Tool

Chapter Ten

She heard him before he arrived, the crisp clip of his footsteps echoing in one of the corridors. Turning from her seat on the floor, she scanned each of the four directions until she could see him, a small black dot coming towards her. He was walking briskly but not hurrying. She settled back to face him, and as he came closer, she slowly raised her hands to show she was carrying nothing. The sound of his footsteps slowed as he drew nearer until he stopped at a cautious distance. Aurelia could see his face, which was pale and white, but couldn't quite make out his features.

"Who are you?" he called.

"A friend," Aurelia shouted back. "I am unarmed." As an afterthought, she added, "and alone."

He advanced again, more slowly. Closer, she could see he was of medium height, stocky, and well-built. His hair was graying at the temples but otherwise dark. He came to a stop a pace or two in front of her. "And what do you want?" he said. He was not afraid, merely cautious, and he didn't sound angry. His voice was low but carried well in the tunnel.

"I want to go out," she said. Short and sweet—this didn't seem the time for explanations.

His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth as if to speak but closed it again. "This is . . . unorthodox," he said after a moment.

A man of few words, Aurelia thought. At least he hadn't tried to shoot her or anything. "I don't know who else to ask," she said carefully.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" He didn't seem threatening, merely curious.

"I think I may have met one of you before," Aurelia said.

At this, the man's eyes widened further, and he licked his lips before replying. "I think you had better come with me."

He turned and walked back the way he had come, not looking to see if she followed. Aurelia wondered what would happen if she were to suddenly dart off down one of the other corridors. She didn't try it, though. He looked like he could be dangerous if he wanted to be. She stood and stretched her legs, then walked after him. She didn't know where he was taking her, but she still wasn't afraid of him.

He led her through several side tunnels, not speaking or looking around. She trailed, the tunnels all looking the same to her. Finally he stopped outside of a door. When he knocked, it opened, and he waited while Aurelia went in first, then stepped in behind her.

Inside was darker than outside, and it took a second for Aurelia to make out the figures of three other men sitting around a small table. The room was filled with boxes, the table in a clearing in the middle.

"I've found her," the man who had brought her said.

The largest of the three seated looked Aurelia up and down. "What's your name?"

She told him, and he nodded.

"She wants to go out," the first man said.

"Why?" the large man said.

Before Aurelia could answer, the first man broke in: "She says she's met one of us before."

Okay, that wasn't exactly what she'd said, but she kept her mouth shut. The three looked at each other, no hint of recognition in any of their eyes.

"Where?" the large man asked.

Aurelia described the place, and the man nodded. He got up from the table and pressed an icon on the intercom behind him.

"Wait," he said.

The men seemed to be comfortable in silence, but Aurelia wasn't. She was nervous, though still not scared, and more than anything wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"Who are you?" she asked. "I told you my name," she added, defiantly.

The larger man laughed. "We're the connectors," he said.

"Connectors?"

"We connect inside the dome and outside the dome."

Makes sense. But before Aurelia could ask more questions, there was another knock at the door, and yet another man in black came in. This one she recognized. He looked at her and nodded.

"She's the one," he said.

The larger man looked satisfied. "Take a seat," he said to Aurelia. "You guys get out of here and get back to work."

The other two seated men got up and left, along with the man who had brought Aurelia in. She sat in one of the vacated chairs.

"Nicholas told us about you," said the larger man. "Said to be expecting you, though he didn't know how or where or when you'd come. Seemed sure you would, though."

"So he's out," said Aurelia—a statement, not a question.

The larger man nodded. "He's out."

"I need to get a message to him; can you help me do that?" For a moment Aurelia thought she might be able to avoid leaving the dome.

"No can do," said the large man. "No idea where he is right now. He said he'd try to contact you, and he left a message."

The large man got up and left, presumably to find the message from Nicholas, leaving Aurelia alone with the man she had seen in the alleyway.

"Why didn't you help me?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "I did."

"You're a clone, aren't you?" Again she saw the heavy scarring on his wrists where his numbers had once been.

"Yes. It's the only reason I did as much as I did. Nicholas asked me to, but I wasn't risking any more. He said you'd know what to do. Seemed to trust you. Trust that you'd get down here to his message."

The man fell silent again, and Aurelia ran out of questions, so she left him alone until the large man came back. He was carrying an envelope identical to the one that had been dropped in the alley. He thrust it into Aurelia's hands.

With trembling fingers, she opened it. Inside was a note.

Aurelia,

I knew you'd find this. I'm fine. Jonathon was going to have me killed. I'll be safe outside the dome for the time being. Things will change, and I'll be back. I'll get a message to you if I need you. Don't worry. I know what you're thinking. Don't do it. You do not want to be where I am. Trust me.

Nicholas.

The note was written in a shaky hand, as though he had been in a hurry. "Did he say anything else?" Aurelia asked.

"Look, we've done what we were paid to do; don't know anything else, got it?" the large man said.

She looked again at the note in her hand and weighed up what she knew. Nicholas was wrong about Jonathon's trying to get him killed—that, she was sure of. There was no way Jonathon would have broken his promise. She didn't know where Nicholas had got the idea from, but he was misinformed. She needed to tell him that so that he could come back. On one hand, she could wait until he contacted her, which could be days or weeks away—days or weeks with Nicholas taking constant risks to stay alive outside of the dome. Or she could take the risk, herself, and spend a day or so out and get him the message in person. It wasn't a tough decision to make.

She laid the note on the table and sat forward. "I want to go out," she said to the two men in front of her.

The larger man looked at her speculatively. "Not part of the deal," he said. "The deal was we show you the message, then get you back to Lunar."

"Well, this is a new deal," said Aurelia. "I need to go out for maybe a day or so, track down Nicholas, and bring him back in."

The man nodded. "What have you got?"

She understood what he meant and took her bag off her back, emptying it onto the table. He looked at the medical supplies she'd brought and nodded again.

"Alright. We'll do it."