Chapter Nine
I hopped into the very back of the canoe as Recaro took his place at the front. I looked around and said, “Where’s the oars?”
“There aren’t any,” Recaro replied. “The current from that waterfall pushes the boat just fine.”
He grabbed the rusty, metal chain of an anchor that wrapped around the first bench. He pulled on it with great strength as his face reddened with tiny drops of sweat. “Hey, come help me,” he gasped.
A couple of the other patrollers went up and helped him pull on the chain. After a couple seconds, they were slowly pulling the heavy anchor up from the water. The entire canoe shook as they hauled it onboard, hitting the curved wooden floor with a loud clang. Recaro sat down with a sigh of relief. The other patrollers did the same.
“Thanks for helping, Sarrol,” Recaro said in a raspy voice as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.
“This sissy here . . .” Sarrol began to say.
“Stop that!” Recaro yelled. “He’s not a patroller! Maybe I should tell the Empress that you haven’t been doing your job!”
The other patrollers snickered quietly as Sarrol’s face reddened in either anger or embarrassment. “You wouldn’t . . .” his voice trailed off. “You know I’m loyal to the Empress.”
“I know that.” Recaro’s eyes softened. “But to be honest, I think the Empress allowing you to become a patroller was a mistake.”
Sarrol looked up from his shoes and stood up, rocking the boat as he did so. “You’re kidding, right?” He let out a nervous laugh. But when he saw Recaro’s unchanged expression, he said quietly, “Are you?”
Recaro shook his head. “We’ll discuss this privately. As for now, we need to get going.”
Sarrol sat down and put his face in his hands. I looked at him with a pang of guilt. Was part of this my fault? I contributed to his childish behavior in front of Recaro. But I kept myself from defending Sarrol, for something didn’t seem entirely right. The way he treated Ellie and the way they were both talking about some sort of law made for an unusual predicament. I decided to keep my distance until I figured everything out.
Nobody said a word as the boat gradually gained speed under the influence of the current created from the waterfall behind. We soon came to an area where the aqueduct was split in half by two, large pipes. We took the pipe to the right, slowly devoured by its darkness. “The other pipe goes down to the city,” Recaro explained, probably in an attempt to escape the growing tension.
“How?”I asked, remembering how it befuddled me beforehand. “Isn't the city separated from here?”
“Yes. The water that is carried down the other pipe eventually flows into another Teleporter, which is then beamed to water tanks connected to the homes and facilities of the citizens. That particular Teleporter, by the way, is rigged so that it is in constant function, unlike the one you used to get up here.” He went into full detail about how the aqueduct was always filled with water from the runoff that was given from the constant snowmelt and rainfall that occurred in the mountains. The water would snake down their sides and into the river of the valley I had seen earlier, snaking up pipes and carried with other forms of machinery, manned by hundreds of Service-Bots. Through the machinery they controlled, the mountain water would eventually make it to the pipe that would spew into the main aqueduct, the one we were currently floating down.
After this long, detailed explanation, we were once again left in an awkward silence. I looked ahead, although there wasn't much to look at. The reflection from the drifting water provided little light in the damp, humid tunnel, leading me to wonder if it was possible to get lost within it's corridors.
