A/N: Folks, one of my kind readers pointed out to me that Chapter 8 was a repeat of Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 never posted correctly.
I have since corrected this and the chapters should run correctly now.
I do recommend reading Chapter 8. Much of what is going on now relates back to it.
ICEBREAKER
Part XII - Personal
12/2/2023 - Words:24,376Chapters:12/?Comments:2Kudos:2Hits:205
Standing in front of the emergency door once more, Melanie had been running down possible scenarios almost faster than Layton could keep up.
"There may be a trip somewhere on the way back in." She was saying. "So we have to work our way back up to the engine room carefully."
Layton turned to her as she opened the door. "Melanie, this is the way we came out. Who was around to set a trip for us coming back in?"
"Something we did while leaving could have triggered the trip if we tried to return."
Layton gave her a skeptical look. "You honestly think Wilford is that clever?"
"And again I will tell you, Mr. Layton," She stated, "you constantly under estimate the man."
"Actually, I've been reasoning this out against what I know of Wilford. And my conclusion is we are not going to find any traps waiting for us."
"How so?"
"Because Wilford would not want to take the risk you would get off the train and escape, and choose to simply not come back. Therefore he would not have likely given you the chance to leave in the first place."
"Then why warn me?" Melanie asked.
"Because HE knows YOU." Layton replied. "And he knows you would have done anything to save your train. Like staying behind and trying to find that bomb. And as reference to back up that assumption, might I redirect you to what was your first reaction when you read that note?"
Melanie just stared at the man for a moment.
"I'm a detective. Remember." He answered her irritated stare.
Opening the door, Melanie started to lead the way, but Layton quickly pulled her back.
"You said there wouldn't be any traps." She protested.
"And better safe than sorry." Layton replied. "Would you even know what you were looking for?"
Melanie paused for a moment, then stepped back and allowed him to enter first.
The climb back to the engine room was slow, but steady, as Layton scrutinized every inch of every area they walked into. But no sign of any trap or trip wire could be found. Finally they reached the hatch, which Melanie looked up at as she considered the massive metal door.
"Maybe this is the trap." She offered as a speculation.
"If it is, we have no choice." Layton replied. "There's nothing for us to go back to."
Melanie nodded slightly as she watched him climb the ladder to the hatch. As much as he tried to maintain a calm exterior appearance, Layton still flinched slightly as he pushed the door open and the pressurized arms took over to lift the massive lid. But instead of an explosion or any other happening, all that greeted Layton was an eerie calmness inside the engine room. Pulling himself up through the hatch, he quickly turned and helped Melanie up the rest of the way.
Once they stood in the engine room again, a thought suddenly struck Layton.
"You know, maybe one of us should have stayed outside just in case." He commented as they looked over the room, now lit by the lights overhead.
A hard hit to the shoulder had him turning back to his aggravated roommate.
"NOW you think of that!?" She swore at him.
"I was preoccupied." He defended.
Melanie sighed as she reached up and unfastened the catches for her helmet and quickly lifted it off.
"WHOA! Wait a minute, lady!" Layton called out too late.
Melanie quickly shook out her hair as she turned to him. "It's perfectly safe." She stated. "I read the indicators as we moved through the tunnel getting here. It reported all the ventilation systems were functioning and gave a clear signal for atmosphere and oxygen."
Layton paused, watching her carefully for a moment, then slowly reached up and unfastened his own helmet. Once it was off, he slowly tested the air around him, then drew in a deep breath. "Finally. Clear, WARM air." He stated. As he turned back to her, Melanie was already halfway out of her suit. Quickly deciding he was tired already of being couped up in the thing, he followed her example and was soon happily stretching his legs free of the burden of the survival suit.
"All right." He stated as he looked around. "Now what?"
Melanie gave him a small smile in reply. "Now we put those detective skills to the test, Mr. Layton." She stated. "We need to find that bomb."
Nearly a half hour later, Layton was sure they had searched every nook and cranny Melanie could identify in the engine room.
Having found some paper and a pencil, Melanie had drawn out what she thought the bomb would look like and it's approximate size to do what Wilford said it would do.
"Maybe there simply is no bomb." Layton finally stated as he leaned against a wall in the room. "Maybe he was lying."
But Melanie shook her head. "He wouldn't have wasted time like this. If he said there was a bomb, there was one."
Layton gave a deep sigh. "Then it's not in this room."
"It has to be!" Melanie stated in frustration. "This is the most logical place."
"Wait a minute." Layton said, walking over to where she was looking over the helm controls again. "The most logical place." He repeated her words back to her. "If Wilford planted a bomb, and he warned you about it, gave you fifteen minutes to try and find it, what would he most likely do? Hide it where he knew you would look for it?"
Melanie stared back at him, following his trail of thought.
"Where is the last place you would look for this bomb?" He asked her.
Melanie quickly did a mental run through of the train.
"In the back. But that makes no sense at all, Layton."
"Why not?"
"Because Icebreaker has safety protocols built into it. If something were to explode in the back of the engine, the train would...it would literally go into 'survival mode'."
Layton gave her an incredulous look. "'Survival mode'? Melanie, you're starting to talk about this thing as though it's alive."
But Melanie quickly shook her head. "Of course it's not 'alive', Layton. I built it. I didn't create Frankenstein's monster with Icebreaker. But I did instill in it a very sophisticated AI system that would allow the train to take over certain tasks by 'thinking for itself'. Among those was a very clearly laid out series of protocols to follow in certain situations. Like an explosion. And Wilford would be well aware of those protocols and work to circumvent them. As such, he would not have put the bomb in the rear of the engine."
"Because...?" Layton prompted her when she stopped in the explanation.
"Because Icebreaker would stop it." She replied simply.
"Stop it?"
"Well, not the bomb itself." Melanie went on. "But it would isolate that area of the engine and suppress any fires and do as much 'damage control' as it could."
Layton frowned at her slightly. "You're back to talking about this thing like it's alive."
Melanie sighed in frustration at him again. "All right. For expediencies sake, lets assume it is. But not in the sense you're thinking. Through it's integrated AI and it's computer systems, the train is able to 'think'. It can run programs and make decisions on it's own that best ensure it's survival."
Layton returned an emotionless, flat stare back to her for a moment.
"What?"
"Starting to see the body on the table again and you standing by, waiting for the lighting to start." He finally replied.
Melanie gave him another exasperated sigh. "Think what you like then." She replied. "I built this train to survive nearly anything. And it has. Sitting on a flat plain, all alone, in extreme subzero temperatures for over seven years, it survived, Layton. And I won't let Wilford destroy him just to get revenge on me."
"Him?" Layton suddenly asked with a small smile.
Melanie turned back to her roommate. "What?"
"I just noticed that. When you refer directly to the train, you refer to it as a 'him'. Yet you refer to Snowpiecer as 'she'."
Another exasperated sigh. "It's just a WORD, Layton. Would you please get your mind back on the matter at hand?"
"I would if I understood it better." He replied.
"I agree that Wilford would put the bomb in the most illogical place he could think of." She reminded him of their previous conversation. "But I disagree it could be in the rear of the engine. Wilford would know back there the bomb would do little damage, and certainly not destroy the engine."
"So where else?" Layton asked.
Melanie thought hard for a few moments. "Wilford would want to hurt me."
"He wants to 'kill' you, Melanie." Layton corrected her. "And if he gets me in the process he will just consider that a bonus."
But Melanie waved a hand at him. "No. He would want to do something...personal."
"He's trying to destroy your train. How much more personal could he get?"
Melanie shook her head. "Destroying the train is just the end result for him, Layton. He would want it to be a prolonged process."
Layton considered her answer. "When I was a detective, I learned if someone wanted to do something to hurt someone else, and they wanted it to be personal, they would narrow it down."
"Narrow it down?"
"Yeah. What they did had to mean something only to the person they were trying to hurt. No one else. Sort of like...a private joke."
Melanie once again fell into her silent, contemplative stance again.
Knowing every minute they stood there could be a minute they didn't have to waste, Layton tried to help her along. "Was there anything on this train that was personal to you? Anything special? Something only Wilford would know about?"
Abruptly Melanie seemed to come to life again, her eyes suddenly widening. "The Medallion!" She stated.
"The what?"
But Melanie was already moving. "The Medallion! The emblem on the front of the train."
"What about it?" He asked as he hurried after her.
"It was a personal joke. I once told Wilford I liked the way he only used the first letter of his last name as the emblem for Wilford Industries. I told him once that if anything ever happened to him it would be simple to just flip the 'W' to an 'M'."
"Oh, that surely went over well." Layton replied.
Melanie waved him off once more. "Wilford wasn't nearly as maniacal then. He actually thought it was funny. And he had already mentioned to me several times before he had me in his sights as his successor."
"Then why go after the Medallion?"
"Because I mentioned it to him once later, when things between us started to get more tenuous. I was trying to remind him that he had once trusted me that much. But instead he exploded. Started ranting that no one would ever take Wilford Industries away from him."
Now in the front of the train, on a small platform rimmed by a railing of panels and console boards situated directly behind the large 'W' that graced the front of each of the train's, Melanie was frantically looking around for anything that looked like a bomb. Pulling off panels, she searched through every crevice that could possibly hold such a device.
Layton stood behind her, carefully looking around the small room.
"There isn't a lot of room here, Melanie." He observed. "Or a lot of places to hide something like a bomb."
But Melanie was sitting stone still in front of one of the open panels.
"This isn't right." She said in a soft whisper.
Layton came over and crouched next to her. "What isn't right?"
In her hands Melanie was holding a black wire, slowly shaking her head.
"This." She replied. "This isn't right. This wire shouldn't be here."
"You can tell if one single wire is out of place?" Layton asked in amazement.
"All wires are color coded." Melanie explained, still holding gingerly onto the wire in her hands. "They all do specific tasks based on the type or grade of wire they are. And the colors tell what that grade is. In the front of the train, this wire shouldn't be here. It's black. And it's a thicker grade wire. Higher grades weren't needed in the nose. This area is just for lights and sensors. Nothing critical really 'runs' in the nose of the train. So lower grade wires were used."
"So what is that wire doing here?"
"I don't know." Melanie stated as she gave the wire a small pull.
Layton suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of the wire, keeping her from yanking on it further.
"Don't DO that!" He stated. "Yanking it free could still detonate the bomb."
Melanie quickly let go of the wire.
"So we have a possible starting point." Layton replied without much enthusiasm. "But might I point out, we still haven't found the bomb yet. And to do that we need to be able to trace this wire."
Melanie quickly pulled a flashlight out of the pocket of her jumpsuit and flashed it towards the front of the train.
"There." She stated finally.
Layton followed the beam of her light.
From where they stood he guessed they had to be approximately seven to eight feet from the very front of the rain. But looming in front of them was a large metal disk that Layton guessed was the seat the Medallion on the outside was attached to.
But in the beam of her flashlight he could just make out a thin, straight line running from below the balcony they stood on to the front of the train.
Taking her flashlight, Layton redirected it over the ledge of the balcony. Stretching out from just underneath them Layton could follow the small black wire until it got within approximately three feet of the front of the train. From that point it branched out, with individual wires all running to the seat of the emblem. Once there, Layton identified at least ten small lumps of a grey material around the edges of the seat, all spaced an equal distance apart.
"All right." Layton stated, looking around. "Maybe this has something to do with the bomb. What I don't get is why put it here? Detonating something here would not set off any chain reaction I could see to destroy the train."
"A chain reaction." Melanie mumbled quietly.
"What?"
"Wilford said he wanted to start a chain reaction." Melanie replied, turning to him. "That doesn't necessarily mean he was going to attack the Tokamak directly. Just start a process that would eventually lead to it's destruction."
"So why put the bomb here?"
But his roommate had fallen back into her silent, contemplative state.
"Depressurization." Melanie finally stated. "His plan was to depressurize the train. Destroy the internal atmosphere. He was going to destroy the Medallion on the front of the train, Layton. Once that was blown off, the train's atmosphere would deteriorate faster than the train could compensate." She quickly reasoned out. "The Tokamak wouldn't be able to build up enough heat to maintain itself and would go into meltdown." She began to angrily pace about the small platform. "It's just like him. The plan is ingenious."
"Why is this so ingenious?"
"We were looking for a bomb we thought would go directly for the Tokamak." Melanie explained. "Not one that was simply starting a chair reaction to destroying it." She paused for a moment as she studied the small explosives place so meticulously around the Medallion's seat. "But where's the device that would set the explosives off." She asked in a hushed whisper. "And why didn't it work?"
Layton walked back to where Melanie had taken the panel off to access the wire. Holding it carefully, he shined the light as far down the access opening as he could.
"Where does this go?" He asked.
"There's an instrument panel one platform down. It's where we would go to check on readings from the sensors in the nose of the train."
"Show me where that is."
A few minutes later, Melanie was showing him a small row of panels that were contentedly flashing green and red lights behind glass paneled doors.
Melanie had been following a conduit pipe with her flashlight beam and quickly led him to one in the middle and opened the door.
Shining the light inside, Layton followed a black wire from the top of the panel where the conduit pipe stopped, down to the bottom.
At the bottom of the panel, a small unassuming box sat in the back corner.
Layton shined the flashlight beam on the box.
"My guess, is that's your detonating device." He stated.
Melanie looked over his shoulder. "But why didn't it work?"
Layton leaned further into the steel tower as he reached in and gently tugged on the wire.
To his surprise, the wire easily came loose from the back of the box.
Holding it up, a smile formed on his lips as he examined the end of the wire.
"It was chewed through, that's why." He stated.
Shining the light around the area, Layton took note this time of several piles of grains and other materials left in corners, and the bodies of several rats laying around the floor area.
"The rats must have set up a colony here." He stated. "And brought food down from the main storage area. But when the heat cut off, they froze."
Melanie was already checking other cabinets. "There are several wires that are disconnected here also." She observed, pulling several of them out to examine them closer. "All of them look like they were chewed through."
Layton suddenly gave a loud laugh. "Joseph Wilford's great plan for revenge." He stated loudly. "Brought down by rats." He turned a pleased smile to Melanie. "Somehow I find that very appropriate."
Melanie answered him with a smile of her own. "So do I."