The Scientist by Sian Webster (top rated ebook readers txt) 📕

“David!” I cried, rushing over to where he had fallen chest-first onto the edge of the roof. From his waist down, he was dangling over the edge of the roof, but luckily, he seemed to have more upper-body strength that I had expected.

“I’m fine, I’m good,” he gasped, clutching at the roof tiles. “My ribs feel like they’re on fire,” he continued, “but I’m good.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding and dropped down beside him. “Come on, let’s get you up here before the Scientists notice someone dangling precariously off the edge of their roof on level 5.” I joked, my eyes scanning the main part of the compound that swiftly morphed from looking like a block of classrooms at St Elizabeth’s to a skyscraper belonging in Manhattan.

David followed my eyes as he gripped the hand I offered him. “Please tell me we don’t have to climb that too,” He breathed, cringing as he dragged his ribs across the roof tiles before pulling one leg up behind him, then the other.

“No way,” I reassured him. “There’s elevators here that are far easier to slip into.”

Hesitantly, he rolled onto his back and sat up, giving me a questioning look. “Tell me, Calliope,” he smirked, “how am I going to explain broken ribs to my mother?”

I smirked back. “We’ll drop in at the medical centre on our way back,” I promised him. “Chances are, we’re both going to get far more beaten up than we are already.”

The smirked slipped from his face faster than he’d slipped off the roof. “Fabulous,”

I laughed. “Not the word I’d use, but sure.” I dragged myself to my feet. “Can you stand?” I asked, holding out my hand to help him up.

“I have suspected broken ribs, Calliope, not legs,” he pointed out before taking my hand and letting me pull him up.

“Don’t sass me, Williamsburg. I can always leave you here on this roof to rot.” I joked, turning on my heel and heading over to the elevator shafts.

“Calliope, what happens if an elevator comes up when we’re going down?” David asked awkwardly.

I pulled my wrist up to my face, pressing the button I installed on the side of my Watch. As I lowered my wrist to the height of my ribs, a Projection erupted from the Watch, which then showed me all the security basics the Scientists were using in the building we were standing in. It took me less than a minute to disable the elevators. I let the Projection shrink back into the Watch before turning around to David and meeting his wide eyes. “It won’t.”

“Did… did your Watch just—?”

“Yes.”

“Did you just disable—?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Of course it is, David. Is there a problem?” I snapped.

He took a slight step back and shook his head.

“Then come on! We only have ten minutes before the elevators start working again. You don’t want to find out what would really happen if an elevator comes up as we’re going down, do you?”

David paled. “Okay.” He said, confidence seeping into his voice. “Come on. Let’s go.”

I nodded, a quizzical look on my face. I wasn’t sure I could put up with a boy like David, who was either scared out of his wits or incredibly over-confident. I needed someone who was brave. I would have to teach David how to be that way.

“So,” David muttered, “how do we get down the elevator shaft in the first place?”

“Well, typically,” I started, “it depends on the type of elevator. According to the most updated plans of the Compound, these in this building are traction-hydraulic elevators, meaning they have overhead traction cables and a counterweight, and they’re driven by hydraulic power. Depending on the type of elevator, some shafts have headroom at the top, but – unfortunately for us – hydraulic systems generally don’t.”

“So how are we getting in if there’s no headroom?” David asked. “Which floor did you stop the elevator on?”

I made my way over to the elevator shaft, it’s outer doors closed tight. “I was trying to stop it on the fifth floor,” I told him as I dropped to my knees, pulling a bobby pin from my hair and slipping it into the keyhole beneath the call button, “but I think I might have shut it down a little too early.” I finished, pulling out a second bobby pin and starting to pick the lock.

“What is that supposed to mean?” David stiffened.

“It means,” I said, fiddling with the lock, “it probably stopped on the fourth floor. That’s about a six metre drop to the roof of the elevator car.”

“Probably?” He pressed.

“Well, there’s a slight chance it stopped a little lower—” I stopped mid-sentence as the outer doors opened, revealing the shaft. I shuffled to the side and looked over the edge, the interior of the shaft disappearing into darkness. No elevator was in sight. I took my back pack from my shoulder and rummaged through it until I found what I was looking for. The device was small enough to sit neatly in the palm of my hand, a spherical exterior of dark, transparent plastic surrounded the small machine inside. As it registered my DNA, a small screen lit up.

“What is that?” David asked, intrigued.

I shrugged. “I got bored one day. Watch this.” I told him.

I pressed the button on the side of my Watch, the projection appearing in the air. After flicking through files, I found what I was looking for, and connected the device to my Watch. Then, I reached out into the opening of the elevator shaft, and dropped the device. It took a few seconds before anything happened. The projection on my Watch lit up and the number 8.79 flashed on and off in red. I cursed.

“What?”

“It’s about nine metres down the shaft.” I sighed. “It’s on the third floor. We’ll have to lower ourselves down.”

David ran his hands down his face, his breaths coming shallow. “How long will it take for us to reach the elevator car?”

I unzipped my bag again and pulled out a circular device with a single hook on one end and two harness clips on the other, as well as two harness belts. “It shouldn’t take too long, but because of your…” I searched for the right word, “condition, it’s probably best that we go down together. That’ll add extra weight and slow the mechanism down, but it’s better than you having a panic attack.”

He nodded.

I fastened the first harness belt around my wait before attaching it to the first harness clip that extended from the device on a thin steel cord. I then did the same with the second set to David before slinging my bag back onto my back.

“Do me a favour,” I said, “hold my hand. Don’t let me fall.”

The look on David’s face was incredulous, but he did as I said.

I moved to the edge of the elevator shaft, my toes on the edge of the drop. Gripping tightly onto David’s hand, I leant forward on my tip toes so I could reach the centre of the roof of the shaft. It only took me a few second to find something secure enough to clip the device onto, before I forced myself backwards onto the roof of the building, David’s arms instantly around my waist, steadying me.

I looked at him, confused by the contact. He could’ve steadied me by the shoulders, yet he grabbed my waist. I said none of this out loud, though. “Thanks.” I muttered, sliding my bag off my back and pulling out a small torch.

“Now,” I began, “this is probably going to be the hardest part.”

“Going into the shaft?” He asked, confused.

I shook my head. “Stepping off the ledge.”

He paled at my words, but nodded.

“I’ll go first,” I told him, “and I’ll let you know when to join me. It’s best to let the little guy get used to our weight one at a time.”

He nodded again.

I took a deep breath and stepped off the ledge. The steel cable secured to the harness clip extended from the device for about thirty centimetres, leaving me suspended below the height of the roof of the building. I gasped, not prepared for the drop. At the top of the shaft, the device flashed red and beeped. After a few seconds, the light changed to green before going out. I turned the torch on, shining it down the shaft. My stomach dropped at the distance to the elevator car. You’re not going to fall. I told myself. Not going to fall, not going to fall, not going to—

From the external elevator door, David asked, “Will I drop that far too?”

I shrugged. “You might drop a little more – you’re probably a little heavier than me, but you won’t drop more than a metre if I programmed it right.”

His eyes widened. “And if you programmed it wrong?”

I sighed exasperatedly. “I haven’t. Trust me.”

He rolled his eyes down at me, then dropped into the elevator shaft. The cable attached to his harness clip extended enough so he dropped past me by at least ten centimetres, an audible gasp slipping from his mouth. At least I hadn’t been expecting it. I had a reason to gasp. I thought to myself.

“What do we do about closing the doors?” David asked.

“I’ll sort that out later.” I told him. “Right now, we have to get to the elevator car.”

His wide eyes scanned the shaft, and even in the dim light, I could see him pale. I reached over and pressed a button on the side of my Watch, and the steel cord at the top of the device that attached to the clip suspending us over the shaft started to extend, lowering us down. Across from me, David’s breaths were shaking and shallow.

“Talk to me.” He said shakily. “I need to be distracted.”

“Talk about what?” I asked cautiously.

“I don’t know, Calliope, anything.” He said. “Tell me how the Watch works. How does it know who our Soul Mates are?”

“Okay.” I mumbled. “Okay.”

I shone the torch down the shaft, but immediately lifted it back to David. I needed to be strong for him.

“The Watch was originally invented by Codi and William Harper in 2358 following the Third World War.” I told him. “They looked into DNA coding, and found a common factor in all two humans who stayed married. Their children then had that same common factor with the person they married. It’s never really been elaborated what the common factor was, but it was in our DNA. Like a lock and key, really. A person only ever matched with one person in their entire lifetime. Actually, a lot of the time they weren’t even matched with the people they were married to, but that came from a trend that ended in the 19th century called arranged marriages where the parents would set up a marriage for their daughter or son, usually to unite families. This trend started again in the 23rd century, which was why there was a lot of difficulty surrounding Codi and William’s discovery, because a lot of the time it couldn’t be seen as a reality.”

“How did they know who their descendants would end up with?” David asked. “Like, they had DNA for present couples, but not for their children, or their children’s children.”

“Oh, that’s easy.” I said. “They computer generated and approximate DNA/chromosome chart of the offspring of the matched couples, and from that, they were able to determine who the offspring was matched to. Then, with the hospital records, and DNA samples, the Harpers continued the research into Soul Mates until they found a pattern, which they then programmed into the Watch. The original Watch took a DNA sample with a fine needle