Link City

Pipe Dream *

Chapter 23: Pipe Dream

It did not sting to open my eyes under water. It was neither salty nor chlorinated. The interspersed light beams let me get a fairly good view of my immediate surroundings. Although I wasn't yet out of breath, I swam up to the nearest one, pressing my lips to it. It wasn't big enough to fit my head through, but it allowed me to take a breath.

The space through which I swam was very small. If I dove down too far my leg would brush against the bottom. I swam around the perimeter of the room, frequently stopping to take breaths of air through the holes. I'd never been claustrophobic but it was starting to get to me. There was something about having no empty space at the top to escape to. I was starting to feel like Skye's plan wouldn't work after all and that there was no way to drain the water—that it would start building up like it had in the side hallways—when I saw it. There was a big, circular port in the wall, right underneath where I was pretty sure the right side doorway was.

Taking one more breath of air, I swam through it. Directly on the other side was a vertical pipe about a meter in diameter. Without really thinking about it I swam upwards. Right when I was beginning to feel a burning in my lungs my head broke the surface, and I gasped in relief, sucking in the stale air. I would never take oxygen for granted again.

It was dark in the tube and I could not see how long it went up for. Maybe this drainage system could not be activated manually. Maybe it was simply supposed to fill up then leek gradually out of the top. And even if it wasn't how did we know that there was enough water down here to get us to the top. But we had to try. Maybe there was even a way to check on the computer if it would work.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs completely, then I swam back down the pipe and out through the hole. Taking a quick breath of air, I swam the rest of the way back without stopping, emerging breathless to Skye standing nervously over me. She offered me a hand and I took it, mostly letting her pull me from the water and to a sopping collapse on the floor. I hated the feeling of swimming in my clothes.

“I found it,” I said, getting slowly to my feet. “There's a pipe that we can fit through, but I don't know how far up it goes or if there's enough water to get us to the surface.”

Skye looked behind her. “Well the computer says that a draining is more than overdue.”

I nodded, a little bit soothed. “There's a hole over underneath the right side door. That takes you into the drainage pipe. Do you know how to activate it?”

Skye nodded. “You go back under. I'll turn it on then try to be quick.”

“I don't like that idea,” I said. “Maybe I should wait here with you.”

She shook her head. “We'll just get in each others' way.”

More like I'd get in hers. I hated to hear it, but it was true.

“You can wait near the entrance to the hole, make sure I can find it.”

I nodded, looking apprehensively at the dark water. I hadn't realized how cold I was until I'd been out of the water a few minutes. Now I dreaded returning to it. Skye began to walk over to the computer terminal. We didn't have much time. Who knew how long it was going to be until the agents over road our lock down?

Sighing heavily, I plunged back into the cold depths. This time I swam all the way to the drainage pipe without stopping. Right outside the entrance I floated up to the closest hole, pressing my lips to it and taking shallow breaths. It felt awkward, floating with my head tilted back, waiting, so between each inhale I would move my mouth away from the hole and let a long string of bubble escape from my nose.