He nodded. He knew what I was thinking.
“Yeah,” he whispered. “The factory.”
The best news was that there wasn’t a dado in sight. We had made it through what Mark thought was the riskiest part of the trip. I had no doubt there would be plenty of risks ahead to make up for it.
Elli poked her head up out of the hole. Mark and I quickly helped her out. After she was safely up, we struggled to push the manhole back into place and brushed dirt over it to hide our tracks. The ground between the walls was nothing but dirt, which made it easy to rebury the cover. We made sure to spread the dirt around enough to disguise the manhole. If somebody was looking for it, they’d probably find it. But if a random dado walked by, I was confident they wouldn’t uncover anything. The whole time we were disguising the manhole I was thinking how there was no way we’d be able to use it to get out of there. Especially if we had to find it in a hurry. When it was time to get back to the city, we were going to have to find another route.
Mark was already scanning the building, looking for a way in. There were no windows in this wall either. No way to get a quick peek inside. It looked to me like the little brother of the much larger Ravinian conclave across from it. There was a set of double doors near the front of the building. Next to the doors was a metal ladder that ran up to the roof. We didn’t need to discuss it. This was where we had to go. I looked to Elli. She nodded that she was okay, but her eyes were wild. She was scared. I was afraid that she was barely holding it together.
I motioned for Mark to go first. He jumped up and scampered to the wall of the factory and the double doors. I held Elli’s arm and helped her run after him. My other hand was on the straps of the two rifles. I’d have preferred to have one of them pointed and ready, but I couldn’t do that, hold the other strap, and guide Elli all at the same time. I had to trust that if a shot needed to be taken quickly, Mark would take it.
We got to the door in seconds. Mark tried it. It was locked.
“I guess that would have been too easy,” he said with a shrug.
He tried to force it open. No go. I looked at the ladder.
“We could climb, or we could head around the corner of this building to look for another door. I’m thinking that the longer we spend sneaking around, the better chance we’ll be seen.”
Mark didn’t wait for any other opinions. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and climbed the ladder.
“One more climb,” I said to Elli with a weak smile.
She went right after Mark. I was last in line. Climbing this ladder was hairier than any of the others. For one, we were totally exposed. Anybody coming by would spot us in a nanosecond. It was scary, too. Underground it was safe and closed. Out here we clung to the side of a building with nothing around us but air. We probably would have been hurt just as badly if we had fallen when we were down below, but being out in the open made this seem much more dangerous. I guess it’s like the difference between walking a tightrope that’s two inches off the ground… or thirty feet up. I made a point of not looking down.
We made it to the top with no problem. When I reached the lip and stepped onto the flat roof, I gasped. I actually gasped. The building was huge. Seeing one side wall didn’t give the full perspective. Up on top we could see the whole thing, and there was a lot to see. The roof was completely flat, broken up by various air ducts and skylights that dotted the surface. From the front corner we could pretty much see to the far side. It was a long way away. The building was probably twice as long as it was wide. It was an enormous, sprawling structure.
“You could make a whole lot of helicopters here,” I pointed out.
“I guess you need a lot to hunt down seventy thousand people,” Mark added.
“Let’s go see,” I said, and jogged off.
We were totally exposed up there, but what else could we do? I ran toward the closest skylight, hoping it would give us access. The glass window looked like a small greenhouse structure on top of the flat roof. I got there first and peered down for my first look inside.
Sure enough, there were several rows of gleaming black, brand-spanking-new helicopters lined up, ready to fly. Each had rocket launchers in front. These choppers were assault weapons, no doubt about it.
Elli and Mark joined me and looked down.
“Wow,” Mark exclaimed. “Armed for bear, too.”
“It’s monstrous,” Elli gasped, numb.
A few feet beyond the skylight, I spotted a hatch with a handle. I grabbed the metal loop and pulled. The hatch opened.
“I guess they don’t expect anybody dropping in from up here,” I remarked.
Inside the building another small ladder led down to a metal catwalk. I climbed down first, then helped Elli. The catwalk ran along the wall, high above the factory floor. From inside we could look down to see the entire fleet of choppers. Or whatever it is you call a bunch of helicopters. They were all new. They were all armed. They were all ready for their deadly mission.
“Look,” Mark said. “They’re making even more.”
He pointed to the far side of the space, where we saw several more helicopters in various stages of construction.
“Yikes. How many do they think they need?” Mark asked.
“Seventy thousand people is a lot of people” was my sober answer.
I scanned the vast factory floor, trying to take it all in. It was then that something struck me.
“This might get worse,” I announced.
Mark said, “Worse than a few dozen attack helicopters armed with rockets?”
“I mean, this isn’t the whole factory.” I pointed to the right, which was the direction the building had stretched out before us when we were on the roof. “What we’re seeing here isn’t even half the factory. Look at the far wall. No way that’s the end of the building. There’s more beyond that. A lot more.”
“Could there be even more helicopters?” Elli asked.
I saw that the catwalk continued on along the wall, high above the factory floor.
“Let’s find out,” I said, and moved quickly along the metal walkway.
I took one of the guns off my shoulder and held it against my hip, ready to shoot. I kept glancing to the factory floor to see if any workers or dados might be down there to sound an alarm. The place seemed deserted. I figured it might have been a day off. Did dados take a day off? Or maybe it was too early for the first shift to begin. After all, the sun had barely come up. We passed row after row of the attack helicopters. I was already planning some way to sabotage them. Maybe the rockets on board could be fired and that would create a chain reaction. Or something. We had to figure out some way of grounding this fleet of killing machines.
We made the long walk to the far wall, and to a door that would lead us to whatever was beyond. I grabbed the door handle and turned. It was unlocked. I turned back to the others.
“You think we can do some damage down there?” I asked Mark.
Mark shrugged. “I don’t see why not. There’s plenty of live ammo around. Of course, if we start making noise, they’ll know we’re here.”
“You think?” I chuckled.
I opened the door, stepped into the next factory space…
And all thoughts of helicopters left my head.
I dropped the rifle. That’s how stunned I was. My arms went limp. The weapon clattered onto the metal walkway. I left it there, taking a few dazed steps forward, as if getting closer might make the image before me clearer, and prove it wasn’t what it seemed to be. I hoped it was an optical illusion. Or a trick. Or anything other than what it looked to be.
There was a question I’d often wondered about but never bothered to try and answer. Since leaving home, I had to learn about and understand so many impossible things that some of them I just had to let go. It’s how I felt about unique technology on all the territories. I never really wondered or cared about how they created power on Ibara. Or how the air globes of Cloral were created. Or what advanced technology would allow something like Lifelight to exist, or the amber crystals on Eelong that carried radio signals. These were all aspects of the territories that were interesting, but didn’t need to be analyzed unless it could help us on our mission.
The same held true for what we saw on that factory floor. This is what Antonio and his team had discovered. This is what he meant when he said the Ravinians had been preparing to attack.
It had nothing to do with helicopters.
The factory did indeed go on. This second section had to be three times the size of the area that held the choppers. The lame choppers. The choppers that now seemed like toys compared to what faced us on that factory
