Silo 49: Going Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

see the frustration on her face and hear it in her voice.
    “Would you be willing to set up a roster? Could you check the work schedules and talk to people? You can certainly put me on the roster.” He thought for a moment and added, “There really aren’t enough maintainers to push the issue.”
    She tapped a finger on her chin, evaluating the hallway with her lips pursed. Finally, she gave one firm nod and straightened. “You’re right. We have to take care of anything we can take care of.”
    Maribelle paused and looked up at Graham, her expression earnest. Her voice was soft when she spoke again. “We have to take care of each other, don’t we?”
    That did it for Graham though Maribelle had no way of knowing that. She was so right. Her words went to the heart of the matter even if she didn’t realize it. If they didn’t do for each other, who would do for them?  It was his turn to do for these people and instead of thinking—getting to work—he had been sitting in his compartment playing cards and feeling sorry for himself. He wanted to say something profound but when he tried to respond, the urge to blurt out what he was trying to hide was so strong he choked. He pulled the kerchief from his pocket and pressed it to his mouth with so much force it looked like he was trying to stuff it into his mouth, past his gritted teeth.
    The moment passed, the urge with it. Maribelle looked at him first with concern and then with the beginnings of alarm. He tried to explain it away. “Sorry,” he choked out, his voice as tight as a drum. “I thought I was going to sneeze all over you for a minute there.”  It was stupid but it was all he could think of.
    Maribelle’s gaze was an evaluating one and he tried to smooth any strain from his face. From her expression, he wasn’t doing well. Finally, she gave a little shake of her head and said, “Graham, don’t worry about it. It’s not so bad. I’ll take care of it. You go on.”
    He did his best to ignore the lingering cautious look she gave him and shuffled off in a hurry after one last wave. That had been embarrassing as well as dangerous, and he kept his head down as he made his way toward administration to check in and get the list of jobs he needed to parse out for his crew in IT. Taking up a little slack wherever he could was all he had to offer, though it was going to require a little selling on his part to add yet more to the work list in IT.
    As he entered IT, his lists in his hands, Tony appeared. It was almost as if he had some sort of sensor that was specifically tuned to Graham. He got exactly one step past the turnstiles when the Toad made his irritating throat clearing noise and said, “Hiya, Boss.”
    Graham felt his jaw go tight. It was an effort, but he plastered a distant smile—the smile of a boss—on his face and kept walking toward his office. He inclined his head for Tony to follow and the younger man hurried after him, his clipboard at high ready. He knew it wasn’t fair of him to dislike Tony the way he did. He was very good at what he did and probably did deserve to take the shadow spot Silo One had been after him to fill from almost the very moment of his former shadow’s death. That was a moot point now, since he had other plans but even before then, there was something about Tony that made him cringe. To have someone like him be the next in line almost seemed like a defeat, like the absolute power of Silo One had found a perfect receptacle for the wielding of their will.
    “Have a seat, Tony,” Graham said as he took his seat behind the desk and picked up a stack of messages from the surface. “We’ve got a lot to do, I’m sure, but I’m going to add to that list so we’d best get started.”
    Less than ten minutes later, a flustered Tony left with a much expanded work list and a whole lot of arranging to do. It made Graham feel something close to normal to know that nothing else was going wrong and necessary things were