon would not suffer in vain.

10

I HELD DOMOTOR’S PORT BETWEEN MY FINGER AND thumb, flourishing the unit.

The prophet pumped a fist in the air and grinned. “Good work!”

“How long to get the information?”

“It’ll take about forty to fifty hours,” Domotor said.

I groaned aloud.

“If I’m not careful, I’ll alert the system to my presence and we’ll be discovered.” He studied my face. “Trella, get a few hours’ sleep. You look terrible.”

I ignored his remark, but thought about Riley’s comment about circumventing computer systems. “Are you going to tell me your real agenda?”

He fidgeted in his chair. The ecstatic expression faded and wariness touched his eyes. I hadn’t given him the device.

“Are you really seeking Gateway’s location? Or was that my incentive for retrieving the disks and your port?”

“It’s complicated,” he said.

“Meaning a dumb scrub wouldn’t be able to understand?” My hand fisted around his port.

“No.” He pushed the hair from his eyes. The long blond strands hung loose. “Meaning you don’t know enough about the upper levels to realize that even if we find Gateway, we might not be able to unlock it without gaining control of key computer systems.”

“Do you even believe Gateway exists?”

“Yes, I do.” His gaze remained steady.

Damn. Either he was a good liar or he told the truth. “How do you gain control of the systems?”

“Through the computer network, but I need to find out who the real Controllers are.”

“You mean which Travas?”

“No. All the upper families think the admiral, vice admiral and captain, who are all Travas, are the Controllers. But I found a command flow chart in a forgotten file that put the Controllers above the admiral.”

“Then who are the Controllers?”

“No one knows. Not even the Travas. But I’ve overheard them speculating, and they believe the Controllers live Outside and send instructions through the computer. Sort of a divine influence.”

Shock rolled through me. The thought of people or even a divine being dictating what we did Inside from Outside was hard to grasp.

“Just because the Travas believe it doesn’t mean it is true.”

“Do they know what is Outside?”

“No. No one does. It’s all speculation. A few Travas think the divine presence lives in the computer network. Others think the computer itself has become intelligent.” He shrugged. “Knowledge of before was erased from the computer system thousands of weeks ago. Something has to be beyond our walls. The Controllers must know.”

I mulled over the information. “Gateway could just be a computer link to the Controllers, and not a physical exit.”

“It’s possible. And you’re holding our only chance to find out.”

I unfurled my fingers. His port rested in my palm. Cog’s life in exchange for this. No turning back now. I would stay the course until the end.

He snatched his port as a hungry man would grab food. Relief washed the worry from Domotor’s expression. He inspected the device and then inserted it into the gap on the right side of his lower jaw. I wheeled him over to the computer.

“Get some rest,” he said half-distracted. “You’re welcome to use my bed.”