Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

Author:Karen Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

18

Len and Natalie clambered into the basement, their boots making a loud clatter on the dusty metal stairs. Ash found herself hovering near the top, her knuckles white with a sudden, clawing fear.

“You coming, Ash?” said Len.

“Just a second,” she managed.

She’d spent enough time underground to pause at the soaking humidity of the room, the tight-packed dirt floor, and the rotting joists in the ceiling, made of local wood. There were crates here, slicked in moisture and mildew. She’d lived in rooms like this. She’d lost Christopher to a room like this. Going back into a room like this was the last thing she wanted to do.

From her perch at the top of the stairs, she could see the shine of the steel door in the blue-edged light, and the two engineers squatting nearby, poking at the lock.

“Typical gene-coded citizen bullshit. Auroran as hell, though, and that means we can use the Christie hack on it,” Natalie pronounced, then slid a slim tool she’d once called an uncoupler into the works. Ash blinked at the resulting sparks, but Natalie looked like she’d been expecting them.

“You never tried to get in?” she asked.

“I was curious,” said Len. He peered over her shoulder. “To be honest, though, I was more concerned with getting the ansible running.”

“Yeah, I know how that goes,” muttered Natalie.

Ash took a deep, shuddering breath of the sulfur-scented air, then descended, one step at a time, keeping her eyes trained on her toes. She made an attempt to banish the irrational fear to the place she’d put everything else. It’s no different than being in space, she reminded herself. You go outside the room, you suffocate. No different at all.

It somehow made her feel worse.

Len nodded. “This was where I’d found ansible parts—in the crate over there. It’s all high-level electronics, spaceflight components, nothing an ag-center should have really needed. Oh, and baby blankets.”

“Baby blankets?” said Ash.

“Laid right out on top.”

“Like they were hiding what was inside.”

Len tilted his head. “That’s certainly one explanation.”

Natalie swore at the lock while Ash crossed to the crate, flipping open the lid. She couldn’t identify the parts by sight, but she could tell some weren’t Auroran. Some were painted with half-faded InGen logos, while others sported the far too familiar Wellspring moon and fountain.

The textiles in question were nearby; they resembled the rough, uncitizen-issue blankets of her childhood. These were printed with Auroran logos and embroidered with rough black thread in a mean attempt at personalization: stick-figure children with simple, black-thread smiles, and below them, the words Arcadia Birthright Orphan Wellness Center 1.

She shivered and dropped the blanket back on the crate just as Natalie crowed her victory over the lock. Len pushed the door open, and a rancid stench rushed into the storage space. Len gagged, while Natalie pinched her nose, stumbled to her feet, and shone the flashlight into the dark space beyond.

It could have been any waiting room for any Company, with prefab plasteel walls and plain white paint. Ash

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