Chapter 41

The following evening, at the Hilton Executive Conference Center

Time: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 7:48 PM

One nice thing about the Center, Jada thought as she exited the elevator and headed for the conference room, was that the monitoring hub allowed absolutely everyone to attend the meeting, even the two people who had the current monitoring shift. When the eight o’clock meeting started, they would have a full complement of twenty-three, including the four people who were dialing in remotely.

Jada blinked in mild surprise when she entered the room. Hannah and Paige were present as the two people on monitor shift, but otherwise the room was empty.

“There is a meeting here at eight o’clock, right?” Jada asked Paige.

“Yep.” Paige gave Jada a somewhat cryptic smile. “Hannah and I just finished some extra tests with the Looking Glass field team. They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, Looking Glass is looking good.”

Jada nodded as she sank into her plush chair at the head of the table. Today had been a very good day. Madison had been trapped in her strange new home for over thirty hours now, but was in no immediate danger and seemed to be enjoying herself in her new role as observer and reporter for the new world they now knew was below them. And what a world it was.

As far as their measurements could determine, the new world ran due north-south and was precisely centered within the Great Hexagon, with its geometric center directly underneath the Hex Hall of the spiral Malls. The underground world had a rectangular footprint 46,656 meters long (six to the sixth) and 7,776 meters wide (six to the fifth), with the top of the great barrel-shaped dome of the sky perhaps an average of 1,296 meters above the surface of the river Madison had named the Mississippi.

Madison’s house was embedded in the southern end of the cylinder that formed the headwater area of the Mississippi. The view outside her home was that of a rocky glen with water gushing out of the rocks in multiple spots. The house was near the corner of the world, only a 130 meters west of the eastern cylindrical day. The ravines and the water flowed west and a little north for about a kilometer until it pooled into a lake. And from the lake flowed the Mississippi. It meandered east and west as it flowed north, sometimes as broad as a kilometer, sometimes as narrow at 200 meters. Madison estimated the trip would be more than fifty kilometers along the river before reaching another lake area at the northern end of the world.

And it was a world, not just a sanctuary. With over 350 square kilometers of land and water, Aggie was convinced the environment was large enough to be self-sustaining, rather than like the managed park Mark was living in. Maddy had been correct in her initial observation, the world below was wild and free, sustained by an artificial sun and river perhaps, but free to maintain its own ecological balances.

Madison had witnessed a full daily cycle of the sun now, and was enthralled with the design. The eastern edge of the sky-dome would begin to brighten before 5 AM, and then the linear sun would emerge about forty minutes later. The sun-bright line would spend the next fourteen hours slowly arching over the cylindrical sky, climbing the eastern half of the cylinder and reaching the top shortly after noon. Sunset on the western side of the barrel-sky occurred today at 7:20 PM, with a spectacular display of reds and purples and vistas of pastel colored clouds.

Emily had pointed out a curious calculation earlier today. Near the bottom of the 24’th stairwell, the passageway from the surface came extremely close to breaking into the corner of the new world. Emily estimated the northern wall of the stairwell corridor was within three meters of connecting to the corner edge of the sky.

The remaining four members of the original away team had returned without incident yesterday in time for evening dinner. It was very encouraging to see that people in excellent physical shape could make the round trip in one day without a problem. Tom had even led a second three-person expedition today to drop off more supplies for Madison, plus some new equipment.

With a few minutes to spare, a large crowd of people entered the room. Jada noticed numerous grins and realized something was up. Promptly at 8 PM, Fatima started the meeting. First on the agenda was a progress report on Kiyoko’s training, and she reported she expected to earn her credentials as Black Mall’s janitor by 5 PM tomorrow. Fatima then turned the floor over to Akiko and Lynn who were project co-leaders of Looking Glass.

The birth of Looking Glass had occurred just three days ago during a detailed study of the Matrix technical manuals by both women. They discovered the original sensors in the stores’ doorways were not simple RF scanners for stolen merchandise but optical sensors that could be tied into the Matrix sensors if there was a direct line-of-sight connection between the two. The end result was that a Matrix scanner on the outside arc could target one of the simpler sensors up to the edge of visibility along the arc, and provide one extra jump of “look around the corner” surveillance. The capability was the foundation for a risky plan to return to the unlocked portion of Black Mall.

Tom and Charles would walk a kilometer and a half past Rabbies Dram with a pistol and the group’s one remaining Leophone, gambling that any ambush party from Black Mall would indentify the pair as returning members of Uno’s group. A half kilometer behind them, a large team of workers would be locking down and installing new surveillance sensors in the Mall. Their target was to extend the lockdown to Herman’s Wilderness Outfitters.

Back at the meeting, Paige raised her hand to talk. “May I ask a question? During our first hike into Green Mall, I remember seeing a similar store less than a kilometer away from where we are now. There were kayaks there too. Why don’t we just use those? They’re only a kilometer from the elevator here, and it would be an infinitely safer operation.”

Mandy nodded. “Yes, I noticed that too, but I investigated those kayaks earlier today. The kayaks in Green Mall are small, maneuverable boats meant for white water. The kayaks in Black Mall are just what we need, large boats over five meters in length with lots of room for transporting gear. Paige, the big boats are the right design for an extended river exploration. They will be faster and more stable in straight-ahead paddling. They’re just what we need. And besides...”

Mandy turned to her leader with a grinning smile. “Jada, a number of us have been talking. We don’t want to stop at Herman’s Wilderness Outfitters. We want to go on another five kilometers.”

Jada gulped. “What do you mean? That would put us right on top of Black Mall’s home complex.”

Mandy nodded. “Yep! Well, not quite. We’ll stop a kilometer short. We want to take the Mall lockdown just to the point where we have line-of-sight access to the door sensors on the outside arc across from Jacob’s Bar and Grill.”

Lynn picked up the conversation before Jada could reply. “We’ll be able to monitor their home entrance, look right inside the Bar, know exactly how many people are in the Mall on either side, up spiral or down spiral. It’ll be a tremendous advantage. We’ll have a much better understanding of their routines.”

Mark’s voice spoke over the intercom. “Uh, that was Lynn, right?”

“Ah, you recognize my voice. Yes, hello Mark. Sorry, I should have announced myself. Mark, I wanted to remind you that if we ever observe all of Uno’s people down in the Mall, we can mount an easy rescue mission for you. Not just you personally, Frida and Toshi too. And maybe we’ll get lucky and have an opportunity to rescue Whitney or Amber.”

Kiyoko spoke up. “Mark, this is Kiyoko. I’m very willing to live at Esau’s Bar and Grill for a while. I can wait for a jump code from the door sensors and be at Black Mall lounge on a moment’s notice. I could command the door between the kitchen and lounge to lock and then reactivate the lounge elevator. If you don’t mind hiking quietly through the ivy again, you would have a straight path home.”

Mark paused for a long moment before answering. “When are you thinking of doing the lockdown?”

“Very soon, early Friday morning between 4 AM and 8 AM is our earliest window. We need one day to prepare and let everybody get some sleep. It’s going to be a long night. That’s the only time period were we have never observed anyone from Black Mall down in the Mall area. From what we’ve gathered from some monitored conversations, that’s the second half of Ricardo’s shift of guard duty at Jacob’s. He’s very unpredictable otherwise. Fortunately no one else is trying to randomize their schedule. We think we have a nice, clean four-hour window to get the kayaks and do the lockdown and installation.”

Mark’s voice again. “Jada?”

Jada read much into the simple tone of his voice. He was asking her opinion, and was also telling her he was not opposed to the plan. At least, that’s what she thought. “It’s a risky plan, but ... I think I agree with everyone here. The risk is worth it.”

Jada paused and thought silently to herself, “Assuming, of course, that the volunteers have no qualms about this.” She said out loud, “Tom and Charles, you two in particular will be risking your lives at the point position. Are you okay with this?”

The two men looked at each other and grinned after a second of eye contact. Then Charles turned to Jada and said, “Very okay. Consider this one of the steps on our path to redemption.”

Jada nodded and gave him and Tom a kind smile. “Oh, don’t think like that. You guys are already forgiven. Anyway, okay! The mission in on!”

Three hours later.

Time: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 11:16 PM

The elevator door opened in the first-floor library of Blue Mall, and Tom, Lynn, and Ann emerged and looked around.

Ann shivered slightly in the 10C air. “Well, a bit chilly, but I guess it’s what we were expecting. I’ll go upstairs and make up a few beds. Lynn, want to come with me?”

“Uh, I’ll join you in a bit, okay?”

The two women exchanged glances for a brief second, and Ann give Lynn a nod of understanding. “Sure, anything you want.” She turned and gave Tom a grin and then left the room.

Red, Green, and White Mall’s home complexes were now in constant use, but Blue Mall’s complex had been left vacant for so long that the interface system had flagged it as abandoned. Aggie and Emily had brought up this issue as the last item for the group meeting earlier this evening, adding that it might not be a good idea to leave Blue Mall in this state. There were vague references in their training of permanent lockouts if a home complex were abandoned for too long.