C James - Dome Six

“I had IDA look for unusual patterns and movements during the emergency. In light of what a fluid situation this is, I thought it best to receive the analysis privately.”

“You want me to leave?”

“You’re the Administrator. I’d think you’d want to hear.”

She’d almost convinced herself that this was Luther’s witch hunt, not hers. But it was she who made the announcement. She was the face of the Authority, come good or ill.

Elle nodded and stepped aside so Luther could access the security terminal. He stuck his hand inside the column and IDA sampled his DNA.

“Welcome, Director Downing,” said IDA.

“IDA, let’s see the analysis I requested of suspicious activities during the O 2emergency,” Luther commanded.

Holographic projectors hidden in the wall flicked on and produced a 3D representation of the Dome. Pinpoints of blue showed individual citizens in the time leading up to the alarm. A clock was overlaid in the corner. Dense concentrations of dots in the Towers and the FPC revealed where most of the population was at the time. The rest of them flitted about like lazy bees.

“Proceed through the timeline of the emergency starting at 9:47 a.m.,” said Luther.

“Beginning time lapse.”

As soon as the alarm went off, the blue dots began to coalesce. First into localized clusters and then into neat lines streaming down the Rads and into the Agora. It was mesmerizing, like stars being sucked into a black hole. The FPC emptied and the Towers began to resemble giant, glowing monoliths. Seventy-two dots rose slowly toward the Apex, representing the people in the crawlers.

“IDA, highlight only citizens who fall outside expected parameters. Hide the rest.”

The blue dots faded and a handful of red ones appeared. Three appeared to be in their units, one was near the Authority, and one was in the Stores.

“Pause,” he said. “Identify outliers.”

Names, pictures, vital signs, and other data appeared in boxes next to the red dots. He pointed toward one of the three still in their housing units and declared the woman, who lived alone, had died in the night of natural causes. The other two were together, one on top of the other. They both smirked.

Elle pointed at the dot near the Authority and said, “That’s Shawn. I sent him to the utility building to make sure the alarm wasn’t triggered manually.”

“Of course you did,” Luther said knowingly. “That was smart.”

Elle had just started at the Authority when she caught Daisuke Yamamura, Tosh’s father, setting off an O 2alarm as a distraction. She didn’t report it to Luther until after he’d disappeared into the FPC with his wife. He wound up dead, and she and Tosh were estranged. Ever since, she treated every alarm as potentially phony.

“Zoom in on the individual in the Stores,” she said.

IDA pushed in on the little red dot and revealed the citizen’s identity as Hideki Yamamura. She gasped. Luther turned to her and sighed.

Dek was her oldest and dearest friend’s twin brother. They played together as kids. She’d been around him almost as much as Tosh. He even fancied her for a few awkward months, though she shut him down immediately. Even so, she was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“IDA, go back to a few minutes before the alarm,” Luther said. “Restore all citizens to the display.”

Dek’s glowing red dot zigzagged up and down the main corridor of the Stores, clearly cleaning while blue ones moved around him. But at one point, his dot veered off down another corridor then entered a small room.

“Wait — what is that?” Elle asked. “That’s not…”

“…the Exchanger controls? It sure as hell is,” confirmed Luther.

She really, really didn’t want this narrative to be true. “How could he get past the prox locks?”

“I don’t know, but if anyone could figure it out… Let’s see where he goes after that.”

IDA proceeded through the timeline. Dek appeared to wait inside until the Stores emptied then backtracked before disappearing into another room.

“Bioprinting,” Elle said under her breath. She still remembered sitting in the Yamamuras’ unit at 16, hearing about their Placements. They all got pretty much what they wanted. But bioprinting wound up being the worst possible place for Dek, who poured his grief over his parents’ deaths into making and distributing illegal Macros. He was forbidden from being there.

Dek stopped in the lab for half an hour then his dot remained inert in the shelves nearby for the entire duration of the emergency. She winced and bit her lip as the two blue dots fell from the roof but didn’t stop the time lapse. Dek’s return trip to the control room coincided precisely with the end of the alarm. When blue dots flowed back into the Stores, he just melded right in with them.

“Looks to me like the whole thing was a ploy to go to La La Land for 12-plus hours,” commented Luther, shaking his head in disgust.

Elle wasn’t sure what to feel. Anger? Disgust? Disbelief? Maybe a little of all three. Dek had motive, opportunity and skill, not to mention a decades-old axe to grind against the Authority. He also had a Macro problem. It all fit. But she’d been part of other investigations, and the facts rarely aligned so neatly.

“IDA, isolate the movements of Director Downing during this timeline,” Elle said.

Luther guffawed. “You’re joking.”

“Where were you when all this was happening?” she asked.

“At my muster point,” he said, bristling. “Once we hit eight hours, I figured I’d better go secure the ECT in case we needed to evacuate there.”

The ECT was the emergency command center, where senior Authority would go if they ran out of air. There was enough oxygen, food, and supplies to last several months — long after everyone else would be dead.

Elle rode out the emergency in Tower 5. Luther was supposed to be in Tower 1, same as Owen. They could communicate with each other via terminals in their caged areas. During the emergency, she’d spoken to the Directors of Infrastructure and Health, but not Luther.

IDA’s analysis revealed that Luther was just outside the Agora train station when the alarm sounded. He fell in with the throngs headed to the Towers and made his way to the top of Tower 1. He stayed put for the next several hours, then followed the precise route he described. He was on his way back up the elevator when the Exchangers kicked back on.

“Satisfied?” he asked.

“Nobody saw you,” she said. “I’ve asked around.”

He softened, put his hands on her shoulders, and sighed. “I think I know what this is about.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“This was the first genuine crisis of your administration. You needed me there by your side in Tower 5, not in 1. I let you down.”

His tone still troubled her, but the reassurance felt good just the same. Was that really all it was? Was he as much a security blanket as a security director?

“But why didn’t anyone see you?” she asked.

“Okay, Elle, you got me. IDA, zoom in on my position one hour into the Exchanger failure.” IDA reset the display and pushed in close. Luther’s dot wasn’t in the cage with the other directors. It was nearly in the middle. “The cage is right on the edge. I can’t handle it.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I have a thing with heights,” he replied. “As soon as the elevator took me up to the cage, I left and plunked down right in the middle of the floor. After a while, even that was too much. That’s why I went all the way down to the Stores. Poking my head in the ECT was just an excuse to get as low as possible.”

She studied his face for a sign of deceit but found none. He was a big guy, seemingly allergic to fear. It never would have occurred to her he was afraid of heights. Tower workers from 28 and 29 would’ve noticed him but also would’ve let him be.