When Maxine returned from the Cerebral Vault, it seemed like she'd found a treasure. The bone bells in Carver's Quarter were very loud. Young carvers were eyeing her as she passed them in her Harvester's Rig, going to the debriefing. Her movement was quite stiff as the secrets she had were in conflict with the celebration.
The debriefing was at Heartforge Citadel. Arch-Cardinal Wilder was there along with a smiling Lucien Gray and a high Palate council. The air was full of Ambrosia vapor and excitement.
"Chief Carver!" Wilder exclaimed with a big smile. "The frequency data is being recorded right now! You did it – you were the one who opened the final door!"
Maxine removed her helmet. She looked tired, had dark circles under her eyes and there were golden bits swirling very fast in her eyes. "The Vault's… the inner Lobe is just not something you can be physical with. It's… strange," she said.
"A puzzle we eat in order to solve it," Wilder said, as if it was obvious. "After the Wardens are gone, we'll be the ones to eat the puzzle and becoming it." He looked at others. "Syzygy is happening in eight days! The Heartforge, the god's heart, and the remains of its pineal eye will all be in a line. We'll have the Final Digestion then. Don't delay preparations."
Eight days. The Lobe was right. Maxine's fake frequency would give them some time—a day or two would be wasted in making it work—but not much.
Lucien approached her quietly, his voice was like the sound of leaves when they rustle. "You saw it. The Lobe. You didn't give them its real sound. Why?"
She looked into his eyes. "Because you'd cut it up. Wilder would eat it. It's not something to study or eat. It's a different way of looking at things. And it's the only one thing that's worth a damn right now."
Lucien's eyes became big and then narrow as he got it. "Feelings. You got empathy from the graft. Your data is messed up."
"It gave me a plan, Lucien. For a kill switch. To cut the Heartforge off from the god's core without making a huge explosion."
The anatomist became immobile. He was torn between his desire for the new device and his obsession. The switch! But then he looked serious. "It doesn't make any difference. The Final Digestion is on its way. The system is too far gone to be stopped. I have to save the Lobe before Wilder destroys it. My knowledge has to live on."
"Your knowledge will be gone in eight days," Maxine said, turning her back to him. "I'll try to make the switch."
She left the elites talking among themselves. She needed room, parts, and time which she did not have.
She went to the open area for the public to watch the Heartforge. At the huge, strong window, she was looking at the slowly beating mountain of muscle. Pipes were taking its energy. This was both the world's engine and the weapon to end it.
The Lobe's plan kept playing over and over in her head. It needed parts: a resonator made from the god's ear bone (near the Jaw-Hinge), something to start it with from the Wastes, and something to ground it with, a silence-stone, from where the Still Voice is. And it had to go in at the Sinoatrial Node, the heart's natural pacemaker, a place even more guarded than the Vault.
It was beyond the realm of possibility.
"Isn't he going to kill us all?"
Naomi Frost was standing next to her, still in her party dress, and looking entirely out of place in front of the Heartforge. Her sadness had disappeared and was now replaced with fear.
Maxine looked at her. "The Arch-Cardinal's thing will break reality if it goes beyond it. No one will survive."
Naomi chuckled. "You say it as if it were a weather report." She took a deep breath. "My sister… Bianca… thinks there is a way out. She says that maybe you could figure it out."
Maxine felt Naomi's rapid heartbeat, her fear and… determination. This rich lady was throwing herself into the abyss. "Why are you talking to me?"
"Because I'm tired of knowing that the world is going to end," Naomi said very quietly, looking at the heart. "Because I have a stone in my pocket that feels alive, and a sister who thinks I can be brave. And because someone needs to do something, and those guys aren't going to." She nodded toward the Citadel.
Maxine didn't take her eyes off the heart.
"I have a plan," she said. "To create a switch that would stop the forge. It needs parts from three places that are off-limits. And it has to be done within eight days."
Naomi looked very pale but she didn't retreat. "What do you need?"
"Access, secrecy, and a distraction." Maxine looked at Naomi. "Would you be able to get me into the Palate's relic room? I need the Tuning Bone of the First Listener."
Naomi agreed. "Yes, I can. What else?"
"The other parts are far away from Sanctum. I have to go to the Wastes and the Still Voice's place."
"Then you need a guide who won't kill you." Naomi touched her pocket, feeling the mycelial node. "I might know someone."
The two women, one a god-surgeon the other a despair-expert, with a scary goal, stood there together.
The heart was beating.
Seven and a half days left.