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“We’ll start with a net. This one. ” She indicated a large lump that bulged out of the oversized satchel she’d left on the table. “It’s a fishing net, but it’s clean and mended. It can hold a few thousand pounds of salmon, so it’ll hold a few hundred pounds of sasquatch. ”
He was not yet convinced. “We’re going to tie it up in a net?”
“No, we’re going to catch it in a net, then we’re going to tie it up with regular old rope, which is also in that bag. I’m not a dummy, Houjin,” she said, almost crossly. “I’m not out to get any of us killed. ”
Rector sighed. “So that’s all we’re bringing? A net, some rope, and…” He looked at her torso, strung with the two bandoliers of very sharp blades. “And your knives?”
“Guns make too much noise. We don’t want to attract rotters, and we don’t want to kill the creature, so we’re not bringing guns. But you boys keep the axes and clubs you picked up. I want you able to defend yourself, should the worst occur. ”
Rector complained, “A gun would defend us better. ”
And she retorted, “Spoken like someone who hasn’t fired one very often, or fired one down here. If I thought any one of you boys was a Texian sharpshooter, that’d be one thing. But I won’t have no amateur gunslingers shooting willy-nilly; you’ll hit each other as likely as anything else. Now make sure you’ve got everything you’re likely to need, and let’s head out while the sun’s up. We’re burning daylight, boys! And the weather’s not even half bad up there. I hesitate to suggest it, but I do think we’re starting to warm up for summer. ”
All the way over to the carts, and on the ride up the hill, Rector worked hard to keep from thinking about Miss Mercy and the things she’d told him with that stern, almost-pretty face of hers. He fought against everything she’d said, even as some wretched, insistent little spot in the back of his head whispered that she was right.
It was the same little spot that used to hold Zeke’s ghost; it was the place where phantoms rested and waited, even without the sap to fuel them. As Rector rode in the rattling cart, pumping the lever up and down without thinking about it anymore, he wondered what else lived in that awkward, cobwebby corner. Zeke’s ghost was gone. Zeke himself sweated, puffed, and pumped like a champ directly across from him on the repurposed mining car; and that meant he’d
never been dead, and had never haunted Rector or anybody else.
Sometimes he had to remind himself of this. And sometimes he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
Oh, in a general sense he was glad Zeke was alive. It sure took the edge off all that guilt he’d worn around his neck. But all the same, and for all he’d been afraid of the specter … it had been one reliable presence in his life when there weren’t many others.
And now he couldn’t rely on that, either.
The trip up the hill felt faster this time, partly because Angeline was wearing the awkward polarized glasses, so they could keep their masks off most of the way. This prompted Rector to poke Houjin about how come, if he was so damn smart, he hadn’t thought to bring the glasses in the first place—to which Houjin responded that he didn’t spend all his free time riffling around through the storage rooms in the Vaults, so he hadn’t known about them. Then Miss Angeline had threatened to box them both on the ears if they couldn’t get along.
Close to the end of their trip, she abruptly pulled the brake, and a fierce, hissing spit of white fire and sparks kicked up from the track. When the cart came to a full stop, she ushered everyone into masks on the double. “It was free and clear up until a few minutes ago. Then I started catching hints of it in the glass. Maybe it’ll be all right for a while, maybe it won’t. I don’t want to take the chance. ”
Once again, Rector reluctantly crammed his face into a gas mask. The rest of the way indeed felt longer, even though they’d nearly reached the Sizemore House. He hated those damn masks, but when he griped about them, Angeline told him, “If they bother you that much, maybe you’ve picked the wrong place to live. Or work. You could always go hang out at the Station, if you want. ”
Carefully, he asked, “Why would I want to do that?”
“Because you’re a boy who’s been known to move sap, and that’s where it comes from, mostly. And besides, I heard tale you’d already been down there and seen it. ”
“So … you heard about that. ”
“I hear about everything. ” With calculated casualness, she continued. “I know who you’re working for, don’t I?”
He thought about being contrite, and opted instead to be direct. “I expect you do. ”
She nodded, and unloaded the cart, making sure everyone’s supplies were bundled up good and tight (including her own), and saw to it that the boys retrieved their weapons.
While she checked and refolded the fishing net, she was silent. But when she’d finished, she said, “It’s no surprise. These other two”—she motioned at Zeke and Houjin, who remained concertedly quiet—“know how I feel about Yaozu. Wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire. He spent too many years propping up my murdering son-in-law down here. I can forgive it for my own peace of mind—but I won’t forget it. ”
Rector didn’t believe for a moment that she’d forgiven anyone for anything.
“That being said”—she chose her words carefully, speaking more slowly than usual—“Yaozu is not an inventor, and he’s not some kind of scientist—but he understands how to run a city, or a business, or people … better than Joe ever did. So with that in mind, I will be as gracious as I can muster, and tell you that I don’t think Yaozu is the worst thing that could’ve happened to Seattle. I just hope he’s strong enough to hold it together against the sorts of men who are always trying to weasel their way inside these walls. If he isn’t, someone will take the city away from him, one of these days. ”
“And better the devil you know, eh?” he said, more lightly than he meant to.
She donned her bag and started for the stairs that led up out of the cellar. “That’s one way to put it. He’s smarter than Joe, and that’s either good or terrible, depending on how the cards fall. I’m hoping for good, because I care about this place and I want it to hold together—even if he’s the glue. But I’m worried about the bad, because if he put his mind to it, he could do a lot more damage than Joe did. This city is worth saving. It’s worth fixing, however we have to go about it. But it shouldn’t be saved at the cost of making that drug, and all the people it kills. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that. ”
The cellar doors parted with a shove of her shoulder.
Rector reflexively held his breath—the Blight looked like smoke, and his body rebelled against the idea of inhaling it—but he beat the instinct down.
Back into the curdled air they climbed, adjusting their gear and their garments to cover all the skin they could. Rector had hung onto Fang’s gloves, and now he felt prepared to poke around inside the dead city, whether or not he enjoyed it.
