Read Shadows for Free Online Page B

knowingly.
She figured he knew she had most of this puzzle figured out, but
there was something else he was taking delight in, some other
hidden secret. He opened his backpack and pulled out a pair of
white coveralls.
    “ What do you
think you're doing? ” she asked.
    “ The answer
to your question is something you won't believe unless you see it
for yourself. ”
    He shimmied out of his blue
coveralls and into the white IT coveralls.
    “ Where did
you get those? ” Susan asked.
    “ Doc Winters.
She gets them without any markings and has to get someone from the
garments level to add the red cross. ”
    “ And you
liberated this as well? ”
    “ Yes. ”
    “ All for the
common good, I suppose? ” she
asked.
    “ Absolutely. ”
    “ Charlie, ” she said, her voice taking a serious
tone as he stuffed his old coveralls into his pack. “ You ’ re scaring
me. ”
    Charlie just
laughed and smiled. “ Well, do you want to
know, or not? ”
    “ I guess
... ”
    In the back of her mind,
Susan struggled with the internal conflict of all her parents had
shared and their warning not to be frivolous with the rules of the
silo. Charlie might not have any respect for arbitrary authority,
but those that were in charge took impersonating another caste
seriously.
    “ Come
on, ” Charlie said, starting down the stairs.
    “ You're not
going to give me any clues? ” Susan asked,
gliding down the steps with a sense of grace Charlie could never
match.
    “ Nope. You're
going to have to trust me. ”
    She was nervous, but she
was also curious, and she trusted him, perhaps more than she should
have.
    The gently winding
staircase gave way to landing after landing, always peeling off to
the same side of the Great Fall. As they sunk lower, moving further
down the shaft, Susan reminded herself that what seemed so easy in
one direction would be far more arduous in reverse. Charlie was
taking her to the IT floor on level 34, that much was clear. By the
time they got there, it would be after midnight. Climbing back to
her apartment on level six was going to be laborious.
    “ Are you sure
about this? ” she asked as they passed the
twentieth landing.
    “ Yep. ”
    “ Couldn't we
do this at some more civilized time? ”
    “ Nope. ”
    “ You do
realize, it's going to be two or three in the morning before we get
back to the Up Top. ”
    “ Yep. ”
    With that, Charlie picked
up the pace. They weren't taking two steps at a time, but they were
moving at a considerable pace, and being a porter, Susan had
learned the art of a foot-glide, knowing how to let the pull of
gravity do the work and dictate the pace.
    Charlie stopped by the
landing on level thirty-three.
    “ How do I
look? ” he asked, straightening his coveralls and
catching his breath.
    “ Like a
criminal, ” Susan replied.
    “ Perfect.
Now, just play along with whatever happens down
there. ”
    “ Charles, ” Susan said, deploying his formal
name in a hope of getting a serious response. “ You're not
going to get me into trouble, are you? ”
    “ Me? ” Charlie replied, with a look of
innocence on his face.
    Hand in hand, they walked
casually down the last flight of stairs and up to the security
turnstile leading into IT. Susan was surprised to find her hands
were shaking. Charlie must have felt that as he squeezed her hand
affectionately, as if to say, don't sweat it. He pulled an ID tag
from his pocket and swiped the lock. The red light turned to green
and he started to walk through when the security guard
spoke.
    “ Hey. You
can't take her in there. She's gonna need to sign in and
demonstrate a valid purpose for being on this
floor. ”
    Charlie
leaned close to the guard. Under his breath, he said, “ Look at the time. You don't seriously think I brought a
beautiful, young, female porter down here for porting, do
you? ”
    The guard looked at Susan
and smiled, but his wasn't a smile that felt warm and inviting,
more one that spoke of hidden desires. He nodded