(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens, as it generally does, onto a grey and dingy alley in Manhattan in mid-September. Ray glances up at the sky, then says, "Hang on a second." A few moments later he trots back from the street. "Okay. Had to check the paper- once in a while the door puts me out in the wrong universe, but this is definitely mine."

The newspaper in his hands has a headline involving someone called 'Super Dave', but the paper is folded in half, so it's hard to say what else it's talking about.

Comments

[gone_byebye]

"Make like you're chewing on something very tough. You'll feel a popping sensation when it happens," Ray says. "It might take a few tries, but you'll feel better afterwards."

It's a weekday, so the elevator isn't very crowded. Most of the tourists are in the buses out front. Which is good, because the elevator takes off fast, and the idea of it jerking into motion when packed like a tin of sardines is not a pleasant one.

[vance_prime]

Alyx lets out a small yelp of surprise when the elevator starts moving, but recovers quickly. Sure enough, before too long she starts feeling an uncomfortable pressure in her ears, and works her jaw furiously until something pops.

[gone_byebye]

"It won't be a problem coming back down," Ray promises. "Now just sit back and enjoy the ride."

There's a panel of floor numbers, lighting up one after another in sequence as the elevator steadily climbs towards 86. Even at this speed it's going to take a while.

[vance_prime]

Alyx shifts restlessly from foot to foot as the elevator rises. "How do you handle not being able to see where you're going?" she complains.

[gone_byebye]

"Practice," Ray says. "There are very few glass elevators in New York, in my experience. Most of them are in hotels, or the occasional shopping mall."

[vance_prime]

"Not a glass elevator," says Alyx, giving Ray a weird look. What good would a glass elevator be? "I mean the kind with a grill in the front so you can--"

ding. Looks like they've finally reached floor 86.

[gone_byebye]

"Oh. You get those in older buildings," Ray says. "I've been in a few of those."

Ray steps out of the elevator first and gestures for Alyx to follow him. There's a lot of people up here, some of them milling around in the gift shop area, some of them on line to go and get a look through the observation windows, and some of them all the way outside, with only a two-meter-high fence mounted on a waist-high concrete wall between them and... well, rather a lot of air.

[vance_prime]

.

.

.

Wow.

Alyx isn't quite going rubber-legged, but she's moving a lot more slowly and carefully as she steps out.

[gone_byebye]

Ray's just going to get out the cameraphone now, 'k?

"I have some quarters if you want to use one of the binocular viewers," he adds.

(Some inkling of the view may be found here.)

[vance_prime]

"Yes, please."

[gone_byebye]

One handful of shiny jingly quarters coming right up. Not that Ray expects Alyx to use them all, but who knows what she might see out there and find of interest?

[vance_prime]

"Thanks!" Alyx stuffs the quarters into her pocket and heads for the nearest viewer. She spends several minutes going between the viewers with Ray in tow. This is understandable; who wouldn't want to get a look in all directions?

It's just coincidence that she also happens to spot a door marked 'EMPLOYEES ONLY' while making the circuit.

[gone_byebye]

It is not coincidence that Ray fails to spot the door. Ray simply does not think about things like people who might sneak away from him and poke around in areas they're not supposed to be. (It's his mun who believes that if they really wanted her to stay out, they would have locked the door.)

"Enjoying yourself so far?"

[vance_prime]

"Yeah. But... um..." She contrives to look a little embarrassed. "Is there a bathroom up here?"

[gone_byebye]

"Oh! Sure," Ray says, looking around. "Uh.. excuse me, ma'am?" The cashier nearest the observation area looks up. "Ladies' room?"

With a mildly irritated expression, the woman gestures towards the elevator banks. "Turn right," she says.

"Thanks." Ray turns to Alyx. "I'll wait for you over on the east side of the building. Some of the graffiti here is worth checking out- it's in languages from all over the world."

[vance_prime]

Alyx nods and heads in the indicated direction, trying to suppress her grin. Dr. Kleiner always falls for that schtick, too.

As soon as Ray is looking in a different direction, she heads for the 'EMPLOYEES ONLY' door.

[gone_byebye]

It's a fire exit, and it leads to stairs- lots of them. Mostly, stairs leading down.

But the thing with fire exits is that they have to be available for everyone, including the people who maintain the electrical equipment and wiring, and so there are stairs going up too.

Plus the occasional camera in the stairwell, but that's just a sensible precaution. A hundred and two floors is a long stretch to go unmonitored.

[vance_prime]

Alyx isn't terribly surprised to find cameras there.

Some security guard, however, is going to be surprised to find several of the stairwell cameras suddenly ceasing to function.

[gone_byebye]

Yeah, that's not all that normal. Time to go and check on those.

The thing is, this isn't an Empire State Building that's ever been considered a terrorist target. The security guards mostly deal with tourists who wander off and get lost, or who have heart trouble trying to Prove Something on the stairs. So the guards aren't going to be coming up all that fast. Alyx'll probably hear them quite a few floors below long before she sees them.

[vance_prime]

Sure enough, Alyx can hear footsteps echoing from somewhere below. It just prompts her to move faster. (Getting around quietly is something she has plenty of practice in.)

[gone_byebye]

The disgruntled muttering will start shortly thereafter, eventually followed by: "Hello? Is somebody up here? Jesus, if I gotta get the electricians in..."

The doors up here don't have very comprehensible signs on them. It's assumed that if you're up here, you know what RN CF42 - GX means, and whether it applies to you or not. Mind, there's only one door per floor, but still.

[vance_prime]

Alyx isn't particularly concerned about the signage; she's simply aiming for the door at the very top of the stairs.

When she reaches it, she very slowly turns the handle and eases it open a crack so she can peek out.

[gone_byebye]

... it's an observatory. Black walls and a dark ceiling with tiny gold accents here and there, but there are windows on every side, and scopes pointed out each and every one; it's an observatory.

You have to get this high above the city to have a crack at seeing the stars, with the level of skyglow New York City generates. The telescopes here are the sort one only sees in academic settings or private research facilities, synched to computers and trained on the skies even in daytime. The larger computer screens are processing data- not visual, not right now, but radio signal and other, similar things, by the look of it. The nearest visible one is processing the JV-47 antenna array, according to the caption near the bottom of the-

-it's an observatory with people in it and one of them is headed this way.

[vance_prime]

Crap. She quickly pulls back and shuts the door again.

Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to quietly close a door than to quietly open one.

[gone_byebye]

"... okay, I heard that," sounds from further down the stairwell- a lot closer to Alyx's position than before. "Who's up there? This is Building Security."