Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (15 page)

"That would be a good start. Along with
remembering Marcie wouldn't have wanted you to be
unhappy."

He knew the words to be true, but reconciling
them with his betraying heart and memories was another
matter.

"Okay, one more date. I can do that." Ignacio
nodded at his friend. Then stopped and took a deep breath. "I'm a
mess."

"Yes, you are." Paul said, his smile
returning. "Now, do you want to see your building? Do you have the
enclosure assignments finalized?"

"Finalized, confirmed with all those coming,
forwarded to the organizing committee," Ignacio said automatically,
while still running everything through his head. Rachel said she'd
call him with the details. Maybe she would take him somewhere the
memories wouldn't intrude.

"Should have known. You're always ahead of
me," Paul said with a mock-scowl.

A crash at the other end of the building
preceded one of the workmen shouting out, "Water main break!
Someone shut down the main valve!"

CHAPTER TWELVE

RACHEL REPLACED A section of pipe just in time to
have her ID band flash an emergency tone. She gave a heavy sigh. Of
course it would be towards the end of her shift. Wasn't it usually
the way?

She finished the repair and within a few
minutes started towards the next repair site. Her bot chirped and
beeped to itself as they made their way through the maintenance
tunnels, sounding as happy and perky as when it started in the
morning. Rachel wished she still had the same energy.

Instead, she needed a good meal, a hot shower
to sooth aching muscles, and a relaxing evening before heading for
bed. Then, tomorrow, she would contemplate the date she'd insisted
Ignacio go out with her on. The pressure was now on her to find the
perfect place. Someplace to fit both their personalities. The
pretentious, more expensive restaurants were out. Maybe a play or a
concert of some sort? Only, she didn't know his tastes on either
one.

Her bot took the lead, zeroing in on the
problem. At first, Rachel thought the problem might be located just
under the surface of the third ring living surface. As she neared,
she started to doubt the assumption. Even her bot paused, as if
confused where it should be going. Up the short distance to the
surface, or into the maintenance corridors just under
it?

"Rachel?" Tish called out. Rachel turned to
find her friend rushing towards her with her three bots close on
her heels.

"Do we have another joint fix?" Rachel
asked.

"Whatever is going on has signaled several of
us. Damien is on the way, too." Tish came to a stop next to her,
glancing down each of the maintenance corridors in front of them.
"Wait, what is going on?"

"Partially the surface, partially down here,
is all I can guess," Rachel said, studying both again. "I'm getting
a slightly stronger sensation to head for the surface."

"And I'm getting a slightly stronger urge to
head down there," Tish said pointing down one of the
corridors.

"Then we split up and call each other with
what we find?" Rachel suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Be careful."

Rachel didn't need to be reminded. Having a
water main almost explode on her the week before constituted more
than enough excitement for the year.

With a direction decided, her bot trailed
behind her as Rachel climbed out a maintenance ramp onto the inner
surface of the third ring. The exit came out near a maintenance
building on one of the many fair grounds scattered across the rings
of Redpoint One. She knew the spot because of the types of extra
buildings being erected around the permanent buildings.

The site of the annual Exotic Pet Show. Soon,
the place would be busy with the tourists, attendees, scientists,
conservationists, and other people who came to see the show.
Unfortunately for her, all of her instincts told her the fair
grounds held the problem.

It didn't take long to find the source. Not
only did it have people standing around a specific building, but
water poured out of all the doors and across the paved
grounds.

Rachel rushed forward, concerned over the
amount of water. Why hadn't the station stopped the flow? She
didn't doubt she would soon be seeing maintenance service tickets
for low or nonexistent water pressure in other places.

As she came to a stop near one of the doors,
Rachel asked one of the construction workers standing to the side,
"Did a water main break?"

"You tell us. Water came gushing up and we got
out of the way," he said.

"Water valve is turned off," another of the
workers said, pointing to one end of the building.

Rachel checked the shut-off herself, just in
case, before entering the building. The water came up over the top
of her foot, forcing her bot to increase its floor clearance to
stay above it.

The gaping hole in the floor at one end of the
building revealed many pipes and other infrastructure under the
surface of the ring. Right in the middle of them ran a large water
pipe. Right in the middle of it, nowhere near a joint, sat a jagged
hole.

So much like the other main water main
break.

Taking a flexible probe from the cart, she
climbed down into the hold to stand on a stable pipe and fished the
end down into the damaged pipe to look in both direction. No
corrosion that she could see. The pipe looked as bright and shiny
on the inside as it did on the outside.

"It's almost as if only one small part of it
rotted away," she told her bot.

Her bot chirped at her, ending the sound on a
sad note.

"I know. It doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't make sense?" Ignacio asked from
behind her.

"Rachel, I found a coolant leak down here,"
Tish's voice said from her ID band.

With her eyes watching Ignacio, Rachel
activated the band to say, "Broken water main up here, and it did a
lot of damage. I can't explain why it failed."

"Same here. Something is going on. Hold on,
Damien just arrived." The ID band clicked, indicating Tish had
signed off.

Rachel let her arm drop, reaching out to
stabilize herself against the edge of the hole. "Looks like we have
a small problem here."

"If this is your idea of small, I would like
to know what a big problem is." Ignacio grimaced. "No, I probably
don't want to know."

Rachel turned to her bot long enough to say,
"We need a new pipe and industrial bots to help take up some of the
floor so we can replace it."

Her bot beeped at her.

"Did it understand you?" Ignacio asked,
crouching down at the edge of the hole.

"It usually does." Rachel frowned at it.
"Goldie? Sunny? Citrine?"

The bot sat there hovering above the water,
staring at her and not making a sound. Rachel sighed. "Well, none
of those is it."

"I have no idea what you are
doing."

"Trying to name my bot. Tish managed to name
all three of hers right the first time around. I can't get mine to
decide on one," Rachel said with an impatient gesture towards it.
"Tish is right. It gets annoying saying, 'hey you!'"

"Speaking of frustration, what about this?"
Ignacio gestured at the water inundating the floor of the building.
The level was lower than before thanks to it running back into the
hole, out the doors, and the floor drains finally catching up. The
room might be empty of any of the animals it would soon hold, but
in the bright lights from the ceiling, it looked sad. Sad and
wet.

"The water didn't get into the enclosures,"
Rachel offered.

Ignacio ran a hand through his hair. "Small
consolation. We open in less than two weeks. Can you imagine what
the animal owners would think of this happening while they were
here, not to mention any attending crowds?"

No comments about their upcoming date. No
trying to get out of it, either. She should be happy he wasn't
trying to break up again. He could be trying to be nice, talking
'shop.'

If he wanted to talk shop, she certainly could
oblige him. She rubbed the back of her head under the ponytail as
she stared at the jagged hole in an otherwise perfect pipe.
"Something odd is going on. I've never seen a pipe burst this way.
Don't worry, I'll get it fixed."

"Could another go off during the show? We've
already had water pressure problems. Irvine couldn't have caused
all of them." Ignacio stopped as several people appeared at the
main double-door leading into the building. "Watch out. It's the
organizing committee."

While Rachel appreciated the warning, she
didn't like the idea of facing off with them alone. The plumbing
wasn't the only problem area, she just happened to be the only one
on topside. She needed backup from someone who would have a handle
on all the other issues.

She raised her ID band and said, "Arthur, I
need your help up here."

"On my way," Arthur answered back a moment
later.

Not fast enough. The committee would be on top
of her in only seconds. One of them she remembered from her time
working with the reserve. Mr. Darwin Beel was a balding man in his
fifties who spent his retirement on committees all around Redpoint
One, including overseeing the nature reserve where Pookie currently
lived.

The other two she didn't know so well. Alcina
Small and Jude Ceja were known for their off-station connections
and organizational skills. Perfect for a show of this magnitude,
but their unhappy faces told her she best watch her words. She
climbed out of the hole and put on her best professional mask. Best
to head it off right from the start.

"Good afternoon. I'm Rachel Henderkito. I'll
be fixing the water main pipe today. I should be out of your way
shortly," she said when the small group came to a stop in front of
her.

"Commendable. We appreciate your quick
attention," Ms. Small said.

"However, this is only one of the many system
problems that have plagued the setup of the show," Mr. Ceja said.
"Are we to expect more of this?"

"This particular event was very unexpected,"
Rachel said, thinking of the gaping hole in the wall of the pipe as
well as the other main failure a week back. She was telling the
truth. No one could have seen either coming. Tish sure hadn't. The
bots caught on to the first major break only just in time to save
their lives.

"This problem cannot repeat once animals start
arriving." Ms. Small glanced at the containment enclosures. "As it
is, if any of our guests heard about this, they might cancel on the
spot. It would be a disaster for the show."

"We need promises, not assurances," Mr. Ceja
said.

"Rachel has always been quite responsive to
emergencies. I have personal experience," Ignacio said.

Mr. Beel gestured to the water. "Would you
bring your newts in here with this danger."

Ignacio looked at the water and then the
enclosures, slowly shaking his head. "No sir."

He then turned an apologetic expression
towards Rachel along with a small cringe. She wanted to tell him
she didn't expect him to lie.

"I will ensure the main is fixed," Rachel
said. "The entire length through the area. The good news is this
appears to be localized."

"What caused it?" Ms. Small asked.

Just the question she'd hoped no one would
ask. She couldn't tell them what she didn't know. Like Ignacio, she
wasn't about to lie, either, even though she had the feeling it
would put her under more scrutiny by the committee.

Arthur appeared at the door with a bot close
behind him. The moment Mr. Ceja noticed his arrival, all attention
switched to the new arrival. Which suited Rachel just fine. It
meant she didn't need to answer the question right now.

"Mr. Getty, do you come with more news?" Mr.
Ceja asked.

Arthur took one look at the gaping hole in the
floor along with the black hole in the surface of the pipe and
began to herd the committee away to the side. He asked Rachel, "How
fast can you have the pipe and hole fixed?"