Chapter 64

Time: Monday, March 4, 2019 8 AM

They had left in the predawn twilight more than three hours ago, Jada and three teammates in four kayaks, staying on the western side of the Missisquoi about half way between the shoreline and the central current flowing in the opposite direction. They were traveling single-file and Tom was in the lead boat, followed by Jada, Mandy, and finally Carla. Jada estimated they were just about under the long-axis center of the cylindrical sky, and they had about another five kilometers to go before reaching the headwaters lake at the southeastern corner of Wobanakik. The boathouse there was their destination.

So far it had been an idyllic morning, a bright linear sun and cool spring breezes around the river, perfect weather for kayaking. The river along most of their journey varied from three to four hundred meters wide, but they were in a particular stretch that was barely two hundred meters wide, and Tom was setting a path forty to fifty meters from the shore. It was still a decent buffer against the dangers of the forest, but Jada was glad they would not be getting any closer. Numerous times wild birds would call at them as they passed.

Tom stopped his paddling and grabbed a pair of binoculars located near his feet. “Boats!” he called out. “I see two boats!” Charles and Lynn were in the cold central channel, paddling towards them and making good time. The two groups met a few minutes later.

The rest of the morning passed quickly. There was a brief conference call with the new infinitely precious Leophone to report their situation to the surface, a trip back to the boathouse at the headwaters, and then a group effort to port the two spare Little Auks still in the entrance rooms down to the lake. It was at the boathouse that they had their second conference meeting, discussing their options with the surface for over an hour before deciding on a course of action.

Tom and Carla would stay at the entrance rooms with the Leophone, with one of the touring kayaks and one of the Little Auks in their boathouse. Lynn, Mandy, and Charles would each tow a Little Auk and return with Jada to the central island. Courtesy of Emily, the two groups also exchanged a coding convention of dozen different messages they could send to each other by the timed release of two flares.

It was almost noon by the time the group cast off for their return trip to the central island. The central channel was a great asset for traveling downriver. Jada had the impression of paddling along a conveyor belt. The boating was enjoyable, and her relief was strong that her society now knew of their situation and of the eleven new members of their society. Thirty-six people now! And it was so nice to hear Mark’s and Toshi’s voices on the phone. Still, a great nagging worry never left Jada as she paddled. How would they ever leave Wobanakik?

Time: Monday, March 4, 2019 1:07 PM

The phone rang on a belt strapped to Emily’s waist and she answered it. It was Mark which was unexpected, and then in a premonition, Emily dreaded why he was calling. “We’ve lost two more people, haven’t we?”

She heard Mark sigh over the phone and say, “ID Tags 10 and 133 are no longer in the system. The census counter is confirming it, 009:079.” Mark heard Emily mumble a curse in reply. She took a moment to tell her team, and then he asked her, “How’s the search coming?”

Emily didn’t pull any punches. “Mark, this is so frustrating! We’re still in The Labyrinth, been here since dawn checking corridors Aggie’s team flagged for us yesterday. They’re much more extensive than we anticipated. This place is literally a 3-D maze, three to five layers of structures. It’s so convoluted, as if we’re tracing strands in a bowl of spaghetti.” Emily paused for a moment and looked around at the corridors and her tired teammates. She half shouted, “This could take years!”

Mark heard several deep breaths over the phone, and then Emily continued. “Right now we’re in a sublevel three floors below ground. It’s a nightmare of twisting corridors connected by steep staircases and sometimes even ladders. That’s my decision right now. We’ve come to a T-intersection in the corridor, and there’s also a ladder here. You decide, Mark. Do I go left, right, or up or down a level?”

“Uh, if I were trapped in a maze ... I think I’d want to be on top of things. Go up.”

“You got it, up it is.”

Mark asked Emily as she climbed, “Still lots of side rooms?”

“Oh yeah, tons. And we’re finding such odd supplies in them too, precious metals, board games, a number of bathrooms, just about everything except food. And oh yeah, this is something I already told Fatima about. About fifteen minutes ago we found an archery room, bows, arrows, crossbows, targets, just about everything related to archery. The room even has a shooting range.”

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah, it’s quite a setup. We just left it for now, but we have the position recorded at the Hilton.”

“Crossbows are a formidable weapon.”

“I know. I handled a few of the bolts, wicked deadly.” There was a pause as Emily changed mental gears. “Hell, Mark, we’re on the new level now, and we can’t even call out. The doors block sound completely, and a lot of the side rooms have additional rooms. Every little alcove as to be inspected.’

Mark couldn’t think of what to say besides offering encouragement. He kept it brief and let Emily return to her work.

Time: Monday, March 4, 2019 6 PM

There were two consoles at the island library. Lynn was working at one in the corner of the room along the wall corresponding to the northern vertex, while Madison was busy at the other station along the northwestern vertex wall. Midway between them was library’s only entrance, a door leading to the hexagonal corridor that orbited the six public rooms. Behind them on the opposite side of the room was a transparent wall that overlooked the large core atrium four meters below.

Up on the surface, sunset today occurred at 4:44 PM, but here in Wobanakik the linear sun was still shining and would set at 7:50 PM. If Madison turned around, she would see butter yellow sunlight flooding into the kitchen on the east side of the atrium. She would also see Jada staring out across the atrium and watching Emily in the library. Meanwhile a number of other women in the kitchen were busy preparing a fine dinner, a banquet to celebrate all their recent progress. Jada left the kitchen and walked counter-clockwise past the lounge and into the library.

Both Madison and Lynn gave her brief smiles as she entered. Jada grinned and came to Lynn first and said, “I know you’ve only had about an hour, but how does it look?”

Lynn rolled her eyes. “Oh, I can’t take the pressure!” And then she got serious. “All indications are that this is going to be an immense job. Don’t expect anything soon.”

Jada nodded. “Any guess at all? Days? Months? Years?” She paused for a moment. “Lifetimes?”

Lynn shook her head. “No guess yet. But I think it’s an open-ended system.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, that means there’s good news and bad news. The good news is there will always be something to try. On the other hand, there are effectively an infinite number of things to try, and I’m not going to live that long.”

Jada and Lynn heard Madison groan across the room. Jada patted Lynn’s shoulder and said, “Well, I better let you get back to work.”

“Uh huh. Jada?”

“Yeah?”

“This Friday, when a team goes back to the entrance rooms, I should go too.”

Jada blinked. “You can work better from there?!”

“No. I can’t work there at all. The interface is here. But I need to talk to Akiko, bounce around a few ideas. I’ll return here at the end of the day.”

Jada thought for only a moment. “Sure. Consider yourself on the river team.”

Lynn nodded and got back to work. Jada wandered over to Madison and gave her a friendly smile. “You look busy.”