The three looked around, realized there was nothing they could do about the ratmen, went inside to see what the ratmen had been doing.
Ratmen materialized. I recognized John Stretch. They slammed the door shut and nailed it in place. Then the rat king headed our way while his minions congratulated one another.
“He knew we were here,” I said.
“Yes.” Morley examined our surroundings thoughtfully.
I checked for normal rats myself till John Stretch was close enough to hear me ask, “What was all that?”
“We wanted the patrol out of our fur. They will not be missed for a while. But we have no time to spare.”
“You timed all that for our arrival?”
The ratman seemed concerned about my intelligence. “No.”
“But you did know that we were lurking around out here.”
“Yes. Where is Singe? I expected her to bring you here.”
“She’s coming.” I explained the delay.
And here she came. Trudging through the snow, holding her cold tail, looking miserable. Saucerhead limped along behind.
A flurry of activity commenced at what would’ve been the next door checked by the trapped patrol. A flood of ratpeople went in. Then the stream became bidirectional. Those exiting were loaded down. Singe took one look, dropped her tail, and tied into her brother. “Are you mad?”
“Easy, girl,” I told her.
“This is insane! The humans will forget the Other Races! The Watch will help the racialists persecute our folk.”
“Easy, Singe. Did you think about that, John?” While he considered his reply, I asked Singe, “What’s the word? Were we being followed?”
“No. They just took the same route for a long time.” Then, sort of vaguely, ”But they might have been looking for us even if they did not know they were following us.”
I shook my head. She was starting to think like the Dead Man. “What’s your story?” I asked Saucerhead. He was hanging on to a wall, favoring his left hip.
“I fell. On some ice. It was under some fresh snow. It’s snowing back there, just a couple blocks.”
“Really?”
John Stretch said, “There will be no complaints to the Watch.”
“Oh?”
“Thieves do not complain to the law when other thieves take what they have stolen.”
He’d never swapped war stories with veterans of the Watch, I guess. But I got his point. “There’s illegal stuff going on over there, eh?”
“All this part in back. Behind the smokestacks. It is all shut down and sealed off from the rest. Not used anymore. Except by criminals.”
“I see. Saucerhead. How are you going to babysit me if you keep falling on your ass yourself?”
He muttered something about how dumb do you have to be to let Teacher White ambush you and make you eat noxious weeds?
I sneered, asked the ratman, “These bad boys look like the ones who caused a fuss in our neighborhood. Are they foreigners?”
“Out-of-towners. Yes.”
“Definitely explains why there’s always another one around after the Watch thinks they’ve got them all.”
Morley observed, “We didn’t come out here for a committee meeting.”
“Good point. John Stretch. Where is my friend the mouthpiece?”
The ratman sighed. “Follow me.”
Our path led past the door the ratmen had nailed shut. Tremendous impacts hit it from the other side. Dust and splinters flew.
I said, “That convinces me. They’re just not wearing the pants. I’ve never seen anybody that stubborn.”
John Stretch showed concern. “They will be in a bloody mind when they do get out.”
“Likely. They’re not used to not getting their own way. Your guys threw darts. Weren’t they poisoned?”
“No. I did not know where to acquire that sort of drug.”
Too bad. But I wasn’t inclined to clue him in now.
Singe offered no suggestions, either.
59
We used the doorway the plundering ratpeople were running in and out of. Who stole all that in the first place? The crew from Ymber wouldn’t waste the time.
John Stretch led us up a dusty, rickety stair slick with bat droppings. The bat smell was potent. He led on through a maze of ups and downs. The granary had been built in stages, over generations. The army had wanted everything connected. The ratman said, “I am sorry. I have not yet seen this myself. There must be a more direct route. I believe we are close now. Be silent.”
Silence it was. We’re good at silence. All of our lives have depended on silence at some point. And we’re all still here.
We got around by light that leaked through gaps in roofs and walls. There were plenty of those. Unfortunately, they also let in critters and the weather. Eventually, Singe smelled smoke. Flickering light appeared ahead and below. “Looks like firelight.”
We entered the loft of what once had been a vast stable. Moldy hay still lay here and there, inhabited by Singe’s unimproved cousins.
The flickering light came from an indoor campfire. We advanced carefully. Everybody wanted to see. And what we saw was half a dozen people trying to keep warm around a fire being fed wood torn from nearby horse stalls. There were tents around the fire, four of them, facing the warmth.
The camp had been there awhile. There wasn’t much lumber left. There was trash. Laundry hung on lines. That included green plaid pants. Which I noted only in passing. I concentrated on Harvester Temisk and the old man in a wheelchair. Who looked more lively than a man in a coma ought.
I got down on my belly, at the edge of the loft. Morley dropped beside me. Chodo wasn’t talking, nor was he moving. Still, he was farther into our world than when last I’d seen him.
John Stretch settled to my right. Ordinary brown rats collected around him, worshipful.
Were Temisk and Chodo prisoners? Guests? Or in charge?
The unrelated things were converging, suggesting potential cause and effect relationships.
Chodo had an arrangement with the A-Laf cult. It went back a long time. A-Laf’s thugs came to town to charge their nickel dogs with misery. Before Temisk got in touch with me. Before Penny Dreadful turned up with her spooky kittens.
The appearance of the Green Pants Gang must have emboldened Harvester Temisk. He decided to rescue his boss. Powerful old allies had arrived. And they owed Chodo.
But that left plenty of questions. How had Temisk meant to use me? Surely, Teacher White, Rory Sculdyte, and others hadn’t been factored in fully. They hadn’t been expected to survive the Whitefield Hall fire. Then there was Penny Dreadful. Her kittens had been a jinx on everybody.
Was Penny the straight goods? Was she getting up all our noses for a reason? Was most of what she’d told Dean true?
Her presence certainly excited the Green Pants Gang. My front door was proof.
And the human combustions? I had only hints.
And now a new question arose. How the Tersize family fit. Warehousing stolen goods and housing out-of-town religious gangsters wouldn’t happen without them noticing. Hell, they were using A-Laf’s Ugly Pants sextons for security.
And why had that stone been slung my way? I couldn’t make that fit. It had gem-plus value because of its dark capabilities.
Had Colonel Block and Director Relway taken stones off the Ymberians they’d arrested? Would they guess what they had?
Something to think about.
60
A tall, thin old man with wild white hair and exaggerated facial features rushed into the camp. He moved fast for his age but had a major stiffness in his hips. He walked goofy. I couldn’t hear what he said, but it had to be about ratman raiders. Everybody but Temisk and his buddy moved out fast, armed.