She
pulled a folded piece of paper from her...
She
pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket"This
is the map," she said"You have one in your pocket,
tooYou have to use the map to find your way around
in here The map looked to Doon like an immense centipede--the river arched across the top of the page
like the centipede's body, and the tunnels dangled
down from it like hundreds of long, long legs all tangled
up with each otherTo get to Tunnel 97, they followed a complicated
route through passageways lined with crusty, rusted
pipes that carried water to all the buildings of EmberPuddles stood on the floor of the tunnel, and water
dripped in brown rivulets down the wallsJust as in the
main tunnel, there was a string of bulbs along the
ceiling that provided dim lightDoon occupied his
mind by calculating how far underground he wasFrom cheap prada handbags the river to the ceiling of the main tunnel must
be thirty feet or so, he thoughtAbove that were the
storerooms, which occupied a layer at least twenty feet highSo that meant he was fifty feet underground,
44
with tons of earth and rock and buildings above himThe thought made him tense up his shouldersHe cast
a quick glance upward, as if all that weight might collapse
onto his head"Here we are," said ArlinShe was standing next to
a leak that spurted a stream of water straight out from
the wall"We have to turn the shut-off valve, take the
pipe apart, put on a new connector, and stick it back
together again
With wrenches, hammers, washers, and black
goop, they did this, getting soaked in the processIt
took them most of the morning and proved to Doon
that the city was in even worse shape chanel bags collection than he'd suspectedNot only were the lights about to fail and the
supplies about to run out, but the water system was
breaking downThe whole city was crumbling, and
what was anyone doing about it?
When the lunch break came, Arlin took her lunch
sack from a pocket in her tool belt and went off to
meet some friends a few tunnels away"You stay right
here and wait until I get back," she said as she left"If
you wander around, you'll get lost
But Doon set out as soon as she disappearedUsing his map, he found his way back to the main
tunnel, then hurried to the east endHe wasn't going to
wait for special permission to see the generatorHe was
pretty sure he could find a way to get in on his own,
and he didHe simply stood by the door and waited for
45
someone to come outQuite soon, a stout cambon chanel woman
carrying a lunch sack pushed open the door and
walked awayShe didn't notice himBefore the door
could close again, Doon slipped inside
Such a horrendous noise met him that he staggered
backward a few stepsIt was an earsplitting,
growling, grinding, screaming noise, shot through
with a hoarse rackety-rackety sound and underscored
with a deep chugga-chugga-chuggaDoon clapped his
hands over his ears and stepped forwardIn front of
him was a gigantic black machine, two stories highIt
was vibrating so hard it looked as if it might explode
any secondSeveral people wearing earmuffs were
busy around itNone of them noticed him come in
He tapped one of them on the shoulder, and the
person jumped and whirled aroundHe was an old
man, Doon saw, with a deeply lined brown face
"I want to learn about the omega replica watches generator!" Doon
screamed, but he might as well have saved his breathNo one could be heard in the uproarThe old man
glared at him, made a shooing motion with his hand,
and turned back to work
Doon stood and watched for a whileBeside the
huge machine were ladders on wheels that the workers
pushed back and forth and climbed up on to reach the
high partsAll over the room, greasy-looking cans and
tools littered the floorAgainst the walls stood big bins
holding every kind of bolt and screw and gear and
46
lever and rod and tube, all of them black with age and
jumbled togetherThe workers scurried between the
bins and the generator or simply stood and watched
the thing shake
After a few minutes, Doon leftAll his life he had studied how things worked--it was
one of his favorite things to hermes kelly handbag
