Chapter 4

Archivists On The Loose

Outsiders! thought Weskar, with a mingled thrill of fear and excitement. Official history books described them as dangerous revolutionaries. Weskar’s devout parents would be shocked if they knew he was associating with Outsiders.

The assembled canines scrutinised Weskar from around the small table, their sombre faces emphasised by shadows from the single overhead light globe. They didn't look subversive. He turned his gaze towards Rayone. “Is Sam involved with your cause? He never mentioned anything to me.”

The Dane nodded. “He's always loved fixing things, as you know. He made certain enquiries regarding the designs and the history of the city mechanisms. Alenna decided to introduce him our little underground movement (if you will pardon the pun) – before his interest drew unwanted attention from the Prefect. Like us, he believes that the Protectors were mere mortals, and this city was not meant to last forever.”

“But —” Weskar began.

Rayone held up a paw. “Time is short, I'm afraid. I hope you can answer some of our questions regarding your activities last night.”

So Weskar had to go through the story of their explorations once more, this time to an audience of much older canines of higher status. He was interrupted by questions twice, and by a low growl from the big Mastiff when he described their encounter with the Prefect. Rayone, however, remained silent and composed.

When Weskar had finished his story, the Mastiff rose to his feet. Muscles bulged beneath the soft fabric of his expensive shirt, its dark brown complimenting the light tan of his thin fur. Shrewd eyes appraised the younger Shepherd.

“Thank you, Weskar. I am Roland, the Marshall of the Records.” His resonant voice commanded the attention of the room. Like Rayone, he seemed accustomed to authority.

“Our fears have finally come true. A critical piece of the city machinery has failed. Even if other systems continue to function, our time here is now limited.” He turned to Weskar again. “Tell us, as best as you can, how long you think the Kibble supply will last.”

Weskar swallowed, not used to being the centre of such attention. He thought hard. Consumption was around twenty tonnes per month. How big was a tonne of Kibble? How big was the vault? He wrestled with the maths. Pi times the diameter.... Sam would be much better at this, he thought. He addressed the group. “There is enough for a month or two. Not much longer than that, I think.”

“In that case,” the Mastiff continued gravely, “we are short of time. We need to discover the way out of this city, and soon. Then we need to either convince our fellow canines to leave, or else be prepared to lead them out when the Kibble supply stops and panic ensues.”

The others nodded their agreement. Weskar scratched his ear with a paw, then decided he had to ask at least one question. “Is it possible to leave the city?” he enquired. The broken machinery gave him cause to question the will of the Protectors, but the notion of a world ‘Outside’ was an ancient myth. Weskar had seen the solid rock beyond the walls with his own eyes.

Rayone nodded. “The city design included a robust power system and food and water supplies which have lasted for over a thousand years, if the records are to be believed. But nothing lasts forever. Whatever crises they were protecting us from, it must surely be over by now - and the machines are finally starting to fail.”

They don’t believe in the Protectors at all! The realisation shocked Weskar, but somewhere in his soul a tiny spark of rebellion flickered into life.

Roland’s heavy jowls rippled as he nodded in agreement. “There is a way out somewhere, designed to be used by the entire population of this city.”

Alenna had been sitting silently, but now she jumped to her feet, and steely resolve showed in her bright eyes. “We’ll find it!”

A ripple of agreement moved around the table, and more than one tail wagged. Was it relief that someone else had volunteered? Rayone's face, however, remained stern.

“Are you aware of the consequences of this action, Alenna? We don’t know what dangers lie outside the walls of the city, and you may not be able to return when the Prefect hears of it.”

Alenna nodded to the older bitch. “We know the dangers, but I’d rather be doing something instead of sitting here waiting for the food to run out.”

“And does our friend Weskar agree?” Her voice remained stern, but the Shepherd thought he saw a twinkle in her eyes.

“I...” he hesitated, then looked at Alenna. Her eyes flashed as she dared him to disagree. She intimidated him, yet something in the determined set of her features and the red-furred curves of her slender body made his heart flutter. He wanted desperately to prove himself worthy and win her respect. An adventure with the feisty but enticing Ridgeback suddenly seemed like an interesting prospect, even if they found nothing beyond the walls. “I’m ready!” he finished “But what about Sam?”

Rayone frowned. “Most likely he will be charged with heresy and locked up for a few months. If we do manage to find a way out, they will have to release him – which makes it all the more important that you succeed.”

This was hardly a satisfying answer, but Weskar didn’t know what else to say. The Mastiff spoke up in his gruff voice. “We are agreed, then. No more time to waste. You will start this morning; I believe you know as much as anyone about where to begin, Alenna, since you have been studying the records. In the mean time, I will put the word around and see if we have any chance of challenging the Prefect – although I doubt it.”

There was a scraping of chairs as the meeting adjourned and the canines got to their feet. They all sniffed noses with Weskar and Alenna, in a gesture of comradeship which Weskar found both pleasing and daunting given the high rank of many in the assembly. Then everyone except Rayone said a belated “Goodnight” and departed.

The older bitch looked them over. “You’ll need equipment. Come this way.” She led them to the back of the room, where steel shelves stacked high with binders covered the wall. The tall Dane grasped a shelving unit which looked exactly like the others. It swung outwards, and she ducked into a hidden annex. A dim light globe in the corner revealed a pile of boxes and several rucksacks.

Rayone opened a box and took out a stack of neat paper parcels, and Weskar’s nose detected Kibble. From another box, she retrieved bottles of water. “We have been putting aside some of our food allowance for a while now, just in case,” she explained. Finally, she produced two electric torches, each with a spare battery pack. The younger canines helped her load the rucksacks. Eyeing the Kibble packs, Weskar estimated they could survive for a week or so if they could find fresh water.

“Now, my young friends, I am going to give you something which is extremely dangerous.” She opened a safe on the wall, and withdrew a large book with a plain grey cover. “This is a copy of our ongoing work – it is what we assembled of the original New Hope City Structions, pieced together from all the fragments we have found.”

Weskar blinked. Every puppy learned passages from the Structions. Weskar could still hear the droning voice of his junior school teacher as she recited the well-known story.

“Once, long ago, a great Oracle called the Library Computer stood at the front of the Holy Admin Building. Deep knowledge filled the oracle, and it would answer any question. But it spoke in riddles and the Canines argued over what it meant. The Protectors looked down and were not pleased. ‘The Canines are confused!’, they said. ‘Let us send a Prophet to guide them.’ So the Protectors caused a Holy Fire of Enlightenment which burned up the Library Computer oracle, and then they visited First Prefect Wilkes. He wasn’t First Prefect yet, but the Protectors knew that Wilkes was pure of heart. So they gave him the Structions, full of wise teaching. And when the Canines saw how wise the Structions were, they made Wilkes the First Prefect so that he could help them all to live in harmony. After that, there was no more confusion.”

Weskar shook off the puppy-hood memory. His teachers had never mentioned a pre-fire version of the holy book, although the modern Structions had been reinterpreted several times. “You mean...the actual original Structions?”

Rayone nodded slowly. “What is left of them. There were written copies, in case the computer failed – which it did. The designers of the city thought they were of great importance. However, most of the books were lost... Or deliberately destroyed.”

“Destroyed? Why would someone destroy the original Structions?”

“Perhaps they had a version better suited to their purposes. There are schemes within schemes in this city, young pup. You should remember that.”

Rayone slipped the book into Weskar’s pack. “Much is missing, and what’s left doesn’t make a lot of sense. Perhaps you will have time to look it over, and you might find something that helps you.”

With that, she turned on her heel and led them out of the store room and down the passageway. Just inside the door to the street, she stopped. “Farewell, my young friends,” she told them. “Good luck, and I hope for all our sakes you find the way out.”

They touched noses with her in a traditional canine good luck gesture, then she waved them out the door. It clicked shut, leaving Alenna and Weskar alone in the dark alley.

The young Shepherd contemplated his companion. Shadows obscured her face, but Weskar could still sense her determination. She looked ready for adventure in her sturdy clothes and with a rucksack dangling from her shoulder. He couldn’t help but smile despite their situation, and his tail gave a wag.

“Okay, where do we start?”

She hooked her forepaws into her pack straps. “First up, I have a little job to do. Follow me, and don’t ask questions.”

Weskar had no choice but to fall in behind her once more. He could soon tell that she was making for the jail, retracing his route of the previous evening. Then she took a detour, so that they arrived via a dark alleyway which ended opposite the squat building. She paused in the shadows and studied the entrance for a few seconds.

Weskar couldn't contain his curiosity. “What are we doing here?” he whispered.

“Fancy adding a jailbreak to your list of crimes?”

“But Rayone said....”

“There’s no way in hell we’re leaving Sam to rot in there.” She thought for a few more seconds. “I think a bold approach is required. Follow me!”

Alenna stepped out of the alley and strode across the street, with Weskar right behind. Inside the lobby, the guard was reading a magazine. He looked up as the slender young female sauntered up to him.

“I was thinking,” she began in a soft and beguiling voice, “I know it’s not Visiting Hours yet, but we’d really like to see our friend Sam. Couldn’t you...” She leaned seductively over the desk. “maybe... bend the rules a little?”

The guard’s eyes opened wider, but he was not going to be persuaded that easily. “Huh!” he snorted. “If you think —”

But he didn’t get any further, for as he took a breath to speak, Alenna raised a small spray bottle. She released a puff of something right under his nose, and before he could finish his sentence, his eyes closed and he slumped down in his chair, sound asleep.

Alenna straightened up and dropped the bottle back into her pocket as she winked at Weskar. “You’d be surprised what you can learn in the archives! We should have about twenty minutes before he wakes up.”

An electric lock on the cell-block door stumped them until Weskar found a button on the side of the guard’s desk. Down a cold, sparse corridor and through another heavy door, they came to the cells. Right at the end, behind a wall of solid bars, they could see a big shaggy shape.

Sam looked tired and dishevelled, but otherwise unharmed. When he saw them, his long tail wagged briskly in his enthusiasm, creating a breeze and stirring up dust. A surge of joy swept through Weskar when he saw his friend again, and they embraced through the bars. Then Sam nodded to Alenna. “And what are YOU doing here in the middle of the night?” he asked.

“Busting you out! Unless you’d prefer to remain as a guest of the Prefect.”

The big dog grinned. “Show me the way! And on the way out I’d like to lodge a complaint. The bed is most uncomfortable!” Then his face grew more serious, and he pointed at a control panel on the wall outside the cell. “However, unless the guard was kind enough to give you the lock combination, as well as letting you in, we may be here a while.”

“You leave that to me, big boy,” replied Alenna with a smirk. She rummaged around in her rucksack and withdrew a small package. Wires protruded from a circuit board on the back, connected to a switch. Alenna set about fastening it to the cell door in the vicinity of the lock mechanism.

At that moment, a new and distinctive smell came to Weskar’s nose. He raised a paw and signalled for quiet. “Someone’s coming!” he whispered.

Alenna was holding the device in one paw while she worked on it. With her other paw she fished out her spray bottle and handed it to Weskar, then pointed towards the doorway.

The young Shepherd swallowed nervously as he trotted back to the entrance. He had no idea what he was going to do. He just had time to get behind the door and make sure the little bottle was snug in his paw before one of the Prefect’s Rottweiler guards strode in.

The guard stopped just inside, frowning as he assessed the situation at the far end of the room. His features registered surprise, followed closely by a snarl of anger. Before he could move, Weskar stepped up beside him. “Thank the Protectors you are here!” he said, trying to keep the squeak out of his voice. “I think they’re trying to escape!”

As the guard swung around to identify the new speaker, Weskar raised the spray bottle and pumped furiously. The Rottweiler barely had time to open his mouth before he thudded to the floor.

Unfortunately, Weskar had pumped too hard, and a waft of the fine mist blew back in his face. He staggered against the wall as he tried stop himself joining the snoring Rottweiler. The cell block stretched out for an infinite distance before him, and the crouching figure of Alenna might have been at the other side of the universe. He focussed on her as he weaved down the line of cells, searching for fresher air. As he cleared the sweet-smelling cloud, his perspective came back to normal, and by the time he rejoined Alenna outside the cell he was able to stand without swaying.

Sam grinned widely, although his nose wrinkled at the odd smell which clung to Weskar’s soft fur. “Well done, Wesk-a-dog. Now I know how you got in here!”

Alenna finished attaching the package to the door lock with sturdy tape, and glanced up. “Good job indeed,” she added, “but I suggest a less liberal application!”

She appraised her paw-work. Sam was also peering through the bars. “Ingenious!” he mused. “Some kind of electromagnetic pulse generator to override the lock mechanism?”

“Almost! Sam, this is the part where you pull the mattress off the bed, and huddle behind it with your paws over your rather large ears, while Weskar and I hurry to the other end of the room. I recommend you remain there until I give the all-clear.”

She waited while Sam did as she suggested, then flicked the switch on the contraption now fastened to the door lock. She stared at it for a few seconds, until a red light began to flash. Satisfied, she beckoned to Weskar. “Fire in the hole!” she said, and set off for the cell block entrance at a determined jog, with Weskar close behind. Once there, the fiery female flattened herself against the wall outside the door, and Weskar followed her example.

Alenna began to count quietly. She got to eleven before a loud bang reverberated through the cell block and the acrid stench of burnt electronics and hot metal filled the air. A wicked grin spread across her face.

The cell door swung open as they made their way back, a blackened hole where the lock had once been. Sam rubbed his ears as he picked himself up from the floor. He peered at the remains of the lock with a wry smile. “Or you could do it that way!”

Alenna shouldered her pack. “You’d be surprised at what you can learn in the archives!” she said for the second time. “Now I think it’s time for a good old fashioned get-away!”

They hurried out, passing the unconscious Rottweiler. At the front desk, Sam regarded the Doberman who was also sleeping peacefully. “We could buy some time if he found it harder to raise the alarm when he woke up!”

The three canines got hold of the Doberman by the shoulders. He was very heavy, but together they dragged him down the corridor and locked him in the cell block with the second guard.

Back at the main door, they surveyed the deserted street. It was still dark, and the day cycle was not due to start for another hour. Their luck was holding.

“I take it you have a plan?” asked Sam. “They WILL be looking for us.”

“I’m afraid we’ll be leaving the city for a while. There’s no time to explain so you’ll have to trust me.” Without further ado, Alenna set out at a brisk walk, leaving the others to hurry after her.

They followed her in silence as she led them around the outer wall of the city, keeping to the dark alleyways and side streets wherever they could. After ten minutes, they had passed through the brightly decorated, pseudo-wooden apartment buildings of the New Sun housing sector, skirted around the West End Market with its profusion of little shops and coffee bars, and jogged downhill to an alley behind the first of the workshops.

They soon reached the lowest point in New Hope City. Behind a row of warehouses, a wide concrete basin collected any stray water which seeped from the rock surrounding the city. The designers had fitted an iron grate in the base of the wall as an insurance against flooding.

Weskar and Sam caught up with Alenna as she studied the grate. The dim light showed little, but they could just make out a keyhole. The female slipped off her pack and took out a key, large and crude to match the rusty metal of the grate. “We found this stored in the archives last year,” she explained. “I hope it’s the right one.”

The two males watched with interest as she slipped it into the lock. It turned part way with a rusty grinding noise, then stuck fast. She wiggled it left and right, but to no avail. “Damn! If this doesn’t work, I don’t have another plan.”

Sam was not easily deterred. He placed a paw on the bars and tested them, first pushing, then pulling. A creaking sound came from the lock as the grate moved a little under his grasp. “Gotcha!” he said with a smile. He pushed again, carefully, and nodded to Alenna. “Try now.”

This time, the key turned. Sam gave a tug and the grate swung open with a creak of protest. The three canines stepped through into a round concrete pipe, slightly taller than Sam’s head. Alenna closed the grate behind them, leaving it unlocked, and slipped the key back into her pack.

They stood side by side, close together in the narrow passage, and looked back through a mesh of bars at the lights of New Hope city. Soon it would be morning, and the great sun-lamps overhead would come on. Canines in their thousands would get up, stretch, drink coffee, eat their Kibble, sniff noses, lick their puppies, and generally carry on as they had done every day for centuries. It was the only life any of them had ever known, but it couldn’t last much longer.

After a final look at the city, the three friends turned to inspect the way they had to go. The tunnel was lost in utter darkness after a few metres. The only sound was the distant drip of water, and the damp air smelled of mildew.

“Wow,” said Sam. “This looks like fun.”

Weskar couldn’t tell whether the big dog was joking.