Chapitre 79: BATTLEFIELD
'SO WHAT'S DIRECTLY behind this door?'
'Let me draw you a diagram,' Kevin said in answer to Purna's question. 'Rafa, if I could borrow your knife for a moment?'
Eyeing Purna, Sam, and the rest of the group with the sullen resentment of a small boy who fears he is about to have his favorite toy taken away from him, Rafa pulled the knife from his belt and passed it across the table to Kevin.
'Thank you,' Kevin said, and turned briefly to beam at Purna. Waving the knife casually he said, 'I promise I won't try anything silly with this. Just in case you were wondering.'
'I wasn't,' Purna replied.
Smirking as if at some private joke, Kevin turned back to the table and began to scratch a pattern into its surface with the knife's tip. Working patiently and laboriously he said, 'It's ironic, isn't it, that because pens and pencils are regarded as dangerous weapons in our sweaty little hands, I have to resort to using a knife as a writing implement. What a crazy world we live in.'
When he was finished he passed the knife back to Rafa and stood back, revealing his handiwork with a flourish. Purna glanced suspiciously at the seated men before stepping forward. What Kevin had drawn was a series of five circles – two at the top and two at the bottom, with a smaller one in the middle – linked by a series of spokes she assumed were corridors. A longer spoke leading away from the central circle led to a sixth circle on the right.
'If I may explain?' said Kevin, holding up his hands to show he had nothing in them.
'Go ahead,' said Purna.
'Although it doesn't look it from the outside,' Kevin said, 'the interior of the prison is built "in the round", by which I mean the cell areas and the dayroom areas are circular. Apparently, this design functions more efficiently as an incarcerating facility. There are no shadowy corners, which means that sightlines are clear and there's a better view of all that goes on. Now, we're currently in this area,' he pointed at the top left-hand circle, 'though as you can see this particular room isn't round, because it's simply one element of the space – a square within a circle, so to speak.'
He looked up and smiled. 'Still with me so far?'
'Go on,' muttered Purna.
'We need to get to Sector Seven, which is here.' His finger moved across to the larger circle on the right. 'This is the tower you can see from Banoi, and it's connected to the rest of the facility primarily by this long corridor here. However, although this is the most direct route, it will also be the most populated. What I propose, therefore, is that we move diagonally across the central Panopticon here, and down to the door leading into the high-security section through here.' He pointed at the lower right-hand circle. 'There is access through a corridor here into the lower-left quadrant of the tower. Where we're aiming for is here.' He indicated a cross at the end of the long corridor, which extended almost halfway into the right-hand circle depicting the tower.
'What's that?' asked Purna.
'A lift,' said Kevin. 'It will take us up into the operating heart of the facility. And that's where we need to be. That's Sector Seven.'
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone