The Girl Who Dared to Think 7: The Girl Who Dared to Fight

As soon as I was ready, I began to descend. I was slow at first, but after a few seconds I got the hang of it and began moving at a steady speed. A quick glance down told me that my friends were moving equally fast, and I relaxed a little and settled into the rhythm.

Minutes ticked by as we continued our descent. Sweat formed on my brow and at the nape of my neck, dripping down my back and slickening my skin. My hands were beginning to ache from having to grip the bars, and my forearms and calves were burning from the repetitive motion. After a while, I started to consider switching over to my lashes to get some small measure of relief, but decided against it. The heat and low-level radiation being emitted by the beam wouldn’t affect the lash ends from this distance, but if the lash beads accidentally got too close to the stream, they could melt or lose their ability to produce a static charge, and then I’d be stuck. Granted, we had come down the shaft on lashes before, but the lashing had to be precise, and my arms and shoulders didn’t feel like they were up to the task. So, down the ladder I climbed.

The relief I felt when my feet hit the bottom seemed to be echoed by all of my friends, who were in various positions of stretching or shaking out their burning muscles. I took the opportunity as well, reaching overhead to relieve the ache in my shoulders and back while I slowly examined the bottom of the shaft.

The beam fed through a large hole at the center, taking up most of the space, but there were several supercomputers tucked against the walls, all of them with large pipes running toward the power conduit, like spokes on a wheel. I had no idea what the computers were for, but they weren’t what I was looking for. I was trying to find the integration chamber, or at least access to it. I wasn’t sure—I hadn’t looked this far ahead at Dinah’s blueprints. To be honest, I hadn’t thought we’d make it down here without getting caught. But now that we were here, I needed to know where to go next.

Luckily, Quess was already way ahead of me. “This way,” he whispered, heading to the left, where a set of metal steps led up and over one of the pipes feeding from the port to the computers. We took them quickly, our boots rattling the frame as we headed up and then back down. We followed Quess until he stopped halfway between the pipe we had just crossed over and the next one and knelt down on the floor. I looked around for what he saw that I didn’t—it appeared to be regular flooring—and then frowned when he pressed a section of it down, only to have it pop back open to reveal a handle. There had been no seam to mark that it was there, which told me that whatever schematic Dinah had managed to find was incredibly accurate.

Quess grabbed the handle and twisted it 360 degrees, then pushed down. There was a sharp hiss, and suddenly the entire floor plate dropped down half an inch. I nearly leapt out of my skin watching it happen, and again when the entire plate shot to one side, disappearing under the rest and revealing a series of steep steps leading downward. The lighting in the room was emitted from some sort of red bulb, making the stairs look exceptionally creepy.

My skin crawled, my mind immediately conjuring up images of the condensation room over Greenery 7, where we had found the bodies of men and women torn apart in the steamy confines. I swallowed back the images, rationalizing to myself that that particular nightmare was over, while whatever ones the room below us held were just beginning.

Then I put that fear away, too, knowing that there was no turning back now.

“I’ll go first,” I said, stepping around Quess and heading down the steps. They were steep and narrow, and ended at a small landing with a wall in front of it. A narrow passage ran to the left of the stairs, and I followed it, turning my hand light on to get a better view of what was in front of me. Once we were past the stairwell, the hall widened slightly, but ended after a few feet, leading into an open room. The room was set up like a control station, with three desks inside and screens lining the wall. No one was inside. In fact, it seemed as if no one had been there for years, given the film of dust lining the screens and surfaces.

Two halls led out—one to the left, and one to the right.

“Okay, Quess,” I said, stepping farther into the room and shining my light around. “Where do we go next?”

“Left hall. Follow it until it dead-ends at a large pipe,” he replied.

I followed his instructions, moving in between the desks and toward the hall. This walkway was lined with several additional supercomputers, the tall, box-like structures lit up with a prismatic array of colors that seemed to throb. I kept a healthy distance from them, knowing better than to touch anything, but found myself wondering what they were for.

They control the upload of the AI after integration is completed, Tony supplied for me. Basically, they are responsible for compressing the AI’s data stream when it is uploaded, to prevent any overloads. It takes a lot of energy to transfer us. If you destroyed them, you’d stop Sage’s plan to upload Kurt to the mainframe.

Clearly, I thought back wryly, starting to understand why Sage had stolen all that power from the Tower to enact his plan. Still, I think I’ll stick with my plan to kill Sage and upload Leo. Destroying these would stop Sage, but it would also stop us from uploading Leo and starting the New Day protocol.

True, Tony agreed. But isn’t that also kind of what you want? To fix Scipio and keep Leo all to yourself?

I pressed my lips together in irritation, because, while he was technically right, it didn’t mean anything. I was planning to go through with Lionel’s request no matter what. But Leo was in my thoughts, and Tony should know that, which was why his comment stung a little bit. Still, it wasn’t enough to merit a response, so I merely dropped my side of the conversation and kept moving.

As Quess had explained, the hall dead-ended in front of a large gray pipe that was three feet in circumference and sitting three feet above the ground. Steps were fixed to the side of it, leading up to a pressure valve at the top. I slowed to a stop when I saw it, uncertain of how to proceed, but once again, Quess came to the rescue, walking around me and heading to the rungs.

“I just have to plug the pad in to the security port and upload Dinah’s virus,” he called over his shoulder as he quickly climbed up. “You should all be up here with me when it goes off. We won’t have much time.”

Three minutes, in fact, making his argument extremely valid. I quickly followed behind him, tucking my baton back into my belt, and then waited as he knelt and hooked Dinah’s pad up to the valve. I remained patient, knowing things like this took some time, but I was already anticipating what we would have to do as soon as he got it open: I would jump in first and begin to crawl through the pipe.

“Quess,” I said softly, realizing I needed to know which direction we had to go and what valve exit we were looking for. “What do we do when we get inside?”

“Head right,” he grunted. “According to the schematics, the third valve deposits us in an air filtration room that gives us access to a vent that will lead into the room we need.”

I nearly groaned in annoyance at his mention of vents. I’d had enough of crawling through those things to last me a lifetime. Having to stomach it again was just the icing on a very big cake of suck.

Hey, if you manage to get through this alive, you’ll never have to climb through another vent again, Tony chimed in helpfully.

If, I thought back to him, knowing full well that the likelihood of us getting out alive was slim to none. Sage would have sentinels with him, as well as other guards. If we managed to sneak in without any of them noticing, then maybe we’d have a chance.

But that was a big maybe.