The System Can’t See Me

Mateo's summons was gone.

The grate had taken the paper so cleanly that Nia still looked at the place where its white edge had disappeared. Blue water moved through the slots below, carrying the ruined ink away from sight. The locked Return Gate sat beyond the inner grille and the first bend, far enough back that the darkness swallowed its outline.

Kai tightened his left hand around his right wrist.

His bad foot was twisted toward the wall. The toe of his remaining shoe rested on a dry mark no bigger than his palm. A drop fell from the boot caught above the grate. It struck beside the pipe hanger, spread into the blue crescent, and joined the seam creeping toward him.

Nia had the Archive copy pressed under her jacket. She kept checking it with the heel of her hand, as though the plastic sleeve might have changed while she watched the floor.

"The opening," she said.

Kai followed her eyes to the red pipe on the far wall. The crawlspace mouth beneath it looked almost ordinary from here: a low rectangle of dusty concrete, then shadow. The lunch box lay across the bend farther in. The valve beyond it might as well have been on the other side of the city.

"The box blocks the bend," Kai said. "We can't get past it."

"I know." Nia watched the blue line reach his shoe. "But there is dry concrete inside the mouth. That gets us off this floor."

Another drop landed. The crescent widened along the wall and touched the back edge of Kai's shoe.

He felt it through the sole, a cold pressure that climbed his ankle before he could pull away. His right hand tugged toward the grate. He caught it harder with his left, and the movement made his injured shoulder lurch.

Nia was beside him before he hit the wall.

"We move now," she said.

Kai looked at the narrow run of concrete between them and the red pipe. It was only a few steps. He had watched Nia cross it twice while he was tied to the rail. With both hands available and steadier footing, it would have been nothing. Now his right arm wanted the wrong direction, his ankle would not hold him, and Nia's bare feet left small wet smears wherever she planted them.

"You carry the copy," he said.

"I am carrying it."

"Then you cannot catch me with both hands."

"I have a shoulder."

Kai almost said that was not enough. Nia was already sliding herself under his left side, her back to his ribs. She put one forearm across his middle and kept the other hand ready near his elbow. The Archive copy stayed trapped against her chest beneath the jacket.

Her hair smelled of rainwater and dust. Her left heel had a dark cut across it. He could see it when she shifted her feet.

"Stay against the wall," she said. "You take the next dry spot. I take your weight before you put yours there."

"That sounds backwards."

"It is what we have."

The blue crescent reached the front of the pipe hanger. Rust showed through the water in a brown halo. Kai did not look at it again.

Nia waited until he gave the smallest nod.

They turned sideways together.

Kai moved his good side first, one shoulder scraping the wall. His left hand never let go of his right wrist. Nia took most of his balance through her back and ribs, breathing in short pulls every time his weight settled on her.

The first step worked.

The second did not.

Kai's bad shoe caught on a raised seam in the concrete. His ankle folded before he could pull it free. He pitched forward. His right arm tore against his left-hand grip, trying to swing past Nia toward the drain.

Nia drove her shoulder into him.

Her feet skidded. One bare sole dragged across grit. Kai heard skin scrape, then the flat slap of her palm against the wall. The Archive sleeve crinkled beneath her jacket, but she kept it pinned between them.

For a moment they were both bent against the concrete, breathing into the same patch of damp air.

"Did you step in it?" Kai asked.

"No."

Her answer came too fast. He looked down.

The blue line was a hand's width behind her heel. Blood from the cut had marked the dry concrete in a narrow red crescent. The witness ring under her torn jeans had climbed to the back of her knee again. It showed through the fabric for one hard second, then dulled.

"Your foot."

"Still dry." She pushed away from the wall. "Move."

There was anger in her voice, but it had no target. Kai did not make her spend it explaining.

He reset his bad foot as carefully as he could. The ankle had started to swell inside the shoe. Every pulse seemed to find the joint from the inside. When he tried to lift it, pain climbed his leg and stopped under his ribs.

Nia shifted her grip lower, bracing his hip with her forearm.

"Do not pick it up," she said. "Slide it."

"That is how it caught."

"Then slide it slower."

He wanted to laugh. Nothing about the instruction was kind, but it was precise. Precision was better than comfort.

Kai dragged the shoe along the wall until it reached the next pale patch of concrete. Nia moved with him, her bare feet landing where his had just been. Her jaw was locked so tightly that a muscle jumped beneath her cheek.

They made another step.

Then another.

The rail fell behind them. The floor grate stayed to Kai's right, close enough that he could hear water tapping through it beneath the blue sheen. He kept his eyes on the red pipe ahead. The mouth below it was dark, low, and dry at the lip.

Behind them, the caught boot released another drop.

Nia heard it. She did not turn.

At the crawlspace, Kai stopped with his shoulder against the wall. The opening began below the red pipe at knee height. To get inside, he would have to go down on the injured ankle and pull himself forward with one arm while the other stayed folded against his chest.

The passage did not offer enough room to stand. It did not offer enough room to turn around once the wall tightened toward the bend. The lunch box was somewhere in that bend, blue light leaking through the same narrow split in its lid. Neither of them could see it from the mouth.

Nia looked over her shoulder at the water line they had crossed.

"Get inside," she said.

Kai looked at the gap. "There isn't room for both of us."

"There is at the mouth. Move before the water gets here."

He lowered himself.

His bad foot touched down first. The ankle gave a warning flare and then folded under him. Kai caught the wall with his left elbow before his knee struck the concrete. His right wrist pulled forward. He shoved it against his chest with his left hand, trapping the blue band between his forearm and his jacket.

Nia got a hand under his left shoulder.

"Not your arm," he said through his teeth.

"I know."

She did. Her fingers stayed on the fabric at his shoulder blade. She guided his weight down while he dragged one knee beneath the red pipe. The metal brushed his back through his wet shirt. He had to bow his head to clear it.

The motion pulled his injured shoulder forward anyway. His right hand strained against his chest. For a second, his left grip slipped on his own wet wrist.

Nia caught the heel of his hand before it swung out.

Her fingers closed over his left knuckles, not the blue arm. Her grip gave him one second to lock himself down again.

Then she let go.

Kai crawled forward another body length and stopped before the passage began to narrow. The concrete there was dry but uneven, grit pressed into old paint flakes. His left knee found a shallow dip. His bad foot lay crooked behind him. He could not straighten it without knocking the red pipe or putting weight through the ankle.

There was no comfortable way to hold his right wrist. He pinned it against his sternum with his left hand. The position made his left shoulder burn, but it kept his right arm close instead of hanging toward the sump.

"I am in," he said.

Nia crouched at the mouth. The plastic sleeve bulged beneath the front of her jacket and caught briefly on the low edge. Nia turned sideways, one arm tight over it, and eased herself down beside his legs.

Her knees hit the concrete. She flinched but did not make a sound.

The space took both of them only because neither could sit upright. Kai lay along the right wall with his head toward the bend. Nia folded behind him at the entrance, one shoulder tucked under the red pipe. Her feet remained outside until the blue crescent reached the place where she had been standing.

She drew them in one at a time.

The first scraped across the threshold. The second caught on a lump of mortar. She pulled harder and her heel left a thin smear of blood on the concrete inside.

Kai heard her breath stop.

"Nia?"

"I am here."

It was not an answer to the question he had meant. It was the one she could give.

Outside the mouth, blue water advanced along the wall. It filled the shallow marks Kai's shoe and Nia's bare feet had left between the rail and the pipe. The pipe hanger stayed beside the rail, half-ringed by water. The trapped boot dripped over the grate. The dry strip was gone.

Nia watched it happen through the gap beneath the pipe.

"We cannot go back that way," she said.

Kai looked toward the bend ahead of them. The blocked crawlspace held its darkness. The closed valve was beyond the box. The Return Gate was somewhere behind him, beyond the grate and the inner grille. There was no direction in the sump that did not end at something they could not use.

His right hand jerked once against his chest.

Nia's fingers found the back of his jacket, steady but trembling.

"Keep holding it," she said.

Kai tightened his left hand around his wrist.

The crawlspace mouth gave them enough dry concrete to kneel in. It left no room for either of them to shift.

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