Jimmy said, “Can you be through by next Saturday — a week from tomorrow?”
“Oh, sure.”
“Let’s plan to go then. Helen? You work with Attila. You be his lookout and make sure he doesn’t get caught fooling around here and ruin everything.”
Then he turned to the other three of us. “All right, let’s go see about getting the suits.”
Helen said, “But can’t I go? I don’t want to miss out.”
It was interesting — of the six of us, Jimmy was the next-to-smallest and yet he dominated the group when he wanted to. There is something to the idea of natural leadership ability.
Jimmy said, “We have to have somebody be lookout. Besides, you’ll be here when we go outside. The only thing you’re going to miss is swiping the suits.”
To get to Salvage, our next stop, we cut through Engineers. That saved us a long trip around. The four of us must have made considerable noise because as we were passing down the main hall of offices, an elderly woman popped out of one of them behind us.
“Hold on there!” she said.
We turned around. She was elderly — short, squarelybuilt, white-haired and obviously well over a hundred, perhaps even as old as Mr. Mbele. She also looked thoroughly sour.
“Well, what is it you’re doing here, making all this noise? Perhaps you don’t realize it, but there is important work being done here.”
Uneasily Jimmy said that we were just passing through on our way to Salvage and that we meant no harm.
“This is not a public highway,” she said. “If you have no business in Engineers, you shouldn’t be here. You children have no sense of fitness. Why are you going to Salvage?”
Jimmy and I were standing just behind Venie and Riggy, and her question was addressed to Jimmy.
“It’s a school assignment,” Jimmy said.
“That’s right,” I chimed in.
Her glance shifted to the other two of us. “What about you?”
Instead of saying the obvious thing, Riggy said, “We’re with them.”
“All right,” the old lady snapped. “You first two go on, but don’t come through here again. The other two of you go on home.”
Venie and Riggy looked helplessly at us, but then they turned and went reluctantly the other way. The old lady really had no right to chase them out, but she was so fierce and unarguable-with that we just couldn’t say a thing. Jimmy and I scooted on our way before she could add anything more, and she watched until both sets of us had definitely done as she said. Some people get a feeling of power from being unpleasant.
Most of all, Salvage smelled interesting. Salvage and Repair are really little enclaves almost surrounded by the much larger Engineers. There are offices and large machines and large projects a-building in Engineers. Salvage and Repair are just the tail end of the dog, without the personnel, resources or neatness of Engineers. Salvage was a crowded room, full of aisles and racks and benches and tables all in a pleasing state of disarray. It looked like the sort of place that you could poke around in for weeks or even months and always turn up something new and interesting. And hanging over it all was the most intriguing and unidentifiable odor I’d come upon. The smell alone was enough to make you want to spend your spare time here.
We peeked cautiously in. There were a couple of technicians working and moving around.
“Come on,” Jimmy said. “I know they have suits here somewhere, probably locked away. We’ll have to poke around.”
We looked around as inconspicuously as possible, Jimmy taking one aisle and me taking the next. I was lost in a pile of broken toys when Jimmy grabbed at my elbow. I jumped.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve found them. They’re two rows over and they’re not locked away or anything. They’re just in a rack.”
“How do you know they’re safe to use?” I said. I nudged a broken doll with my toe. “If they’re like that, we might as well forget it.”
“These aren’t in for repair,” Jimmy said. “These are the ones they’d use themselves if they had to go outside. They’ve got seals on from after the last time they were used. The important thing is how we’re going to sneak them out. Oh-oh, watch out.”
I turned to look. Just down the aisle a pleasant looking technician was coming toward us. He was a short youngish man with mouse-colored hair.
“Well, what can I do for you kids?” he asked.
“I’m Mia Havero,” I said. “This is Jimmy Dentremont.”
“Hello,” he said. “My name is Mitchell.” And waited with eyebrows raised.
I reached into my pocket and took out a couple of folded sheets of paper. Uncertainly I said, “I don’t know if you can help us. Maybe this isn’t the right place.”
Jimmy stayed silent, watching my lead.
Mr. Mitchell said, “Well, we’ll see. What is it that you’ve got?”
I showed him the sketches, Jimmy’s and mine, that I’d taken from the table in Lev Quad, and explained how our names were involved.
“These are just rough,” I said. “What we wanted to do was draw them a little better and then work up pins to wear with these as designs.”
“Hmm,” Mr. Mitchell said. “Yes. I don’t see why not. It may not fall strictly in our province, but it seems a worthwhile idea. I think I can help you. How does ceramic jewelry sound?”
“Great,” Jimmy said. “Could we come down on a Saturday morning?”
Mr. Mitchell said, “There’s usually only one technician on duty on Saturdays, but I suppose…
I said, “Could we make it a week from tomorrow? We have this big soccer game in the quad tomorrow and we really ought to be there.”
“Oh, sure,” Mr. Mitchell said. “I’ll even arrange to nave the duty a week from tomorrow and help you myself.”
After we had thanked him and walked away, Jimmy said, “You certainly can lie. How did you think that one up?
“Which?”
“About the soccer game.”
“I didn’t make that up,” I said. “I was supposed to tell you. The kids want to play soccer tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Jimmy said. “Maybe you aren’t such a good liar, then.”
10
The score in the soccer game in Roth Quad was 5 to 3. Attila and Venie and I were on the losing side.
During the next week we set our plans. With some practice, Attila had that door so well trained that it would practically pop open when he told it to, at least according to Helen. Att looked pleased and didn’t deny it. We had borrowing the suits set up pretty well, too. Jimmy sketched the location of the suits for Venie and Riggy.
“There’ll be just one technician working on Saturday,” Jimmy said, “and he’ll be busy helping Mia and me. All you two have to do is sneak easy. As soon as we can, we’ll join you in the air lock room.”
I had some spare time and Jimmy didn’t, so I took Venie and Riggy down to Salvage for a quick scout around. Mr. Mitchell was in the back, but I made sure we didn’t attract his attention. We were in, I pointed to the suits, and we were out again in no more than twenty seconds. On our way back, though, the same old woman stopped us in Engineers and lectured us again. She had her desk placed so that she could see everybody who passed in the hall — and, I guess, come out to exterminate anyone who she thought had no business being there. Her name, displayed on her desk, was Keithley. She more than awed me. She scared me. As soon as she turned away, we three scooted.
“You’d better not come this way when you have the suits,” I said. “Think what would happen if she caught you.”
Riggy paled and shook his head.