There was no sky in the underground city. Its arrays of lamps had shone for twenty-four years, and the broadcasts said the surface was flooded with ultraviolet radiation and anyone who went up would rot. A Guang, a maintenance worker, believed it for twenty-four years, until he fell through a crack and saw the sun, wild forests, and a girl whose skin shimmered with gold.
The sky had cleared long ago. The people in charge had locked it away behind the dome.
For three months, he saved screws, sharpened a screwdriver, and practiced picking the lock during the three seconds when the lights went out. Then he pried open the dome and brought sunlight crashing into the underground city.
The sky was locked away, and the lock was welded shut. But the people who welded it forgot one thing: the man who fixes the lights knows how to pick locks.
