Pax touched his back. “It’s a joke.”
Geo-3 smiled at them. “The two of you need to relax. Stress is not your friend.”
“We’ve only got minutes before we die in a nuclear explosion, and that’s if I got the time right,” Ellis said.
Geo-3 laughed. “So?”
“Well, if that isn’t a time to stress, I don’t know what is.”
A portal popped in the center of the command, and a geomancer in a hard hat walked out. “Status, Three?”
“Just another day, One.”
“That bad?”
The two exchanged grins that looked genuinely pleased. They could have been Top Gun fighter pilots, climbing into cockpits on the way to a dogfight.
“’Fraid so. We got three antique nuclear explosives hidden around the sublevel set to explode in less than one hundred and twenty-three minutes. Found one conveniently located right outside. I’m sending Alpha to eject it.”
Geo-1 looked incredulous. “Nuclear explosives? What the bleez?”
“Honestly, I haven’t taken the time to ask. Figure we can do that later over antique cocktails.”
“Good enough,” Geo-1 said. “Prometheus! Wake up, old lady!”
“You know I don’t sleep,” a powerful voice boomed, and Ellis was certain that if the planet itself could speak, this was how it would sound.
“Prometheus, we have a problem here.”
Ellis couldn’t help thinking he was watching a live-action remake of Apollo 13. All around, people rushed with purpose, grabbing hazard suits and pulling them on. No panic, no fear visible. He and Pax could have been in a firehouse watching the men suit up and slide down the pole.
“I have been monitoring the situation,” Prometheus’s powerful voice boomed.
“If you would be so kind, please punch us to Full-Core. It’s time to make sure everyone is awake.”
“Announcing Full Core,” Prometheus said, and an alarm echoed. The sound inside the control room was muffled. But Ellis also felt a rumble as something large was moved, although he couldn’t see what.
“We’ve got at least one and possibly two more explosives to locate,” Geo-1 shouted. “Everyone not crucial, hit the portways. The rest I want remote-tracking. Keep your cons open for information about locations. Report the moment you find something.”
“What can we do?” Pax asked Geo-3.
“Stay out of the way and let us do our job.”
“Is this really just another typical day for you?” Ellis asked.
Geo-3 grinned. “Oh, the stories I could tell.”
Ellis and Pax had climbed up one tier of stairs to the second-floor stations and stood near the rail, which kept them out of traffic. The elevation made it easier to watch the Jumbotron, as they didn’t need to crane their necks so far. They stood holding on to the balcony rail, watching the big monitor as the purple cloud dwindled and disappeared.
A cheer filled the command center, but it was brief, as there were still two more to eject.
“I never knew it was like this down here,” Pax said. “It’s so scary—exciting, but scary. The rest of Hollow World has no idea. We show geomancers respect and all—revere them, observe Geomancer Day—but I don’t think anyone above us has a clue why. Until you actually come here and see it—you can’t really know.”
“That’s one gone,” Geo-1 told them, climbing up the stairs. “And a team near Amethyst Ring says they have a lock on the second. They’re moving to eject it now. But there’s been no sign of the third. Are you sure there were three?”
“They were working on the third when I left,” Ellis said. “Having trouble with the timer. It’s possible they couldn’t get it to work at all. The bombs are pretty old.”
“About as old as you.”
Ellis was wondering why Geo-1 never asked who or what he was. Most Hollow World residents gawked. The geomancers didn’t seem to notice.
“You know me?”
“Can’t go anywhere without hearing about Ellis Rogers. You’re as popular as the last tank of air at the bottom of the sea. So I’m old—real old, and these bombs are older than I am. Where’d they come from?”
“Museum of War in Jerusalem.”
“Makes sense, but those warheads wouldn’t be live. The radioactive materials would have been removed.”
“They obviously managed to rearm them.”
Geo-1 nodded. “So there might not be a third to deal with?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hope not.” Geo-1 looked up at the screens. “Cause we can’t find it. And that disturbs me.”
Ellis imagined it took an awful lot to disturb Geo-1.
“How long do we have?” Ellis asked.
“Thirty minutes, and I—”
Geo-1 stopped, eyes darting about the way people do when listening to a sports broadcast on earphones. “Fantastic! I don’t need to remind you we’re in a race here, right?” There was a pause. “Good work!” Geo-1 looked up and grinned. “We got it. Right outside in the Sea of Gehenna portway—just appeared on the readout. Delta team is on it.”
“Did you say it just appeared?” Ellis asked.
“Yep. Must have just ported it in.” Geo-1 fixed Ellis with a crushing stare. The face was that of a twenty-something, but the eyes were old, and hard as those of a salt-leached sailor. “And you’re positive there were only three?”
“That’s what I was told and what I saw.”
“Okay then, looks like we have this.”
Ellis wanted to check the time, but the battery of his cellphone had finally died. He wished he still wore a watch.
“Could I use one of your Makers?” Pax asked.
Geo-1 pointed. “Third floor.”
“Does it have a standard menu?”
“It’s custom—but it has the basics too.”
“Thanks.” Pax took Ellis by the hand and led him up to the third floor, where they found a small bank of industrial-designed Makers in various sizes, each connected to an auto-feed gravel chute. One was the size of a walk-in freezer with huge double doors that would have been roomy enough to summon a Buick. A hand wave from Pax made one of the smaller countertop models light up.
“Antique watches,” Pax said.
A panel came to life and displayed a series of 3-D timepieces that rotated in midair. They were projected images but looked solid, as if he could pluck one up. Ellis saw complicated diver’s watches, digital ones, diamond-encrusted bracelet pieces, multicolored plastic ones, pocket watches, even an original Ingersoll Mickey Mouse with a leather band.
“Have a preference?” Pax asked.
“A digital.” Ellis pointed when Pax didn’t understand.
Pax selected the watch pattern. A flash occurred and a bing. Pax opened the door and handed Ellis the watch from the image. It felt warm and blinked 12:00. He played with the buttons, discovering the watch had a timer before he worked out how to set it, which he did according to the displayed Hollow World core time. If what Warren told him was accurate, they had seventeen minutes. Ellis set a countdown running. Then they returned to their perch.
“Pax,” Ellis said, “how did you know I wanted a watch?”
Pax shrugged. “You just looked like you did.”
“Seriously? You thought I looked like I wanted a watch.”
“Well you must have, right?”
“And how did you know I didn’t kill Geo-24 when we first met? Did I just look innocent?”
“I’ve told you…I’m an arbitrator and a good judge of character.”
“But you also knew the Geomancer’s phrase about the sky is falling.”
Pax smiled uncomfortably.
“You learned that from your first meeting with Geo-24, didn’t you? During that conversation on Miracles Day, right? Only I’ll bet Geo-24 never told you.”