日期：2024-04-11 29 The climb up was to take three days. Longer than it should have, but there were protocols. A day tripup to Hanks office, a night in his cell, Deputy Marsh coming down the next morning from the midsto escort her up another fifty levels to his offi... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 28 Juliette reported to first shift at six, the conversation with Walker playing over and over in her head. There was a sustained and embarrassing applause from the handful of techs present as she entereddispatch. Knox just glared at her from the co... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 27 Juliette showed up at Walkers electronics workshop at five, worried she might find him asleep on hiscot, but smelling instead the distinctive odor of vaporized solder wafting down the hallway. Sheknocked on the open door as she entered, and Walke... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 26 She was allowed a visitor, but who would Juliette want to see her like this? No one. So she sat withher back against the bars, the bleak view outside brightening with the rising of an unseen sun, thefloor around her bare of folders and ghosts. Sh... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 25 The next morning, exhausted, Juliette arrived late at her desk, her legs and back sore from the climbdown to IT and from not getting an ounce of sleep. She had spent the entire night tossing and turning,wondering if shed discovered a box that was... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 24 It was thirty-three levels down to IT. Juliette skipped down the steps so swiftly, she had to keep ahand on the inner railing to keep from flying outward into the occasional up-bound traffic. Sheovertook a porter near six, who was startled by bei... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 23 The next morning, instead of climbing to her office, Juliette descended five flights to the upper dirtfarm for Marness funeral. There would be no folder for her deputy, no investigation, just thelowering of his old and tired body into the deep so... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 22 After filling out reports, discovering Marnes had no next of kin, speaking with the coroner at the dirtfarm, and answering questions from nosy neighbors, Juliette finally took a long and lonely walk upeight flights of stairs, back to her empty of... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 21 The next morning, Juliette arrived early at her desk having stolen little more than four hours of sleep. Beside her computer, she saw a package waiting for her: a small bundle wrapped in recycled pulppaper and encircled with white electrical ties... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 20 It was well after ten by the time Juliette pushed herself away from her desk. Her eyes had become toosore to stare at her monitor any longer, too tired to read one more case note. She powered down hercomputer, filed the folders away, killed the o... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 19 Days Earlier Juliette sat on the floor of the holding cell, her back against the tall rows of steel bars, a mean worlddisplayed on the wallscreen before her. For the past three days, while she had attempted to teachherself how to be silo sheriff,... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 Part 3 Casting Off 18 There were numbers on each of the pockets. Juliette could look down at her chest and read them, andso it occurred to her that they must have been printed upside down. They were there for her to read,and for no one else. She num... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 17 The generator room was unusually crowded and eerily silent. Mechanics in worn overalls stood threedeep behind the railing and watched the first-shift crew work. Juliette was only dimly aware of them;she was more keenly aware of the silence. She l... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 16 The floors flew by faster as they approached home. In the darkest sections of the staircase, betweenquiet floors of people hunkered down and awaiting a return to normalcy, old hands wrapped aroundeach other and swung between two climbers, brazenl... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 15 It felt appropriate that their climb back to the up top would occur during a power holiday. Jahns couldfeel her own energy complying with the new decree, draining away with each laborious step. Theagony of the descent had been a tease, the discom... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 14 After their meal, Shirly and Marck gave them directions to the bunk room. Jahns watched as theyoung married couple exchanged kisses. Marck was coming off his shift while Shirly was going ontohers. The shared meal was breakfast for one and supper... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 13 Marnes and Jahns were guided to the mess hall by Marck, a mechanic just getting off second shift. Marnes seemed to take umbrage at needing a tour guide. The deputy possessed that distinctly malequality of pretending to know where he was, even whe... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 12 On the second and final day of their descent into the down deep, the novel gradually became thehabitual. The clank and thrum of the great spiral staircase found a rhythm. Jahns was able to loseherself in her thoughts, daydreaming so serenely that... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 11 They were almost down to the fifties before Jahns could think straight. She imagined she could feelthe weight of Peter Billingss contract in her pack. Marnes muttered his own complaints from a fewsteps behind, bitching about Bernard and trying to... 阅读全文>>

日期：2024-04-11 10 It was lunchtime, but neither of them was powerfully hungry. Jahns nibbled on a cornbar while shewalked, priding herself on eating on the climb like a porter. They continued to pass thesetradesmen, and Jahnss esteem of their profession grew and g... 阅读全文>>