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“Yeah, it’s that ‘but’ that’ll kill you if you’re not careful. So you’re looking for your boy. ” He checked her up and down. “How old are you?” he asked outright, since he couldn’t see her face very well behind her mask.
“Old enough to have a son who’s dumb enough to come in here,” she countered. “He’s fifteen. Have you seen him?”
“He’s fifteen—that’s the best description you got?”
“How many random fifteen-year-old boys can this place possibly get in a week?”
The man shrugged. “You might be surprised. We get a lot of stragglers from the Outskirts coming in here, looking to steal or barter, or learn how to process the Blight for sap. Course, most of ’em don’t live too long. ”
Even through her visor, the man saw Briar’s eyes narrow. He quickly added, “I don’t mean your kid didn’t make it; that’s not what I’m saying. He only got here yesterday?”
“Yesterday. ”
“Well, if he’s lived this long he might be all right. I haven’t seen him, but that doesn’t mean he ain’t here. How’d you get inside?”
“I hitched a ride with a sky captain. ”
“Which one?”
“Look. ” She stopped him with a worn-out wave of her hand. “Can we talk? Can we do this somewhere else? I need to get out of this mask,” she pleaded. “Please, is there somewhere I can breathe? I can’t breathe. ”
He took her face in his hand and turned it this way and that, examining her mask. “That’s an old model. A good model, sure. But if your filters are clogging up, it don’t matter how good it is. All right. Let’s go downstairs. We’ve got a sealed pod here in the bank, and a connector to the underground roads. ”
The man led her downstairs, not holding her hand or dragging her, but waiting when she lagged behind.
At the entrance to the main hallway, where there were no windows to let in any light, an oil lantern had been left beside the door. The man took it, set it alight, and held it up to brighten the way to the basement.
While Briar watched his big, bobbing back stomp through the halls and down the stairs, she told him, “Thank you. I should’ve said so sooner, but thank you, for helping me out down there. ”
“Just doing my job,” he said.
“So you’re the Seattle welcome wagon?”
He shook his head. “No, but I keep my eyes open for noisy newcomers like yourself. Most of the kids, they slip in easy and keep their mouths shut. But when I hear gunshots and things breaking, I’ve got to come take a look. ” The lantern’s flame wavered. He shook the light to swirl the oil. “Sometimes it’s somebody we don’t want here and don’t need here. Sometimes it’s a little woman with a big gun. It’s something new every day. ”
At the first floor there was a door with all its loose bits sealed by pitch—and treated leather flaps around every crack.
“Here we go. When I open the door, you move quick and get inside. ” He handed her the lantern. “I’ll be right behind you. We just try to keep the door shut, if you get my meaning. ”
“Got it,” she said, and took the lantern.
From a pants pocket he withdrew a ring with a dozen black iron keys. He picked the one he wanted and pushed it through a rubber seal where Briar wouldn’t have thought to put a lock; but he turned the key and a mechanism clicked, and the door loosened when he bent his elbow.
“Count of three. One, two… three. ” He tugged the latch and the door sucked outward with a pop.
Briar sidestepped her way into more darkness, and as promised, the man in the armor darted in behind her, then swiped the door back into its seal and locked it behind them.
“A little farther,” he said.
He took the lantern again and led the way, through some leather and rubber flaps hanging down in strips, and down another short corridor. The corridor ended in a strange-looking door that looked more like a cloth screen than an ordinary barricade. It was fitted with the same treated flaps around its edges to create the seal that the other underground doors all shared; but this one was porous.
Briar pushed her ear to the door and she could feel air moving through it.
“Look out. And same rules as before—be quick. One, two… three. ”
He didn’t need to unlock anything this time. The door slid sideways on a track, retreating into the wall with a squeak of its seals.
She jumped around it and into the next chamber, where candles were slowly melting down to stumps upon a table. Around the table six unoccupied chairs were pushed up close, and behind them there were more crates, more candles, and another corridor with the rustling leather curtains she’d come to expect.
