Addison slipped silently into the levelling room and padded over the floor. He didn’t hesitate, scooting quickly up the footwell ladder until he was on the access balcony he’d seen all those weeks ago. Below lay the levelling apparatus: great vats of biomatter, huge crystalline machinery and a serpentine network of pipes that coiled and coruscated into the shadows. Some of the machinery was wrong somehow, blurring out at the edges, but there was enough of the sharp, solid stuff for his needs.
The interpreter could already sense his intent. It was growing hot, vibrating, and with every step he took towards the edge the pain intensified. But it didn’t matter, at a certain point gravity would take over.
For this was how Addison would beat the levellers. If his captors left him no weapons, he would become the weapon. He would cast himself into the machinery, gumming up its inner workings with his body. He knew they would ultimately repair the damage, but it would take time, and perhaps the institute would fall before then. Even a small delay might save a few people, the next Taka or Caroline, and that would be enough. It was his way to honour Taka’s memory and atone for all the suffering he had caused.
“Eyes on the prize,” he whispered.
Addison breathed in, ignored the agony shooting up his spine and took another step towards the edge.
The walls suddenly erupted in noise.
It was the pounding, the same sound as before, but this time it was ear-splittingly close. The room shook so violently Addison was knocked off his feet. Dust and debris tumbled from the ceiling, a huge crack ripped through the mistwall, and out in the machinery came the sound of shattering glass.
The pounding intensified, and Addison was smashed against the balcony floor. He screamed, completely disoriented. The sound wasn’t just in the walls, it was coming from the floor, the ceiling, everywhere. Something else smashed and the balcony bucked to one side, pitching him towards the edge.
Then suddenly, it was over. The pounding ceased in an instant, the room stopped shaking and everything fell silent.
Almost everything.
Someone was screaming. From somewhere in the levelling machinery came a sound like a wounded animal, a keening noise that echoed mournfully off the mistwalls. It set Addison’s teeth on edge, and for a second he almost fled the room, leaving whoever – whatever – was down there to its fate.
Then Taka’s face swam before his eyes.
Do more.
“Ah hell,” Addison muttered.
Steeling himself, he sprang down the mistwall ladder on the other side of the partition and into the machinery. The space was dizzying, confusing, not least because half the machines didn’t seem to be entirely there, but he had the sound to guide him. He passed strange glass structures, huge vats of still-sloshing liquid and bilious growths of cabling that blistered out of the walls, before rounding a corner to find a figure lying prone on the floor.
“Five!”
The leveller was half-covered by fallen piping.
“Are you injured?” Addison asked, rushing over.
“Not badly,” Five groaned, pain etched into his face. “But I’m in trouble. I’m not supposed to be down here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he hissed. “I thought I could help, I though I could get back in One’s graces, reascend. I thought––”
“What the hell are you talking about!” Addison said as he cleared fallen debris off the man.
“There was a problem with the machinery, a cross-referencing error. We thought we were bringing back a new returnee, but we instead re-revived a defendant from weeks ago. You may remember him, he took a swing at the judge?”
“You can really do that?” Addison asked, straining as he hefted a sliver of glass that for some reason weighed a small ton. “Re-resurrect someone from the same sample?”
“You shouldn’t, but you can. But that’s not the point. The error caused a delay, so I came down here to fix it, make myself useful. The others don’t even know I’m gone. I interrupted my cycle, they won’t be able to––”
Five trailed off suddenly, his face going white. He coughed and a nauseating spray of black bile spattered onto his chest. Addison jerked back in disgust, and the man began to convulse.
“Five!” Addison shouted. “What’s happening?”
The leveller’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he made a horrible moaning noise.
“What do I do?”
The seizure abated, and Five groaned again.
“Chambers!” he mumbled, pawing at Addison’s arm. “You must… I need my chambers. Quickly. Don’t have long…”
“But that’s twenty odd levels!”
Five convulsed again, eyes rolling into the back of his head. As black drool trailed from his lips, Addison cried out in frustration. There was no way he could carry the man, frail as he was. It was much too far, he wouldn’t make it in time.
Then Taka, again.
Do more.
Casting about, Addison suddenly saw it. Glinting in the corner under a fallen piece of machinery was Two’s wheelbarrow. Even better, he could see a second doorway just beyond in the gloom, meaning he wouldn’t have to climb back up the ladder.
Then, catching sight of his reflection in a shard of glass – his face split in two by a large crack in its surface – Addison had the best idea of all.
“Five, Taka,” he said, eyes narrowing. “Hold on.”
Addison flew.
Muscles screaming with the effort, he sprinted up through the institute, pushing the wheelbarrow as fast as humanly possible. Five weighed almost nothing, but by the third or fourth ramp Addison’s calves were on fire. His breath was ragged and sweat poured from his brow, but he didn’t stop. His one consolation was that whatever had happened to the institute seemed to have knocked out his jungle visions, meaning he didn’t have to battle through foliage
