Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1-5)

below, but unable to make it out before his senses returned and reality snatched him back from the edge.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat like that, dreaming of a different time and place, before he realized the throbbing red lights had returned.

Lukas returned the book to its tin and struggled to his feet. The computer screen showed Peter Billings at the server door, as deep as he was allowed into the room. A tray with Lukas’s dinner sat on top of the work log filing cabinet inside the door.

He turned away from the computer, hurried down the corridor, and scrambled up the ladder. After removing the grate, he carefully dropped it back into place and picked a circuitous path through the tall humming servers.

“Ah, here’s our little protege.” Peter smiled, but his eyes narrowed at the sight of Lukas.

Lukas dipped his chin. “Sheriff,” he said. He always had this sense that Peter was silently mocking him, looking down on him, even though they were about the same age. Whenever he showed up with Bernard, especially the day Bernard had explained the need to keep Lukas safe, there had seemed some sort of competitive tension between them. A tension Lukas was aware of, even if he didn’t share. In private, Bernard had committed Lukas to secrecy and told him that he was grooming Peter for the eventual job of Mayor, that he and Lukas would one day work hand in hand. Lukas tried to remember this as he slid the tray off the cabinet. Peter watched him, his brow lowered in thought.

Lukas turned to go.

“Why don’t you sit and eat here?” Peter asked, not budging from where he leaned against the thick server room door.

Lukas froze.

“I see you sitting here with Bernard while you eat, but you’re always in a hurry to scurry off when I come by.” Peter leaned out and peered into the stacks of servers. “What is it you do in here all day, anyway?”

Lukas felt trapped. In truth, he wasn’t even all that hungry, had thought about saving it for later, but eating his food to completion was usually the fastest way out of these conversations. He shrugged and sat down on the floor, leaned against the work log cabinet, and stretched his legs out in front of him. Uncovering the tray revealed a bowl of unidentifiable soup, two slices of tomato, and a piece of cornbread.

“I work on the servers mostly, just like before.” He started with a bite of the bread, something bland. “Only difference is I don’t have to walk home at the end of the day.” He smiled at Peter while he chewed the dry bread.

“That’s right, you live down in the mids, don’t you?” Peter crossed his arms and seemed to get even more comfortable against the thick door. Lukas leaned to the side and gazed past him and down the hallway. Voices could be heard around the corner. He had a sudden impulse to get up and run, just for the sake of running.

“Barely,” he answered. “My apartment’s practically in the up-top.”

“All the mids are,” Peter laughed, “to those who live there.”

Lukas worked on the cornbread to keep his mouth occupied. He eyed the soup warily while he chewed.

“Did Bernard tell you about the big assault we’ve got planned? I was thinking of going down to take part.”

Lukas shook his head. He dipped his spoon into the soup.

“You know that wall Mechanical built, how those idiots boxed themselves in? Well, Sims and his boys are gonna blast it to smithereens. They’ve had all the time in the world to work on it from our side, so this little rebellion nonsense should be over in a few days, max.”

Slurping the hot soup, all Lukas could think about was the men and women of Mechanical trapped behind that wall of steel, and how he knew precisely what they were going through.

“Does that mean I’ll be out of here soon?” He pressed the edge of his spoon into an underripe tomato rather than use the knife and fork. “There can’t be any threat out there for me, can there? Nobody even knows who I am.”

“That’s up to Bernard. He’s been acting strange lately. A lot of stress, I suppose.” Peter slid down the door and rested on his heels. It was nice for Lukas to not have to crane his neck to look up at him.

“He did say something about bringing your mother up for a visit. I took that to mean you might be in here at least a week longer.”

“Great.” Lukas pushed his food around some more. When the distant server started buzzing, his body practically jerked as if tugged by some string. The overhead lights winked faintly, meaningful to those in the know.

“What’s that?” Peter peered into the server room, rising on his toes a little.

“That means I need to get back to work.” Lukas handed him the tray. “Thanks for bringing this.” He turned to go.

“Hey, the Mayor said to make sure you ate everything—”

Lukas waved over his shoulder. He disappeared around the first tall server and began to jog toward the back of the room, wiping his mouth with his hand, knowing Peter couldn’t follow.

“Lukas—!”

But he was gone. He hurried toward the far wall, digging his keys out of his collar as he went.

While he worked on the locks, he saw the overhead lights stop their flashing. Peter had closed the door. He removed the back panel and dug the headphones out of their pouch, plugged them in.

“Hello?” He adjusted his microphone, made sure it wasn’t too close.

“Hey.” Her voice filled him up in a way mere food couldn’t. “Did I make you run?”

Lukas took a deep breath. He was getting out of shape living in such confinement, not walking to and from work every day. “No,” he lied. “But maybe you should go easy with the calling. At least during the day. You-know- who is in here all the time. Yesterday, when you let it ring so long, we were sitting right beside the server while it buzzed and buzzed. It really pissed him off—”

“You think I care if he gets angry?” Juliette laughed. “And I want him to answer. I’d love to talk to him some more. Besides, what would you suggest? I want to talk to you, I need to talk to someone. And you’re always right there. It’s not like you can call me and expect me to be here waiting. Hell, I’m all over the damn place over here. You know how many times I’ve been from the thirties to Supply in the last week? Guess.”

“I don’t want to guess.” Lukas rubbed his eyelids.

“Probably a half dozen times. And you know, if he’s in there all the time, you could just do me a favor and kill him for me. Save me all this trouble—”

“Kill him?” Lukas waved his arm. “What, just bludgeon him to death?”

“Do you really want some pointers? Because I’ve dreamt up a number of—”

“No, I don’t want pointers. And I don’t want to kill anybody! I never did—”

Lukas dug his index finger into his temple and rubbed in tiny, forceful circles. These headaches were forever popping up. They had been ever since—

“Forget it,” Juliette said, the disgust in her voice zipping through the wires at the speed of light.

“Look—” Lukas readjusted his mic. He hated these conversations. He preferred it when they just talked about nothing. “I’m sorry, it’s just that… things are crazy over here. I don’t know who’s doing what. I’m in this box with all this information, I’ve got this radio that just blares people fighting all the time, and yet I seem to know ratshit compared to everyone else.”

“But you know you can trust me, right? That I’m one of the good guys? I didn’t do anything wrong to be sent away, Lukas. I need you to know that.”

He listened as Juliette took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. He imagined her sitting over there, alone in that silo with a crazy man, the mic pressed close to her lips, her chest heaving with exasperation, her mind full of all these expectations of him—

“Lukas, you do know that I’m on the right side here, don’t you? And that you’re working for an insane man?”

“Everything’s crazy,” he said. “Everyone is. I do know this: We were sitting here in IT, hoping nothing bad would happen, and the worst things we could think of came to us.”