“Of course it doesn’t,” said Sakura. “That’s a phone from the outer-rim. The wards throughout the city disrupt the electric flow of such devices making them unusable. It stops more than just phones, but lots of small electronic-based devices. Music players, digital cameras, that sort of thing. It’s to stop photo journalists in the outer-rim from trying to snag photos of the tower-zone.”

Max sighed. He thought something like that might happen. He thought there were going to be rules like it was illegal or forbidden to use an outer-rim phone, which was why he hadn’t used his up until now, but actual manatech stopped his devices from working. Why did the city go to such great lengths to hide things from the population?

“So you mean—there’s no way to communicate to the outer-rim from in here?”

Sakura made a solemn face and shook her head.

“Only the outer-rim mayor and the climber president have special phones that allow them to contact each other,” explained Sakura. “That’s it. I’m sorry. It’s done for everyone’s safety.”

Max sighed again. He’d just have to hope Sarah was doing okay. He was sure after his meeting with Mr. Grimes that the man wasn’t going to cause any more trouble and Sarah was smart enough to keep the rest of the orphans safe. Max would just have to have confidence in them and wish them well.

“Hey! Cheer up!” said Sakura. “I might have an old tower-zone mobile phone you can have. Just let me get dressed.”

Sakura went into her room and came out a few minutes later, fully dressed, and an old flip phone in her hands.

“Obviously there’s much better phones on the market even in the tower-zone,” said Sakura, handing Max the phone. “But this should do you good for now. I’ve programmed my number in there, if you ever need me.”

She then nudged Max, playfully. “And now you can ask out all the pretty climber girls in class, huh?”

Max blushed.

“My life isn’t one of your romance novels,” he said.

“Suit yourself,” said Sakura, going to the kitchen and making herself some instant coffee. “But today’s my day off and I plan to binge the newest volume of One Hundred Floors of Love.”

Max looked down at the junky phone Sakura had given him. This would be a convenience, but he needed to get on a computer. He needed to do some research.

“Is there a library in the tower-zone?” Max asked Sakura.

“Of course,” she said, laying back on a cushioned chair with her mug of coffee in one hand and her steamy paperback in the other. “Why do you wanna know?”

“There’s just some stuff I want to research,” said Max.

“Oh, I get it, trying to impress a girl in class,” cooed Sakura.