Chapter 15

Time: Monday, December 24, 2018 11:00 AM

Fatima and Mark walked into the downstairs library just as Emily was stretching from her first two-hour training session.

“How’s it going, Emily? Like your new job?” Fatima called out.

“Oh hi. Yeah, it’s okay I guess.” Emily sighed as she noticed only Fatima at first. “The job doesn’t pay much, but I guess I’m in it for the fringe benefits. Oh hi, Mark! Having a good day?” She gave Mark a cheerful smile, and he was glad to see her eyes weren’t red.

“Yeah, I guess, been taking it easy actually, just checking things out. The rest of the team is down in the mall right now.”

Emily blinked and then said playfully, “Oh yeah? Jada went shopping without me?”

“Not exactly shopping. Jada was very curious to see how far past the bike shop the mall runs. She and Hannah are biking down the spiral, have been for the last hour. Madison and Ashley are keeping a lookout at the Dress Barn.”

“Wow. Jada and Hannah could be cut off,” said Emily.

“I know,” replied Mark. “Thank God we have three Leophones. At least we could warn them.”

“Still sounds a bit risky.”

“Oh yeah.” Mark shrugged. “Exploration is a risky business. That’s the tradeoff between safety and knowledge.” He paused. “Do you think I did the right thing?”

“Yep, I do. But what will Maddy and Ashley do if they see someone?”

“Call both of us first. Making contact is a big unknown. It’s Madison’s decision, but she’ll probably make contact with a single person and try to hide our presence if it’s a large group.” Mark’s Leophone started to ring. “Hi, Jada!” he said as he answered the call. “I’m with Emily and Fatima. Let me put you on speakerphone.”

“Hi, guys!” said Jada’s voice. She had just stopped and was still panting slightly. “This place is mind-boggling incredible. Hannah and I have been counting. We think we’ve just made a three-hundred degree revolution since the Dress Barn. According to Emily’s equations, that would put us at 1128 degrees and just past the thirty-six-kilometer mark from Hex Hall. And Mark, that also puts us just over ten line-of-sight kilometers from home.”

“Fantastic!” said Mark. “This is absolute proof the Leophones are not using their walkie-talkie mode for linking to each other, not over that distance.”

“That makes sense,” replied Hannah. “Given what we know now, something must have carried our signal back to the satellite, back when it was in Earth’s orbit.” She added quietly, “ ... back when there was an Earth orbit.”

“Jada, Hannah, notice any change in the mall?” asked Emily.

Jada answered. “Everything’s about the same, maybe a few more liquor stores in the area we’re in right now. There are also some other shops, adult entertainment. It’s pretty embarrassing. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Hannah added, “The corridor is tremendous. So many food stores! We can see almost four hundred meters on the inside arc now.”

“Not quite that much,” Jada corrected. “I’ve just sighted with the binoculars. I’m reading 360 meters.”

“Anyway,” said Hannah, “It’s an awesome sight, frightening.”

Emily shook her head in wonder. “How far will you go?”

Jada replied. “We want to test your conjecture from last night, that there are three and a half revolutions between the keystone and the outer faces of Hex Hall, so maybe there are another three and a half revolutions for the malls. I agree with you, Emily. There’s a certain elegance to the idea. In a sense, Hex Hall would be a mirrored map of what the real mall is like. Biking to angle 1260 will be another thirty-nine kilometers. Emily, we should know within two hours if you are correct.”

“Okay, be careful. Remember there are no ambulances down there.”

“Yeah, I know. I was thinking the same thing. Mark?”

“Hi Jada.”

“Hi. I want to tell you, about a kilometer past the bike ship, shortly before the eleven-kilometer mark, we found a locksmith store that has thousands of mushroom shaped locks. I think they would fit the indentations in the archways down here perfectly. I’m thinking on the return trip, I could try to lock the bike shop, pull down the overhead door and secure it with one of the mushroom locks. Hannah and I will bring a couple of locks back with us too. What do you think?”

“Hmmm. See any other bike shops?”

“Nope. The one at kilometer eleven is the only one we’ve seen so far.”

“Okay. Use your judgment Jada. I have no objection to locking up the bikes. One thing though. Practice locking and unlocking a store we don’t need first.”

“Oh, very good point, will do. I’ll call you in an hour. Jada out!”

Mark then called Madison in the Dress Barn and checked that everything was okay.

As the second call finished, Emily reached out and offered her hand to Mark. He helped her stand up from the testing console. Mark looked around the library. “Emily, you feel okay down here by yourself?”

“Yeah, I guess so. The vestibule doesn’t open from the outside. I feel safe enough. Why? Do you want to keep me company?”

“Maybe.” He motioned his head to the southeast corner of the room. “I was thinking of doing a bit of exploring with the second workstation. Emily, do you still have your sketchbook? I thought it might be useful if we record Fatima’s full account of what the other elevator trips were like. She remembers quite a bit of detail.”

“Sure, good idea.” A moment later they were sitting in three comfortable chairs around a library table. Emily was staring at her sketchbook. “You know, when I volunteered to be the group’s recording secretary, I had no idea how extensive the job would be.”

Mark smiled. “Our first meeting, it seems like so long ago.”

“Uh huh. And if I play my cards right, this sketchbook here might be in a museum someday. I’m thinking center stage under a really big dome, sealed and preserved in pure helium for posterity. Thousands of years from now, I’ll be remembered as the recording secretary mother of the nation, and this sketchbook will be a priceless treasure.” Emily stared at the book and then blinked. “Yikes! I was trying to make a joke, but maybe it’ll all come true.”

“So do you think you’re ready, Madam Recording Secretary?” asked Fatima with a formal voice and playful grin.

“Yes, go ahead,” replied Emily as she started to write. “I’m making a note that it was on this auspicious date of December 24, 2018 that you’ve finally learned to address me by my proper title.”

“Right! Anyway, let me go over what we talked about on Saturday morning. The first elevator trip was to Party #1, It’s My Party, eighteen women nurses. The next two trips went to Party #5, 2525, thirty-six people in all, twenty fraternity guys from Beta Sigma Rho and sixteen women. I think about half were women that joined them on the spur of the moment, and the other half were dates that they had brought with them. I could be off a little, but about half and half.”

“Okay,” said Emily. “Got it.”

Fatima took a deep breath. “You have no idea how much the atmosphere changed after the frat guys left. What a relief. The remaining line became much more cooperative. We reorganized and forgot about our old places in line. Nine couples who were just coming to socialize, not prospect for a date ... uh, Emily, do you know what I mean?”

“Sure. Go on.”

“They were the next group to leave, nine men and nine women went to Party #6. After that, there were only three guys left outside of my group. Sixteen women and two guys went to Party #2, seventeen women and one guy to Party #3, House of the Rising Sun. I think I heard that the guy’s name was Warren. And then an all-women group of eighteen went to Party #4. Finally my group of four guys and nine women joined Party #1. All this took a little over half an hour.”

Emily wrote quickly. “Okay. I’m recording Mark’s and my own trip too. The only thing we don’t know is where the extra four women went, the ones ... Fatima, do you remember how many parking spaces were still available after you parked?”

“I think there were two open spaces in the back, next to where we parked. Everything else was full.”

“I took the last spot,” said Mark.

Emily nodded. “And I parked on the frozen grass. So it appears our unknown group of four women arrived in one car. I’m guessing they all picked one party to go to.”

Fatima nodded. “Sounds very reasonable. The setup was so bizarre, I can’t imagine a single woman wanting to either ride alone or remain behind alone. Splitting up two by two is barely possible I guess, but I doubt it. None of them came to Party #1, I know that.”

Mark added, “And the numbers have decreased, from 037:112 to 027:108. There’s definitely a bias for the guy number to go down. Emily, the change is too extreme for it to be a random fluctuation, don’t you think?”

“Oh yeah. You know, when we first saw the decrease, we thought it might represent the people who made it back to Burlington. But given what we know now, where the hell are these people going?”

“Maybe it means...” Just then Mark’s phone rang. He gave a quick frown. The ring tone identified it as Jada’s phone, and he wasn’t expecting her to report in again so soon. He answered the phone. “You guys okay?”

“Yes, don’t worry, we’re fine. We have something interesting to report. We’ve been staring at it for the last few hundred meters. There are two sixty-meter food stores here that partially overlap in the position along the spiral. Their doors are about thirty meters away from each other, the Wing Yip Superstore on the inside arc, and the Wild Oats Health Food Store on the outside.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Mark, I think there’s a sky-bridge connecting the two stores, a walkway above the corridor connecting the second floors of the two stores. That’s what I’m guessing anyway. It’s the same color as the floor and walls. I can’t see inside.”

Mark nodded. “I take it you want to investigate.”

Jada replied. “Oh, you bet! Hannah too.”

Mark sighed. “Okay. Jada, use your judgment. Back out if you don’t like the risk. What’s your position on the spiral?”

“Just passed thirty-seven and a half kilometers I think. We might be exactly halfway down the spiral if Emily’s conjecture is correct. Going in now.” A tense minute passed as Jada and Hannah described parking their bikes in the health food store and climbing the stairs to the second floor.

A moment later Hannah exclaimed, “It’s an elevator! In the middle of the sky bridge! Like the one at the lounge, same size, about three meters by four meters. Do you think it goes to the surface? Both doors are open now. I can see right through to the store on the inside arc.”

“Be careful!”

“We are. Mark, there’s a twenty-character access code displayed above the keyboard.”

“Quick!” shouted Emily as she reached for her pen. “Don’t touch anything! Just read the number to me!”

Jada did. As she and Hannah left the elevator, they noticed the display turned dark. They reentered and discovered the keyboard and display remained without power. They continued to the other food store, down the stairs and down the corridor to the health food store and their bikes. There seemed nothing further to explore. They signed off and continued their journey.