“Oh, yeah. Lots of vines,” Logan said.

Annoyed, Riley’s muscles tightened. “Your friend’s a lousy liar. What are you hiding?” When I hesitated, he moved his hands to my shoulders and pushed me back so he could see me better. “Enough. The location…the existence of Gateway is huge. No. It’s way bigger than that…it’s a whole other phenomenon. The repercussions are going to be unimaginable if it is really there and it works. I need to know everything right now, or I’m going to…”

“To what? Report me? You risk being implicated.”

“No. I’m going to follow you. Yes, even through those vents until I know the whole story.”

Logan eyed him. “You’ll get stuck.”

“It’s ridiculous. He’s not going to do it,” I said.

“Then I won’t let you leave until you tell me.” Riley straightened, trying to look bigger.

“Two against one,” I said. “And I’m armed.” I rested my hand on my tool belt.

He deflated and dropped his hands, but, by the gleam in his eyes, I knew he hadn’t given up.

“How about in exchange for Sheepy?”

“Really? You’d give me Sheepy?” I called his bluff.

“Yes.”

He meant it, and my reaction surprised me. I would have loved to have the little sheep. “No. Sheepy stays with his mama.” I put my hand up to stop Riley. “Just let me think.”

As Riley had said, discovering Gateway’s existence was a whole other realm of problems and possibilities. If caught right now, Riley would be recycled just for knowing about it. Too late to save him. Remembering his lecture about choices and sacrifices didn’t make me feel any better.

“You’d better sit down,” I said. “It’s a long story.”

“So Gateway wouldn’t be on the wall in hydroponics, but on the real outer Wall?” Riley asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“And no one knows about this except the three of us?”

“As far as I know. I’ve never seen anyone in the Gap, but it’s possible high-ranking uppers could know or find it in the computer.”

“Complete and detailed diagrams and blueprints of Inside have been deleted,” Logan said. He had been searching through the computer, trying to gather as much information as he could about the Controllers.

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t the engineers need them?” Riley asked.

“Each system—water, air, electrical and heating—has its own blueprints. Let’s see…if I put them…together.” Logan typed. “Still not showing Trella’s Gap or Gateway. Lot’s of other stuff’s missing, too. Historical records and logs have been wiped clean up until…week 132,076.”

Almost one hundred and fifty centiweeks ago.

“The first log is written by Admiral Peter Trava. He mentions saboteurs wielding magnets and trying to destroy Inside. He says they were stopped with no loss of life, but with major damage to the computer, causing data loss.” Logan scrolled through a few more pages. “Something’s wrong. The deletion was too clean for a magnet.”

“Do you know when the files were deleted?” I asked.

“The same week Admiral Pete’s entry was written, which was only fifteen centiweeks ago. Whoa! It’s bogus.”