Free Archipelago N.Y.: Flynn by Vladimir Todorov Page B

break-through
medical solutions…using algae and various types of jellyfish, he had
successfully developed replacements for conventional and long lost medicines.
And he had also done an amazing job with Flynn, stitching him up after the
shark tooth incident… Flynn could easily have lost his arm if it weren’t for
the good doctor… But there wasn't much the old man could do for Tony, apart
from suggesting the boy continue with the nightly algae inhalations. Every time
he examined the ailing boy, he would look at Mrs. Romero and shake his head in
despair. Dr. Omar knew he was helpless and had pretty much given up on Tony.
    Flynn stood in
front of the Romero's door, scratching his head… Now what? Mountain air? Where
the hell was he going to get that from? Mountains didn't exist, he knew that.
Only in pictures and in tales of what the world was like before the Flood…
Flynn remembered staring for hours at the faded photographs of snow-capped
mountain peaks, green valleys and fields covered with flowers…of dark blue
lakes and lush forests…They were all in the old magazines and books his father
kept hidden away in their apartment. Allan Perry had used them for teaching
Flynn to read and write. There were no schools anymore... Parents on the Lower
Side were left to their own devices when it came to educating their children.
Most didn't bother at all. Those who did would stick mainly to the basics –
reading and writing. No one cared about teaching Geography and History. Who
needed to know about things of the past, buried under tons of water and never
coming back!
    Yes, Flynn had
seen the pictures of what used to be out there, but they were just that ...
pictures. You couldn’t breathe fresh mountain air from a picture, could you! Last
night, he had eavesdropped on the conversation between his father and Mr.
Kowalski… heard all that nonsense about some magical healthy Dry Land far in the
West… Mr. Kowalski was getting old and losing his mind, Flynn thought. There
was nothing out there! Nothing, but ocean and tiny outposts with contaminated
waste.
    He glanced once
more at Tony's door, turned away and slowly started to climb up the filthy
steps of the Romero's apartment building. He had to stop fooling himself. Tony
wasn't going to be fit to partner him in the Trials. But who else was there?
All the boys his age had teamed up already. Except ... Flynn stopped suddenly,
sucking in his breath… This wasn't going to work, but what the heck ... It was
worth a try, he thought as he rushed up to the roof of the building.
     He had not come
with his raft to check on Tony, since the boy lived only a block away from him.
Flynn had walked the distance. He had used the big bridge over Greenway Canal
and then a couple of suspended walkways between buildings to get to Tony's…Now,
he had to cross all the way to the east corner of the Lower Side… and walking
was out of the question. Flynn knew that he had no other choice, but to get on
one of the cable cars.
    The Baldwin Cable
Car system was the brainchild of Dan Baldwin, a member of the First Government
and a close associate of Van Zandt Senior. The man was long dead, but his
cable-car system lived on. It was regarded by the Government as the work of a
genius, a great achievement in providing public transportation and helping to
ease the traffic on the waterways. They were especially proud of the cables
connecting the Upper and Lower Side. Those ran the length of the submerged
Midtown section, on both sides of the Van Zandt’s Pipeline, with cable cars
crawling up and down above Midtown Bay.
    Well, Flynn hated
the cable car service. It was slow, unreliable and often dangerous, he thought
as he climbed onto the shaky station platform. The platform jutted out from the
roof of the building and its corrugated sheets of metal wobbled under Flynn’s
feet. Stepping cautiously toward the edge, he grabbed the side railings to
steady himself. He took a look around and felt dwarfed by