EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

"Set it up then." There was a lengthy pause. When Room finally came back online, her voice sounded bright and cheerful.

"I have set you up a meeting for March 10th."

"That's in two weeks."

"Which gives us plenty of time to have fun! Who knows, maybe another Vanquisher will join us before then."

"Right," Day said. She strode to her apartment door.

"Wait, where are you going? You haven't had breakfast..."

Day's apartment was on the outer circumference of the Living Dome—a five thousand square meter tropical oasis that self-regulated like a living organism.

She closed her apartment door and paused on the walking trail that circled the dome. The walking-trail was over a kilometer long and linked all eight hundred separate living quarters. Yesterday, when she'd asked the guide droid exactly how many apartments and suites were occupied, it claimed it couldn't access the information.

Day breathed in the sweet fragrance of citrus trees, and jasmine, richly fertile soil, and clean organic pools. Parrots cawed and swooped through the tall trees, two-meter long fluorescent fish swam in the Olympic-sized pool. Flamingos perched on old tree stumps by the pool shore and pygmy rabbits, saved from near-extinction, hopped about in the undergrowth.

There were numerous, smaller living domes scattered through the Arc, but they were nowhere near as beautiful or exotic, and people didn't hang out in them. Every inch of dome space was used for growing food, recycling water, and composting waste, to feed the Arc's one million inhabitants. No room for tropical fish or exotic birds.

Day headed for the first intersection where you could either continue going around the circumference, head into the jungle oasis, or leave the living dome. She left the dome and headed towards a tunnel, leading back to the entrance from the Arc into the Vanquisher's World.

The guide droid that had accompanied her everywhere in the last forty-eight hours appeared around a corner, hurrying forwards. When she saw Day she slowed to an efficient walking pace, hands clasped together, a smile from ear to ear.

"Good morning, Miss Hollis! I wasn't expecting to see you so early!"

Another hundred meters and Day would be at the white, guarded door which she'd used to enter the Vanquisher's World.

"May I ask where you are going?" the guide said, falling into place beside Day.

"I'm bored. I'm leaving."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Day could see the opaque doorway and the dark gray silhouettes of the guards. She quickened her step.

"I'm going home."

"Home!"

"I'll be back in two weeks for my meeting with the Committee."

"No!" the guide jumped in front of her, blocking the corridor.

Day knew they couldn't let her walk out of here two days after she'd beaten the Chimera Uni-verse. The Vanquisher's World was the Holy Grail of the Arc. Their fragile social order depended on the promises it held—glory, wonder, and the most heroic challenge of all, the Multiverse.

"Unless," Day said, lingering on the word as though the idea was forming at that moment. "Unless you can get my meeting with the Committee bumped up in the schedule. I mean, it's not like they've got hundreds of vanquishers to see before me."