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He nodded. “All of them. I have a sister and brother who are couriers too. My sister lives in the warehouse with me.”
“Sounds like a good life.”
Cody shrugged. “It is, but running the cables is a young man’s job. My brother and I have been talking about starting a business. A formal service that contracts with a few big firms to carry all their messages. We could build a dorm to house the workers, earn money on rent as well as on the commissions.” He shrugged again. “Maybe we’ll do it, maybe we won’t. But we talk about it.”
“It sounds very enterprising,” said Pietro. “And very smart.”
“So what areyouplanning to do?”
Pietro sighed. “Still working that out.”
Cody watched him with unabashed curiosity, but didn’t ask any more pointed questions. “You’ve been keeping busy, though. At least, you’ve been gone a lot.”
Pietro nodded. “Volunteering at a food distribution center.” He smiled. “A bit more formal and organized, but essentially the same work you and I did when we were trapped on the other side of the canyon.”
“Working at a center that the temple runs, or one of the other ones?”
“I didn’t even know therewereother ones.”
Cody nodded. “Sure. There are a couple on the eastern edges of the city. They’re a little rougher and they run out of food quicker. But people go there who’d never walk into the temple.”
“I’ll have to check them out,” Pietro said. He gave Cody a closer inspection. “Is thereanywherein the city you haven’t been—or couldn’t get to?”
Cody laughed. “I’d be surprised.”
Pietro leaned his back against the rough wall. “There’s a place someone mentioned the other day. A room, three levels beneath the main temple where there’s some holy relic left by Cordelan.”
“There is,” Cody said. “I’ve only seen it once.”
“But you’ve been there? And seen it with your own eyes?” When Cody nodded, Pietro added, “Now Iamimpressed.”
Cody grinned. “Well, I wasn’t supposed to be there. And I only went because I was told I couldn’t. I’d been out drinking with a few other guys, and there were runners from another part of town, and we got into a pissing match about who’d done what and gone where. And someone said no one could get into that room, and I saidIcould, and my brother saidhecould, and then after that we sort of had to do it.”
“Of course you did,” Pietro murmured. “Overconfidentandreckless. With an inconvenient kind of male pride.”
“It was fun.”
“But I was under the impression that you need a key to get into the bottom levels.”
“You do.”
“And youhaveone?”
Cody’s whole face was alight with laughter. Pietro supposed this was his favorite sort of conversation. “I have a copy of a key. But it works.”
“So what would induce you—if I said I wanted to see this room for myself—would you—”
“Sure.”
“—Take me to see it? Youwould?”
“Sure,” Cody said again.
“What would you charge me?”
Cody considered. “I might do it for free. I’d like to see it again.”
“But if you get caught—”
