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He went outside.
He did it without thinking, and it wasn’t until the cold air struck his face that he realized the explosion and the fire could have been the glass of the main dome, that he was ru
The fire raged on the other side of the glass.
Diego stared, his mouth hanging open. The ice coated on the dome melted in long, pale streaks. It turned to water that turned to steam. The fire didn’t seem that far away. It was close enough that its glow drowned out the red light of the sign. Diego took a shaking step backward. He wasn’t sure if fire could burn through the snow. He wasn’t sure what could even burn at all out there. They didn’t put the private domes on this side of the city. Too cold, too far away from the train stations.
And then the service entrance slid open. Cold air and black smoke billowed in. Diego slammed up against his car and fumbled around for his gun. He didn’t know what to make of that open service entrance. He didn’t know what to make of any of it.
The maintenance drones arrived, gliding two by two over the glass, disappearing out the entrance. He watched them go, like ants.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
MARIANELLA
The ground shook.
Marianella was stretched out on a divan in the Ice Palace, trying to sleep after a night of restless tossing. The sensation only lasted for thirty seconds before disappearing. The earth was moving and then it wasn’t. Marianella lay motionless, waiting for the shudder to happen again. It didn’t.
She sat up. That burst of movement wasn’t something a human would feel; it was her robot body, fine-tuned to recognize patterns in the world around her. But this wasn’t a pattern. It was a single occurrence.
Something was wrong.
She went to find Sofia. The palace was empty and echoing, and she cast long dark shadows along the walls as she walked through the hallways. She had to get to operations, where one of the computers was programmed to track the movements of robots in the park. Sofia had shown her how to access it, after that night in the ballroom. The night that had brought everything back.
Marianella burst out into the chilled, shimmering night. The gardens rustled around her. She fingered the cross at her neck and whispered the Fatima prayer to herself, over and over. But praying didn’t help.
Something had happened. She felt it shuddering through her bones, just as she had felt the movement in the ground. It was like the night the warehouse had caught on fire.
The entire way to operations, she kept one hand on her necklace, feeling her heart beat beneath it.
Marianella expected to find operations empty, but to her relief Sofia was sitting in the room’s center, mooning over the big hulking computer that had once controlled all the attractions in the Ice Palace. Marianella didn’t know what it did now.
“Did you feel that?” she asked from the doorway, still touching her cross, still touching her heart.
Sofia glanced at her. She didn’t answer right away. Marianella could see that she was considering lying.
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.” She was hooked into her computer, a thin wire emerging from behind her ear. She couldn’t be that deeply hooked, though, not if she was able to speak with Marianella. “I don’t know everything that happens in the city.”
“You want to run it someday,” Marianella snapped. “It seems like you’d keep track of things.”
Sofia regarded her coolly, then turned back to the computer. “I’m monitoring the park. To ensure no one is coming for you or the human girl.”
Marianella’s cheeks warmed. She couldn’t put her frustration into words. She looked out over the operations room. It was still full of old human artifacts, not just the electronics that ran the park but old photographs and stacks of triplicate forms and pens. Sofia had shoved it all into the storage shelves in the corner, and it was there that Marianella spotted a radio.
Marianella walked over to the shelf and collected the radio. Sofia glanced at the movement but said nothing. Marianella plugged it into the wall. It erupted into life, the speaker turned too high to a station that was no longer there. Static roared through the room.
Sofia detached herself from the computer.
Marianella spun through the dial and stopped on the news station.
“No word yet from the city offices about the explosion, but reporters are standing by.”
“Sofia,” Marianella said in a low, warning tone.
“I haven’t done anything.”
Marianella took a few steps away from the radio, her arms crossed over her chest, and listened.
“One thing is for certain: the explosion did not occur at the main dome, and as of right now Hope City is in no danger of freezing or losing power. However, train lines have been shut down and will remain so indefinitely. It’s suggested that people return to their homes in case of further emergency.”
An explosion outside the main dome. That meant one of the private domes, where the wealthy lived. Where Southstar was. Where—
“No,” she whispered, thinking of the rows of corn, the wheat, the fruit. Hope City is in no danger of freezing. But something was.
“I have with me Dr. Raul Alvarez, a roboticist for the city, who assures me this is in no way caused by a mechanical failure. Dr. Alvarez—”
“Told you I didn’t have anything to do with it.” Sofia appeared behind Marianella and put her hand on Marianella’s waist. Marianella closed her eyes. Dr. Alvarez prattled on about the safety of the maintenance drones. “Where was it?” Marianella said, and she picked up the radio and shook it like it might give her the answers. “Which dome was it?”
Dr. Alvarez continued with his analysis. Marianella slumped down. Sweat prickled over her skin. How human of her.
Gently, Sofia took the radio out of her hands and set it on the table.
“I’m sure your house is fine,” Sofia said. “Cabrera wants me to kill you, don’t you remember?”
“Why would I care about my house?” Marianella took a deep breath. “I’m worried—” She didn’t want to say it, because saying it out loud might make it real.
“Thank you, Dr. Alvarez. For those of you just tuning in, another explosion has occurred, this one outside the city walls.”
Marianella took deep gulping breaths, and Sofia pulled her close, lay her chin on Marianella’s shoulder.
“The explosion has damaged a private dome. No word yet on who it belongs to or if anyone was harmed, but it appears it was not a place of residence.”
“Oh God.”
“You don’t know for certain,” Sofia said. “It could have been one of the private parks.”
“And how do you know that?” Marianella snapped. “You sent one of your drones to bomb a park?”
“No, of course not. I promise you. I swear to you.”
A forcefulness that Marianella did not expect reverberated through Sofia’s voice.
“I’ll send you a maintenance drone,” Sofia said. “Look back through its memory files. You’ll see I had nothing to do with this. If I had to guess the culprit, it would be Cabrera. He knows I haven’t killed you yet. He’s probably trying to draw me out—draw both of us out.”
Marianella wiped at her eyes, which were itching with imminent tears. She hadn’t heard from Alejo since he’d come down to the park the day after the ball. What if he hadn’t been able to pay off Cabrera, even as the AFF? She should have expected this.
“I have to find out for sure,” Marianella said. “If it’s my dome or not.”
“You can access the maintenance drones from the park call box, then.”
“I can’t. The ag drones can’t be accessed remotely. And I’m not sending one of the park drones either,” Marianella added before Sofia could say anything. “They’ll draw too much attention if it is the dome.” Marianella’s voice wavered. She shook her head. “No, I’m going myself.”