The System Can’t See Me

Metal groaned beneath the floor grate.

Kai felt the sound through the wall at his back. The blue band around his right arm tightened at the same time, drawing his wrist toward the bars one inch at a time.

Nia was already moving.

She kicked her loose boot away from the grate before the blue could reach it, then dropped to one knee beside Kai. Her bare heel left a wet print on the concrete. The faint blue circle around it did not brighten, but it did not disappear either.

"Can you pull your arm back?" she asked.

Kai tried.

His shoulder shifted under his jacket. Pain ran from the joint to his fingertips, followed by a sickening blankness. The band held his forearm just below the elbow and kept drawing.

"Not enough."

The grate lifted.

It did not come free. One side rose first, dragging against the concrete lip with a long scrape. Rust broke loose and fell into the darkness below. Cold air pushed up through the opening, carrying the stale smell of wet metal and old dust.

Nia grabbed the loose boot by the heel.

"What are you doing?" Kai said.

"Keeping it from opening wider."

"That won't hold."

"It doesn't have to hold forever."

She shoved the rubber toe of the boot into the gap beneath the raised edge. It compressed at once. The grate dropped half an inch and pinned it against the concrete.

For a moment, the groaning stopped.

Nia kept one hand on the boot, her knuckles pressed against the floor. With the other, she held the Archive copy against her chest beneath her jacket.

The blue band around Kai's arm did not stop moving. It crept forward in small pulses, each one followed by a scrape from the grate. The boot took the movement instead of his wrist. Its toe ground flat under the iron, then sprang back a little when the pull eased.

"It is chewing through it," Kai said.

"I can see that."

Nia shifted her palm to the heel of the boot and pushed with her weight. Her bare foot slid on the damp concrete. The blue stain at her ankle flared once, making her suck in a breath, but she did not pull away.

Kai reached toward her with his left hand.

"Don't touch the line."

"I am not touching it."

"Then don't fall into it either."

She looked at him over her shoulder. "That was almost useful."

The grate gave another low complaint. They both went still until it settled against the boot again.

Kai looked through the gap.

The drain did not lead straight down. A short concrete throat angled away beneath the floor, just large enough for runoff and whatever the building had dropped into it over the years. Blue light ran along the bottom in a narrow current. Beyond the first bend, he could see a second metal grille standing upright inside the pipe.

Something bumped against it from the other side.

Not hard.

Once.

Then again.

Nia saw it too. "Is that Collection?"

"I don't know."

"Great."

The blue band jerked at Kai's arm.

The grate shoved upward. The boot sole squealed against the concrete. Nia's hand slipped and scraped across rust.

"Move," Kai said.

"No."

"Nia."

"If this opens, it takes your arm first."

She was right. The gap had reached his wrist. Another pull would bring the blue band against the edge of the grate, then his hand after it.

Kai braced his good foot against the wall and tried to push himself sideways. His bad foot dragged uselessly across the wet floor. The movement did not free his arm. It only turned his body so that his injured shoulder took more of the pull.

The blue mark in his palm flared.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek.

"Don't tear it," Nia said.

"I'm not."

"You are doing a convincing impression."

The grate shifted again.

The boot sole folded under the rising edge. Nia shoved it deeper with the heel of her bare foot, then hissed as the faint blue ring at her ankle came alive.

The light did not drag her toward the drain. It climbed a few inches up her leg and stopped.

Kai saw her see it.

"Get off it," he said.

"If I move, the grate moves."

"It already is."

The lunch box knocked against the wall.

This time it was not a soft sound. The belt stretched tight across the lid, and the pipe hanger gave a dull metallic creak. The box did not open, but the blue spill beneath it widened across the concrete and slid toward the gap under the grate.

Kai felt the blue band answer.

His arm pulled harder.

Nia looked from the leaking box to the opening. "It is feeding it."

"Maybe."

"You keep saying maybe when you mean we are in trouble."

Kai did not have the breath to answer.

The raised grate trembled. The boot was almost flat beneath it now.

Nia reached toward the belt around the lunch box, then stopped before her fingers touched it.

"If I move the box away from the drain--"

"Don't."

"I know."

She pulled her hand back. Her eyes stayed on the thin blue flow leaking from beneath the lid.

There was no clean choice. Leaving the box where it was let the blue current feed the drain. Moving it could loosen the belt, lift the lid, or disturb whatever had been knocking inside.

Kai's right hand slipped another inch toward the grate.

The concrete edge bit into the back of his wrist.

Nia caught his sleeve and braced herself. "Don't fight it. You'll tear your shoulder apart."

Kai forced himself still, though the pull kept dragging him closer to the grate. Her voice shook on the last word, though she kept her eyes on his arm.

He looked at the upright grille inside the drain throat.

There was a square of metal bolted to the concrete beside it. Most of the paint had peeled away. A few stamped letters remained visible through the rust.

RETURN GATE

MANUAL LATCH

The blue band ran straight toward it.

The latch was not a lever waiting beside the opening. It was a square recess set into the side of the drain throat, past the first bend and beyond the upright grille. Kai could see the rim of a recessed pull tab only when the blue current lit the pipe from below.

It sat too far in for Nia's arm and too low for either of them to reach without putting a shoulder into the opening. Even if they could touch it, there was no telling what the gate would do. The grate under Kai's wrist was already trying to open in the wrong direction.

"Manual means someone has to be down there," Nia said.

"Or someone has to be foolish enough to reach."

"You are not volunteering."

Kai looked at his right arm, held in the blue band like a leash. "Not successfully."

Another dull impact sounded behind the upright grille. Dust shook loose from the underside of the floor.

Nia pressed the boot harder into the gap. The rubber toe began to split, and a thin white line of foam showed through the break.

Kai's stomach dropped.

"There," he said.

Nia followed his gaze. "What is it?"

"A latch. Past the first bend."

"Can you reach it?"

The answer was obvious. The opening was barely wide enough for his forearm, and his forearm was already being pulled in. The latch sat beyond the place where the drain turned away from them.

"Not like this."

Another bump came from behind the upright grille.

This one made the metal flex.

Nia's hand tightened on his sleeve. "Is that gate keeping something down there?"

"Or keeping it from coming up."

The blue band went taut.

Kai's hand shot forward.

His fingers struck the underside of the grate. Pain burst through his shoulder. For an instant, the force held him with his arm halfway into the opening, his palm just above the blue current.

Nia grabbed the back of his jacket with both hands and pulled.

The Archive copy slipped out from beneath her jacket and landed on the concrete beside them.

Neither of them let go.

The plastic sleeve skidded toward the wet edge of the grate.

The corner of the sleeve caught on a patch of grit. For a second it held there, trembling as the blue current pulled toward the opening beneath it.

Nia made a sound through clenched teeth. She could not release Kai without letting his arm go forward, and she could not reach the pages without putting her bare foot down near the blue line.

"Leave it," Kai said.

"No."

"Nia."

"You are not the only thing in this pit that matters."

She shifted her grip higher on his jacket with one hand and reached with the other. The move dragged her knee across the wet floor. The faint band at her heel brightened, then went dim again, as if it were remembering where to find her.

Her fingertips missed the sleeve.

Kai saw the blue current catch the plastic edge and start it moving again.

Nia saw it too late.

Kai hooked his left hand around the sleeve and dragged it back against his chest. The movement twisted him sideways. His bad foot slid out from under him.

The blue band took advantage of it.

His right arm went deeper into the drain.

Nia swore and hauled harder on his jacket. The grate rose another inch. The boot under it tore at the toe, but held.

Kai's fingers brushed the blue current.

The mark in his palm answered with a violent flash.

He had not reached the latch. His fingers had touched only the blue current.

For one clear second, the upright grille inside the drain lit from below.

Behind it stood a narrow rectangle of black metal, too tall to be debris and too still to be a person. A blue line ran down its center.

Then the light cut out.

The grate slammed down onto the boot.

Kai's arm came free hard enough to throw him backward.

He hit the wall on his bad shoulder and lost his breath.

Nia landed beside him, still holding his jacket. Her bare foot was bleeding where the blue ring had climbed above the ankle. The boot remained trapped beneath the grate, flattened at the toe.

For three seconds, nothing moved.

The click came from beyond the first bend, too far away for Kai to have touched the latch.

The gate had not opened. It had locked.

The blue band around Kai's arm dimmed, but it did not release.

Across the sump, the lunch box gave another slow knock under the belt.