Moggle had lucked out so far. Of course, Eden would explore the upper part of the shaft eventually.
"Keep climbing," she whispered. "And look for a way out."
The sides of the shaft passed by unchangingthick copper coils every meter or so, no way in or out. But a subtle infrared glow came from directly over Moggle, a sliver of heat at the top of the shaft.
"Find out what's up there. But don't use your night-lights!"
Aya dimmed her eyescreen for a moment, checking to make sure no one had followed her. The room full of cylinders was still empty.
As Moggle climbed, its signal began to fritz, shimmers of static dancing across her eyes. The connection was punching through a lot of stone, and Aya wondered how long the shaft was. Her skintenna could only reach a kilometer without the city network helping.
By the time Moggle reached the top, Aya could barely see through the clouds of interference.
The hovercam seemed to be in a transparent bubble; soft lights shone down through the rounded plastic walls.
They looked like stars.
Aya moved a few steps up, and the static cleared for a moment. It was true: Moggle was looking out from the top of the mountain.
Suddenly the whole mountain range was laid out around her. Sharp peaks cut into the starry sky, and down in the valley the mag-lev's solar collectors glimmered with reflected starlight. Aya could even see the lights of the city glowing faintly in the distance.
But what was the point of carrying the cylinders up to the top of the mountain? There were simpler ways to move big hunks of metal, after alllifting fans and heavy vehicles.
And why do it all from inside a mountain?
The signal fritzed again, and Aya shifted on the stairs until she found a better spot. When the image cleared, she frowned. Something glittered in the corner of her eye.
"Turn left a little, Moggle."
The view rotated to bring the mag-lev line in front of her, and Aya swallowed. The warning lights along the expanse of tracks were blinking Then she saw it in the distance, a string of lights crawling silently from the city. An unlikely, maybe-once-a-month, unscheduled train was headed toward the tunnel.
And Kai had left the hidden door wide open.
"Stay up there until I call you," she whispered. "But be ready to move!"
Aya ran down the stairs, wondering what would happen if the train shot past the open doorway.
Equipment and furniture were piled up around the entrance, along with a big stack of the Sly Girls' hoverboards.
Aya had felt with her own body what the wake of a speeding mag-lev train could do.
She ran through the cylinders, her reflection a blur in their smooth metal sides, her mind spinning.
How was she supposed to explain how she knew a train was coming?
The mouth of the tunnel glowed with the Sly Girls' flashlights. They were sprawled around its entrance and down its length, crowding the narrow space.
"Out of my way!" She dove into the tunnel, crawling straight across the Girls, ignoring their annoyed shouts. "Everyone, listen! A train's coming!"
Silence fell, and Kai turned to peer at her. "What do you mean?"
"You know those unscheduled trains you weren't worried about? Well, one's headed toward us!
It'll be here in a few minutes!"
Kai narrowed her eyes. "What makes you think that?"
"I was heading back toward the main door to get a hoverboard. I thought maybe some of us could go down the shaft on one."
"You got all the way there and back in five minutes?"
"No but halfway there I could feel the ground rumbling. Come on, Kai. We don't have time to lose!"
Kai hesitated, and a murmur of disbelief traveled through the tunnel.
Aya groaned, scrambling over more bodies and up to the edge of the shaft. ''Eden a train's coming!"
A few seconds later Eden Maru shot up into view. "A train? We didn't seal the door!"
"So what?" Kai said. "At that speed, who'll notice anything? Most mag-levs don't even have crews."
"But our boards! They'll get sucked into the slipstream, along with anything else that's not tied down!"
"And you didn't mention this before?" Kai cried.
"You said there wouldn't be any trains!"
"I said probably! "Just get out of my way!" Eden put her hands together like a diver, and shot down the crowded tunnel.
Instantly the narrow tunnel was full of scrambling bodies. The Sly Girls were shouting and shoving past one another, tumbling out to follow Eden back toward the entrance to the mountain.
Kai hesitated for a moment, her eyes fixed on Aya. "You sure you didn't just imagine this?"
Aya nodded, still breathless.
Kai swore and rose into a hall crouch, scrambling after the others.
Aya waited until the sounds of pursuit faded away, then booted her eyescreen again. She lay against the stone floor, staring straight up into the blackness of the shaft.
There was nothing but air between her and Moggle now, the view from the mountain top crystal clear. The train was much closer, a bright string of pearls crawling along the flashing mag-lev line, only minutes away.
"Get down here fast, Moggle!'' she said. "Don't hover just drop!"
Moggle angled its lenses downward, and Aya watched the fall from the hovercam's point of view. The hot yellow infrared speck of her own head grew, faster and faster as Moggle accelerated down the shaft, until she could see her own wide-eyed expression.
"Stop!" she shrieked.