The Girl Who Dared to Think (The Girl Who Dared #1)

I did. Still, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Zoe was tampering with the Tower, and that was a severe offense, and always came with a charge of terrorism. Altering anything in the Tower without permission was like that, as the smallest change could cause catastrophic failures (or so the department heads wanted us to believe). In Zoe’s case, it would be made worse, as she was tampering with something that didn’t fall under Diver jurisdiction—another big no-no in the Tower. I looked at my wrist and found myself wondering if I was actually carrying some sort of psychological contamination. If Zoe’s number fell because of me, I would never forgive myself.

“Damned thing!” Zoe said as sparks shot out from where she was connecting a wire. She shook her hands and stared down at the pad, the screen turning her face a soft aqua blue. A screen popped up, and she sat down and began inputting commands into it. “So, I found a pretty exploitable flaw in the elevator’s security protocols, and have written an algorithm of my own to make use of it. I trick the system into performing what it thinks is a test, and tell it what floor to go to.” A platform slid out of the wall, covering the shaft, and she grinned victoriously as she began disconnecting the lines and screwing the plate back into place, making the entire thing look just as it did before.

I looked around while she did this, keeping an eye out for anyone approaching, but the halls were deserted. She stood up and nodded toward the elevator.

“Let’s go,” she said, gliding over the ramp and coming to a halt on the platform.

I followed her quickly, crossing my arms in preparation for the inevitable elevator lecture, and then smiled when the voice never came and the lift began to descend. Apparently, it couldn’t chastise people during a test, and I wasn’t going to complain.

I felt a trill of excitement as it moved—this would be my first time actually inside Cogstown proper. Cogs were very protective of their home, and didn’t like uninvited guests visiting. Knights with a rank of eight or higher could overrule the protocols, but Gerome and I had never had cause to go down there even once during my apprenticeship. Suffice it to say, the two of us were going to draw some attention.

“I’m still surprised you didn’t accept recruitment into the Eyes,” I commented after a second, and she gave me a sharp look.

“The Eyes aren’t the only ones who need to know how to code. The big machines that keep us alive are run by computers. Only the best Cogs can speak the language, and that’s only because IT tried to revoke all of the copies that contained coding, citing that all computers and codes fall under their jurisdiction. They actually got a majority vote in the council initially, and got their hands on a lot of the copies before the Cogs managed to get the council to overrule their decision. Of course, it was too late—and the IT department had secured, and then conveniently misplaced the books taken in the first place. But some of them still exist, hidden by their owners before they got confiscated, and—”

“How do you know that?” I asked with a frown. “That’s not taught in school.”

“My grandmother was a Cog, remember? When I was young she used to tell me all sorts of things about the history of Cogstown, ranting about the IT department and the many ways they’ve tried to eliminate the entire Cog department.”

“What?” I said with a laugh. “That’s preposterous. All of the departments are necessary to keep the Tower functioning. None is more crucial than the other—it’s part of the Oath.”

The Oath was something we’d had to recite every morning, afternoon, and evening in our interdepartmental education centers, when we were young. It was basically a way of remembering that we were all in the struggle to survive together, and an acknowledgement of our dedication to serving the Tower, ensuring our continued survival.

Zoe shrugged and shook her head, her eyes watching the numbers as they dwindled down. “I guess if you did something to try to eliminate an entire department, you wouldn’t really want anyone knowing about it, would you?”

It was an excellent point, but I still wasn’t convinced. Interdepartmental spats had existed pretty much since the inception of the Tower. Jurisdictional disputes, departmental reorganizing, and more than a few hotheads had created rifts over the centuries of forced cooperation. Rumors always flew this way and that during those times; someone would get blamed for something or other, and then legends were born, with heroes and villains. The legends would become part of a department’s history, and a lot of them were taken out of context and got a little out of hand.

Her grandmother had probably just told a story from her own mother. Likely, if I were to go back into the public history of the department, it would result in finding a memo about the coding books being collected by IT to ensure that all data was input into the computer, so that in case of a catastrophic event, like, say, the loss of a department, the other citizens could have the knowledge available to try to salvage the situation. It had been blown out of proportion—like most interdepartmental memos were. Centuries of living together and serving the Tower meant that sometimes departments would start fights with each other, at times erupting into full-blown group attacks and guerilla warfare. But the whole idea that a department had ever moved against another to wrest more control for themselves was unrealistic to say the least.

“Heard back from the Cogs about your transfer?” I asked after a moment, and she frowned, shoving her hands into her pockets.

“No,” she said glumly. “I’m worried my mom intervened or something. She’s close with the Praetor, and I’m one of their best workers.”

“Can he intercede like that?” I asked, blinking at her. Praetor Strum was the head of Water Treatment, and had the final say on who could and could not transfer into or out of his department. He also served as the head pontifex of the Water Ways, giving sermons to his people once a week. Unlike IT, who never allowed people to transfer out and only a handful to transfer in, they were normally more relaxed about department members’ changeover. In fact, I wasn’t aware that they had ever stopped anyone before.

“He can, if he can make a strong enough case against inducting a Diver to the ranks of a Cog. It would be harder to do, since I’m first-generation and my mother came from the Cogs, but…” She trailed off with a sigh and ran the edge of her thumbnail over one brow, as if massaging a headache away. “I just like machines.”

That was true. For as long as I had known Zoe, she had loved to tinker. Give that girl parts, and she’d show you a robot. Or an IT pad. I felt an empathetic pang for my friend, knowing that all she wanted was to work on the big machines, and that politics and interdepartmental disputes were getting in the way of her happiness.

I knew that if she were a Cog, she’d be a ten in no time flat.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, I rested my cheek against hers and hugged her close.