Quoted By:
"Yeah," you say impatiently. "I-i-i-it'll be fine. Nobody's going to die who doesn't deserve it. Are we on the same page now? I-I'm happy to help stop Ellery—" If he blows up Headspace first, you'll never hear the end of it. "—but then you have to help us, or at least not get in the way. That's how i-it is. Can you agree?"
Anthea doesn't say anything. Did you sell her on it? Did you ruin everything? Should you go grab CFK? You don't know, because— before she responds— there's a BANG from somewhere distant. The floor of the Thinking Machine rattles, sending Anthea swaying.
You run rapid calculations. "Ellery?" you try, just as Anthea says: "Your friend! Charlotte! Is that—"
Under the Thinking Machine is a mess of tubes and cables, all descending down further than you can see. They must all lead to something— and it must be that something that WHOOSHES, all of a sudden, and glows so bright you reflexively burrow. Shit! Ellery also? Or... no! The light flares, then dims, then dies, and all around you, above and below, there's a unaminous mechanical whine. All around you it's dark. Dark-dark. A blackout.
Then a thrum as something else kicks in. Light returns, dim and amber-colored. No, yellow. No, green. Blue. It's shifting through the rainbow. Of course the Headspace backup lights shift through the rainbow. Below you, you can barely make out the cables. Above you, muffled yelling: "—EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT FUCKING NOW, JJ, OR I'LL PERSONALLY SHOVE MY FIST DOWN YOUR—"
Casey Fucking Kemper knows as much as you do. Maybe less. You say with confidence: "Lottie. That's Lottie."
"Really?" Anthea whispers. "Because I was going to say it was definitely Ell... um, I guess it doesn't matter. Somebody's doing something. I think we better move."
"Yeah." No contest.
"Except... I feel so bad for these poor people chained to the typewriters! That can't be healthy! I was going to cut their cables before you showed up, but, um—"
She still wants to. Do you have time to waste?
>[A1] No. No way. Get a move on ASAP.
>[A2] She can do whatever bleeding heart shit she wants: you need the time to install some siphons. You have a bunch left. Split up, do your respective thing, then scram. [This will take time.]
>[A3] You have something different in mind. CFK has a walkie talkie. How do you locate Charlotte and/or Ellery? You listen in on the Headspace guys tracking them. Casey's kind of distracted. If you can swoop in and grab the talkie from him... [Roll.]
>[A4] Write-in.
>[B1] Head in the direction of the bang, somewhere to your left.
>[B2] Head in the direction of the whoosh: straight down.
>[B3] Write-in?
