Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (22 page)

She'd never heard of anyone having this
problem. Get trapped in a corridor? That just didn't happen other
than in bad horror movies, and no way did she want to be the first
to prove such a rumor wrong.

She'd found an emergency hatch access, but it
was sealed up tight no matter what her or the bots attacked it
with. What good was an emergency hatch if it didn't open? What a
depressing thought. A maintenance engineer done in by bad
maintenance on an emergency hatch.

Not really fair. All the engineers tried hard.
There was simply too much of Redpoint One and too few of them. A
simple numbers game, and today she came out on the losing end of
it.

At least she'd shared a nice meal with
Ignacio. She wanted a lot more, including a full life right into
geezerhood, but thanks to the Naughty Knitter's Club she'd been
allowed to enjoy a few last moments with Ignacio.

She caught herself, telling herself out loud,
"What horrible thinking."

She needed to think positive. She would get
out of this. She would live to see Ignacio again for another date.
She wouldn't even complain at hissing Irvine. If she found him in a
pipe, she would fish him out and use it as an excuse to see Ignacio
for a few more minutes in the middle of hectic days.

Her bot floated to the surface of the water
with another tool from her submerged supply cart. She averted her
eyes as a welding flame erupted from the end of one of the arms,
aimed at the escape hatch.

Rachel concentrated on breathing slowly, using
as little of the remaining oxygen as she could. Not easy when the
air started to stink thanks to the welding. Okay, she would be glad
for clean air, too. Dry skin. Solid ground. All those little things
people took for granted.

She heard a muffled crack. A few bubbles came
to the surface and popped, bringing with them a new
smell.

Rachel reached up to pound on the surface of
the hatch with a wrench. So close, and now escaped life-support
coolant from a broken pipe somewhere below her was about to kill
her. She tried not to panic as more bubbles rose around
her.

She rested a moment before raising the wrench
again. Her bot worked at the seals around the hatch with the welder
as she banged.

"Do whatever you need to," Rachel told it. "I
don't have much time left."

Her bot chirped while the two bots still
underwater pushed her a little higher into the air pocket. The only
small consolation about the new problem was that once the fumes
from the coolant overwhelmed her she would probably drown without
feeling any pain. As consolations went, she found it a pretty poor
one.

A muffled bang echoed through the small space.
Rachel looked up, confused. Did she hit the hatch again and forgot
about it? Oh great, the fumes were already getting to
her.

Then it came again. Regular taps on the
hatch.

Rachel banged again, and the bangs were
precisely repeated back to her.

So close. Someone knew she was in here. She
must find a way to keep going until someone could get the hatch
open.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

"THIS IS A type of hatch for bots only," Arthur
was saying. "It's not going to open for you."

"Then why can't they open it?" Tish asked,
pointing a tool at her bots working away in the small space along
the edge of the narrow corridor.

"Why isn't any of this area working? None of
us have that answer. I'll check further down. Maybe there is
another door." Arthur stepped past them and kept going.

"But, this is the closest point to Rachel,"
Ignacio said. "There's really no point going further
down."

Tish shrugged as she crouched down to work on
one side of the bots. "Who knows. If he can get a door open maybe
he can get to Rachel from a different direction from the
inside."

Ignacio didn't like hearing so many maybes.
His gut told him they didn't have much time. They should
concentrate on what they knew. At least Tish stayed and worked in
the small space with her bots. The hatch sat under a big pipe,
requiring both of them to slide under on their hands and
knees.

Not that Ignacio could do anything. The most
he could do was hold a light for Tish to work by. Down the corridor
Irvine alternated between splashing around in his water and hissing
at the walls. As long as the little guy hissed, Ignacio knew Rachel
was still okay, so he kept his ears attuned to the
hissing.

Among the next bout of hissing came another
sound. One not from the direction of Irvine's carrier, but in front
of them where the bots were working. "Wait, do you hear
something?"

Tish froze, looking over the bots at him.
"Like what?"

He put a finger to his lips. "Shh. Just
listen."

The bots froze, as well. All went quiet in the
corridor, even Irvine.

Out of the silence came a muffled tap. No, not
a tap. It sounded like a good wallop, but muffled. Right under
where Tish worked.

Tish started, pushing herself up on her elbows
to stare at the hatch. Ignacio searched through the various tools
the bots brought, finding one with a good handle and a heavier
ending.

He reached around a bot, angling the head at
the door and let go with three hard strikes. Then he stopped and
listened.

Hearing no response, he hit three more times,
but with a little more force. The third try gave the response he'd
been silently praying for. Four muffled strikes. He returned the
same number at the same rhythm.

When the taps repeated again, Tish motioned to
one of the bots. "The cutter, now. We either get this thing open or
we start dismantling the wall and welding our way
through."

The bots went to work. Tish pushed herself out
from under the pipe to shout down the corridor,
"Arthur!"

Arthur soon appeared. "Did you get
through?"

"We found her," Ignacio said, pulling back to
give Tish and the bots more room to work. "She just now
responded."

"Is Redpoint One allowing you in?" Arthur
asked, kneeling next to Tish and letting his hand rest on her
hip.

"Redpoint One is not active in this area right
now," Tish said as a bright light flashed from several points
around the hatch. "It won't stop us."

Ignacio stared at the work, even though the
flashes of the cutters from Tish and the bots caused his eyes to
hurt. With a sudden certainty, he said, "She's not doing
well."

"I'll get the others," Arthur stepped around
them to head in the other direction.

He heard a few more taps as the work
continued. He practically shook at the torment of the waiting. He
tried assuring himself that as long as he heard the taps it meant
she was still alive.

A clank preceded a hiss and a trill. Ignacio
nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized the door of the
carrier had come open. He turned and grabbed a fast-running Irvine
before he could get into the cavities of the pipes.

"Now isn't the time, Irvine," Ignacio told
him, trying to turn the carrier around with a knee. The good humor
usually present when dealing with his animals was gone. He
appreciated Irvine's inadvertent help with find Rachel, but this
was going too far.

"I have it!" Tish announced, scrambling out of
the narrow space under the large pipe. Two bots followed, dragging
out the hatch.

"Rachel!" Ignacio called. He didn't hear
anything, but he did see the body of a new bot backing out of the
new open hole.

"That's Rachel's bot," Tish said, jumping to
her knees in excitement. "Rachel, come on out. It's
open."

Rachel didn't answer and the bot didn't move.
It came halfway out of the hatch, but not moving any further. Tish
crouched down with a small flashlight.

"Rachel? Wait, are you holding clothing? Bot,
back up," Tish said.

Ignacio swallowed hard. He knew what was going
on. He eyed Irvine and pushed him into the carrier, snapping shut
the lid. Even as he dove under the pipe he could hear Irvine
working the door to get back.

Well, Irvine might be of an endangered
species, but right now Rachel meant more to him. He moved himself
to the other side of the bot, telling Tish, "I'll grab her. Be
ready to help if I need it."

Tish pulled out of the space to allow him and
Rachel's bot more room while leaving behind the flashlight. "I hear
the others coming."

The light of the flashlight and the bot's eyes
told him he'd been right. Rachel's bot held Rachel's shirt near the
collar. He could see her wet head on the other side of the hatch as
well as the sound of lapping water.

Along with a bad smell.

He reached past the arms of the bot that was
barely holding Rachel above the water. "What is that
stink?"

"It's coolant," he heard Damien say at his
feet. "Bots, we need better ventilation."

Ignacio decided just from the smell of it that
it wasn't good. Rachel had once been responding with something
heavy enough to be heard through the thick hatch, now didn't move,
which meant he needed to get her away from the fumes as soon as
possible.

He pushed himself further into the small
space, angling in under Rachel's bot to get his hands under her
arms. Pulling at the dead weight from such an awkward position
wasn't easy, straining his upper muscles and hands while the edge
of the opening dug into his forearms.

He jerked as a blast of air hit
him.

"Sorry to startle you. Trying to disperse the
fumes," Damien said. "You don't want to breathe them in for very
long."

Good point. He didn't dare lose his grip now
that he almost had Rachel up. Somehow he inched her up despite her
wet slick skin and soaked clothes, getting her head through the
hatch.

He heard a trill come from Irvine.

"Someone grab the newt," Tish
shouted.

"How did it get out?" Arthur
demanded.

Ignacio heard people scrambling across the
floor and a clang against the pipes, quickly followed by a curse
from Arthur. He didn't try to go after Irvine or even look around
for him. All his attention remained on the one person in front of
him.

A little more and Rachel was bent halfway in
and out. She slipped a few more inches forward without Ignacio even
trying.

"I don't even see him anymore," he heard
someone else say.

"Forget Irvine," Ignacio said as he pulled
back further. "I think we have bots helping from the other
side."

One of Tish's bots moved out of the space on
the other side of Rachel's bot to be quickly replaced by Damien. He
grabbed her tool belt and tugged. With the help, Rachel came out
even further, her head limp with her forehead sliding along the
floor.

"On the count of three," Damien
said.

Ignacio solidified his grip, positioning his
legs for one more good pull. At the end of the countdown, he pulled
back, with Rachel coming out of the hatch in one smooth
movement.

Flipping her over and his arms under her arm
and wrapped around her chest, and Damien and Arthur helping with
her legs, they pulled her down the corridor to a wider
section.

"Medical help is on the way," Arthur said as
they laid her down.

Ignacio pulled down her shirt, deformed by
both him and the bot pulling on it. She was breathing. He could see
and feel the slight movements of her rib cage, but her eyes
remained closed. How long had she breathed in the
coolant?

"Just how dangerous is the coolant?" Ignacio
demanded. He propped her up against his knees, hoping it helped her
breathing.

Damien's lips thinned. "Can be deadly. It's
for cooling, not to breathe."

"Relax, both of you," Arthur said. "Help is on
the way."

A deeper breath, and then a soft
sigh.

Music to Ignacio. Into her ear he whispered,
"Rachel? Can you open your eyes?"