Davide followed Sofia down to the lobby. In front of the tower, Sofia turned and said, “This way.” She headed in the direction of the complex's center. Davide walked by her side not saying much.
After a few minutes, he spoke up, “How far are we going?”
“We are going to the center of the complex.”
“But that is a long hike on foot. Why don't we take a cab?”
“It's best this way,” said Sofia, “you'll see.”
Except for a few comments about passing landmarks not much was said between them. Sofia seemed in a hurry and a little tense. Davide was trusting but becoming a bit anxious at Sofia's silence.
Finally, they arrived at one of the oldest towers in the complex. It was actually a refitted skyscraper, who knew how old. And it was located just outside the Em core. Sofia went in the front door with Davide right behind, she immediately went up to the elevators. She and Davide and a couple of delivery robots got into the elevator. Sofia pressed the fourth-floor button and there she and Davide got off. “Okay,” she said. “Now we take the stairs down.”
“Stairs, down? We just came from the lobby.”
“I know, you'll see.” Davide followed Sofia around the elevator core, Sofia's Annie opened a door marked maintenance with a cipher key. Once in the stairwell, they started down.
After a few flights, Davide was surprised and asked, “Where's the lobby door?”
“There isn't one. It was sealed when the building was renovated. The other stairwells go to the lobby, but this one is sealed off except on the fourth floor.”
“So where are we going?”
“You'll see, we are almost there.”
Davide lost count but thought they must have descended five or six stories. At the bottom, Sofia opened the only door, and they emerged onto a platform with very dim lighting.
Sofia said, “This is the old subway platform. It served as a station stop on the subway system.”
“What do you mean?” asked Davide.
“Years ago, there were underground trains that the people used to travel from place to place in the city. They were all abandoned when it was decided to optimize the size of the tower complexes for walking. The building we were just in was the last one that had a means of entry to the subway, I guess to make it easy if anyone ever needed to access the subway system, but I don't really know why. Now it's only used to maintain the Em core.”
“The Em core! That is strictly off-limits.”
“Don't worry. We are not going anywhere near the Em core; we are going in the opposite direction. But we will have to watch for the work trains and try not to be seen. Come on I'll show you how we use the subway.”
“We?”
“Yes. Me and a few others. Let's go, if we hurry, we can make it in a few hours.” She climbed off the platform onto the old roadbed and began walking briskly. The dim lighting continued into the distance, down the tracks.
“But Sofia, it is already late. How far are we going, will we be back before dark?”
Sofia turned and said, “Come or stay Davide, I’m late and haven’t time to explain everything to you.” Davide hesitated before he began chasing after her.
Sofia wouldn't say much about the destination but talked to Davide about what he knew about gardening, especially about growing vegetables. Davide told her his experience was slight, but he had successfully grown tomatoes recently, though he didn't tell her the results of his efforts.
“You grew tomatoes? Are you authorized? Did you know about the regulations?”
“No, I’m not authorized and I didn't know at the time I was growing the tomatoes about the regulations but I stopped once I found out.”
It had been late afternoon when they began to walk and avoiding the work trains only added to the walk's duration. Davide had no idea how far or how long they had been walking and he had forgotten his Annie, but he was getting tired and hungry when suddenly Sofia stopped, adjusted the carry-all and pointed to the far wall. There was a ladder scaling the wall.
“We could go further up the tracks, but this is a short cut I've found, we go up now.”
Davide waited for Sofia to gain some height before following. After a minute he heard her grunt as if she were pushing something, then a muffled clang. Davide looked up and could see stars framed by a perfectly round opening. Sofia had pulled her legs through the opening and was standing, peering down at Davide. “Come on,” she said.
He climbed the ladder and pulled himself up through the hole. The dim light in the tunnel allowed his eyes to quickly adjust to his new surroundings, although he couldn't really see anything but the stars overhead and a glow on the horizon behind the tree line. “Where are we?” he asked.
“We're outside the complex, a few miles. This used to be part of the old city before the complexes were built, we think it was a park. If you look over that way you can see the glow of the lights from our complex.” Davide looked where Sofia pointed and saw the horizon lit behind a line of trees. “The other dimmer lights you see are from other tower complexes.”
“Come on there's some people I want you to meet. They've been looking for a gardener type.”
“But I told you I'm not a gardener, really,” protested Davide.
“Close enough,” said Sofia.
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