Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

32: Skybox

I woke up in bed beside Lil, though the previous night had mostly consisted of me trying to show my appreciation of her efforts exclusively through cuddling. She wasn't happy with me though, just tolerant. She let me kiss her once before I left in the afternoon.

I had let myself sleep shamelessly in, all too willing to waste hours in bed instead of worry about what was coming for me at the end of the day. Truthfully, I was really craving sexual intercourse, but Lil was not in the mood and I didn't really want to do it with anyone else at the moment.

Stacy came to collect in the morning, but I wasn't up then, and the air smelled like he had been smoking a great deal when I finally came down in the afternoon.

"My work is all done. This place looks deserted."

"I've lost much of what I had."

"I asked you to build a following with this day in mind. And you lost it all before then."

"I'm not happy with it. But they should be providing a bit of a distraction in the mean time. Hopefully."

"I don't need a distraction. I have my bombs set. I need a riot."

"Surely you have other resources available to begin one within your vast web of contacts?"

"I need this one. A bunch of cultists is the perfect excuse for literally anything. If I send off a prison riot or a police riot or the likes, then we'll have the public reevaluating those systems. If a bunch of cultists go crazy, the public can just agree with me when I sigh and call them lunatics."

"They're out of my control now."

"They are." He said. "So we have a small change of plan. Come on. We're heading to the edge of Pride."

Stacy of course had not warned the militia or the like about the invasion later tonight, so there was no sense of forbidding in the city streets. It was the month of November. There was discussion of snow, and Thanksgiving, and how cold it was. There were a few people playing instruments in the streets. A couple wild birds had somehow found their way into the city as well, and they wandered through the crowds to collect scraps of food.

"I could have done this from the start." Stacy said. "But I didn't think I'd need to."

At the very edge of the city, the facade of city-hood was lost in the great circumference of the dome that housed it. There were still screens here, showing the pale grey sky, but this close you could almost see the dots that made up the images.

And below the twelve foot line, there simply were no screens. Just a white metal edge. Every so often a number was spray painted next to a plain and heavily locked door.

Stacy had the key, of course, or really keys- besides three metal locks, there was also a cardreader and a numpad.

"This is the heaviest security I've seen in Hell. You keep your pit and headquarters under less locks."

"There's no good reason for that, but it could be said that this place is more important."

I wanted to question that as Stacy had me strain myself pulling the rusted steel door. Beyond it was just a dark and narrow staircase. Stacy encouraged me to take the lead, something I at first attributed to his figure- but he had no trouble keeping pace with me, so I ended up determining he was likely sending me first to act as his shield.

I couldn't exactly complain. The ascent was filled with the sound of our metallic footsteps and a distant whir of machinery. It was too dim to be remarked upon. I barely stopped myself from walking into the door at the top, as the tedium had caused me to simply default to the endless climb.