Wool

Walker goes out into the entrance hall to Mechanical, where he sees young shadows talking in groups. Overwhelmed by the unfamiliar space, he goes into the mess hell. He is relieved to see people he knows. The workers from Mechanical are arguing amongst themselves about whether Juliette could have possibly survived. They debate whether the suits could have improved or whether the air outside could have become less toxic. Walker speaks up. They do not hear him at first. He speaks up again, and the others are shocked to see him out of his workshop. He tells them that he improved Juliette’s suit. The crowd is stunned. He explains that Juliette figured out that IT designs the cleaning suit to fail and that he called on the favors Supply owed him to switch out the materials of the suit for more durable ones, the “best of the best” (243). Walker whispers: “This is how the uprising begins” (244).

Lukas goes to IT on the 34th floor and finds Bernard and Sims, the head of IT security, yelling at workers. Lukas gives Bernard the box with Juliette’s things. Bernard tells Lukas that he is one of the few people he can trust in IT.