Chapter Nine
Ben pointed at the screen, which displayed a scanned version of the puzzling Sewers map.
“See here? Lotsa these tunnels end without connectin’ to another. No notes about dead-ends or that sorta thing.”
Lucy’s reflected the screen’s glow. “Almost like they don’t really end, they just—”
“Go somewhere else. Like another level. Up or down, mebbe, but who knows? If this is such an old part of the Sewers that we don’t even got it on records, it might be ’cause it’s buried or sealed or built over.”
“Maybe.” Lucy picked at one of her eyebrows. “But we got to you, remember? We went there to get you back, and we took the regular routes.”
Ben chewed at the dead skin around his thumbnail. “When you found me, didja map out where we were? Spot any of the junction coordinatifiers?”
“No. We tracked you by the beacon spell your emergency call set off, plus your own energies once we got close enough. After we reached you, we were too busy trying to contain you and the Ravishing.”
“So by the time you got to me, you coulda been fed into this area, led off the main routes and then back again on the way out.”
“Without any of us noticing? I mean, sure, it was near chaos until we got back to HQ, but still, it’s a stretch. When Carl started working with you again, did he know anything about the incident?”
The elemental sloshed about: Wishing it so.
“He weren’t there,” Ben said.
“Why not? You two went everywhere.”
“Not always. Sometimes I made him skedaddle when Karen and I wanted a little … er … alone time on a job.”
Her gaze went flat. “You’re kidding.”
At his flush and shrug, she scoffed. “Only you, Ben. Only you would try to be romantic in the Sewers.”
“Hey, she didn’t never complain none.”
Lucy frowned. “So we’re back to wild guesses.”
“Seems like. I ain’t got nothin’ better at the moment. You?”
“Just what my intuition is telling me.”
“And what’s it sayin’ with its tongue stuck in your ear?”
“That this was a trap.” She tapped the screen over the center of the spiraling tunnels. “If this isn’t truly part of the Sewers, then someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure it looks like it is. They lured you and Karen in with the promise of an easy job, and then clamped down once you got there.”
Ben scratched his noggin as he considered the idea. He turned the real map this way and that to see if viewing it at other angles might trigger recognition.
“So we still gotta find out what this is a map of and how I get back down there.”
“Get back?” Lucy echoed.
“Lu, this ain’t just a strange little spot. It’s where I lost my wife and mind. I’m bettin’ any real info in our files has gotta be edited or removed. Guessin’ if we got Destin back, we mebbe could find out how many piles he’s swept under the rug, but that ain’t likely happenin’ anytime soon.” He knuckled his chin. “I could try and summon Filth again, see if I could argue for her handin’ Destin back over, but I doubt she’s gonna cooperate. And gettin’ Destin back ain’t a big priority for the Board right now.”
“Maybe not,” Lucy said, “but—”
The radios on their belts sputtered to life.
“This is Janitor Dani. I’ve got a … a code red, or whatever is the highest level code we’ve got for emergencies. I’m at St. Joseph Hospital. Emergency Care Unit. There’s been a …” A pause. “Another maid gone berserk. Came in with a whole slew of attempted suicides and …”
Her voice cut off as an Ascendant called for confirmation.
Ben jerked upright. “For Purity’s sake. What’s she doin’ there?” He scooted back from the desk and jumped out of the chair, shouting. “Rick? Rick!”
The desk flowed back into a flat pane which held the Filing Clerk’s frosted image.
“You have two minutes remaining for system access,” he said.
“Never mind ’bout that.” Ben shoved the envelope at the glass. “Hold this for me, a’ight? Just store it with my personnel folder until I get back.”
The orb of Pure knowledge crackled as the Clerk considered this. A pale hand slipped out of the pane and plucked the file from Ben. It vanished into the glass.
“Filed.”
“Nice and tidy, like always. I owe you a beer.”
Ben went to the door they’d come in through. Lucy opened the exit and trotted alongside him as he jogged for the nearest glassway.
“Ben, where are we going?”
“We gotta get to Dani.”
“How? And do what? Ben, even if we could help, I haven’t cleaned that hospital for years. I’ve no idea of the layout or where Dani might be by the time we get there.”
He refused to slow. “Didja hear that call at all? I’m guessin’ it’s gonna be pretty easy to tell where she is. Just look for a buncha folks runnin’ around, screamin’ their knickers off and she’ll be nearby.”
“We aren’t hearing any more chatter,” Lucy said, waving her radio. “That means it’s being dealt with. We’re only going to get in the way.”
“I ain’t plannin’ on trippin’ up any field team.” Ben stopped where the hall dead-ended in the usual full-length mirror. “But the kid’s gonna need to see a familiar face after it all blows down—and someone’s gotta run interference for her when the Ascendants start flingin’ the rulebook at her and yellin’ about whatever precious procedure of theirs she’s trampled on.” He raised his arm. “Who better?”
Lucy grimaced. “All right. We’ll try, but I can’t promise we’ll get anywhere.”
As she reached to activate the glassway, a face shimmered into view on the portal—though not that of a window-watcher. Ben scowled at the Chairman’s projection.
“Francis, don’tcha dare block us. You gotta let me—”
“Yes, it seems I must,” the Chairman said. “The matter is more urgent than we guessed. Please see to Miss Hashelheim’s retrieval. I’m sending in a scrub-team to deal with any fallout and tend to this reported berserk maid.”
Ben nodded in relief. “Thankya kindly.”
Francis looked to his companion. “Janitor Lucille?”
She came beside Ben and bumped his shoulder. “I’m with him.”
“Just as well. Please step through. I will see you transported as close as I can set you to Janitor Danielle’s signal.”
Ben pushed forward, Lucy on his heels as they popped through the glassy barrier. A flash of light blinded him for a moment, and then he found himself in a window-lined hall, with trees, shrubs, and empty sidewalks on the outside.
Footsteps pounded. Dani took the nearest corner and nearly ran straight into him. She stumbled back and swung a mop at his head, stopping just before she connected. Recognition and relief swam across her face.
“Ben … what … how …”
He pushed the mop away. “Francis sent us. What’s happenin’, princess?”
She looked between him and Lucy. “Doctor.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “A doctor? In a hospital? That sounds downright suspicious.”
Dani huffed. “Running away. He’s got something to do with this. With the maids.”
“How do you know?” Lucy asked.
Dani waved a hand in a circle. “His face changed. Went all nasty-like. Has to be Scum. And he was in the room with the maid and a bunch of other attempted suicides.”
“You snuck in there?” Lucy asked.
“Felt major Corrupt energies in the place. Didn’t recognize it as being him at first, but it had to be coming from him.” She shook her mop, urging them into motion. “He’s getting away!”
Ben popped his knuckles. “Scum playin’ at doctor? Ain’t the first time. All righty. We got this.”
Lucy caught his arm. “Ben, the Chairman just sent us to get Dani back to HQ. We got her, so let’s go. The scrub-team will take care of the rest.”
He grinned at her, feeling the fierce joy of being back on the job. This was what he was meant to do, not dilly-dally around HQ, and he wasn’t about to give up the opportunity so quickly.
“Naw. Francis just said to retrieve Dani.” He patted Dani’s shoulder. “He didn’t say nothin’ more than that. So long as we get her back to HQ safe and sound, we’re technic’ly followin’ orders.”
“Ben, we’re underequipped, underprepared, and potentially running into Scum territory.”
“Ain’t it great? Just like old times.”
She shook her head, but returned a wry smile. “I can’t believe I’m letting you talk me into this.”
“Me, either. But I ain’t complainin’. Can you get a whiff of where this guy’s boltin’ for?”
Lucy shut her eyes, and Dani mimicked her, both of them stretching out their magical senses to seek the man’s Corrupt energies. Ben checked the length of the hall to make sure no hospital staff interrupted them. The area appeared deserted for the moment.
The women’s heads cocked north.
“That way,” Lucy said, and Dani nodded. “Moving fast. And down.”
“Down?” Ben asked as they broke into a run. “Elevators?”
“Don’t think so,” Lucy said. “Look for stairs.”
Dani took a slight lead, with Ben and Lucy a close tie for second. Ben’s pulse thumped in anticipation of actually confronting Scum for the first time since his restoration. Maybe he didn’t have his powers, but the people and creatures working for Corruption could still be put down by a good, old-fashioned knuckle sandwich to the softies. With Dani and Lucy along for the fun, they’d have no trouble turning this Scum into a bug smear on the windshield.
“There.” Dani pointed at a stairwell door which stood slightly ajar. The three of them burst onto the landing and paused to listen.
Footsteps echoed below. Ben glanced over the railing and spotted a flick of white and a balding head two turns down.
“That’s lookin’ like him,” he said. “Headin’ for the basement. Mebbe he’s got a getaway car stashed in the garage.” He took the stairs down three at a time, praying he wouldn’t twist an ankle.
A door slammed below. However, when Ben hit the landing the doctor must’ve exited on, it wasn’t for the garage, but the B2 basement. Shouldering this open, he stumbled out into another wide hall. A side hall cut down into another subsection of the hospital. Ben ignored this as the far door—an enormous stainless steel block—swung inward, with just a few feet of space left before it closed. The ID sensor on the wall beside it flashed green, and then red.
“Got him cornered in the morgue!” he shouted.
He sprinted across and caught the door handle right before it shut. He strained to yank the metal slab open again, and then slipped inside. Rows of metal slabs and cabinets stacked from floor to ceiling all around him.
“Ben, hold up! Something’s wrong with Dani.”
Lucy’s shout halted him, and he turned to see Dani stumbling to her hands and knees in the middle of the hallway. Her eyes were clenched shut, face scrunched in pain. Lucy had stopped to grab her arm in support.
Ben stepped their way.
“Dani?”
The door slapped shut. A clank reverberated as the lock dropped into place.