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in her closet. She could spare to ruin one. Though in the
back of her mind she could hear her mother s voice,
scolding her for not taking better care of herself or her ap-
pearance. There were too many more important decisions
to be made. And finding out why a clean-water pipeline had
become clogged was one of those.
Except that her mother s memory distracted her. She
was thinking of her mother more often the last several
days, brought on, of course, by her father s hallucinations
and her own car accident. Neither was a pleasant reminder.
Remembering her mother s lecture about clothing was
actually a welcome change.
Even if she wanted to, Sabrina could never duplicate her
mother s fashion extravaganzas. For one thing she didn t
have her mother s silky dark hair and dark brown eyes
with a bronze complexion that certainly helped to make
lime green and pink work well together. Eric had inherited
their mother s looks and the charm that went along with
them. Sabrina favored her father fair skin, blue eyes and
light-colored hair that couldn t really be called blond or
brown. Even the way Sabrina wore her hair carelessly
down and straight with no attention to style would cause
her mother to shake her head and sigh. Once when she saw
Sabrina getting ready for a run, pulling back her hair into
WHITEWASH 185
a tight ponytail and plopping on a baseball cap, her mother
almost refused to let her leave.
You certainly can t go out in public like that, she had
told Sabrina in her dramatic manner that gave meaning to
too many things that should not justify such theatrics. But
that was her mother and as if in tribute to the woman she
missed with an ache that felt as physical as mental, Sabrina
bent down to roll up her pant cuffs. She wasn t sure that it
would save them from ruin, but she knew that to bother
would please her mother.
Her leather flats were history. Sabrina was certain of that
after only a few steps into the marshy scrub grass. She
followed the pipeline, navigating carefully. She searched
for the ninety-degree angle that shifted the pipe s flow
directly down to the river. Not an easy search. Grass and
vines had grown up around it so that only pieces of white
showed through and it became like hunting for broken
fragments. Sabrina checked the time. This was taking
longer than she expected. She d be late getting to Reactor
#5 to meet Ernie Walker.
Finally she heard a gurgling sound. And before she saw
where the pipe turned, Sabrina could see a puddle where
the clogged elbow was leaking. She felt her stomach twist
into knots. The puddle was a murky orange, not clear.
She pulled away vines, fallen twigs and pine needles,
revealing the muddy elbow. Suddenly she didn t care about
dirty pant cuffs or sludge on her hands. She pried and
tugged at the release hatch, breaking a fingernail, but not
stopping until she felt the metal trapdoor swing open. The
spray made her jump back, but it was too late. Her white
shirt blossomed with a rust-colored stain. She wiped at her
face as she came back for a closer look, relieved to see that
186 ALEX KAVA
opening the latch had been enough to disengage the clog.
Clear water now flowed out of the elbow and Sabrina used
the heel of her hand to slam the latch against the force of
the water. Her fingers were shaking when she secured the
release lever.
Even at a glance the contents of the clog made her knees
weak. She found a stick to poke at the glob that glittered
with chunks of metal embedded in pieces of what Sabrina
could only imagine must be unprocessed feedstock.
Sidel was wrong. This looked like Grade 2 garbage.
Sabrina fumbled through her trouser pockets, coming up
with only an empty plastic sandwich bag from lunch. Using
the stick, she scooped up a sample of the sludge into the
bag. She stopped when she dislodged a disk of metal about
the size of a quarter. There was no way Sidel could deny
Grade 2 garbage when she showed him this. Sabrina
shoved the metal disk into the bag.
She cleaned her hands on the grass and made her way
back to the parking lot. She was a mess and she was late.
45
Leon watched from below the catwalk. Down under the
massive pipes and valves the sound was deafening. Stuff
clanked and hissed as machinery overhead turned on and
off. It sounded like water spraying and shooting through the
maze of twisting white pipes, some of them as small as
Leon s arm, others big enough to swallow him whole. All
of them snaked in from the walls. Most of them, especially
the massive ones, were connected to the huge tank in the
middle of the room.
This tank was different from the one outside no
floating chicken heads. That had freaked Leon out. All
those bobbing chicken heads with their eyes wide open,
witnessing him toss that poor sucker in. Maybe it wouldn t
have bothered him so much, except for that stupid fortune-
teller. She had him looking over his shoulder, scrutinizing
stuff, examining it like it mattered. The same stuff he
wouldn t ordinarily think twice about.
The place was a sauna. He could feel the steam and heat
radiating off the pipes. He had gone through his packet of
188 ALEX KAVA
tissues waiting for her. Now a river of sweat ran down his
back and sides. His shirt stuck to his skin. His forehead
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