It's My Party

"Yeah, okay."

"Could I make a suggestion about how you're doing this?"

"Will it slow me down?"

"No. It won't change your speed. I'd like to suggest you use the earphone for listening to Ashley give you the new codes."

"I could do that. But why?"

"Because you're obviously not paying attention to what's happening outside when the elevator door opens."

"Oh, you mean the dawn? Yeah. I'm really embarrassed about that. I was so totally focused on what I was doing. And the carriage at zone one opens to due south, I know that know. The sky was still in deep shadows. Hey Mark?"

"Yeah?"

"Why can't I see the oceans? I can see so far, but it's all forests and rivers."

"The northern ocean is about 350 kilometers north of you, the southern ocean is closer to 400. Both oceans are below the horizon from where you are." Mark paused for a moment. "But not by much, especially to the north. Climb those tall peaks next to you and I think you might see it."

"Really? Wow."

"Aggie," continued Carla, "my point was that at every stop you're making, Ashley is calling out the tumbler code to jump to the top of the pyramid. Someone from Party #4 might hear that code and try to follow you after you've left."

"But that would be good, wouldn't it?"

Carla took a deep breath. "You think so? Think it through. If unknown people are up at the top with the carriage open, you won't be able to jump and test for the broken ring. You'd be trapped in the pyramid for as long as the people kept you blocked. And if they're hostile, they can let the top door close and lay it wait and jump you when you arrive. You're using carriage-one on every single jump, either as an origination or destination. Aggie, Ashley, you two should not be broadcasting the tumbler code for the top carriage with every jump you make!"

At the Hilton, Fatima nodded approvingly. "Carla, that's an excellent point. Aggie, remember our mission now is to get you home, not to make contact with Party #4."

"Yes, I know, and I agree." Aggie let out a big sigh. "I wonder if that's why I didn't see anybody in the few archways I looked through. I was jumping in the dead of night."

"You're not jumping in the dead of night now," Carla reminded her. "It's past 6:30. Not to rush you, but perhaps before people are sitting down with their breakfast cereal…"

"Yeah, okay," said Aggie. "Ashley, I'll use the earphone on my second Leophone. This first one, I'll leave the video on. Can I use a hand signal to cue you for the next code?"

"Sure."

"And if I do get attacked, you'll be able to see it in real time."

Time: Thursday, May 14, 2019 7:25 PM

"Just to let you know, that was pair 322, fourteen to go. Click to X-1." a tiny voice said in Aggie's ear. The tiny voice of Ashley sounded worried, and not because she had just lost a bet. Had everyone miscalculated? Emily had been looking ill the last few minutes and had gone rushing off the Red Mall library to join Mark and review her lesson on broken rings..

Mark tried to give Aggie some encouragement. "Flukes like this happen all the time Aggie. I remember you looked at the bottom of J1 when I sent you the table. If we had started with the X-series, you would have been home long ago, but then we never would have known where the pyramid was."

"So you're still really expecting this to work?" asked Aggie, her hands clicking the tumblers from W-28 to X-1, a single click with each tumbler in the counterclockwise direction.

Mark could hear the worry in Aggie's voice and he was determined to cheer her up. "Absolutely. It happens all the time. Ever play backgammon?"

"Sure. I love backgammon."

"So do I. Ever have your opponent nailed in a roll-off where only double-sixes will save him, and then lo and behold…"

"Boxcars! Sure, it happens all the time."

"Well, the odds of boxcars is 1 in 36. With your 336 pairs, your boxcar roll is to find the broken ring somewhere the last nine pairs. It happens all the time Aggie. I think you're almost home." Mark looked down and frowned. His own hand was trembling. Had he managed to keep his doubts out of his voice?

Yes, and his words seemed to have the desired effect. "Okay!" answered Aggie cheerfully. "Thanks Mark, and keep my dinner warm!" Aggie pushed the close button. As the door closed, she reminded herself that she should keep silent when she was not on the top floor.

On the bottom floor of the pyramid, the 36th floor in carriage zone 669, Cordelia suddenly froze. She was in the kitchen, near the archway to the transfer room with a breakfast plate of eggs and bacon in her hand. Suddenly she saw the telltale change of light reflected off the wall opposite the carriage entrance. Were they under attack?! Again?! She put the plate on a counter and then pulled a kitchen knife from her belt. With a quick hand signal, she told Sarah they had visitors.

Sarah's eyes went wide and she ran for backup, returning with Sydney and Katelyn a minute later. With knives drawn, the four women split into two pairs, Sarah and Katelyn standing just inside the entrance archway while their leader Cordelia and Sydney began to circle counterclockwise around the carriage. One yell and Sarah and Katelyn would run in the clockwise direction and fall upon the invaders from the rear.

It was an extremely tense minute, and then Katelyn heard Sydney give a soft click with her tongue. Katelyn gave a loud sigh of relief and she lowered her knife. "No one," she called out. Cordelia and Sydney walked around the carriage and into view.

"You sure about this?" Sydney asked Cordelia.

Cordelia answered by rolling her eyes. She then gave a deep frown. "Shit! What the hell is Laura thinking of?"

"Maybe it wasn't Laura," Sarah countered. The other three women turned to look at her. "I mean, maybe Kelly's group..."

Cordelia blew a load of air through the cheeks. "God, another three-way war? Mark my words. Someone is going to get killed this time." Her three subordinates stood quietly and waited for orders. Cordelia didn't know what to tell them.

Time: Thursday, May 14, 2019 7:30 PM

"X-5 and D-5," Ashley told Aggie through the ear jack. This one was going to be easy. Aggie jumped from the top floor on code X-5 and as the door opened she easily spun the left dial from X to D and pushed the close button in her three-second window. The door started to close, and Aggie got ready to jump the D-5 for a second time as soon as it did, already rehearsing the future four-click clockwise spin from D back to X in her mind.

She wasn't even bothering to watch the door. She pushed the jump command again on pure internal timing, and was startled it find the button frozen. Aggie turned to her right and noticed that the 3-meter elevator door had remained closed. She also noticed that behind her the 4-meter wall opposite the tumblers was sliding open.

Chapter 87.

Time: Thursday, May 14, 2019 7:31 PM

Aggie frowned as the elevator wall behind her slid aside. Her carriage was opening into a very small and unlit space, even smaller than the carriage. There was at least one piece of good news though. Her audio and visual links were still active. After discussing her plan with her group, Aggie gathered her gear and left the carriage, leaving one backpack to block the door from closing.

A moment's inspection revealed an apparent dead end. The outside of the carriage was a bare equilateral triangle with four-meter sides and the same height. There was nothing inside the chamber except their lost Leophones in two of the triangular corners. Aggie scooped them up and dropped them in her pockets. She then looked around and shook her head in dismay at the tiny area. There were no lights, not even any air vents. Aggie moved her hands across the smooth burnished metal of the two walls opposite her carriage. What to do?

"No buttons anywhere?" asked Suvarna from White Mall. She was staring intently at the video images Aggie was sending.

"No. This place is absolutely blank."

"You sure about no air vents?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. There's one in the carriage. But out here there's nothing at all. If I let the carriage door close, I'll have just this triangle room of air to breathe. Hell… Ashley, what was the last pyramid room I was in?"

"You mean the physical carriage zone?"

"Yes."

"I'm looking it up on the now. You jumped X-5 to get there. That's a jump size of 262 from the origin of the base ring and… carriage 395 on the 31st floor."

"Everybody," Aggie said quietly, "If you're ever in the pyramid, do not jump D-5 from carriage 395. It'll bring you… here… Emily, what do I do?"

"I think you'll have to let the carriage door close."

"Really? This triangle would be a horrible place to… to be trapped." Aggie had stopped herself from saying, "to die."

"It's your only option for changing your state."

"But my carriage is my only source of air."

Back at the Hilton, Emily squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. "I know," she whispered.

Before she could change her mind, Aggie pulled her backpack and unwedged the door. After a few seconds, she was surrounded in inky blackness and silence. "Boy, this is pretty gruesome," she thought, but she felt too embarrassed to voice her despair to her friends. Instead she ran her hand along the wall of her closed carriage for a moment, and as her hand left that side of the triangular room and advanced to the next, Aggie felt the wall start to move. Immediately light and a faint breeze filled her space.

The second wall had opened to reveal a new 3-meter by 4-meter area, the same size as the carriage she just left, but this new area was completely bare of any controls. It had just the simple air vents and lights of a closet. Or a trapdoor…

"Aggie," Emily said over the network. "I advise you jump it now. I don't know if the door will open again if you let it close. Jump now. I'm worried the system won't give you multiple chances."

"What about the third wall?"

"Yeah, I know it's a mystery. Perhaps it opens too. Aggie, I don't want to spend the time to try to research this. My gut feeling is to grab this opportunity while we can. Don't reject the open path. Jump the trapdoor." And then a quiet plea. "Please?"

"Oh, I agree with you Emily. I was just taking a last look around." After moving all her gear into the new area, Aggie sighed and let the four-meter door slide closed.

And immediately a three-meter side of her carriage started to slide open. Aggie slowly stepped out into the light with her gear. And then she started to giggle. "It looks just like the second floor of a mall store! I'm heading downstairs!"

A moment later Akiko spoke up. "I'm picking you up on the mall monitors! You're in Green Mall! Aggie, welcome home! You're very close to the hub, spiral mark 438 meters, the 360 degree position. You're on the outside arc, a restaurant called Ruthie's Kitchen."

Ann was next to Akiko at the Hilton. She pulled back in her chair happy but with a puzzled look. "Aggie, we searched Ruthie's months ago. We searched all the stores at the 360 degree marks." Ann was referring to the time shortly after the discovery of the trapdoors leading to the lounge rooms of Black and White Malls. Both trapdoors were located at the 360 degree mark of their respective spirals.

Aggie blinked as she realized Ann's point. "You're right. Let me check that closet again." She jogged up the stairs and a moment later said, "Wow. My trapdoor, it's full of food items again. I just jumped through here a moment ago and it was completely bare. And the closet opens from the four-meter side now. I exited from the three-meter side."

"Well, isn't that what you expected?" asked Kiyoko. "That rotation to a perpendicular wall on the trapdoor exit is standard behavior. You have to remember it's not the same carriage Aggie." Kiyoko finished by adding, "It's a pity our training didn't cover trapdoors more thoroughly."

"Wow," said Aggie. "Your lessons covered trapdoors? My lessons didn't mention them at all."

"Really?" replied Kiyoko. "Interesting. We janitors really need to compare our trainings more carefully. The trapdoors in the White and Black spirals are entrance trapdoors. You can expect them to be empty. But the closet in Ruthie's is a destination trapdoor. That can easily have storage materials in exits when they're not in use."

"Aggie," said Fatima, "we have a whole bunch of people here at the Hilton that would love to come by and pick you up in a sidecar."

"Ah, that's sweet but don't bother. I'm less than 900 meters from jumping home. I'll be with you in a few minutes." Aggie let herself out of Ruthie's, and after relocking the restaurant walked rapidly to Hex Hall.

When she got there Aggie had a minor decision to make. Immediately on her left in the hexagonal hall was the entrance to the Black Mall spiral. She could also walk to her right, pass over Blue Mall and enter the White Mall spiral. After a second's hesitation, Aggie moved to her right.

There was nothing wrong with Esau's Bar and Grill. It was a nice place and a favorite of Mark and Toshi. The couple would sometimes joke it was the restaurant of their one date before they became attached. But Aggie felt like visiting the store of the White Mall trapdoor. The food there were just too interesting to pass up.

The name of the store was Trumpets & Crumpets, and it held a huge variety of the famous English yeast breads, as well as a wide assortment of related condiments, maple syrup, honey, fine cheese spreads, and all sorts of jams and jellies. It was Ann who first guessed that the store was using the word trumpets for the condiments.

Aggie was at the store. It took a few seconds to unlock and relock the entrance. She paused for a second to open a drawer and grab a bag of her favorite rye-flour crumpets, and then she ran quickly to a familiar closet, a backpack in each arm and a joyous smile on her face. Aggie was home with her family a moment later.

The next day.

Time: Friday, June 1, 2019 6:17 AM

Jada was paddling her kayak along the northern half of the Missisquoi an hour after sunrise, heading towards an area of the northwestern shore that her group had visited two days ago. The mission then had been relatively short, walking the perimeter of their search grid and informing the large predators that they would soon be returning. Over the past week, Jada had learned to listens to the loud chatter of the birds and small tree animals when they returned to their landing sites. The loud noise was an indication that the cats got the message and were cooperating. "Ah, peaceful co-existence," Jada thought as she paddled. "You can't beat it."

And what was their peace treaty with Dinofelis? The basis was to talk to the cats in a language they could understand. When Jada's team wanted to search an area, they would first claim it a day or two before by walking the boundary of the area and urinating on as many rocks and tree trucks as they could. For the next few days, the area would be remarkably free of the big cats.

They were very smart animals, Jada thought. A few encounters with an unknown species, in this case human, and suddenly the entire Dinofelis population was agreeable to staying out of the humans' way. Jada knew she couldn't push it. If her group stomped into unclaimed territory and acted too aggressively, the big cats would be very annoyed. And if her group did something stupid, Jada was under no illusion that the cats wouldn't grab an opportunity for a quick meal. After all, the cats were quick-strike assassination hunters. That was their nature. But if you treated them with respect and talked to them in a language they could understand and gave them time to move out of your way, that's what they would do. Smart animals.

Their target area today was twenty kilometers downstream from Manhattan. It was thrilling and chilly to paddle with the current. The central channel was in a very consistent state now, 4C and flowing at 8 kph from one end of Wobanakik to the other. In the single hour since sunrise, Jada's team had completed most of their journey. It would take almost three hours to return, but to Jada that was the most enjoyable part of the day, paddling fifty meters off shore, the river water swimmable at that location and with refreshingly cool breezes from the central channel area. And just a short distance away at the shore and beyond, there were views of an Earth that had not existed for the last two million years. Jada found the exercise and the experience profoundly peaceful.

So far Jada's efforts and Sandra's efforts from the entrance rooms had revealed nothing, not one clue on how to leave Wobanakik. But Jada knew there was an exit key somewhere. She just knew it. An escape path would fit the design paradigm of the builders, which was to challenge human creativity, imagination, and ability to cooperate. That's what Jada and Emily concluded a long time ago, over many evenings of chatting with each other with their Leophones.

Take the rings of the pyramid. A prime number of n carriages allowed the elegant solution of the ring system, but it did not require it. The actual jump pattern could have been a nightmare, many tens of thousands of small rings, nasty little loops that would have taken months to jump into and search. It was a pure gift for the builders to provide a simple solution, a mathematical key that unlocked the pyramid, but in order to accept the gift you had to do your homework first. So much like a child's computer game! How was this possible? Such a unique convergence of physical ability with childlike playfulness, and overshadowing everything a callous disregard for life if the humans made the wrong move. Was this all a test? Sometimes the answer seemed yes, other times Jada felt her society was still completely missing the point.

They were approaching their target, and Jada's eyes were locked on the landing area. Without conscious thought, Jada expertly held her paddle in the water and used it as a rudder to guide her boat out of the channel.

Time: Friday, June 1, 2019 2 PM

The carriage door opened at the top of the pyramid, and Aggie, Tom, Carla and Cassidy emerged. The stars were out in force, and the group took a moment to admire the view in the clear night sky as the door slid silently closed. Aggie then turned and reopened the door. The carriage now had the tumblers needed for jumping.

Today's mission was not to search for Party #4. That would come tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, depending on how you considered the time zones. This mission was the result of yesterday evening's long work of the Society's four janitors researching their lesson plans on the topic of three-way transfer junctions.

A quick test revealed that the pyramid subnet remembered how to link with their home system. After reporting their progress, the four members of the away-team reentered the carriage. With Aggie at her side, Cassidy set the tumblers to X-5. Tom and Carla stood closer to the door, in relaxed poses and with friendly smiles on their faces. They were also both discreetly armed. In back of them Cassidy punched the close button.

Three seconds later the door started to open. As expected, the carriage arch carried the numbers 31:395. This was the one room in the entire pyramid where they could not return directly to the top of the pyramid. As the door finished opening, Carla and Tom got out and walked the perimeter of the transfer room, orbiting the carriage. There was a door on the wall 120 degrees clockwise from the wall facing the carriage exit, otherwise the transfer room was devoid of features. It only took a moment for Carla and Tom to circle the room. Aggie left the carriage and joined them and then turned around and said, "See you soon."