Chapter 4.3 (1/2)

The Rocket

Chapter 4 Part 3

The city was huge. There were many skysc.r.a.pers towering in a row, and the roads intertwined. In this place that had flourished in the past, hundreds of thousands of people lived their hurried lives. But now, there was nothing left except for ruins. Half of the buildings were collapsed, blown out by the wind and the ground was covered in sand.

Angela entered the front door of one of these buildings. There was a reel of communication cable tied to her hip. This cable went out the front door. In Angela’s air was a wired headset.

“By the way, how do you know so much about rocket fuel?”

Her voice reached Dingo, who was sitting in the alley around the corner from the old building with a laptop. This cable was connected to the laptop. Touching the headset, Dingo answered, “I was just interested. There are many different books here on Earth.”

“Hmm.”

Angela remembered, how she read a book about s.p.a.ce technology in a car. She went through a pa.s.sage from an emergency ladder. There was a spiral staircase the ends of which were not seen. Exhausted, she began to climb.

“Since he’s going to use a rocket with a hybrid engine, collecting the raw materials wouldn’t be a problem for him. ABS plastic and acrylic resin are used in plastic bottles and car parts, as well as synthetic rubber. The ruins of the old world are full of these. But no oxidizing agents. To clean it, raw materials are needed. So I checked to see if anyone is constantly selling unusual chemicals. And this is the result.”

Heavily breathing while climbing the stairs, Angela said, “Incredible. You believed in this lie.”

“That is one of the possibilities, but also the most reasonable. In any case, we have no other options.”

“Well yes… Pioneer has been collecting ammonium nitrate for a long time now.”

“Someone hacked into Deva and is making plans to go to s.p.a.ce. And he is clearly not alone, since he has been acting for a long time. It is a well-organized organization, capable of collecting a large number of materials. This means that the plan was made many years ago. It is possible that this plan was being made not only before Deva but maybe even before the nano-catastrophe. And as they are working on their long-term project in secret, it’s clear that people from Deva knew nothing of this.”

“To invest so much time and money into nothing. What were they thinking? Are they okay?”

“Did you not hear the story of a postman who built a palace out of roadside stones?”

Angela stopped abruptly. The spiral staircase was broken. All the concrete crumbled from it, exposing the metal frame that could collapse at any moment. It was enough to just step to fall through. It was impossible to get through. There was only one way – down. There was a metal door. Opening it, a strong wind blew. Attached to the wall, there was another staircase. Angela looked up. The top floor was still far away. Sighing, she continued to climb.

“Oh my trusty guide, can I ask you a question?”

“Mhm.”

“Am I imagining things or have we switched roles?”

“You said that you wanted to explore from a height.”

“This is the most effective way.”

“Besides, I’m afraid of heights. I’ll get up, but then won’t be able to move. Don&

rsquo;t think badly of me.”

Having climbed up the emergency ladder, Angela noticed a stepladder. There were still ten metres left to the top, so it was impossible to get there without it. Cunningly she said to Dingo.

“You’re worthless.”

She finally got to the roof. She was breathing heavily, the climbing had exhausted her. The feeling of despair grew. She looked around. This was just an empty city. Angela took a break and, turning on her wrist computer, checked the direction with a digital compa.s.s. She opened up her backpack and took out a remote control camera. She connected it to the cable. Angela installed it on the roof fence. She told Dingo about this.

“I installed it. Can you see everything normally?”

Dingo confirmed the presence of a picture on the computer screen. With the help of the touchpad, he checked the functions of magnification and fixation.

“Perfect. The signal is good.”

Angela took a telescope from her hips and began to observe the ruins. There were no living souls seen, just sand-filled buildings. She was slowly changing the angle of inclination. On the road, surrounded by abandoned buildings, was some movement.

“Dingo, eight and a half hours.”

The rotation mechanism on the camera started working.

“I see it…”

The camera lense caught a working robot, moving along the road. He had two double arms and four legs.

“Wow,” Dingo said in surprise, “This is a working robot from before the nano-catastrophe. And it is still in working order.”