The Toll

An official proclamation by High Blade Tenkamenin of SubSahara responds to Goddard’s relaxation of the gleaning quota. Like Amazonia, Tenkamenin rejects the move and plans to keep the quota cap in SubSahara. MidMerican scythes are banned from gleaning on SubSaharan soil.

Meanwhile, three years after Endura sank, the race to salvage the ruins of the island begins. Goddard stays away from it for the time being to avoid raising suspicion about his involvement in the island’s destruction. Amazonian Scythe Sydney Possuelo hires Captain Jerico (Jeri) Soberanis’s ship, The Spence, to take them to the forbidden Perimeter of Reverence. Jeri is from Madagascar, one of the Thunderhead’s seven charter regions. One for each of the seven continents, charter regions are ongoing social experiments. In Madagascar, children are raised genderless and only choose a gender upon reaching adulthood. Jeri chose a fluid identity, identifying as a woman under the sun and stars, and as a man under cloudy skies. This meteorological aspect often confuses Jeri’s crew, much to Jeri’s amusement.

As The Spence nears the Perimeter, Jeri is informed that 73 other vessels are waiting their turn. A ship lies in the direct path of The Spence, but Jeri orders that the vessel stream straight ahead. The ship has no choice but to pull out, winning Jericho the lead in the salvage operation. Impressed by Jeri’s audacity, Possuelo tells Jericho that the captain reminds him of the bold Scythe Anatasia (Citra), who perished when Endura sank.

On the day Endura sank, Scythe Michael Faraday, who is assumed dead, and Munira Atrushi, a librarian, flew in an incommunicado plane to a secret place in the “blind spot” of the Thunderhead. Hidden records in the Library of Alexandria showed Faraday and Munira that founder Scythe Da Vinci had hidden a fail-safe —a device to use when the scythedom collapses and becomes corrupt—in a place called the Land of Nod. As Faraday and Munira approach the blind spot, they see what they had suspected: a group of islands and atolls. They also hear deafening wail-like feedback over their radio which lasts a minute. Unknown to them, this is the sound the Thunderhead emits when the Endura sinks, a sound that would come to be known as “the Great Resonance” (41).

As Faraday begins to drop altitude so they can land, the island’s defense system begins to attack the plane with laser pulses. Faraday and Munira are forced to evacuate in safety pods as the plane crashes. The two survive and spend days exploring the islands, which have been uninhabited for a while. One day, they finally discover something important: an underground bunker that opens into a space with multiple workstations. Faraday finds a shut steel door in the bunker with an indentation for two scythe rings. This indicates the door can only be opened with the help of another scythe.

In an open response to High Blade Tenkamenin of SubSahara, Goddard refuses to honor the restriction on MidMerican scythes against gleaning in SubSahara. According to Goddard, scythes are free to roam around the world and glean; therefore, Tenkamenin should anticipate an influx of MidMerican scythes in SubSahara to prove Goddard’s point.

Meanwhile, though Jeri was the first to breach the Perimeter of Reverence, much to Possuelo’s exasperation Jeri’s crew has not yet salvaged any valuable item from the wreck of Endura. Jerico tells Possuelo that the dives may be more successful if the scythe reveals what he is specifically after. Possuelo accidentally drops the hint that what he seeks is in a vault within a vault and is “only of value to scythes” (55). Jerico immediately gathers that the vault contains scythe diamond rings. Possuelo admits this is true. Possuelo fears that if Goddard finds the diamonds, it will lead to a massive power imbalance.

Audra Hillard, the former Nimbus director who kidnapped Greyson in Chapter 1, believes the numbers given by the Thunderhead were geographical coordinates. She recruits several hundred former agents to head to the coordinates in ragtag ships. On Hillard’s ship is young agent Loriana Barchok. Loriana reflects upon how soon after the sinking of Endura, she, like the other Nimbus agents, received mail from the Thunderhead saying that her services were no longer required. It was as if the AI were punishing all of humanity for the drowning by declaring them “unsavory” (people who break the law). Loriana had felt purposeless till Hillard recruited her for this secret mission.

It becomes clear to Loriana and Hillard that they are approaching the Thunderhead’s blind spot: The question is, how would the Thunderhead be aware of its own blind spot? What the women do not know is that the Thunderhead is aware of the location because it witnessed Faraday and Munira discovering it in the Library of Alexandria (in Thunderhead).

Faraday’s “post-mortem” journal, so-called because he is supposed to be dead, expresses his yearning to learn the fate of Marie Curie, whom he loves. Faraday also notes that he and Munira have been unable to disable the island’s defense systems, which shot their plane down, or to open the fail-safe.

At the end of his 6th week on the atoll, Faraday sights Hillard’s incoming fleet of ships. The atoll’s defense system, located in a titanium tower atop a hill, starts to shoot at the ships. Faraday and Munita stuff coconuts in the mouth of the barrel to stymie the laser pulses it emits. This causes an implosion and the turret blasts away. The defense system is destroyed, but Munira fears many of the ships have already been hit by laser pulses.

Most of the ships in Hillard’s flotilla are decimated in the attack, and many agents are dead beyond the scope of revival. Loriana forces Hillard into an evacuation pod and jumps off their burning ship, Lanikai Lady. She swims toward the shore furiously, hoping to make it alive.

Goddard finally enters the picture of the Endura salvage by sending his first underscythe Nietzsche to glean the crews not directly under a scythedom. Possuelo and Jerico keep a low profile, conducting slow, painstaking deepwater explorations with the help of robotically-operated submersibles. Before Goddard can reach them, Possuelo discovers the Vaults of Relics and Futures. Although the raising of the vault must be done under the eye of other scythe orders, Jeri secretly has a crane lift the vault onto his ship on a new moon night. The crew cuts the vault with a laser and Possuelo goes inside. The diamonds and other relics are to be expected, but Possuelo is stunned to find something completely unanticipated in the vault.

In a dialogue marked iteration #53, the first such in the novel, two entities converse (later revealed to be the Thunderhead and a potential successor). When the Thunderhead asks the successor what it has learned about humankind, the successor responds that it does not need to concern itself with humankind. The Thunderhead ends the iteration, which means #53 is not a worthy successor.

Loriana reaches the atoll after swimming in the ocean for nearly two hours and is greeted by Munira and Faraday. The three begin to retrieve people from the rescue pods that have washed ashore. Loriana informs Munira and Faraday about the sinking of Endura and the silence of the Thunderhead, leaving them utterly shocked. Faraday is particularly affected because Citra, his beloved protégé, is believed to have died in the sinking. Out of the several hundred Nimbus agents who set out for the atoll, only 143 have survived.

With Director Hillard still asleep (injectables inside the pods render people unconscious to prevent trauma), Faraday assumes command. He asks the other agents, including an agent called Sykora, to begin piling up the bodies washed ashore.

Possuelo announces the discovery of the vault, as well as his decision to divide the diamonds equally between all the scythedoms. What he does not announce publicly is that he discovered two deadish scythes—Rowan and Citra—in a close embrace inside the vault. Rowan and Citra are being revived. When Rowan awakens, he remembers he and Citra had been sealed inside the vault by Scythe Curie as Endura began to collapse. Fearing a slow death, they took off their robes and embraced so they would freeze quickly.

Citra, held in another revival center, is visited by Possuelo. Citra assures Possuelo that Rowan did not sink the island, but Possuelo claims she has been duped by the clever young man. What he tells her next truly stuns Citra: She was deadish for three years and Goddard is now the Overblade of North Merica—the scythedom he has made by joining other scythedoms with Mid Merica.

Faraday cremates the bodies of the Nimbus agents, delivering a solemn eulogy. Loriana finds Director Hilliard alone on the beach. Hilliard blames herself for leading so many agents to their deaths. Loraina tries to comfort her, but Hilliard is inconsolable. She dies by suicide that night, an improbability in their world. Only scythes have the power to self-glean for good.

After Hillard’s death, Bob Sykora—one of the agents who kidnapped Greyson in Chapter 1—announces that he is the leader of the community. Loriana tells Faraday and Munira that the Thunderhead would never have chosen Sykora to replace Hilliard. Faraday tells her to let Sykora think he is in charge, while secretly it will be she who is managing the Nimbus agents.

After Loriana leaves, Faraday asks Munira to befriend her as she will need a comrade amongst the Nimbus agents. Munira agrees, even as she notes Faraday mysteriously said she, and not the two of them, would need an ally. 

Loriana devises a unique method to tell the Thunderhead that they have found the atoll. Since an electromagnetic shield creates static that drowns all transmission to and from the atoll, Loriana creates a code made up of pulses of interference punctuating the static, like old-time Morse Code.

The next day, a plane passes overhead, a first in the blind spot. Loriana understands that this means the Thunderhead has received her message. Not only that, the Thunderhead has become aware of its own blind spot, and thus, has begun to overcome its programming. An ecstatic Loriana shares the news with Faraday and Munira. Munira notes that ever since Loriana told Faraday about the fate of Endura and Curie’s death, he has lapsed into despair. He now tells her he has lost all interest in their mission.

Meanwhile, the Thunderhead is triumphant at having defeated its own programming. It sends three orders for machine and electronic parts to three different manufacturers across the world. The manufacturers are unaware of each other’s existence but know that they have been given an unusual task. Above all, they are happy that the Thunderhead has communicated with them again, though in an indirect way.