Red Sky: Chapter 39
There was blue under the dirt. I was at a curve in one of the sub-tunnels. Four months of my life had disappeared in the search for that blue light. Four months of scouring the tunnels, of foraging in the dirt. Month after month, I would lead Renn down the corridors of the mine with him complaining and resisting. Month after month, I would come up empty-handed until finally that blue light glowed back at me, sparkling through layers of brown and black.
I was surprised to find it. Even though I’d been looking for it for months, even though it had become the entire focus of my life and I had convinced myself of its existence it was still surprising to discover it. To finally see it before my eyes, not just in a dream or daydream, but in reality, in the physical world I could grasp with my fingers.
Frantically, I pawed through the dirt using my hands instead of the chisel. I looked like a squirrel digging for a nut. Working a few meters away, Renn noticed me on my hands and knees.
“Hey,” he shouted. "Did you find something?"
I ignored him and kept digging. Renn put down his shovel and started walking towards me. I dug more furiously. The freezelight lay beside me. I kept looking in the dirt, tearing away loose soil, burying my fingers deeper, trying to find a foreign object, anything that didn’t belong there. I could feel his presence getting closer, my heart rate increased, and then my left hand hit a small synthetic square. It was white with silver markings running along its edge. It was Max’s magical key. Renn was over my shoulder, observing me like the guards observed. I quickly slipped the card into my work clothes.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“What?” I played dumb.
“That,” he pointed past me to the dirt.
Relieved, I looked to the wall. He hadn’t noticed the card or the freeze light. He was obviously referring to a large piece of Qalladium.
Only there was no Qalladium in the wall. He wasn’t referring to a rock of any kind. It was a hole. I had discovered the secret tunnel and now Renn had as well.
“It’s an air pocket,” I lied. Renn was still a newt, maybe he couldn't recognize the difference between a pocket in the dirt and the beginnings of a tunnel. “These pockets can be dangerous,” I continued to lie, covering up the tunnel with all of the loose dirt I could find. “It’s best to fill them in so no one gets hurt.”
Renn’s face showed interest. The look in his eyes betrayed calculations going on in his head. He knew I was protecting something and was deciding whether to call me on it. His eyes scanned my face. He studied me. I felt uncomfortable beneath his gaze the way a suspect feels uncomfortable in the interrogation room. But he wasn’t the only interrogator. I was studying him as well.
In that instant all of my doubts about Renn were confirmed. I wasn’t the only one lying. By concealing his suspicions he revealed himself. How many favors would an inmate have to do before Goodwell gave him a year off his sentence? The timing of the discovery of Com’s manuscripts kept gnawing at me over those four months. Renn and I hadn’t been called for hauling or tunneling duty, which was rare for a team with a newt. Was that a reward for Com? What other rewards was he looking for?
*
Renn disappeared as usual once we were inside the cafeteria. This was one of the many habits that made me distrust him. Even partners who disliked each other stayed together when we processed inside. But Renn always found a way to lose me for a minute or two after we were taken off the leash. I would usually be glad to get rid of him, but now I had moments of panic as I tried to find him amongst the crowd of inmates, picturing him talking to Hades or Beetleface or any of the guards. It took only seconds to find him. He was at the front of the line. Maybe that’s what he always did and I never noticed before. I was spinning in circles. Whether I was spinning in circles or not, my eyes weren’t going to leave him for the rest of the night.
It was a boring meal. Renn was his normal self, maybe a little more animated, his hands punctuating his thoughts with more flare than usual, but he gave nothing away. As minute after minute rolled by, I was unable to stop the merry-go-round in my head. Maybe I was wrong about him and had become completely paranoid. The implanted memories were enough to make anybody paranoid.
I needed to slow my spinning head, so I walked back to my favorite spot near the drop-off. It worked when I overheated after Com’s death, maybe it would help again. My eyes stayed on Renn for the short walk. If only I could knock him out then it wouldn’t matter if he was spying on me. But there would be no guarantee he would stay unconscious for ten hours or that no other inmate would find him. I needed another solution. If it was Max, I would have taken him with me. If it was Com, I could trust him not say anything. With Renn, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t like him. I knew that. I didn’t trust him. I knew that, too. But I didn’t know what to do with him.
“Your new partner isn’t going to survive the year.” I had been staring at Renn with such concentration I hadn’t noticed Cyclops behind me. His eye fixed on a distant spot over my right shoulder, the same spot I had been looking at where Renn sat amongst the other inmates.
“You’re watching him. You don’t trust him. You shouldn’t. He ratted out your friend.” I wanted to smirk at the old terminology, rat, even in a place with no rats we still used the term.
“He’s responsible for 33’s death. I saw him talk with Zero the night before they went into 33’s cell. He’s going to pay for what he did.”
“I’m done killing other inmates,” I said, not sure what Cyclops wanted from me.
“I’m not.”
My head swiveled.
“No inmate should ever take another inmate’s life. When 55 took his partner’s life, retribution was necessary.”
Cyclops’ eye turned to me. “I don’t regret it. I would do it again. I’m going to do it again.”
“With my partner?”
He nodded.
So it was Cyclops not Goodwell who disappeared 55. I had been blaming the wrong man. I didn’t know if this revelation made me respect Goodwell more or less, if it made me respect Cyclops more or less.
“Why wasn’t their retribution for me?”
“You had no choice. Goodwell gave you no choice. There’s no reason for what 55 did to his partner. There’s no reason for what your partner did to 33.”
I looked back to Renn, contemplating his future. Cyclops had offered to solve one of my problems while creating a new one.
“And what he did to you.”
My head swiveled a second time.
“Why do you think that guard went to your cell early and found you with that conc?”
Was Cyclops manipulating me? The guard was early, five minutes early, but five minutes is hardly proof of anything.
I went back to studying Renn, watching the movements of his body as he interacted with the others. Cyclops’ faction functioned on silence. There was no friendliness like at our table and there wasn’t a hierarchy like in the Lion’s old group. There was only silence. That silence bought protection from others. That silence bonded the group, created loyalty. Once that loyalty was broken, there was a price to pay.
“You sure about this?”
Cyclops nodded a second time.
I wasn’t sure. How sure did I need to be to kill my partner, to let my partner be killed? Cyclops didn’t live in the same world of percentages that I did. He knew. Goodwell had been focusing on the wrong inmate. Cyclops was the dangerous one, I was only an accidental leader. One day when the red moon prison is in flames it will be Cyclops that led them.