Chapter 118: Chambered
The chamber was a sphere.
Caleb had walked sixty-three meters through concrete right angles, lead lining, and copper mesh. Then the passage opened into a shape the corridor had not prepared him for.
Twelve meters in diameter. Poured from a gray material that belonged to neither concrete nor stone, veined with darker lines that seemed random until Caleb let his eyes unfocus. The veins were lines of force. They converged at twelve points around the circumference of the sphere, each point ending in a hand-sized recess.
The marks.
Marcus walked to the center.
There was a small raised platform at the center of the sphere. Not stone. Something else. A black disc, two meters across, six inches high. The seal.
He set the working dampener case at its edge. He did not open it. He kept his attention off it.
He said: "Take your positions."
The Mimic walked the circumference.
It moved counter-clockwise. It stopped at every third recess and laid its long jointed hand flat against the gray stone. A faint warmth bloomed where its hand touched. It moved on. It did not speak.
By the time it had completed the circuit, four of the twelve recesses were warm. The other eight were waiting.
It came back to its starting position. It said: "Marks aligned. Recessions seated. Doors hungry."
Marcus said: "Acknowledged."
The Mimic crouched at its position.
Caleb walked to the dampener.
He picked up the case. He opened it. He took the device out. He set the case back on the platform’s edge.
He held the dampener in his right hand. He set his left hand on the platform for balance. He breathed.
The silver under his ribs was warm.
A third warmth moved through him, different from kinship and different from the bridge fight: focused, low, steady heat running along the silver lines and pulsing once every three seconds. The pulse matched the one he had registered from Sample R-9-Omega through the observation window in Sector Nine.
The Twelfth was awake in him. It was waiting. His attention went to the brother, who had walked to the plinth.
The plinth was at one end of the sphere, opposite the chamber door. It was a low stone slab. It had been a vault plinth before Aris had brought it here in 1983 and modified it. The slab was the size of a chest. The brother stood beside it.
He took off his shirt.
The augment line at his throat was open. Tali had unsealed it in the corridor. The piece in his sternum glowed a faint purple under the skin, slow, in time with his breathing. His attention moved to Caleb.
"Hey," Caleb said. "You good?"
"Yeah." The brother turned to Marcus. "Father."
Marcus said, "Yes," with both hands flat on the seal.
"I’m ready." Marcus took a breath before he answered.
When he did, the planner and instructor were gone. A father stood in their place, asking a small thing of a grown son on a Sunday afternoon.
"Lie down, son."
The brother lay down on the plinth.
[Soma: Outer corridor sealed. No movement in the freight shaft. Elara is at the third exit. We have you for the next nineteen minutes.]
[Iseul: Western approach clear. Tube charged. Three uses left.]
[Nadiah: Eastern approach clear. I have a sight line to the access stair.]
[Olamide: I am holding the rail. If the third statue surfaces here in the next twenty minutes I will hold it until the seal closes. Soma. You owe me a drink.]
[Soma: I owe you several.]
[Hacker: Executive Slot Three has entered the Mitsurugi-fronted meeting at the holding company. The meeting has begun. He has accepted a cup of coffee. He will be in that chair for the next sixty minutes if the meeting holds. The window opens at oh-six-thirty-one. The window closes at oh-six-thirty-two. You have sixty seconds inside the window for the dampener press. Marcus. Confirm.]
Marcus said: "Confirmed."
[Hacker: Iris is with your wife at the safe house. The wife is making tea. She has not turned the radio on. She will not. Tali is in the corridor outside the chamber with a medical kit. She has not opened it. Vance is at the third exit with Elara. I am closing the public comm channels at oh-six-twenty-nine. You will have sixty seconds of operational silence. Use the seconds.]
The channels did not close yet.
There were three more minutes.
Marcus came around the platform to where Caleb was standing.
He stopped in front of him, put his hand on Caleb’s shoulder, and said, "I am sorry I left."
"You said that already."
"I am saying it again. I have nine years of these to give you and I have only said one of them. I do not know if I am going to have time to say the other eight. I am saying it now in case I do not."
"Okay."
"You will press the dampener on my signal. The signal is the instant the last mark goes dark. The marks will begin going dark when the Mimic seats the twelfth recession. The descent takes twelve seconds. The seal will begin to close two seconds after the last mark goes dark. One press at the end. Do not press it before the last mark goes dark. Do not press it after the seal starts to close. You will know."
"Yes."
"Caleb."
"Yeah."
"If something goes wrong and I cannot complete the seal, you will press the dampener anyway. The dampener alone will not seal the Twelfth, but it will hold the marks dark long enough for you and your brother to leave the chamber. You will leave. You will take him with you. You will not stay. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Promise me." He had never asked for a promise.
Caleb said: "I promise."
Marcus held his shoulder for one more count, then let go and walked back to the seal.
[Hacker: Sixty seconds.]
The Mimic rose from its crouch.
It walked to the first warm recession and laid both hands on it. The recession went bright. It moved to the second. The second went bright. It moved counter-clockwise around the sphere, hand by hand, mark by mark, lighting each in sequence.
The marks lit faster than Caleb had expected. By twenty seconds in, six were lit; by thirty seconds, eight; by forty seconds, ten.
The brother on the plinth made a sound that was not a word. The piece in his chest was no longer purple. It was bright silver. It was moving. Caleb could see the silver running under the brother’s skin in lines, toward the augment line at the throat, toward the sternum, toward the chest cavity.
The brother’s eyes were open, lifted toward the dome.
He said, very quietly: "I’m okay."
He said it to no one in particular. He said it because he wanted to say it.
The eleventh mark lit. The Mimic stopped at the twelfth recession and turned across the chamber to Marcus.
It said: "Last one."
Marcus said: "Seat it."
The Mimic laid both hands on the twelfth recession.
The recession went bright.
The chamber held all twelve marks lit for a single second.
The sphere was the brightest thing Caleb had seen in his life.
Then the marks began to go dark.
[Hacker: Twelve. The window is open. Press in twelve.]
Caleb counted.
He counted with his eyes on the marks.
The marks went dark from the top of the sphere downward. They were not dimming. They were sealing into the gray stone, line by line, the brightness moving downward to the floor of the chamber, where the platform was, where Marcus was standing, where the seal was about to close.
Eleven seconds.
Ten.
Nine.
The dampener was warm in his hand. The button was under his right thumb.
Eight. Seven. Six.
The brother on the plinth said: "Caleb."
Caleb did not turn his head. He said: "Yeah."
The brother said: "Whatever happens, it’s okay. Press the dampener when Father says."
Five.
Four.
Three.
The marks were a quarter of the descent now. The lower nine were still lit, waiting to go dark.
Two.
The marks reached the platform.
The marks went dark on the platform itself.
The last lit mark was at Marcus’s right hand.
It went out.
The chamber was dark.
There was no light source except the silver under Caleb’s ribs and the silver running under the brother’s skin and the pale glow at the seal where Marcus’s hands had begun to move.
Marcus said: "Now."
Caleb pressed the dampener.
The button clicked.
The chamber did something Caleb did not have a word for.
Then it began.
