The Foundry | Part Three | Chapter Thirty-Three
the next chapter of my forthcoming novel
The Foundry
by Daphne Garrido
Part Two | Rebuilt; Refound; Reclaimed
Part Three | Dominion
Part Four | Unmasked; Unbound; Unleashed
Chapter Thirty-Three
Echo was lamenting herself being faced with ‘another one of these’ type-situations, feeling the beginnings of cramping in her ankles and back, borne from that run amidst the thundering roar now building towards crescendo all around — emanating through the very walls of The Foundry — her trek already having taken so much out of her.
She’d been sprinting nonstop now for minutes, listening to that echoed screeching grow, and it was dawning on her that being alone might prove disastrous. It had been those wisest reflections of her friends which steered her towards right action when Leopold had led herself and Rory topside after the explosion.
The simulation hall was nearest. She’d re-charted her course there a bit later than might’ve been most optimal for success, at least, in taking that corner at full speed without smashing into the wall a bit.
No one was around, and Echo had previously found that fact a burden. After a moment, it would begin to worry her again.
‘Where the fuck is everybody?’ We’re the words running through her mind.
She’d finally seen Chloe lingering in the doorway of the simulation hall, and they proved a sight for sore eyes to Echo. She’d given them a hug when she’d seen how scared they were, reflecting on the ways she’d been so mean of late, and how their heart had lit up so brightly in her own as they’d been close.
Echo hadn’t even realized it yet, but that perfectly served the building of a friendship which she’d later utilize ruthlessly for the realization of her great plan.
That simulation of Atreya would prove a troublesome notion to forget about for Echo, and she’d see the smile they’d flashed her in that hallway every time they shared a fresh one. Perhaps, once she found some way to forgive them — Echo was thinking as they’d walked inside — Chloe wouldn’t be smiling at her so often.
Leopold was behind his station, looking down at a touchscreen and scrolling through slides most judiciously. There were two others beside him, initiates Echo hadn’t spoken with directly; Lidia and Jeremiah, a chosen pair who’d been working with more commitment than any others in their class since the attacks.
Poe was certain they were fucking, but they’d not shown a hint of physical chemistry in public. She’d a history of pairing people in her mind by fantasy, as Echo most accurately remembered from their past, but she thought Poe was on to something with this one. There was a moment Echo had been pleased to report back on, where a hand was placed in a quite conspicuous place, especially for an only known touch between two who’d spent such time together.
Lidia placed her hand on Jeremiah’s belly — highly interesting — while clearly mistaking herself as being unobserved in the cafeteria.
The Council’s Consolers self-proclaimed ‘B-Squad’ would carve out their own little objectives, and while Echo was most knowing about the silliness of it all, she enjoyed it even more because Poe didn’t seem to share her awareness in the slightest.
The sounds of screaming, grinding metallic fury had seemed to reach a plateau as Echo waited impatiently for Leopold to finish whatever he was up to. She’d pulled out her own terminal to check — confirming herself to have not received incoming from Alan — she’d been messaging him since all this began, despite her recent discovery.
Echo had been on the way to find Poe with that information loaded into her data-chip, now stowed in the pocket of her bomber, when the eruption of audible fury began. There’d not been a single alert or bulletin post on any channel since that moment, only the terrible screeching roar. It felt as if it was everywhere, although, there were moments where Echo was quite sure its source was somewhere above.
Poe and Rory were side by side as they’d borne themselves into the space in deceleration, from what had obviously been a sprint of their own, and there were hints of its length portrayed by their gasping breaths of inhalation.
Echo had been caught between two sights; her attention pulled equally towards both in those seconds where she’d still been unsure of the conclusions now being drawn within. Rory was clearly trying to catch her breath enough to say something, having given up on that first attempt and taking hands to knees. Simultaneously, Leopold had gone to the floor and begun tearing through the cabinet below his console.
Struck with an odd sense of nearing importance, misinterpreting the notion entirely, and resolving it the choice of where she should be looking — had been when her terminal vibrated.
Alan had confirmed what she’d been beginning to believe. Not only just the source of that sound, but through implication of his message, she’d found it quite possible to infer his own hidden network’s complicity with it all. Alongside the ultimate purposes of this now most clearly dire situation.
Rory had finally asked the question she’d been trying to get out.
“What’s happening?”
Echo told her straight, “It’s The Great Generator.”
Everyone in the room had seemed to react with some bodily movement or vocal reaction to her words. Alan’s briefest message had said just that, a statement bypassing her other questions to simply say, “It’s the generator.”
She’d been waiting for some other response, most specifically for Alan to tell her where he was. It didn’t take long for Echo to resolve he wouldn’t, and that she’d not waste her time trying to get more out of him. There was still a shred of hope for Alan within Echo, a way she might imagine him as some prisoner to all he’d most clearly become part of.
One of Echo’s intuitions, previously hidden within the worry she’d had as Rory enacted her subterfuge upon Jocé Remance, was proven true by all she uncovered in Alan’s message history. There was a webbing of deceitful subversion composed by many throughout The Foundry, a mass of fellows who’d some hand in supporting all which was transpiring. While each individual’s ultimate complicity was in question, their general awareness of what they’d become a part of had been clear. Whatever force so looking to overthrow the administration of The Foundry’s highest leadership truly was, or how they’d managed to tangle these people into it all, there’d been a most apparent finding within those messages; nobody really knew what was going on, they were just following orders.
Leopold interrupted this great debate and discovery taking place inside Echo’s mind. He’d risen from behind the console in haste and finally acknowledged his compatriots with a stress-ridden attempt of a smile.
“I got it,” he’d said. Holding up a drive in his hand for them to see.
“It wasn’t Jocé, but I found something.”
There was an extenuated moment where the sounds bearing down upon them from The Great Generator itself, had ceased entirely, causing the room of peers to go completely stiff in its silence.
Echo had looked to Rory and Poe, grateful to have them near most after their recent time spent together, and then to Chloe, who’d been in conversation with Lidia and Jeremiah, themselves now grasping each other most tightly; a sight later reflected upon with great pleasure by the ‘B-Squad’. Finally, she’d felt Leopold come to stand beside her and reached to grasp his arm.
She’d told them then what she knew, “They’re trying to jump us.”
