Marasi nodded, and TwinSoul began climbing down, new rungs forming beneath him as he did so. Marasi stepped onto the ladder, testing its strength. TwinSoul was, it turned out, exceptionally handy to have along. She climbed down a little to let Moonlight on too. The doorway vanished again, but Moonlight cracked open her rucksack to let some light leak out, painting the shaft with a pale white glow.
They started descending toward the caverns. And, hopefully, answers.
46
Wax climbed down the hidden passage in the mayor’s mansion. Yes, it did seem to be squeezed between two walls; he’d climbed far enough to pass the first floor and reach the basement. Here his ladder emerged into a small room with iron walls and ceiling.
It had supplies on the shelves: dry rations, jugs of water. Looked like some kind of small emergency bunker. Not intended for long-term occupancy, but a safe bolt-hole in case of … what? Riots in the streets? Or something more nefarious, like an accidental weapon detonation?
Chilled, Wax inspected the room and found scrapes on the floor indicating a hidden door on one wall. He opened it without much difficulty — though it was made of thick reinforced metal — and found a path into the storm drain. Light peeked in through the grates above, and the scent — though unpleasant — wasn’t terrible. Not a true sewer, just a place for washing rainwater out of the streets and toward the ocean.
And a nice emergency exit from the mayor’s mansion, he thought, noting numerous footprints in the sludge and dried muddy ones in the concrete tunnel up ahead. A little farther along, he found a small motorized cart, open roofed, perfect to drive in these tight confines. The wheels were covered in sludge, and there were numerous tire tracks in the mud beyond.
There were no keys in the cart, and though supposedly there was a way to start one without them, that was a feat of thievery he’d never studied. Instead Wax pulled the folded-up calendar from his coat pocket and noted again the numerous appointments at the “lab.” Back and forth, sometimes a couple of times a day. If Wax had been visiting a secret installation that frequently, he would most certainly have wanted a covert way to travel.
Wax started into the tunnel on foot, but then phantoms from long ago rose around him. For the briefest moment, he wasn’t in a drainage sewer in the most modern city of the Basin. He was in a dirty mine adit, haunted by twisted “artwork” made by a terrible mind. Golden light sifting down from above. A meeting with destiny.
Someone else moves us.
A deep breath and a moment of peace banished the phantoms. They’d be with him forever, but they didn’t haunt him any longer. They were more like echoes than ghosts. Reminders of the man he’d been, the life he’d led, and the people he’d loved. They were remembered, but today he had work to do. He found a service ladder to the street above, and climbed up to go find Wayne. Hopefully he wasn’t on fire.
Blessedly, he found Wayne alive and only slightly singed, waiting at the prearranged rally point. A bar, because of course it was. Wayne had picked the spot.
Wax slid into the seat beside his friend, and Wayne passed him a shot of whiskey, which Wax downed with a hiss of satisfaction. They left money on the counter, then slipped out the back.
“You find anythin’?” Wayne asked as they reached the end of the alley behind the bar.
“Some writings that might be relevant,” Wax said. “Calendar. Letters. More importantly, a secret tunnel — hopefully leading somewhere useful.”
“Nice,” Wayne said.
“What happened to you?”
“Eh,” Wayne said. “Nothin’ that interesting.”
Wax looked at him, then at the burn marks on his trousers.
“Couldn’t do Grandma’s Been at the Vodka,” Wayne explained. “Couldn’t find a wig in time. So I did Flaming Bunny instead.”
“Flaming Bunny,” Wax said flatly. “Please tell me you didn’t set a rabbit on fire, Wayne.”
“Of course not. I couldn’t find a damn wig in time; where would I find a rabbit?”
“Good, I—”
“You use a cat for Flaming Bunny. And those are all over the dang place.”
“Wayne. You set a cat on fire?”
“Hell, no! What do you think I am? A sadist?”
Wax relaxed a little.
“You throw the cat out a window,” Wayne explained.
“Oh, Harmony…” Wax said. “Why?”
“To save it from the flames, of course!” Wayne shook his head as Wax led him toward the storm drain. “That’s the plan. You start a big fire, then go around screaming and throw a cat out the window. People believe you and think you’re saving pets.”
“Then…”
“Then you shout that someone has to save the bunny,” he said. “You lead everyone in to knock on the doors and get folks outta the place, and everybody gets all crazy and distracted helpin’ you.”
Wax stopped on the street, gawking at the Silver House with everyone else. It was now almost fully ablaze, a terrible plume of smoke rising from it, like the Deepness itself.
“You did say,” Wayne noted, “that following an egregious diplomatic incident, we might as well have some fun.”
“That is not what I said.” Wax sighed.
“What?” Wayne said. “You still on about that cat thing?”
“You really threw it out a window?”
“What would you have done? Leave it to burn? I hadda rescue the thing.”
“Rescue the cat. From a fire you made. A cat that you kidnapped expressly for that purpose.”
Wayne grinned. “Oh, don’t worry. I hucked him at a tree real good. Cats always land in trees, so long as you throw them hard enough.”
“Why … why would you think that?”
“Dunno,” Wayne said as Wax started them moving again. “Must have learned it in school.”
“Did you … go to school?”
“As a kid? Nah. But I burned one down once, before I even developed Flaming Bunny. Maybe the cat thing was on the board or something in there.”
“Wait. When did you burn down a school?”
“West’s Haven?” Wayne said. “Nine years back. It was an evil damn school.”
Wax hesitated at the mouth of the alley with the access ladder, thinking. West’s Haven …
Oh, right. That had been an evil damn school.
“Fine,” Wax said, pulling open the hatch to the storm drain. “Let’s keep moving.”
Wayne climbed down. At the bottom, he grunted.
“What?” Wax said, joining him.
“Don’t tell Marasi ’bout this,” he said. “I told her you ain’t never taken me into a sewer. Least this one doesn’t stink…” He squinted. “Actually, kinda looks like a narrow canyon, with all those lights coming in the top…”
“Why would you say that?” Wax said.
“No reason.”
They both turned around as the bells of the fire brigade sounded from above.
“So…” Wayne said. “Calendar and letters, was it?”
Wax nodded. “Gave has been visiting a place called the lab, though he also left for two weeks for some kind of trajectory test a couple months ago. Disguised as a vacation.”
“Huh,” Wayne said, pointing ahead. “And the lab is this way, you think?”
“Seems likely,” Wax said. He dug in his pocket a moment, then passed the calendar to Wayne.