'Well,' said Hazel, not meeting his gaze. 'It's a way in, but you're not going to like it.'
'I haven't seen a single thing about this planet that I've liked so far. What's wrong with this way in?'
'It's… through the sewers.'
'Of course,' said Owen. 'It would have to be, wouldn't it? How come you know about it?'
'My job here was part of city security. The rebuilding of the colony was finally getting under way, with new cities springing up everywhere, but the cost was going way over budget, and I mean way over. So they hired a whole bunch of security experts with nasty, suspicious minds to find out where all the money was going. Sounded like an interesting job when I took it, but it turned out to be mostly paperwork and computer time. But I got there in the end. I hacked into files I wasn't supposed to know about, and found hard evidence that one of the main contractors was working a scam with one of the main unions. The contractors arranged for extra overtime, none of which was actually done, and the contractors and the union bosses split the take between them. None of the poor working slobs ever saw any of that money, of course.
'Just as I was getting ready to lower the boom on the bad guys, someone finked me out, and contractors and bosses grabbed their ill-gotten gains and did a runner. I ended up chasing them clear across the city and out through the sewers, to where they had a ship waiting. Anyone else, they might have made it, but having to run that far had put me in a really bad mood. But would you believe it, after all that hard work, the city fathers gave me only a measly bonus of a hundred credits a head? And I had to supply the heads as proof. Luckily I had them to hand… What are you smiling at?'
'It's just… I find it rather hard to see you as an agent of law and order,' said Owen. 'Still, I bet no one jaywalked while you were around.'
'Anyway,' said Hazel with great dignity, 'even though the Hadenmen have been doing a lot of rebuilding aboveground in Brahmin City, I'll bet good money they haven't touched the sewers. Hadenmen have no need for toilets, remember? One of the most alien things about them, if you ask me. So, we go in through the sewer outlets, follow the path I used, and just pop up now and again to see what's happening. If we're sneaky enough, and fast enough, the inhuman bastards'll never know we're there.'
'I just know I'm going to catch something awful,' said Owen. 'But it does sound like a plan. Lead the way, Hazel.'
They set off toward the jagged ridge rising on the horizon, clouds of gray dust puffing up with every step they took. They both coughed painfully at first, as the dust sank into their lungs, but after a while they used handkerchiefs to improvise masks for their mouth and nose, and the going got a little easier. Owen hoped fervently that Hazel's handkerchief was a lot cleaner than it looked.
They plodded on across the gray landscape, moving in a drifting cloud of disturbed dust, their footsteps eerily muffled, their feet banging hard against the unyielding stone. There were no landmarks, and the ridge just sat there ahead of them, never looking any closer. Owen started talking again, even through a handkerchief, just to keep from going crazy through boredom.
'If I'm recalling this correctly,' he said as distinctly as he could, 'you said you got fired from your job here, and you actually had to leave Brahmin II in somewhat of a hurry. What went wrong? I would have thought after exposing a scam like that, they'd have given you the keys to the city.'
'You would think that, wouldn't you?' said Hazel 'But, unfortunately, it turned out the graft went a lot higher than I knew, and they got me fired before I could prove anything against them. Framed me for excessive violence, fired my ass, and kicked me off-planet. Bastards.'
'So… if the city leaders are still alive, they're not necessarily going to be too pleased to see you?'
Hazel snorted. 'Don't be daft. If they're still alive, they'd be so desperate for help they'd welcome Valentine Wolfe and Kid Death.'
'I take your point. Pick up the pace, Hazel. That ridge isn't getting any closer, and it's already heading into evening. I want to be in and out of Brahmin City before night falls. I get the feeling things get pretty spooky around here once darkness falls.'
'Yeah,' said Hazel. 'Got to be a lot of ghosts around here. Maybe we can help them rest a little better.'
They finally got to the ridge and climbed to the top. On the other side, at the bottom of what had once probably been a pleasant valley, lay Brahmin City, its gleaming silver towers glowing brightly in the gathering evening. From far away came the sound of endlessly working machinery, from a city that no longer slept. Owen and Hazel made their way carefully down the far side of the ridge and into the valley, and Hazel led them straight to the sewer outlets, a series of great metal pipes protruding from the sides of what had once been a roughly cut canal. No water ran at all now, but the smell from the pipes was still pretty bad. Hazel strode back and forth before the pipe outlets, studying them with a deepening frown.
'What's the problem?' said Owen after a while.
'Give me a break, Deathstalker. I'm trying to remember which pipe is which. I was only here once, and that was years ago. I choose the wrong one, and we could end up going around in circles.'
'Wonderful,' said Owen. 'Oz, you got any ideas?'
'Of course,' murmured the AI immediately. 'Through my ongoing link I have access to all the city's computer records, and they have extensive maps of the city's entire sewage system. You want the largest opening, on the far right. Follow that, and it will take you right into the main system, with openings all over the city.'
Owen relayed this information to Hazel, who nodded reluctantly. 'Sounds right. Okay, follow me in and stay close.'
She pulled herself up into the wide metal opening and crouched there a moment, peering into the gloom beyond. The pipe was about eight feet in diameter, the lower part coated with a thick black residue. 'Smells even worse than I remembered. And I don't even want to think about what I'm standing in. There used to be a lighting system in these pipes, for the sewer-maintenance people, but I can't see any switches.'
'Allow me,' said Oz. Light suddenly appeared in the roof of the pipe, running away into the distance. The small green globes shed an eerie light, and there were wide patches of shadow and darkness.
Hazel sniffed loudly. 'Oz showing off again, is he? Tell him to check for any old security alarms in the pipes. Or any new ones, come to that.'
'I'm on it,' said Oz. 'As long as I'm still linked in, I have complete control over what the city computers register.'
Hazel straightened up and strode determinedly down the pipe. Owen steeled himself against the stench and followed her. The thick black gunk on the floor squelched loudly under his feet and made the going treacherous. Owen hoped fervently that there weren't any leaks in his boots. There was some kind of slime caked on the walls too, and Owen was careful not to reach out to them for support.
He lurched and stumbled on after Hazel, who made her way slowly but carefully down the pipe, ignoring the first openings she came to, and then diving without hesitation into a turning on the right that looked no different from any of the others. Presumably her memory was coming back. Owen followed her, and found himself in a system of smaller brick tunnels, barely six feet in diameter. The walls had been scrubbed clean sometime in the not too distant past, but the floor was still pretty disgusting. Hazel hurried on in the lead, following a map in her head that she hadn't consulted in years. Owen could have asked Oz to check if they were going the right way, but he didn't. He trusted Hazel.
The flat green light made it hard to judge distances and details, and there seemed to be a haze in the air. The smell was so bad by now it left a constant furry feeling in the mouth and nose. God only knew what conditions must have been like when actual sewage ran through these tunnels. Owen increased his pace to walk alongside Hazel, and they strode on in silence for a while, turning as Hazel thought necessary. The only sound in the tunnels was their boots on the sticky floor, the air too still even to allow an echo.
'I'm surprised we haven't seen any rats yet,' Owen said eventually. 'I mean, wherever there are sewers, you find rats, even in the most salubrious parts of the Empire. Which this isn't.'
'No self-respecting rat would set foot in a sleazebag operation like this,' said Hazel. 'But I take your point. There was certainly something scuttling in the shadows the last time I was down here.'
'Maybe they all left when the sewage ran out.'
'Or maybe the Hadenmen put poison down.'
'Yeah,' said Owen. 'Maybe.'
They pressed on through the increasingly narrow tunnels. The curving brick walls all looked pretty much the same, but Hazel still seemed fairly confident about where she was going. Owen didn't have a clue where he was,
