Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Jasina is tired all the time now and as each day goes by, I worry about her more and more. Wondering if I should take her back.
But she would never agree, so I don’t even bring it up. I don’t let her know that I’m watching her decline. That it’s impossible not to notice that all she wants to do is sleep. I just make sure we take long breaks where she has a chance to do that.
We’re on the train line to do a job, though. So after many days of rest, that’s where we end up. Not just because we ran out of supplies after the last run, but because we’re committed to what we’re doing here. We’re committed to ending the Extraction, whatever that even is.
Jasina stirs, trying to sit up, as the train finally comes to a complete stop with the slightest of jerks. “What’s happening?” Her voice is sultry and low. Very sexy.
“We’re here.”
She smiles, eyes closed, letting out a breath. Then flops back down onto my chest. “How many towers do you think there are? How many times will we have to do this?”
I’ve thought about this a lot but there’s no way to tell. There’s no map. I mean, maybe inside the Extraction Master’s office there’s something in that machine that has a clue, but even though we want to linger in each of these factories, we don’t. We just do the job, set the timer for the explosion, and get out. The first couple of times inside the towers we did pilfer things, but only because we were desperate. We had to. We had no choice. We came into this mission with zero preparation. We had the ragged, torn clothing on our bodies, and nothing else.
But the last two, we haven’t even so much as taken a peek down the stairs where the Extraction Masters lived and worked. The last city was called Omicron. It’s a weird name. But they’re all like that.
First Sigma. Then Rho. Then Pi. Then Omicron.
“I don’t know,” I tell Jasina, finally answering her question. “Only a few probably.”
She stirs again, this time pulling herself up. I’m sure she’d like to sleep more, but the workers are already entering the train, removing crates. We’re in the back, so it’ll take them a little while. But the sooner we do our job, the sooner we can come back and relax.
Until the next one.
Jasina rolls off me, pausing on her knees to sigh before standing all the way up. I get up too. Smooth out my clothes—a tunic and some pants that look like they could’ve come straight out of my own closet, because, of course, all the Extraction Masters had the very same closet—and then I smile at Jasina and offer her my hand. “Ready?”
She nods unenthusiastically, but accepts my offered hand. “Let’s go and get it over with.”
We halfheartedly dodge the workers and get off the train. The main door is closed because the workers mostly use a roll-up door off to the left of it. Easier to get crates through, I guess.
But Jasina and I made the mistake of following them through that bigger door in the Pi Factory and we found ourselves in a freezer with no other way out. Didn’t make that mistake twice. It was a good clue, though. There’s food in those crates.
No workers at this factory are using the main door, but we still do, entering to find the very same thing waiting for us every single time. A dim room with dripping pipes overhead and a maze of metal railings, and stairs, and machines.
We make our way through the curving hallways, coming to the intersection where it branches off in two more directions.
Every time we get here, Jasina sighs. Probably reliving the memory of Donal dragging her away, down the right-hand option.
I give her hand a squeeze of support, and then offer her a comforting smile as I lead her in the opposite direction, towards the Extraction tower.
She squeezes back. “Thanks. I never said that before, but you do it every time now and I figure I should let you know I appreciate it.”
I look over my shoulder, smiling. “No problem. That’s why I’m here.”
“Do you think this will ever end?”
“What will? Blowing up towers?”
“Yeah. What if this train line goes on forever? What if there’s no end?”
“Well, everything ends. This train line will too, eventually. Are you having second thoughts?”
She moves her feet a little quicker so we’re shoulder to shoulder, then shakes her head. “No. Not at all. I just think about the people and cities… don’t you wonder?”
“What it’s like in those cities?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure. But… if I see the Extraction Master as my father—as a person—then it would be harder to end it, ya know?”
“Ignorance is bliss?”
“That.” I let out a breath as we weave our steps, avoiding some puddles on the floor. There’s always puddles in the lower level of the city, but these seem a lot bigger. Wider.