The 13th Continuum (Book 1: The Continuum Trilogy)

Chapter 6: The Trial

"If I run faster, then I won't have to think about it."

Myra chanted this to herself as sweat dripped down her forehead. She was breathless and soaked by the time she arrived outside the Academy, a modest building constructed from cinderblocks sealed with concrete. It was nothing com- pared to the opulence of the Church or the Synod's chambers, which occupied all of Sector 6.

Skidding to a halt, she brushed the sweat from her eyes. They were stinging, but whether it was from the tears or the perspiration—or maybe both—she wasn't sure. She doubled over to catch her breath. It took a moment for the dizziness to pass. It must be the allergen release, she thought, remembering the orange flag above the Infirmary.

A second later, Tinker, Kaleb, Paige, and Rickard arrived by her side. They'd all made it before the Final Warning. Everybody was winded, but poor Tinker more so than the rest. Myra was about to say goodbye to him when she spotted three large figures lurking by the school's entrance. Baron Donovan. Gregor Crane. Horace Grint. Their names flashed through her head. They were the reasons that she walked Tinker to school every morning.

"Baron and his crew," Myra said under her breath.

Frustration coursed through her—she hated feeling so helpless. She wanted to walk her brother to his classroom, but she had to leave him outside. The Synod had banned her from coming within one hundred feet of the school.

Kaleb draped his arm protectively over Tinker's shoulders. "Don't worry. We'll make sure he gets to class."

"Thanks. I mean it," Myra said.

She knelt down by her brother and straightened his ruck- sack's straps. She cast a wary glance toward Baron and his crew. "Tink, you know the drill, right? Maude will walk you home after school, and I'll see you when I get off work."

After he had come home with two black eyes in one week, courtesy of Baron and his crew, she'd enlisted Maude's help to keep him safe.

Tinker nodded and waved good-bye. "Later, Engine Rat," Rickard said.

"Don't be a stranger now that you're an apprentice," Paige added, bobbling her armload of textbooks. Kaleb just aimed one of his dazzling smiles at her. Myra felt her heart hiccup in her chest—the traitor.

Then Kaleb steered Tinker toward the school. Her brother was headed for his Third Year classroom, where Mrs. Pritchard would be waiting for him. She was a prim woman who lacked any sense of humor whatsoever, or so Myra thought. She'd been her teacher, too.

Myra watched him walk away, his rucksack bouncing on his shoulders, until he vanished inside the school with her friends, swallowed up by the gray cinderblocks.

o o o

Myra was halfway across the Souk when the entire sector plunged into darkness again, and the tone rang out three times. This was the Final Warning—she was officially late.

She needed a way get to work quickly. Though most of the Patrollers were probably at the execution, she didn't want to risk being caught out in the corridors. Her eyes swept up and down the Souk. The Hockers, even the few stragglers, had already packed up and left for the day.

Myra stole across the empty market to the far side. To her right was the corridor that led to Sector 4, which housed the Engineering Room—but she didn't go that way.

Instead, she knelt next to a grate set unobtrusively into the wall. She slipped her hands through the narrow slats, felt around, and unfastened the latch. She glanced back to make sure she wasn't being watched, and then slithered through the tight opening and into the pipe. The grate snapped shut behind her, locking into place with a satisfying click. This pipe only carried air, so it was safe. She fished out her flashlight and aimed the beam into the murky darkness.