14

　　After their meal, Shirly and Marck gave them directions to the bunk¹ 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 for the other. Jahns thanked them both fortheir time and complimented the food, then she and Marnes left a mess hall nearly as noisy as thegenerator room had been and followed the winding³ corridors toward their beds for the night.

　　Marnes would be staying in the communal⁴ bunk room used by junior first-shift mechanics. Asmall cot had been made up for him that Jahns gauged⁵ to be half a foot too short. Down the hall fromthe bunk room, a small apartment had been reserved for Jahns. The two of them decided⁶ to waitthere, biding⁷ their time in private, rubbing the aches in their legs, talking about how differenteverything in the down deep was, until there was a knock on their door. Juliette pushed it open andstepped inside.

　　“They got you both in one room?” Juliette asked, surprised.

　　Jahns laughed. “No, they’ve got the deputy in the bunk room. And I would’ve been happy stayingout there with the others.”

　　“Forget it,” Juliette said. “They put up recruits and visiting families in here all the time. It’snothing.”

　　Jahns watched as Juliette placed a length of string in her mouth, then gathered her hair, still wetfrom a shower, and tied it up in a tail. She had changed into another pair of overalls⁸, and Jahnsguessed the stains in them were permanent, that the fabric⁹ was actually laundered¹⁰ and ready foranother shift.

　　“So how soon could we announce this power holiday?” Juliette asked. She finished her knot andcrossed her arms, leaning back against the wall beside the door. “I would think you’d wanna takeadvantage of the post-cleaning mood, right?”

　　“How soon can you start?” Jahns asked. She realized, suddenly, that part of the reason she wantedthis woman as her sheriff was that she felt unattainable. Jahns glanced over at Marnes and wonderedhow much of his attraction to her, all those many years ago when she was young and with Donald,had been as simply motivated.

　　“I can start tomorrow,” Juliette said. “We could have the backup generator² online by morning. Icould work another shift tonight to make sure the gaskets and seals—”

　　“No,” Jahns said, raising her hand. “How soon can you start as sheriff?” She dug through her openbag, sorting folders¹² across the bed, looking for the contract.

　　“I’m—I thought we discussed this. I have no interest in being—”

　　“They make the best ones,” Marnes said. “The ones who have no interest in it.” He stood acrossfrom Juliette, his thumbs tucked into his overalls, leaning against one of the small apartment’s walls.

　　“I’m sorry, but there’s no one down here who can just slip into my boots,” Juliette said, shakingher head. “I don’t think you two understand all that we do—”

　　“I don’t think you understand what we do up top,” Jahns said. “Or why we need you.”

　　Juliette tossed her head and laughed. “Look, I’ve got machines down here that you can’t possibly—”

　　“And what good are they?” Jahns asked. “What do these machines do?”

　　“They keep this whole goddamned place running!” Juliette declared. “The oxygen you breathe?

　　We recycle that down here. The toxins¹³ you exhale¹⁴? We pump them back into the earth. You want meto write up a list of everything oil makes? Every piece of plastic, every ounce of rubber, all thesolvents and cleaners, and I’m not talking about the power it generates, but everything else!”

　　“And yet it was all here before you were born,” Jahns pointed¹⁵ out.

　　“Well, it wouldn’t have lasted my lifetime, I’ll tell you that. Not in the state it was in.” Shecrossed her arms again and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t think you get what a mess we’d bein without these machines.”

　　“And I don’t think you get how pointless these machines are going to become without all thesepeople.”

　　Juliette looked away. It was the first time Jahns had seen her flinch¹⁶.

　　“Why don’t you ever visit your father?”

　　Juliette snapped her head around and looked at the other wall. She wiped some loose hair backfrom her forehead. “Go look at my work log,” she said. “Tell me when I’d fit it in.”

　　Before Jahns could reply, could say that it was family, that there’s always time, Juliette turned toface her. “Do you think I don’t care about people? Is that it? Because you’d be wrong. I care aboutevery person in this silo. And the men and women down here, the forgotten floors of Mechanical, thisis my family. I visit with them every day. I break bread with them several times a day. We work, live,and die alongside one another.” She looked to Marnes. “Isn’t that right? You’ve seen it.”

　　Marnes didn’t say anything. Jahns wondered if she was referring specifically to the “dying” part.

　　“Did you ask him why he never comes to see me? Because he has all the time in the world. He hasnothing up there.”

　　“Yes, we met with him. Your father seemed like a very busy man. As determined¹⁷ as you.”

　　Juliette looked away.

　　“And as stubborn.” Jahns left the paperwork on the bed and went to stand by the door, just a paceaway from Juliette. She could smell the soap in the younger woman’s hair. Could see her nostrilsflare with her rapid, heavy breathing.

　　“The days pile up and weigh small decisions down, don’t they? That decision not to visit. The firstfew days slide by easy enough; anger and youth power them along. But then they pile up likeunrecycled trash. Isn’t that right?”

　　Juliette waved her hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

　　“I’m talking about days becoming weeks becoming months becoming years.” She almost said thatshe’d been through the same exact thing, was still piling them up, but Marnes was in the room,listening. “After a while, you’re staying mad just to justify¹⁸ an old mistake. Then it’s just a game. Twopeople staring away, refusing to look back over their shoulders, afraid to be the first one to take thatchance—”

　　“It wasn’t like that,” Juliette said. “I don’t want your job. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of otherswho do.”

　　“If it’s not you, it’s someone I’m not sure I can trust. Not anymore.”

　　“Then give it to the next girl.” She smiled.

　　“It’s you or him. And I think he’ll be getting more guidance from the thirties than he will fromme, or from the Pact¹⁹.”

　　Juliette seemed to react to this. Her arms loosened across her chest. She turned and met Jahns’sgaze. Marnes was studying all this from across the room.

　　“The last sheriff, Holston, what happened to him?”

　　“He went to cleaning,” Jahns said.

　　“He volunteered,” Marnes added gruffly.

　　“I know, but why?” She frowned. “I heard it was his wife.”

　　“There’s all kinds of speculation—”

　　“I remember him talking about her, when you two came down to look into George’s death. Ithought, at first, that he was flirting²⁰ with me, but all he could talk about was this wife of his.”

　　“They were in the lottery²¹ while we were down here,” Marnes reminded her.

　　“Yeah. That’s right.” She studied the bed for a while. Paperwork was spread across it.

　　“I wouldn’t know how to do this job. I only know how to fix things.”

　　“It’s the same thing,” Marnes told her. “You were a big help with our case down here. You seehow things work. How they fit together. Little clues that other people miss.”

　　“You’re talking about machines,” she said.

　　“People aren’t much different,” Marnes told her.

　　“I think you already know this,” Jahns said. “I think you have the right attitude, actually. The rightdisposition. This is only slightly a political office. Distance is good.”

　　Juliette shook her head and looked back to Marnes. “So you nominated me for this, is that it? Iwondered how this came up. Seemed like something right out of the ground.”

　　“You’d be good at it,” Marnes told her. “I think you’d be damned good at anything you set yourmind to. And this is more important work than you think.”

　　“And I’d live up top?”

　　“Your office is on level one. Near the airlock.”

　　Juliette seemed to mull this over. Jahns was excited that she was even asking questions.

　　“The pay is more than you’re making now, even with the extra shifts.”

　　“You checked?”

　　Jahns nodded. “I took some liberties before we came down.”

　　“Like talking to my father.”

　　“That’s right. He would love to see you, you know. If you came with us.”

　　Juliette looked down at her boots. “Not sure about that.”

　　“There’s one other thing,” Marnes said, catching²² Jahns’s eye. He glanced at the paperwork on thebed. The crisply folded contract for Peter Billings was on top. “IT,” he reminded her.

　　Jahns caught his drift.

　　“There’s one matter to clear up, before you accept.”

　　“I’m not sure I’m accepting. I’d want to hear more about this power holiday, organize the workshifts down here—”

　　“According to tradition, IT signs off on all nominated positions—”

　　Juliette rolled her eyes and blew out her breath. “IT.”

　　“Yes, and we checked in with them on the way down as well, just to smooth things over.”

　　“I’m sure,” Juliette said.

　　“It’s about these requisitions,” Marnes interjected.

　　Juliette turned to him.

　　“We know it probably ain’t nothing, but it’s gonna come up—”

　　“Wait, is this about the heat tape?”

　　“Heat tape?”

　　“Yeah.” Juliette frowned and shook her head. “Those bastards²³.”

　　Jahns mimed²⁴ pinching two inches of air. “They had a folder¹¹ on you this thick. Said you wereskimming supplies meant for them.”

　　“No they didn’t. Are you kidding?” She pointed toward the door. “We can’t get any of thesupplies we need because of them. When I needed heat tape—we had a leak in a heat exchanger afew months back—we couldn’t get any because Supply tells us the backing material for the tape is allspoken for. Now, we had that order in a while back, and then I find out from one of our porters thatthe tape is going to IT, that they’ve got miles of the stuff for the skins of all their test suits.”

　　Juliette took a deep breath.

　　“So I had some intercepted²⁵.” She looked to Marnes as she admitted this. “Look, I’m keeping thepower on so they can do whatever it is they do up there, and I can’t get basic supplies. And evenwhen I do, the quality is complete crap, probably because of unrealistic quotas²⁶, rushing themanufacturing chain—”

　　“If these are items you really needed,” Jahns interrupted, “then I understand.”

　　She looked to Marnes, who smiled and dipped his chin as if to say he’d told her this was the rightwoman for the job.

　　Jahns ignored him. “I’m actually glad to hear your side of this,” she told Juliette. “And I wish Imade this trip more often, as sore as my legs are. There are things we take for granted up top, mostlybecause they aren’t well understood. I can see now that our offices need to be in bettercommunication, have more of the constant contact I have with IT.”

　　“I’ve been saying that for just about twenty years,” Juliette said. “Down here, we joke that thisplace was laid out to keep us well out of the way. And that’s how it feels, sometimes.”

　　“Well, if you come up top, if you take this job, people will hear you. You could be the first link inthat chain of command.”

　　“Where would IT fall?”

　　“There will be resistance, but that’s normal with them. I’ve handled it before. I’ll wire my officefor some emergency waivers. We’ll make them retroactive, get these acquisitions aboveboard.” Jahnsstudied the younger woman. “As long as I have your assurance that every one of those divertedsupplies were absolutely necessary.”

　　Juliette did not flinch away from the challenge. “They were,” she said. “Not that it mattered. Thestuff we got from them was crap. Couldn’t have fallen apart better if it’d been designed to. I’ll tellyou what, we finally got our shipment from Supply and have extra tape. I’d love to drop off a peaceoffering on our way up. Our design is so much better—”

　　“Our way up?” Jahns asked, making sure she understood what Juliette was saying, what she wasagreeing to.

　　Juliette looked them both over. She nodded. “You’ll have to give me a week to sort out thegenerator. I’m holding you to that power holiday. And just so you understand, I’ll always considermyself Mechanical, and I’ll be doing this partly because I see what happens when problems areignored. My big push down here has been preventive maintenance. No more waiting for things tobreak before we fix them, but to go around and make them hum while they’re still working. Toomany issues have been ignored, let degrade. And I think, if the silo can be thought of as one bigengine, we are like the dirty oil pan down here that needs some people’s attention.” She reached herhand out to Jahns. “Get me that power holiday, and I’m your man.”

　　Jahns smiled and took her hand, admired the warmth and power in her confident handshake.

　　“I’ll get on it first thing in the morning,” she said. “And thank you. Welcome aboard.”

　　Marnes crossed the room to shake Juliette’s hand as well. “Nice to have you on, boss.”

　　Juliette smirked²⁷ as she took his hand. “Well now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I think I’ll havea lot to learn before you go calling me that.”

 

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