Echo took a deep breath. “We branched off in the lobby,” she said. “Two of them. A guy with dark skin and short hair and a blonde girl with stab mark on the vest she stole.”

  “See? That wasn’t difficult. Where were they going?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. We were just to find supplies and then return to the ship.”

  “Is that the truth?”

  “As much as you’re going to get.”

  Brandt laughed. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll send a search out for your crew. Our city might be more populated than it used to be, but I’m sure we know each other well enough to spot an outsider. We’ll have them by sunset tomorrow.”

  Echo squirmed in her chair, the cuffs chaffing her wrists. She’d been sitting far longer than she wanted. The door creaked open and Dylan walked into the room with a gray vest in her arms.

  Brandt smiled. “Dylan, please give Echo her vest.”

  Dylan approached Echo and set the vest on the ground by Echo’s feet. The two made eye contact for a second before Dylan looked away and went back to Brandt’s side.

  “Dylan, you need remove her handcuffs as well,” Brandt said.

  Dylan nodded and walked behind Echo. She knelt down and unlocked the two cuffs, freeing Echo from the chair.

  “What’s to stop me from killing both of you right now?” Echo said, rubbing her sore wrists.

  “You might be able to kill the girl,” Brandt said. Echo noticed a brief look of fear on Dylan’s face before it returned to an empty expression. “You could stomp her into the ground like a rat. And even if you did succeed in killing me, you would never make it off the Cobalt. I’ve made sure that word of you spread to every Cobalt in this district. A mob would tear you apart before you even made it to the stairs.”

  Echo’s knees wanted to buckle, but she kept herself standing. She had planned on running the second they let her out of their sight, but that wasn’t going to work. She realized that this would be a long game. Once she figured a way off the ship without being seen, she’d escape. Even if it meant stealing a ship rather than taking her own.

  “Dylan, please escort Echo to the hall once she has her vest on,” Brandt said. “There’s someone out there who wants to meet her.”

  Echo untied her blue vest and threw it on the floor. The gray vest didn’t have any laces. She had to slip it on over her head and wiggle her way into it. She noticed right away how tight the vest was against her chest and abdomen. It felt restraining and claustrophobic to wear.

  Dylan grabbed Echo by the wrist and tugged on it. I could snap her arm like a twig, Echo thought as she was led out the door. In the hallway stood an older Cobalt with a blue jacket and a notebook under his arm. He was taller than Echo and had slick gray hair brushed to one side. Echo thought about snapping his neck.

  “You have a jacket instead of a vest,” Echo said. “Everyone on this ship has a vest.”

  “Higher ranked Cobalts get jackets,” he said. His voice was low and quivered on the vowels. “Lets the Gray Vests know who they report to.”

  “And you take care of the Gray Vests?”

  He grabbed Echo by the shirt and tugged her until she started walking. “I make sure they know their place. You’re stationed below deck, so I will be the only Blue Vest you report to.”

  “Are you going to tell me your name?” Echo asked.

  “It’s Boone Cobalt. Now, you had better follow me. It’s a bit of a walk to get to sector three.”

  She nodded and kept her mouth shut for the rest of the trip. She tried to keep track of where they were going, in case she needed to backtrack, but the layout was too confusing to remember. The ship was built like a maze and she was starting to think that wasn’t an accident.

  Echo could tell they were near the water. The gentle lapping of waves against the hull ringed in her ears. He led her down a set of stairs, below the water. She passed by a row of armed Gray Vests to get down the stairs. I wonder how often they were beaten until they could be trusted with batons, Echo thought.

  The air was frigid, and the ground shuddered beneath her feet. Shadows lurched across the floor. There were doors on all sides, but the ones that caught Echo’s eye were numbered 1 through 30.

  “Lucky for you, we have an empty cell,” he told her as they walked past along the wall of cells. “Otherwise, I would have placed you with some of the men.”

  They stopped in from of door number eleven. “If that happened, you’d be short a few men by morning.”

  Boone opened the cell door. “You’re feisty.”

  Echo couldn’t help but smile as she stepped into her cell.

  “You won’t be so feisty this time next year.”

  The door slammed shut. Echo was alone. The walls of the cell muted all noise aside from her breath. She took a few paces in and looked around. It was too dark to see well. If she had writing in front of her, she wouldn’t be able to make out the letters.

  She paced the room, judging that it was the same size as the cabin on her ship. The lack of furniture made it more spacious. There wasn’t a bed or any other furniture, only a hole in the corner for a latrine.

  She took a seat on the floor. The hull was vibrating subtlety. She put her hand to the wall and felt waves crashing on the other side. She was a dozen feet under water, but could still feel the ocean above her. The floor had blood stains on it. They were old. Echo guessed half a decade.

  The floor hurt her shoulder as she laid down. With her ear against the floor, the vibrations of machines were loud. It would normally be enough to keep her from sleeping, but she had no trouble drifting into a dream that night.

  The door opened and flooded the room with light. Echo flailed and attempted to hide the light with her arms, but she was yanked to her feet. She tumbled over and landed on her shoulder, pain surging down her arm and through her fingertips. A small squeak left her lips. Her feet kicked as she tried to stand

  “Get up!” a voice yelled from inside the room.

  Echo managed to get herself upright, her arm still numb and her eyes stinging from the light. She tried to see who was there, but couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a second. “What? Who is it?” she said, her voice raspy from the approaching dehydration.

  “You know very well who I am,” he said. “Don’t play dumb.”

  Echo winced and kept her eyes open long enough to see Boone. His knuckles had fresh cuts on them.

  He tugged on her arm and Echo knew to follow. “Your job is to take the batteries that we provide and swap them with the batteries that have been drained,” he said as they walked down the row of cells. This led them to one of the generator rooms.

  Inside the room was a wall-sized machine covered in plugs with cylindrical batteries sticking out of them. There had to be over 500 of them plugged in, with about half lit yellow and the other a dull white. There were two carts at the entrance to a long, dark hallway. One cart was full of batteries, the other was empty.

  “Every twenty minutes, a cart full of charged batteries will arrive. You know they’re charged because the bulb on the end is glowing yellow. The cart has 100 batteries in it. You need to take the drained batteries out of the plugs on the machine and put them in the empty cart. When a full cart arrives, the cart with the drained batteries will be taken away. You’ll take the cart you had just emptied and use that as the new cart for putting the empty batteries in. This process repeats at twenty minute intervals. If you miss a round you don’t eat at the end of the day.”

  Echo stared at him, mouth open and brow raised. “Where do the two hallways lead?”

  “They don’t lead upstairs, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Echo clenched her fists. “And how many carts do I do?”

  He pulled the baton off his belt, making Echo jump. “You do as many as we tell you to do,” he said, putting the baton back on his belt.

  He left without another word. Echo wanted to say something before he left, but she kept her mouth shut. The humming of machinery was loud in that room. In the distance rattling of carts and cogs spinning. She shook her head and walked up to the wall of plugs, eyes glazing over all the batteries.

  “Well, I did come her for a battery,” she said and approached the wall. Half of the batteries were dimmed, and the other half the bulb burning bright. She grabbed the first battery and tugged on it. Nothing.

  Echo gritted her teeth and examined the plug. After a minute she figured out that she had to lift the lever on top, which pushed the casing outwards. Echo then had to unhook the latch underneath, then twist the battery out.

  Once the hundred drained batteries were in the cart, she needed to reverse the process with the full batteries. It was far easier to get them out than to get them in. Trying to screw a battery straight took a lot of precision and Echo was too rushed to take her time. Often, she would get it crooked and need to pull it out to try again. Once it was screwed in properly, all she needed to do was secure the latch and push it until it clicked in place and move on to the next one.

  She barely finished the first cart before the twenty minutes were up. A Gray Vest walked in, back hunched and hair matted to her face with sweat. The girl looked like a teenager, but her eyes looked older than Echo’s. She was pushing a cart full of glowing yellow batteries. “New girl,” she said and took the filled cart into her hands, “Don’t work any harder than you have to.”

  Echo didn’t expect her to speak. The girl’s voice was weak. A heavy lisp caused by years of barely opening her mouth. “What’s your name?” Echo asked.

  The girl opened her mouth to say something, but didn’t. She pushed the cart away, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.

  “I wonder if she was like me,” Echo thought. “If she used to dream of getting out.”

  Echo shook her head and started pulling batteries. Her back was already getting sore from reaching to the high up ones. They were almost out of reach. Echo needed to stand on her toes to get to them.

  She finished quicker this time. Once the last battery was in the cart, she slumped to the ground. Her feet were sore and it felt nice to get off of them, even for a minute.

  The Gray Vest returned, pushing the cart with her back hunched over. Echo noticed how frayed her vest and pants were.

  “How long have you been here?” Echo asked, getting off the floor and starting at her work.

  The girl took a glance at Echo, but didn’t answer. She left with the cart, once again disappearing into the darkness.

  Echo was able to get a cart done in 15 minutes now. This gave her a five-minute break where she could examine the generator closely. If she could find a flaw, she could exploit it and escape.

  There were no switches or wires on the machine that she could see. The slots that the batteries went into were a dead end as well. The machine went to the ceiling and back down to the floor with no gaps in between. It was sealed shut, with no way to tamper with it.

  With each cart she had less time to inspect the machine. Her muscles were giving out and her feet were bleeding. Every battery she switched hurt her fingers and drained her energy. She’d lost count of how many carts it’d been.

  The Gray Vest brought another cart and Echo felt her knees weaken. Her arms were on fire and she couldn’t stand straight. She was afraid that any more carts and she might pass out. She did her best to keep awake. Failure on the job didn’t seem like something Echo would want to go through.

  From the corner of her eye she saw someone. It was Boone.

  “Once this cart is finished, return to your room,” he said.

  “How many carts did I do?” Echo said, her voice barely a whisper.

  “As many as we wanted you to do,” he said and left the room.

  She blazed through the first half of the cart, almost excited that this would be the last one for the day. The process had become mechanical. Her hands moving without her even needing to think about it.

  She took the final battery out of the cart and stood on her toes to push it into the slot. Her fingers missed the latch and the battery fell to the floor, bouncing once then rolling to the wall.

  “Shit,” she said and bent down, her knees cracking. The battery wasn’t damaged, but Echo noticed something. On the end of the battery, near the metal base that went into the machine, was a gap the width of a hair.

  Echo sat down and put her fingernail into the gap. She pulled on the cap, trying to get it off, but only managed to hurt herself. While she sucked on her finger, she thought.

  How can I get the cap off?

  Time was running out and she needed to think of something.

  “My knife,” she said, a smile curling on her lips. “They didn’t take away my fucking knife!”

  She took the hidden knife out of her belt and pushed the blade into the gap. The lid was attached to the battery with a single wire. This fed from the power supply to the generator once it was plugged in. Echo saw that there were two other cords laying inside the casing, but they weren’t attached to the lid. She had something to work with.

  Boone was waiting by room eleven when Echo wandered back. Her legs hurt and she was having trouble keeping her head up.

  “You’re late,” he said and opened the cell door for her.

  “Won’t happen again,” Echo said. She stepped into the cell

  “Stay in here until we come for you.”

  The door slammed shut. Echo was alone once again, only this time a ray of hope lingered in her mind. There was a metal tray with food on it. Echo smiled at the sight and sat down next to it. She let out a sigh of relief as her feet were finally off the ground.

  The meal wasn’t anything special. A lukewarm bowl of fish soup and a large cup of water. She enjoyed the water more than the food.

  Once she finished eating, she laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling. The room was cold and the floor tough. Every muscle in her body hurt and her head was pounding, and yet she was content. This would be her last night in the cell.

  Chapter 5

  The sun had risen and set since Echo was taken away. Dylan stood next to Brandt as he worked at his desk. Dylan wasn’t sure what he was working on. It looked like he was only shuffling through papers and reading aloud to himself.

  Dylan had gotten into the habit of getting lost in thought. Brandt would often go hours without saying anything. Dylan rarely got breaks, but that was normal for a Gray Vest. She was glad she could have a full night’s sleep and regular meals, which was something that no other Gray Vest received.

  Her mind wandered to Echo. It had been years since she’d seen someone from outside the Cobalt. Echo was different. Brash and energetic. Not afraid to swear at the most powerful man in the city. Dylan had spent her life around Cobalts who were too lazy or too scared to be anything more than just another Cobalt.

  Dylan wondered if everyone in the world was like that. People who did what they wanted instead of what they were expected. Dylan knew she was born out on the ocean. She had to have been, or she would be wearing a blue vest. She couldn’t remember her mother, or if she had any siblings. All of her memories were on the Cobalt, and she knew all of her memories would be on the Cobalt. In her mind, she knew this is where she would die

  “Will you do something for me?” Brandt said with a sigh.

  Dylan paused. “I will do anything you request of me. I thought that’s what is expected of me.”

  “This time it’s different,” he said. “I need you to deliver a message to our newly recruited Gray Vest.”

  “Echo?”

  “Yes, Echo.”

  “What do I need to tell her?”

  “You don’t need to tell her anything. Tell Boone that we found Echo’s ship and had it scrapped for parts.”

  “You did?”

  “Of course not, you ignorant twat. We don’t have the resources to do a perimeter sweep of the damn city.”

  Dylan trembled and nodded her head.

  “I want her to hear that and realize that all hope is lost. That no one is going to rescue her and she’s never going to escape the pit that Boone threw her in.”

  “What about her crew?”

  “We don’t know!”

  Dylan flinched.

  “We’ve checked every damn inch of the city and come up dry. For all we know she could have been lying. Now go tell him about her ship, and don’t ask any more questions. You’re lucky to even be here. Imagine if I threw you in with the other Gray Vests. What would they’d do to someone like you?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Then it’s best for you if you don’t find out,” Brandt said. He calmed himself and cleared his throat. “Now go, before I lose any more of my patience.”

  Dylan left the room with a nod. Boone worked in the engine deck, and Dylan hated going there. That’s where the Gray Vests were treated the worst. One meal a day and constant work. Dylan passed by rows of armed Gray Vests. In all of her years, she’d never seen them speak or move. They were disciplined into complete loyalty.

  Boone wasn’t in his office. Dylan scratched her head and looked around the engine deck. It was a miserable place. There were cells lined up on one side, all packed with Gray Vests. The deck was dim with shadows crawling along the floor and the corners hidden in a blanket of darkness.

  She needed to ask someone where Boone was. Dylan wasn’t well known on this deck. The guards might have known her, as well as the Blue Vests, but the working Gray Vests would turn a blind eye to anything Dylan asked.

  Except one.

  Her name was Tilly. They shared a cell during their first years on the Cobalt. All new Gray Vests are put in the engine deck unless their talents lie elsewhere, or they prove their loyalty.

  Dylan was five when she sat in a dark cell, back tucked against the corner. It was cell number eleven. The door opened and Boone threw Tilly inside, the girl’s shoulder taking the fall. Her nose was bleeding and her arms bruised and her hands dyed red. Tilly was ten at the time.

  Boone was still young then, his smile crooked and his posture straight. “When I say twenty-minutes,” he said, “I mean twenty-fucking-minutes!”

  He slammed the door shut. Dylan rushed to help Tilly up. “It’s not broken, is it?” Dylan asked, wiping the blood off Tilly’s nose.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6