14
young married couple exchanged kisses. Marck was coming off his shift while Shirly was going onto
hers. The shared meal was breakfast for one and supper for the other. Jahns thanked them both for
their time and complimented the food, then she and Marnes left a mess hall nearly as noisy as the
small cot had been made up for him that Jahns gauged6 to be half a foot too short. Down the hall from
everything in the down deep was, until there was a knock on their door. Juliette pushed it open and
stepped inside.
“They got you both in one room?” Juliette asked, surprised.
Jahns laughed. “No, they’ve got the deputy in the bunk room. And I would’ve been happy staying
out there with the others.”
“Forget it,” Juliette said. “They put up recruits and visiting families in here all the time. It’s
nothing.”
Jahns watched as Juliette placed a length of string in her mouth, then gathered her hair, still wet
another shift.
“So how soon could we announce this power holiday?” Juliette asked. She finished her knot and
crossed her arms, leaning back against the wall beside the door. “I would think you’d wanna take
advantage of the post-cleaning mood, right?”
“How soon can you start?” Jahns asked. She realized, suddenly, that part of the reason she wanted
this woman as her sheriff was that she felt unattainable. Jahns glanced over at Marnes and wondered
how much of his attraction to her, all those many years ago when she was young and with Donald,
had been as simply motivated.
“I can start tomorrow,” Juliette said. “We could have the backup generator online by morning. I
could work another shift tonight to make sure the gaskets and seals—”
“No,” Jahns said, raising her hand. “How soon can you start as sheriff?” She dug through her open
“I’m—I thought we discussed this. I have no interest in being—”
“They make the best ones,” Marnes said. “The ones who have no interest in it.” He stood across
from Juliette, his thumbs tucked into his overalls, leaning against one of the small apartment’s walls.
“I’m sorry, but there’s no one down here who can just slip into my boots,” Juliette said, shaking
her head. “I don’t think you two understand all that we do—”
“I don’t think you understand what we do up top,” Jahns said. “Or why we need you.”
Juliette tossed her head and laughed. “Look, I’ve got machines down here that you can’t possibly
—”
“And what good are they?” Jahns asked. “What do these machines do?”
“They keep this whole goddamned place running!” Juliette declared. “The oxygen you breathe?
to write up a list of everything oil makes? Every piece of plastic, every ounce of rubber, all the
“Well, it wouldn’t have lasted my lifetime, I’ll tell you that. Not in the state it was in.” She
crossed her arms again and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t think you get what a mess we’d be
in without these machines.”
“And I don’t think you get how pointless these machines are going to become without all these
people.”
“Why don’t you ever visit your father?”
Juliette snapped her head around and looked at the other wall. She wiped some loose hair back
from her forehead. “Go look at my work log,” she said. “Tell me when I’d fit it in.”
Before Jahns could reply, could say that it was family, that there’s always time, Juliette turned to
face her. “Do you think I don’t care about people? Is that it? Because you’d be wrong. I care about
every person in this silo. And the men and women down here, the forgotten floors of Mechanical, this
is my family. I visit with them every day. I break bread with them several times a day. We work, live,
and die alongside one another.” She looked to Marnes. “Isn’t that right? You’ve seen it.”
Marnes didn’t say anything. Jahns wondered if she was referring specifically to the “dying” part.
“Did you ask him why he never comes to see me? Because he has all the time in the world. He has
nothing up there.”
“Yes, we met with him. Your father seemed like a very busy man. As determined19 as you.”
Juliette looked away.
“And as stubborn.” Jahns left the paperwork on the bed and went to stand by the door, just a pace
“The days pile up and weigh small decisions down, don’t they? That decision not to visit. The first
few days slide by easy enough; anger and youth power them along. But then they pile up like
unrecycled trash. Isn’t that right?”
Juliette waved her hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about days becoming weeks becoming months becoming years.” She almost said that
she’d been through the same exact thing, was still piling them up, but Marnes was in the room,
listening. “After a while, you’re staying mad just to justify22 an old mistake. Then it’s just a game. Two
people staring away, refusing to look back over their shoulders, afraid to be the first one to take that
chance—”
“It wasn’t like that,” Juliette said. “I don’t want your job. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of others
who do.”
“If it’s not you, it’s someone I’m not sure I can trust. Not anymore.”
“Then give it to the next girl.” She smiled.
“It’s you or him. And I think he’ll be getting more guidance from the thirties than he will from
Juliette seemed to react to this. Her arms loosened across her chest. She turned and met Jahns’s
gaze. Marnes was studying all this from across the room.
“The last sheriff, Holston, what happened to him?”
“He went to cleaning,” Jahns said.
“He volunteered,” Marnes added gruffly.
“I know, but why?” She frowned. “I heard it was his wife.”
“There’s all kinds of speculation—”
“I remember him talking about her, when you two came down to look into George’s death. I
thought, at first, that he was flirting24 with me, but all he could talk about was this wife of his.”
“Yeah. That’s right.” She studied the bed for a while. Paperwork was spread across it.
“I wouldn’t know how to do this job. I only know how to fix things.”
“It’s the same thing,” Marnes told her. “You were a big help with our case down here. You see
how things work. How they fit together. Little clues that other people miss.”
“You’re talking about machines,” she said.
“People aren’t much different,” Marnes told her.
“I think you already know this,” Jahns said. “I think you have the right attitude, actually. The right
disposition26. This is only slightly a political office. Distance is good.”
Juliette shook her head and looked back to Marnes. “So you nominated me for this, is that it? I
wondered how this came up. Seemed like something right out of the ground.”
“You’d be good at it,” Marnes told her. “I think you’d be damned good at anything you set your
mind to. And this is more important work than you think.”
“And I’d live up top?”
“Your office is on level one. Near the airlock.”
Juliette seemed to mull this over. Jahns was excited that she was even asking questions.
“The pay is more than you’re making now, even with the extra shifts.”
“You checked?”
Jahns nodded. “I took some liberties before we came down.”
“Like talking to my father.”
“That’s right. He would love to see you, you know. If you came with us.”
Juliette looked down at her boots. “Not sure about that.”
bed. The crisply folded contract for Peter Billings was on top. “IT,” he reminded her.
Jahns caught his drift.
“There’s one matter to clear up, before you accept.”
“I’m not sure I’m accepting. I’d want to hear more about this power holiday, organize the work
shifts down here—”
“According to tradition, IT signs off on all nominated positions—”
Juliette rolled her eyes and blew out her breath. “IT.”
“Yes, and we checked in with them on the way down as well, just to smooth things over.”
“I’m sure,” Juliette said.
“It’s about these requisitions,” Marnes interjected.
Juliette turned to him.
“We know it probably ain’t nothing, but it’s gonna come up—”
“Wait, is this about the heat tape?”
“Heat tape?”
skimming supplies meant for them.”
“No they didn’t. Are you kidding?” She pointed toward the door. “We can’t get any of the
supplies we need because of them. When I needed heat tape—we had a leak in a heat exchanger a
few months back—we couldn’t get any because Supply tells us the backing material for the tape is all
spoken for. Now, we had that order in a while back, and then I find out from one of our porters that
the tape is going to IT, that they’ve got miles of the stuff for the skins of all their test suits.”
Juliette took a deep breath.
“So I had some intercepted30.” She looked to Marnes as she admitted this. “Look, I’m keeping the
power on so they can do whatever it is they do up there, and I can’t get basic supplies. And even
manufacturing chain—”
“If these are items you really needed,” Jahns interrupted, “then I understand.”
She looked to Marnes, who smiled and dipped his chin as if to say he’d told her this was the right
woman for the job.
Jahns ignored him. “I’m actually glad to hear your side of this,” she told Juliette. “And I wish I
made this trip more often, as sore as my legs are. There are things we take for granted up top, mostly
because they aren’t well understood. I can see now that our offices need to be in better
communication, have more of the constant contact I have with IT.”
“I’ve been saying that for just about twenty years,” Juliette said. “Down here, we joke that this
place was laid out to keep us well out of the way. And that’s how it feels, sometimes.”
“Well, if you come up top, if you take this job, people will hear you. You could be the first link in
that chain of command.”
“Where would IT fall?”
“There will be resistance, but that’s normal with them. I’ve handled it before. I’ll wire my office
for some emergency waivers. We’ll make them retroactive, get these acquisitions aboveboard.” Jahns
studied the younger woman. “As long as I have your assurance that every one of those diverted
supplies were absolutely necessary.”
Juliette did not flinch away from the challenge. “They were,” she said. “Not that it mattered. The
stuff we got from them was crap. Couldn’t have fallen apart better if it’d been designed to. I’ll tell
you what, we finally got our shipment from Supply and have extra tape. I’d love to drop off a peace
offering on our way up. Our design is so much better—”
“Our way up?” Jahns asked, making sure she understood what Juliette was saying, what she was
agreeing to.
Juliette looked them both over. She nodded. “You’ll have to give me a week to sort out the
generator. I’m holding you to that power holiday. And just so you understand, I’ll always consider
myself Mechanical, and I’ll be doing this partly because I see what happens when problems are
ignored. My big push down here has been preventive maintenance. No more waiting for things to
break before we fix them, but to go around and make them hum while they’re still working. Too
many issues have been ignored, let degrade. And I think, if the silo can be thought of as one big
engine, we are like the dirty oil pan down here that needs some people’s attention.” She reached her
hand out to Jahns. “Get me that power holiday, and I’m your man.”
Jahns smiled and took her hand, admired the warmth and power in her confident handshake.
“I’ll get on it first thing in the morning,” she said. “And thank you. Welcome aboard.”
Marnes crossed the room to shake Juliette’s hand as well. “Nice to have you on, boss.”
Juliette smirked32 as she took his hand. “Well now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I think I’ll have
a lot to learn before you go calling me that.”
点击
收听单词发音
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1
gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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2
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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4
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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gauged
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| adj.校准的；标准的；量规的；量计的v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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8
biding
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| v.等待，停留( bide的现在分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待；面临 | |
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9
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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11
laundered
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| v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的过去式和过去分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入） | |
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12
folders
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| n.文件夹( folder的名词复数 )；纸夹；（某些计算机系统中的）文件夹；页面叠 | |
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13
folder
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| n.纸夹，文件夹 | |
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toxins
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| n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 ) | |
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exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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16
solvents
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| 溶解的，溶剂 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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flinch
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| v.畏缩，退缩 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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20
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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22
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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23
pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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24
flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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26
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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28
bastards
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| 私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙 | |
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29
mimed
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| v.指手画脚地表演，用哑剧的形式表演( mime的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
intercepted
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| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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quotas
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| （正式限定的）定量( quota的名词复数 )； 定额； 指标； 摊派 | |
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32
smirked
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| v.傻笑( smirk的过去分词 ) | |
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