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Clostridium Tetani
Topic Started: Jul 21 2017, 05:14 AM (658 Views)
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Rei no Leliel had no sense of smell and so could not sniff the provided coffee to test for adulterants. She didn't have much of a sense of taste, either. But Kazan Tetsukana seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and when the coffee passed his taste test, she reached out and took a cup. Randomly chosen, of course, though if Adonis had intended them harm he could have done worse than poison.

It was more sugared cream than coffee, in the end. A cynic would say it was made that way to better hide the bitter poison. But Adonis seemed too flustered to think along those lines. It fit, she supposed. Rei no Leliel didn't think Adonis would be the kind to do anything himself if he could help it. After all he had almost called for security, and had not had private guards...

...and there was his other defense, too. Trying to drown them in the dense information of his ledger, all the dates and names and everything else that was fake so that he could truthfully boast about knowing nothing, as if that were any defense. But it wouldn't advance their cause, and so in that sense Adonis would win.

Kazan Tetsukana fell on the ledgers anyway, but Rei no Leliel looked at the other ledgers on the shelves. She tilted up the ledger while Kazan Tetsukana was reading it, and then looked at the others. One ledger per island? There were too many ledgers for that. One ledger per... Rei no Leliel tapped her chin, and began taking down ledgers at random.

Adonis was distracted from his gloating over Kazan Tetsukana's reading. "Hey! Who said you could do that? Put them back!" he demanded, and Rei no Leliel only gave him a short glance.

"There are very many ledgers here for Salt Island," 8I she said, running her finger over one. It came up just as clean as the one that Adonis had volunteered for Kazan Tetsukana's inspection. "And all of them current, or equally clean."

"Still wasting your time reading them, doll," said Adonis, sneering with a blustering confidence. "Fake names, fake addresses -"

"Fake delivery addresses," said Rei no Leliel, flipping the pages backward. A month back? Two months? Redbird Exports seemed to handle very many deliveries per day, but it made no sense to update different ledgers going to the same place and have them both be false in the same way. Different... clients, then. Bosses, or something like that. "Yes." Rei no Leliel tapped a page thoughtfully, and looked at Adonis, and looked at the pages again. "And none of this is your writing."

"Just the ones that come in by Den Den," said Adonis smugly.

"Hm," said Rei no Leliel. He'd surely deny remembering which ones were those, of course, and there was no mark to show which entries had been written by him or by somebody else. More deniability for him. In the end, Kazan Tetsukana was the one to gain anything from the ledgers.

Rei no Leliel met Kazan Tetsukana's eyes.

The Pit it would have to be, then.

"The Pit. Is it far." 8? The men at the warehouse had mentioned it, too. They'd come from that place themselves. And they'd also been hired by Adonis. A link, perhaps, or maybe the Pit was where you went if you were on Rust Pit and were looking for somebody to run anything for you.

"Heaps," said Adonis, clearly delighted to be getting rid of them. "Miles. Hugely far away." He got up and opened the door, and with one hand he mopped his brow.

"I see," said Rei no Leliel, and she was very good at being toneless. "And we will see you later, Adonis."

"What's that mean?" said Adonis suspiciously as they left the building, but Rei no Leliel didn't answer. "Hey! I asked you! What's that mean?!"

Rei no Leliel turned to look at him. She dimmed her eyes momentarily, the Rei no Leliel version of blinking, and turned around again.

***

"...not that it means anything. He's likely to have the antidote on hand, a reward for his help in obfuscating their tracks." Rei no Leliel tapped her fingers against her chin as they waited for the tram. "But this Fenton Keys or Aeys may not be as useful as we hope for him to be. It depends on what they might do to silence him."

And if Adonis had a Den Den that connected to whoever owned the plagues, and reason to worry about what Fenton might say, and the Pit was a long way from Redbird Exports, well. It did not sound like anybody who disappeared from the Pit was ever missed or traced. But Rei no Leliel was willing to bet that the job had come with hefty pay and intimidation, nonetheless. Suddenly it felt like the tram couldn't arrive fast enough...

...and then Rei no Leliel remembered their journey here and the frequent breakdowns, and - well. Hopefully Fenton had good instincts and a safe place to hide, but not so good or safe that they would not be able to find him when they got there, if he wasn't already somewhere out on some temporary job.

***

The Pit was not as far from Redbird Exports as Adonis had claimed; Rei no Leliel thought that if they had hurried, they might have been able to run the distance in the time that it took the tram to arrive, and then make the journey complete with breakdowns. They couldn't have missed it, either; the Pit was surrounded in a distinctive cloud of burdum particles, thrown up by the vigour of the miners even in the poor weather. It was really a single large pit that diverged into a number of smaller pits, all connected by staircases and ladders and ropes; around the lips stood carts that were being filled with burdum ores waiting to be sent off for refining.

They alighted, and Rei no Leliel accosted the first person she saw. He was, as Adonis had said, covered head to toe in burdum dust, though at least he had a mask on and clothing that attempted to cover most of his skin. "We are looking for Fenton Keys," said Rei no Leliel without preamble, and thought. "We're from Redbird Exports," 8) she added, when he made a face.

"He ain't here," said the man at once. "Gone out somewhere."

"You don't know where," 8? said Rei no Leliel, a little dissatisfied. She had not intended to go hunting for him, but she supposed it couldn't be helped -

"Ey! Fenton! Blokes looking for you!" shouted another man, who looked very much like the man they were talking to - the red dust was a great equaliser of faces - and suddenly the man they were talking to looked very panicked.

"Fenton," said Rei no Leliel, and the man turned and ran just as a pair of people appeared from around a pile of mined burdum waiting to be carted away. "...and our competition, Kazan Tetsukana," said Rei no Leliel, and Spine coiled and slithered about in her arm, waiting to be used.
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It was still raining outside on Burdum, and the trams were inefficient and slow as ever. There had once been a timetable by the tram stop, but it had rusted away until all was left was a mottled disc sitting atop a post that could barely support its own weight. An accurate representation of the times and the tram system as a whole. Kazan doubted that even if the timetable were legible, that it would be all that accurate. A drop of rain splashed against his nose and made it itch. He wiped at those slits, then held his mechanical arm above his head and deployed the small shield before locking the limb in place. The shield joined the rest of the corrugated iron and corroded metal chorus that rattled in tune with the rain. He sniffed. "We'll 'see him again later,' huh." It made him smile and he used his free arm to fiddle loose a fresh cigarette and light it up with. "Shame the weather is so miserable. Bit of sun, we could have gotten some shades and really played the mob role." Despite the gloomy atmosphere, Rei's threat and his own little quip had put him in a very good mood.

Her ruminations on poisoning only served to make him grumble and grate in laughter some more. "Think you're getting a little paranoid there, Rei no Leliel. Adonis' just another scummy businessman. Happy to deal in dirt, so long as he doesn't have to touch it direct. He wouldn't keep poison or ideas of murder in that world of his." Adonis was, after all, just the messenger; the one you weren't supposed to shoot, the one who didn't want to be shot, and who ultimately sat on the sidelines growing fat as the blood and bones flew.

Unlike most other residents of Rust Pit. The tram arrived, screeching and straining to pull itself along its own tracks, and it was immediately clear that, just like below, several of its passengers were suffering from spasms, ranging from the mild to the severe. Coughs abound too. Still, a silver lining was there in that the tram wasn't as packed as it had been previously and even Kazan was able to fit onto it without much issue. Adonis, of course, had danced around the truth and was no doubt dancing away in his office for real at having pulled such a spectacular prank on the people he didn't like; the Pit was really not that far from where the village sat. Given that it made up such a huge part of the island, it wouldn't have been difficult to reach it no matter where one was. No, getting to the Pit was not the difficult part; getting to the right part of the Pit and, more crucially, navigating the labyrinth array of walkways, stairs, and lifts was what threw up potential hurdles.

It stood to reason however that Fenton lived and/or worked somewhere close to the Cango side of the Pit, given that he apparently acted as a runner or correspondent between Redbird and whatever shadows were lurking just out of view. In that, the pair were fortunate as they descended a series of wooden planks down to the very first tier of the Pit. Past huge buckets of ore, carts of slag and loose earth, and every form of digging equipment known to man and fish alike. The air was thick with fumes and residue, and Kazan couldn't help but cough several times. How anything survived down there for more than a day without choking he did not know. Survive the day, expect some form of cancer within the year, no doubt. Several others passed them on other catwalks or lifts, and Kazan tried to shout out to them but his voice was lost among the throb of industry.

Instead they made it down to the tier floor and ran after the first person who looked to be able to hear them. It was a short, informative exchange; one that the fate could not help but interrupt with its cruel sense of humor. It was a good thing Kazan already had his shield at the ready from all the rain. For a moment Kazan considered chasing after Fenton, but a mere blink and he had already disappeared into the swirling fog of rust and piles of equipment. That, and their 'competition' would be far too hot on their tails anyway. He'd rather not a knife on the back.

"Kid's ours," one of them spat. They were not like the other workers, try as they might to blend in. They had the uniforms and had even gone so far as to smear burdum dust over their faces, but it wasn't quite the same. Their skin and clothes weren't infused in the stuff like everyone else. "Don't be interfering."

"Shame. Just about all we're good for." The man charged, while the other jumped at Rei, mining shovel in hand. Kazan back stepped and dodged a swipe, two swipes, from his assailant's pick, then countered with a bash from his shield. His was sent reeling, but was far from down. Another dirty swipe that Kazan caught with his shield. The pick managed to punch through the metal, but not far enough to actually travel any further. The good shook as the force reverberated through him. He tried to pull the pick back, but it was firmly lodged. Kazan took the chance to take a grasp at the man's head.
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There was no point attempting to chase Fenton Keys down; they'd never recognise him or find him if he didn't want to be found. Rei no Leliel had no doubt that the labyrinthine network of the Pit left many nooks and crannies within which to hide and never come out. It was just like things, that the person they first accosted would be the person they wanted - but that the other side would also come across him at the same time...

Adonis, she thought. He was the only likely suspect, and had surely done this to save his worthless, powdered skin. But there wasn't time now. Rei no Leliel spun around to confront their assailants, and... she stared at them. They had found themselves coveralls and hats and masks to blend in, and it conveniently erased anything memorable about their faces. There was no telling if they were male, female, or even human. They'd even caked burdum dust onto themselves.

Compared to them, Rei no Leliel and Kazan Tetsukana stuck out in the Pit like sore fluorescent neon thumbs. Lightbulb eyes flashed red and Rei no Leliel's hand plunged into the pocket of her coat. "We got here first," >8( she snapped.

"You'll be leaving here first," said the shorter one, and Rei no Leliel pegged him as a man. "In body-bags." He charged, and Rei no Leliel backtracked with speed, throwing herself to the dusty ground as the shovel whooshed above her head, carrying the man with it. She rolled away, pushing herself up as the short man arrested his momentum and prepared for another charge.

A shovel was a poor choice for a man his size, thought Rei no Leliel as she grabbed a green vial from her pocket. He wasn't strong enough to wield it flexibly or quickly, but it was a heavy weapon, and Spine was not a parrying weapon. She threw the contents of the vial down her throat, and crushed the vial in her iron hand.

He charged her again, and she threw the crushed glass in his face; it succeeded only in checking his advance for a moment as he reflexively jerked the shovel up, trying to bat it aside. But there wasn't enough glass to pose any meaningful threat, and he grinned through a mouthful of burdum dust as he charged again.

"Stop that," said Rei no Leliel, and she whipped Spine out; the descending shovel was caught in the loose end and the serrations bit into its wood. She pulled the whip taut, and the shovel was trapped inches from her face. She looked past it to his effort-flushed face. "You'll only kill yourself trying."

"I don't think so," he grunted, and he kicked Rei no Leliel in the stomach.

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"Lemme go!" the goon cried as they struggled against Kazan's metallic grip. Their physique wasn't really one all that well built for goon work. Tall, and a little intimidating, Kazan supposed, but far too skinny and lanky. Their wrists were as thick as a babe's while their entire head nestled nicely in Kazan's palm. They certainly weren't all that strong either, and were clearly reliant on their scavenged and makeshift weapons to be a threat. A weapon he still possessed and was still flailing ineffectively.

"If you want," Kazan humorlessly grunted, before tossing the distressed henchman through the air until he plowed straight into some barrels of slag. Black coal dust mixed with the Burdum stains, and Kazan's attacker rose in a coughing fit. It didn't deter him, however, and in a frustrated howl he charged the fishman again. Seeing the damage the pick could do, Kazan did not feel the need to be struck with it again. He raised his shield, then feinted with a sidestep and tripped the hapless goon over. It was a real shame Kazan was lacking in any of his odonturane. Materials for the drug had been in short supply, and with it he could have knocked his opponent out cold when he'd had him in a good grip before. Instead, it looked like he was going to have to do it the old fashioned way. It would not be right to say that Kazan was rusty at fisticuffs; he'd never really practiced in the first place. Why would he have?

He never wanted to. It was against the vow. Sometimes necessity had called for a little rough play, but victory had always been achieved through the eventual application of a soothing ether. Now that the option wasn't available, and there were still those looking to take his life, it put him into an uncomfortable situation. Technically he could probably rely on Rei no Leliel to finish off the dirty work, but chances were she might end up eviscerating them. In a bizarre twist of logic, smacking this man around the chops was the healthiest option. Consider it a new form of surgery, Kazan told himself. Preventative surgery. Saving them from an otherwise very likely case of impalement via Spine.

Kazan rolled his eyes. What strange directions his life was taking. The attacker stood up hastily, whipped around and eyed Kazan warily. Not warily enough, as it were, and he found himself surprised when the lumbering fishman barreled toward him and placed a tightly clenched fist square in his face. "Oof," he said rather lamely. There was a crunch as the little bones of his nose broke and blood spurted like someone had popped a bottle of merlot.

"Who sent you. Why?"

"Vouldn't ju liek to kno!" the man squealed through his bloody nose.

"Why I asked, buddy." Again they threw themselves at each other. Again they tussled. Kazan used his weight advantage to pull the man down to ground and fix him in a painful lock. "Who. Why. A where would be nice, too." They rolled and bucked until the pair of them were an additional shade of rusty brown.
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The boot was steel-tipped, and Rei no Leliel's stomach was not. But the force it dealt was less than she expected, and as she stumbled back she pulled reflexively on Spine so that it would not leave her grip. Instead the man was pulled off-balance as well: the serrations simply gouged deeper into the wood of the shovel-handle. The man could not match the strength of that grip, and the shovel-handle slipped free of his grasp to fall swinging, bound by Spine like some gross pendulum.

"As I said," said Rei no Leliel. She gave Spine an experimental swing, and disapproved immensely of her findings; the impromptu way that Spine and the shovel had been joined made for a poorly balanced weight. So she simply lifted the shovel up in her free hand, a short length of Spine dangling free between her fists. Shorter than she would have liked; but in the other man's corner, he had nothing left but his body. Not a particularly good or skilful body, either. These were probably all that Adonis had been able to scrounge up at a moment's notice, even accounting for the delay at the trams. Rei no Leliel thought that there were advantages to being thought of as a doll, in this case. She gripped the shovel and advanced on the man. "You will kill yourself trying. You and your friend." 8I Though Rei no Leliel was only confident now that she had a fuller assessment of them. She thought that Fenton Keys would probably have put up a better fight than they.

"Just -" snarled the man, frustrated and angry now. "Just stop fighting already!" and he put his head down like an angry bull and barrelled at her. It was a clear tactic; he wanted to use her own earlier movements against her, now that she was the one holding the heavy shovel. She feinted a swing, and true to her expectations, he threw himself to the ground to duck the expected attack and roll away. It would have been clever, if it had not been so obvious.

Mid-swing, Rei no Leliel gave her wrist a sharp turn, and the horizontal arc of the shovel became a downward-angled one. Coming from above and from his back as it was, the man didn't see it coming as she struck him with the flat of the blade. It was a loud, broad smacking noise, and he fell flat on his stomach with his limbs splayed out like a beached frog. Rei no Leliel kept the shovel on his back, and simply rotated it so that the tip was now stabbing into his, well. Spine. Not directly; the workers of the Pit wore thick protective clothing, and she didn't think he was hurting badly. His hands moved. A hidden weapon? Not hurting badly enough, she thought, and she threw her weight on the shovel.

The man groaned, low and painful. "No sudden movements," said Rei no Leliel, holding the shovel steady. She wondered if it had found flesh, and whether the blood would be able to seep through the thick clothes if it had. Or even if the blood would be discernible from all the burdum-dust that artificially caked the man and his partner. "Answers, and you die."

"You mean," coughed the man, "'or' you die. Or else it -"

He shut up, groaning, as Rei no Leliel gave the shovel a brief, sharp twist.

"Don't pick my grammar," >8( she said. "But: 'and'." She paused, looking at Kazan Tetsukana was rolling about on the ground with his chosen opponent. They were leaving blood streaks in the dust. She assumed the blood was his opponent's. "You." Her voice was not loud, and she didn't really have any way to raise its volume. One of the cons to her condition. "Shout for your partner to stop fighting." >8/

He was face-down, too, and could not see her expression. So she dug the shovel into him to encourage immediate compliance. Something felt as if it had given way, and he let out a little scream of "Stop!" Whether it was addressed to Rei no Leliel or to his partner in crime, Rei no Leliel did not much care.

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Perhaps Kazan ought get himself a cattle prod of sort sort. Something to provide a jolt to unruly sorts that wouldn't sit still and give him what he needed. A compliance regulator. Something built in, too, so a little prod and everyone started doing as they were told. It was awkward, after all, wrestling a man in the dirt and dust. Kazan certainly had the advantage of size and weight, but what he didn't have was any actual experience in wrestling or indeed a natural predisposition towards it. It came as a relief then, when a high-pitched cry rang around the shelf they were all perched on. The man Kazan was tangled with hesitated, looked over to see his partner in a particularly uncomfortable position, and finally stopped his wriggling. Kazan was able to lock his arms behind his back and drag him up, though he did need to take a moment to brush all the red from his clothes and limbs. "Thanks, Rei no Leliel. Consider that a single favor. Good for a week." he coughed a little, more from the dust he'd needed to snort direct from the ground than anything else. "You, though," he told his captured opponent. "Wish you'd have quit it earlier. Not ten years old. Not a fan of rolling in the mud." The man simply spat. "What your name?"

"Abam," he grunted, still squeaking and honking through the blood of hsi broken nose. Kazan doubted the name was real, but he didn't much care for actually getting to know the fellow. Rather, he simply wanted something to address them by. He opened his mouth and began to point at the other individual caught in Rei's web. "Coyin," Adam spat again, beating him to the punch.

"Well. Adam and Colin. Question and answers. You've already been asked the questions. So time for answers."

"Look, we don't know nothing. And before you say, that doesn't mean we know everything!" Colin gasped, teeth grating as the shovel rested oh so tentatively on his back.

"I think I might speak for my friend over there. And I definitely speak for myself: that response is getting old."

"Whaddya you want us to say?!"

"Nobing! Teel um nobing!" Adam cried. Kazan gave him a light, resigned slap to shut him up.

"Everything would be nice."

"Look, here's how it goes down. Me and Adam, we normally work topside in the officers. Processing, admin work. Sometimes 'enforcement' when things get a little rough. Call us supervisors. Boring as a pile of frozen dung, but I'll take chilly and dull over working down here proper any day."

"Get on with it."

"Okay, okay! So anyway, we both owe Mr. Adonis a favor or two from back in the day, and today seems to be the day he comes to collect. Calls us up, all nervous and what have you, asks we find the Keys kid. Rough him up a little, give him a warning not to open his mouth to anyone who comes asking." Despite his situation, Colin still managed to crack a smile. "Guess that would be you two fine robots, huh?" He chuckled, but very quickly sobered. "But yeah. Usual tough guy intimidation stuff. Tell him to maybe take a holiday to another island for a few weeks, if he knows whats good for him, etc etc."

"Cobin!"

"Ah, shut up Adam! So we still owe Adonis, better than an early retirement and eventual death as a cripple 'cause I got a shovel lodged in my spine."

Kazan released his grip on Adam's arms, then shoved him away. He stumbled and tripped, but recovered and took a quick few paces away of his own accord, glaring and hissing at Kazan the whole way. "So you didn't get to deliver your message. But Keys has still made a run for it. Where would he go? You have employee records? Addresses?"

"Well..."
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The scream was, all things considered, rather underwhelming. Rei no Leliel considered if she might need to... encourage it along with a little push, but she found that she did not in fact need to. It had carried far enough through the Pit that Kazan Tetsukana's own opponent had finally given up the fight.

He wasn't the only one, in truth; looking up and around them, Rei no Leliel saw the hasty departures of people who had gathered around to watch the fight. None of them would meet her eyes, and all around there were sounds of tools being quickly put down and left. Well. They would have their privacy, then, at least. She looked back down at the man under her shovel, and then at Kazan Tetsukana. "The favour will not last a week," she said. "I daresay I will call on it by the end of the day." 8) But she was secretly pleased.

Kazan Tetsukana began a brief interrogation, while Rei no Leliel crouched down above the man she had in her capture, a hand on the shaft of the shovel to keep it steadily lodged in the man ("Coyin"? Colin. An unusual name, but then all the names they'd encountered on Rust Pit Island had been. It was probably local flavour.) and ensure his... tractability. He seemed inclined to wiggle, as her weight shifted, so she wiggled the shovel briefly, and he merely whimpered a little. But the crouch put her free hand in reach of his pockets, and she began digging his wallet out. It was awkward in his position, and he had fallen so that it was partially wedged under his weight; but Rei no Leliel managed to get it out nonetheless.

She stood back up. Colin yelped a little, and she realised she had accidentally leaned on the shovel when pulling herself up. "Hey! What gives? I'm being helpful!"

"Stay helpful," said Rei no Leliel, ruffling through his wallet one-handed: having two opposable thumbs per hand was a great help in that regard. "And I may pretend to forget your attempt on my life."

Colin shut up after that, but when Kazan Tetsukana asked a question and Adam attempted to keep Colin quiet, Rei no Leliel gave the shovel a meaningful twiddle. Colin promptly spilled like a ruptured beanbag, to Adam's apparent disgust. Kazan Tetsukana, for all his dubious wrestling skills, had not managed to properly cow the man. It was fortunate that Rei no Leliel could do the cowing for them both, then.

"Well - sort of," said Colin, and then quickly, "No! Not the shovel!"

Which was rather prescient of him, thought Rei no Leliel, and relaxed her grip on the shovel very slightly. "Sort of," 8?

"Look, there's a whole lot of workers, right, we can't remember all of them," gabbled Colin. "Hadn't even heard of Keys until like an hour ago or something, honest to god I swear! But there's a cabinet in the office where there's all those files, I bet you could find anybody's addresses there!"

"You are asking us to let you go to the office to get the address," said Rei no Leliel, still thumbing through Colin's wallet. There was plenty of beli in it, and she was planning to keep all of that, but she was looking for other things. Business cards, but none of them read 'Colin'. "I do not think we are going to do that obviously stupid thing."

"No! I mean, you could just send Adam, and uh, I'd stay here, and be a hostage?"

Adam would just bring backup when he came, if he returned at all. Rei no Leliel twisted the shovel. "Adonis will appreciate your cleverness," she said. "Posthumously." She finally found what she was looking for, and pulled it out of the wallet. She shook the paper until it unfolded. It was Fenton Keys' name, and under it was an address. "This is the address of Fenton Keys." 8?

Colin sagged. "Yeah. Backup plan for if we didn't find him here. Lives with his darling granny."

"Two strong men against one miner and his darling granny," said Rei no Leliel. "Adonis must have danced indeed."

"...you won't tell him we told you all that, right?" said Colin, as Rei no Leliel stepped back and finally wrenched the shovel free. There was red on its tip, but not much; his clothing had protected him more than either of them had suspected. "Only if he thinks we spilled..."

"That file cabinet has your addresses too, no doubt," responded Rei no Leliel, handing the paper with the address to Kazan Tetsukana. "Though we do plan to see Adonis again." She watched Colin scramble to his hands and feet, grabbing Adam as they went.

Probably to sound the alarm? thought Rei no Leliel, though it would be as much harm to them as to Rei no Leliel or Kazan Tetsukana. Better for them to lie low and hope that Adonis didn't go looking for them, if they were clever enough to think of that kind of thing. It was just as likely that they would try to play themselves off as innocent and put-upon, and hope that the information would gain them mercy. But Adonis did not seem the merciful sort.

Either way, they had to hurry to Fenton Keys' home.

***

It wasn't so much a house as a lean-to; wooden posts driven into the earth supported big wobbly sheets of burdum, clearly salvaged. It stood amidst a hundred others that had been built on the same principles, each varying in size or shape according to the available salvage. One of the houses had clearly used to be a tram-car.

Four sheets of burdum, and a makeshift door with wire loop hinges. Rei no Leliel knocked on it, and the entire "wall" flexed with a hollow noise. "We are looking for Fenton Keys," she said. "He is in danger, and we are coming to prevent it."

Which was - for a certain measure of things - true...
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No! Not the shovel!

Kazan was very much of the opinion that, with or without the added robotics, Rei no Leiliel would fit in very well to a far more medieval time. Her employment opportunities would likely have been as abundant as the burdum beneath their feet. "You certainly have a way with people," he snorted as he smoothed out the paper on his arm. A number, an address. Local; closer than Cango, even. "If Keys is smart, he'll have figured they might have his address. But, it's a start." He raised an eyebrow at the goon at the floor as he spilled some more of his guts, thankfully not in any literal sense in spite of Leliel hanging over him like a sword on a string. "His granny. Quaint. Wonder if he's in her will or not. She might have been in trouble if Adonis got his way. Regardless," Kazan boomed as he grabbed at Colin's crummy collar before the man could bolt. There was a loud "meep" and he almost went flying before finding his feet. "We're not local. Where is this? And I'll be double checking, so, it isn't in your best interests to lie. We've tried the shovel already, but by all means can move on to the pick axe if you'd prefer."

Colin did not prefer. He blurted some direction and gestured with frantic pointing fingers before Kazan's own released him. The dust they kicked up was thicker and larger than what many of the mining machines could manage. "You think we should maybe be a little more loose? Tell people about the fact that they're playing victim for a bioweapon? Might make them more forthcoming." He folded the bit of paper up neatly and slipped it in a pocket. The 'village' they were destined to was visible even from where Kazan stood; huts and rust-eaten shacks balanced precariously on the edge of the Pit. There was little need for a tram, given how easily accessible the village was via walkway and rope bridge. On the contrary, the faulty and malfunction prone trams would no doubt have taken far longer than to just walk.

Most surprising was the fact that the slum, for it could be described as nothing else, did in fact have a fully integrated and sensible postal code system. Each shack and burnt out tram cart had a number, the numbers were formed into streets, and so on. Easier to extort taxes and tolls that way, Kazan supposed. Or to find someone so you could break their legs. Organised or not, the village was a rickety place and Keys' address was no exception. Kazan looked back and forth between the hut and the paper, confirming, double and triple checking it was the right place. According to both Colin's directions and those from other miners he'd asked on the ascent, the location was a match. A twinge of anxiety shot through him when the place seemed just about ready to collapse at Leliel's very touch.

The door was ripped open, and Kazan was quite certain it another pull of that kind would take it off its hinges. "Hello? Fenton, you say?" The aforementioned 'granny.' Old enough to fit the bill, certainly. "Fenton!" she called back into the shack. "You've got people to see you!" She rubbed at her nose and held the door open for the pair. "Come in," she said. "Tea? Coffee? Its cheap, but hot."

Kazan coughed, then looked at Leliel, then back at the Keys matriarch."Thank you," he gruffly said as he ducked down into the house. He needed to remain hunched over, lest he potentially walk away with the roof as a hat. Again he looked to the unusually welcoming granny and then it struck him - a milky white film obscuring her eyes. She was blind, or close to it at least. The house itself had little to comment on; all one room, with a pair of mattresses in the corner and salvaged bits of metal and torn fabric for furniture. There was a kitchen, of sorts, consisting of a single sink and a camping stove supported on an old oil drum. "Feels like we're home on the Candle already," he quietly murmured to Leliel, before addressing the older woman again. "Fenton is here, Miss Keys?" he asked again. Unless the boy had learned to turn himself invisible, there was a good chance the woman might not even realize his absence.

She sat opposite him on a patchy armchair and stamped the floor, made of up of old floorboards. There was a crumble as dust fell through the cracks, followed by a muffled coughing. Kazan rolled his eyes, knelt down and gripped one of the floorboards - it came up and away easily enough, revealing a small crawlspace beneath the house, as well as a nervous Fenton Keys. "Out," Kazan groaned.

"Grandma!" Fenton hissed as he scrabbled out of the hole. "I told you, I need to hide! Why'd you-"

Her gnarled fist shot out faster than Kazan thought possible, or could properly perceive, to grab at Fenton's wrist. The last time he'd seen someone move that fast he'd also almost gotten a katana through his neck. "Fenton, Fenton," she sighed. "You're fine here. Tragedy enough that my own child has passed before me; I don't plan on letting the same happen to my grandkid. Just stay calm," she said. And he did. The jitters rattling his bones died down and he took a step back, his grandmother easing her grip, so he could stare Kazan and Leliel down.
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Rei no Leliel shrugged in response to Kazan Tetsukana's suggestion to spread the word about the tetanus bioplague. She didn't see how telling them about the true reason behind their periodic twitches and spasms would make them more accommodating to their investigations; at any rate, they had achieved much more effect with her shovel and Kazan Tetsukana's words. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "After we find the antidote," she suggested. "Or if we can convince them that Adonis is the source of the bioweapon," >8) she added after a little thought. "It is even... plausible, and I do not believe Adonis is particularly popular with most of the victims."

She indulged herself with the pleasant thought of an angry mob descending on the tiny, bedazzled pompadour. Adonis wouldn't be dancing then, or he'd be dancing a very different kind of dance at that point. If they caught him, at least, because Rei no Leliel was sure that Adonis wouldn't have built his office without some kind of hiding-space to cower in. Either that, or he would throw more of his untrained supervisors in the way of the angry islandfolk - people like Adam and Colin. Not that Rei no Leliel had very much sympathy for them, either, but...

The echoes of the bwoinging wall died away, and Rei no Leliel looked at the wall. It did not seem that she had done any particular damage to the shack, or at least that whatever she had done to the shack, had been done to it over and over by its occupants: an opinion formed in the moment that the door was yanked open to reveal Fenton Keys' darling granny. Rei no Leliel looked at her. She was old, of course; like everybody else in the slum and the nearby Pit, she was burdum-stained to the point where it seemed a natural part of her. It was in her skin and hair and clothing, and in the lines of her wrinkled palm as she welcomed them in.

Rei no Leliel wondered what it said about Kazan Tetsukana and herself, that their warmest reception in the two islands so far had come from an old, blind woman. It was probably not particularly complimentary.

She had no nose to snort with. "This would be an improvement over the Candle," she replied to Kazan Tetsukana, but her mood had doured again at the reminder of the rust-trap waiting for them on the shores. If it hadn't completely rusted away by now, or been smashed by some errant wave. She would have to see about extorting a better ship from someone on Rust Pit Island somehow, but that was a question for much, much later.

The Keys did not entertain much, it seemed; the shack was cramped enough that Kazan Tetsukana could not stand up straight, and every piece of furniture in it was visible from where they stood. There was only one armchair in it, clearly much-loved and much-used, and Grandmother Keys occupied it with the authority of the old. Not that the house was built to entertain, in any case; it was small and dark and stuffy, and the only air movement in it came from the breathing of its occupants.

Its... three occupants. It did not look as if Fenton Keys was home. Rei no Leliel looked around them, in cause he was hiding behind or under some piece of furniture. The oil drum, perhaps, and Rei no Leliel wondered if the blind old woman would have some other way of knowing if Rei no Leliel started wandering around the house poking into corners and under furniture. It wouldn't even last very long. Except that Kazan Tetsukana was already asking about it - 'Miss Keys?' thought Rei no Leliel, and she would have rolled her eyes if her eyes could roll - and lo and behold.

A crawlspace beneath loose floorboards, and Fenton Keys went up a notch in the estimation of Rei no Leliel. Only a single notch; the floorboards he'd chosen were old and not particularly sturdy. Rei no Leliel would have wagered that if she or Kazan Tetsukana had made a misstep they would have found him by his immediate shriek of discomfort. He looked at them; he was tall enough that he could look down on Rei no Leliel, but short enough that Kazan Tetsukana looked down on him. As a result his gaze wobbled up and down from ceiling to floor, metronome-like, until he made a loud disgruntled noise and settled down on the dusty floor.

"Grandma says you're fine," he said, accusatorily as if it were a mark against them. "But then what were you doing at the Pit?"

Rei no Leliel glanced at Kazan Tetsukana. Well, telling people the truth to get their cooperation had been his idea. "There is a plague on Rust Pit Island," she said with no preamble. "It mimics the effects of common tetanus, but cannot be cured and is transmitted through some different method. We found it while investigating a similar thing on Salt Island, and suspect the same person or persons are behind it." 8( She folded her arms. "You are involved because at some point you were used to send certain items to Salt Island from Rust Pit Island, through Redbird Exports."

Grandma Fenton had a killer grip. Fenton's wrist was caught before he was halfway off the floor.

"Grandma!" he whined, but Grandma Keys was having none of it.

"What's this I hear? What've you done?"

"It ain't nothing, Grandma, I swear! Look, it was easy money, okay? Just take some things down, drop them off, no questions asked. You know if I hadn't done it somebody else would've!" Fenton Keys was sweating now. "I swear I didn't know anything about them!"

"You know more than that," said Rei no Leliel impassively, "or they would not have sent Adam and Colin to search for you." Fenton whimpered a little bit, and Rei no Leliel shrugged. "We have taken care of them, but what do you know." 8?

"Nothing!" repeated Fenton Keys, and Grandma Keys tightened her grip on his wrist. "Fine! I, uh, opened one of the little packages once. Just to know, you know, nobody goes to all that trouble to drop off letters to aunty. But it was just lots of files and papers! Couldn't make anything of them."

Diagrams, maybe. "And the big packages." 8?

"I dunno! Crates, usually. Said they were from - Caster, or Casy. Something!"

"I always told you not to get mixed up in funny business, Fenton Keys!" said Grandma Keys, but she sounded exasperated rather than angry. She patted his hand with her free hand. "So, dangerous men are coming after my grandkid," she said to Rei no Leliel and Kazan Tetsukana, and for a moment Rei no Leliel wondered exactly how much of anything about the old woman was a disguise of some kind. "What else?"

"We are still searching for the true source," said Rei no Leliel. "And the cure. We suspect they are connected to the burdum trades somehow, though there are also the machine builders and designers to find, and the medical experts. So far all our leads have ended in nothing."

"I - I could help a bit?" offered Fenton Keys. "But you gotta promise you'll keep me and Grandma safe!"

"I don't need the help, Fenton," said Grandma Keys cheerfully. "Nobody'll come after an old woman like me. But you'd better go help anyway."

"Do you have more information, then," 8? said Rei no Leliel.

"I could show you where the pick-ups usually happened," he said. "And I could tell you what the guy looked like? The one who contacted me first, I mean."

It wasn't much, thought Rei no Leliel. But it was a start.
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It was a comfortable arrangement they had made for themselves. Castor, and whoever lay behind it, had put a lot of hard work into covering their tracks and making their every movement as untraceable as possible. Unfortunately for them, they had not tried quite hard enough. For all their efforts, every action left a ripple - tiny perhaps, but perceptible with a strong enough lens - and by collecting up all those tiny, wobbling breadcrumbs Kazan and Rei no Leliel were ever so gradually cementing a path. It was always pleasant to find someone like Keys, more so the Grandmother than the grandson in truth; willing, complying, and in the former's case quite able to boot. There was one little detail mild-mannered Fenton had failed to bring up, however, and it was a niggle Kazan couldn't let go despite the offer of aid.

Fenton stood up and pulled at the laces on his muddy boots, several sizes too big. He then sat right back down as Kazan flexed as much height as he was physically able to wield without becoming a chimney with gills. "Everything you've said is really helpful. But." He folded his arm and huffed from the side of his mouth. "We found a part - clunky bit of plating - in the scrapyard. Outside the smelting plant. And it had your initials on it. One of the things that led us here, kid. So maybe you want to explain how a scrawny courier gets his name on one of the machines causing this whole shebang, huh?" There was certainly something to be said, given how quickly Fenton's teeth clamped down onto his lip to try and sew his mouth shut and stop his anxiety blurting every thought that came pooling up.

It was Grandma Keys that came to the rescue once again, however. She gave Fenton a smack around the head, rolled her eyes in tired, world-weary despair and raised her hand. "Oh, I can answer that line of questioning." She settled herself deeper in her chair and patted the pockets of her top as if in search of some reading glasses, before remembering they'd be utterly redundant even if she had a book to read from. "My grandson here did have a job at the smelting plant. Best opportunity you can get on this island and he blew it."

"I told you it wasn't my fault!" he whined, before slapping a palm over his mouth and creeping his gaze, laden with guilt, back up at Kazan. The hand fell away and he fidgeted around on the floor. "I got shifted onto this other job and the stuff they were asking for was way harder to make. Pretty much everything I put together wasn't good enough and got thrown out. It was really high demand and they were trying to find the best workers for it. I, uh, wasn't one of them, and got let go completely."

"And?"

Fentom continued to whine like a dog that just wanted to be let out. "And my boss, well, he isn't the worst guy, so he pulled a favor and got me set up with this courier job between Adonis and the Casey guys-"

"Castor."

"Right, Castor, whoever it that was commissioning those machines that got me kicked out in the first place."

Kazan relaxed. The story checked out, and pointed to yet another stepping stone they could hop to when the waters of desperation began to rise too high around their ankles. The plant, really, was suspicious from the get-go but now they had legitimate cause to shake that hornet's nest. "Mhm," Kazan rumbled, as he nodded and stroked at his chin. "Consider my accusations curbed, kid. Now this is the part where you give us those descriptions you were talking about." He tried to stand and bumped his head against the ceiling. The walls shook and dust drifted downwards. "Actually. Let's make it two for one. You can walk and talk. So, descriptions and the drop site. If you would." He rubbed at his head, but managed to gesture back towards the door.

Fenton groaned, but Grandma Keys hushed him. "You'll help mend what you've broke, Fenton. I've got nine good friends to my name and at least four of them are sick. Here I was hoping it was a coincidence, but now we know better thanks to these fine people." She slapped at his buttocks as he passed by and he yelped. "So if you've had any part in causing it you can count on me nagging you until you've turned those tables right around!"

"Okay, Grandma, okay!"

Kazan sniffed, looked to Grandma Keys. "You've been more help than you know."

"Oh I'm quite aware of how much help I've been, thank you," she smiled with a wicked grin. Her nostrils flared in Kazan's direction. "You've got nicotine on you. Spare a poor, blind old woman a smoke?" she begged, her voice dropping a few pitches.

Kazan chuckled and slipped a cigarette from his pocket and offered it. She swiped it out the air and between her teeth like she was swatting a fly with chopsticks"You don't fool me, crone," he chortled. With a flick of his thumb he sparked a flame on his lighter and lit the cigarette for her. Lush, blue smoke began to fill the room.

"Nor me, machine man. Be a dear and try keep my Grandson out of too much trouble, won't you?" She smiled at both Kazan and Rei no Leliel. "Ta ta."

Kazan closed the door carefully behind him, then gave Fenton a shrug. "Let's go then, kid."

Fenton sighed and began to march. "So the drop site is back down in the Pit, in a dead end. Old vein that stopped giving years ago. I don't know how they get in or out - I swear they step out of nowhere, and when I look back over my shoulder when I leave they've already vanished."

"And description?"

"Well, it isn't always the same person, but the guy who my boss put me in touch with, the one who arranged the whole thing, he's, um..." Fenton tapped at his chin in rhythm to his steps as he descended a shaky wooden walkway further down into the pit. "He's small and to be honest, too clean. For Rust Pit, that is. He's cleaner than Adonis even, and he never sets foot outside his shop. Whoever he is, he's a lot like you two weirdos in a lot of ways."

"Yeah? How many ways?"

"For starters, like I said, he's too clean to be a native. Mustn't come here often. But more than that," Fenton continued, as he looked directly at the pair, "he's got gills, and he must have got really acquainted with a crane once."
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Really high demand, said Fenton Keys. Best workers, and he hadn't been one of them. And Castor had been... commissioning them, which meant there'd be, hm. A list of more things to look or ask for, thought Rei no Leliel, as Kazan Tetsukana and Grandmother Keys finished their little social visit off by exchanging cigarettes. The address of the smelting factory that had employed Fenton Keys; a list of the other workers, who had been good enough that the pieces with their names on them had not wound up in the scrapyard, and maybe their addresses; the diagrams that Castor Medical had no doubt used to specify the parts they had wanted built. Possibly lists of materials needed - no, not that. Rei no Leliel shook her head. It would be burdum, through and through, and even if they specified the best burdum, it was burdum all the same. Stuff as plentiful on Rust Pit as salt was on... Salt.

Rei no Leliel wondered if supervisors were fanning out to find those other workers and cull them at that very moment. Colin and Adam might have been cowed into quietness, but she couldn't see Adonis forgetting that people other than Fenton Keys might talk. On the other hand, thought Rei no Leliel, with the number of people that would have had to be involved by necessity... it would have to be a culling indeed. One that even Adonis' means might find difficult to pull off, unless he begged Castor and the hidden people behind it. Rei no Leliel tapped her chin. It would be a next avenue, perhaps, if this one didn't pay off. Though Rei no Leliel did not relish the thought of going through hundreds of addresses to find out anybody who would be willing to talk.

Or anybody still alive, if Castor had not bothered to immunise their own employees against the weapon. It was more likely than not, given the people they'd seen on the trams. Besides, there would surely be rumours floating about if it had been noticed that nobody from a particular factory, or factories, had begun the spasming. Not that Rei no Leliel or Kazan Tetsukana had spent any time trying to blend in to pick up rumours, but... Rei no Leliel cast an appraising glance at Fenton Keys. He might know, she thought.

Outside the house it was quiet, unnaturally so. The neighbours seemed to all have taken refuge in their homes, fearful of being visited next perhaps - or biding their curiosity until Rei no Leliel and Kazan Tetsukana had left. Rei no Leliel thought she saw an eye, for a moment, pressed against a hole in the wall of a nearby shack. Good, in its own way; if the news about the bioplague were to spread from Grandmother Keys, it would probably help the two of them.

Not so good if their descriptions and mission also spread out that way, but Rei no Leliel thought that Grandmother Keys would be intelligent enough to spin the story in a... useful manner. They began walking back to the Pit, led by Fenton Keys. "Hidden tunnels, perhaps. Or a carefully placed rope ladder or staircase."

"I dunno," said Fenton Keys. "This is the first time I've gone there without them calling me! It's not like I like going down dead abandoned paths in the bottom of the Pit all by myself."

"Indeed," said Rei no Leliel. It was understandable. A more curious man than Fenton Keys would have gone back there to try to find out the secrets of their appearances and disappearances, and probably have been slain for his trouble. Fenton Keys was surely not even the first man to have been used in this manner, besides, though she was also certain he would have never thought to inquire about his predecessors - or even to suspect that he had had predecessors. Instead she asked: "And you have been doing this for months." 8?

"I guess?" said Fenton Keys. "A few months at least."

Not very many months. Not enough months for the scrap with his name to have disappeared from the scrap pile, given the way the foreman had talked about it: "too valuable to just throw away", he'd said. And Kazan Tetsukana had found that piece too easily. Too recent, unless. Rei no Leliel could not wrinkle her face, but she could be irritated with herself. The times did not match up. Fenton Keys had been at his courier job too long for his previous smelting-work to not have disappeared. What that meant...?

It meant nothing useful. Asking the foreman if other people had been looking through the scrap would tell them nothing; any number of people would go through it at any time, under the guise of legitimacy. It simply meant that the pile of scraps had been disturbed before Kazan Tetsukana or Rei no Leliel had ever gone there, and it was pure stunning chance that Fenton Keys' piece of scrap had remained there for the finding.

"And it is always the same person," said Rei no Leliel. "How do they call for you." 8?

"Work, I guess? Adonis usually sends some guy to tell me when."

Adonis, again; everywhere they turned, it seemed there was Adonis with his glittering smile and reams of ledgers to hide the menace.

Rei no Leliel didn't speak while they went down the stairs. Certainly they were sturdy enough; staircases built to handle miners and their tools on the way down, and piles of burdum ore on the way up, could easily take the weight of two cyborgs and a man. But it was dark, even with the little torch that Fenton Keys had, and it was isolated. Far enough from the rest of the Pit that they were out of sight and sound of the other miners; it was little surprise it had been chosen. But Rei no Leliel was also aware of how fitting the place was as an ambush, and if the enemy had ways of entering it and leaving it without being seen, then it only made them more vulnerable to surprises.

Rei no Leliel did not intend to receive the surprises.

Fenton Keys had no such worries, and kept talking. A small fishman in his office, who was both clean... and knew a crane well.

"What do you mean by that." 8?

"Knows his way around a crane, like I said," said Fenton Keys, skipping over a step. Rei no Leliel made sure to skip it as well. "Saw him telling the men how to fix a broken one." He shrugged.

A mechanically minded man, if so. A mechanically minded fishman, though not a cyborg. Which was probably just as well; they did not need Kazan Tetsukana to remind people of their enemy. And if he were like that, but clean... a promotion, then. A climber of some sort, thought Rei no Leliel, as she followed Fenton Keys off the stairs and onto the dirt path proper. "But you do not know the island he does come from."

"I don't even know his name!" said Fenton Keys. "They told me to just call him Boss, so that's what I did." He paused, and took a turn down a little path that anybody would have walked right past without a second thought. "We're here. I guess."

Of course that's what he would have done. Fenton Keys' incredible lack of curiosity was a survival trait, if an... aggravating one. Rei no Leliel looked around. "So they appear from somewhere in here, when you have arrived."

"Usually over there?" tried Fenton Keys, who had clearly never really bothered remembering exactly where in the dead end the other person would step out of. "Or, um. Maybe over there."

Rei no Leliel looked at the sweat beading on Fenton Keys' forehead, then at the two bits of wall he'd pointed at. She walked to the section that was nearer to her and began tapping on the wall with her metal arm. It sounded solid, through and through, and in the glow of her eyebulbs she did not see hinges or hidden ladders. None of the things she would have expected to allow people to appear "from nowhere" the way that Fenton Keys had put it, in short, but there had to be one. An easy to use one, and silent too, or Fenton Keys would have heard the hinges or movement somehow. It fit with the description of the mechanically-minded fishman he spoke of, at the very least.

Then, a little luck; there came a hollow noise from the rock and stone. A tunnel, or a room.

"I hope they abandoned some tools here," commented Rei no Leliel, tapping across it as she tried to map out the width of the hollow space behind the apparently-solid wall. "Breaking through will not be easy otherwise."
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What a gloomy place the Pit was. It was one thing to stand near the bottom of the open cast quarry and to not be able to see the sun through the blanket of orange particles that threatened to descend and choke the whole island; it was entirely another to descend down into the depths of its tunnels and open veins where the only light was the occasional candle or bulb. In their case they were lucky that a strong pair of such bulbs were installed directly into Leliel's face. Kazan trailed at the back of the trio, sandwiching Fenton between him and the guiding lights of Leliel. At first there were other workers, on their way down and some even chipping away in some of the earlier tunnels. But as they walked on it became increasingly apparent that the entire wing of the mine had been left abandoned, destined to either collapse in on itself someday or otherwise become some archaeological curiosity for future diggers. Kazan could only hope the former did not come true, so they themselves did not become an example of the latter.

Credit where it was due, however, Fentom was able to navigate the tunnels; though not perfectly, his sense of direction must have saved the pair of them countless hours or days trying to navigate a virtual labyrinth of near identical rock and scarred stone. Credit where it was not due in his answers. Kazan, too, noticed the discrepancy in the timing. If Fenton hadn't been in the plant for several months, it seemed inconceivable his hand work had been found so quickly and easily, in what appeared to be a freshly dumped batch of burdum. Unlike Leliel, he did not stay quiet on the matter and called Fenton out. "The plate we found that led us to you," he said, voice echoing through the near pitch black. "It was sitting in the scrap heap outside the plant. Undisturbed. Looked like it had only just fallen out of one of those chutes recently."

Fenton merely scoffed. "No way." he then realized his mistake and did not need to turn around to feel Kazan's unimpressed and impatient stare. "I-I mean, that doesn't make sense. I swear, that job was months ago. Grandma backed me up on it, I'm not lying!"

"As far as excuses go I've heard better, kid."

"What do you want me to say? All of my stuff should have been melted down or chucked to the salvagers in the heap ages ago. Sure, it's possible it just never got noticed, but I'm calling bull on that as much as you are! The chances are just too crazy to think about."

"So you don't know?"

"No! I wish I had something better to tell you, but I swear I don't get it either!"

"Mhm," Kazan grunted. He said no more on the matter, but made sure to keep an arm rested and gripped tightly on Fenton's shoulder as they marched on. Could it be it was another smokescreen or feint? Castor instructing the smelters to forge Fenton's signature to act as a scapegoat? But that didn't make sense. It'd be so much easier to just not have any signature at all and not have to worry about the trail leading to Fenton and then back to themselves. Even Adonis had only ordered a roughing up of the boy, and only once he was aware of Kazan and Leliel interest in him. No, something did not match up.

The tunnels, at the very least, did finally come to a dead end. As Fenton had mentioned, there was no obvious means of entry or exit save for the tunnel they had come in from. Disappearing should not have been possible. "You must be right," he told Leliel. "Got to be some sort of secret entrance here. You can barely pass single file on the way in. Not a chance you'd sneak past without the help of magic." A little flag danced in Kazan's head, reminding him that such possibilities were, in fact, possible, but he choose to ignore it. Anything was theoretically possible once factors like the fruit still tucked away in his box came into play, and they'd end up nowhere. Better to simply follow the rational and grounded facts instead.

Shoving past Fenton, Kazan aided Leliel in feeling and tapping at the walls in search of their hidden doorway. She was the first to find evidence, and he went over to confirm with his own rapping knuckles. "Yeah. Something's here." The question of opening it became the next brain tease. Breaking through was an option, but Kazan had not seen any tools left over in the tunnels they had walked, which meant backtracking all the way to the outer Pit again, or brute forcing it with their hands. He did not like either option, mostly because a depleted vein was a vein without regular maintenance or support. Crashing through the wall might multiply their problems to the tune of thousands of tons of rock. "No. There must be a switch somewhere. It has to open from both sides if the contact was to get in and out without it being obvious. Somewhere convenient that he could reach easily and quickly." He began to stroke he hand across the rock, looking for any nooks or catches that might indicate a button.

At first he had no such luck. He tried the entire length of the wall where the hollow tap still rang and found nothing. Then a thought occurred to him. "He was short, you said?"

"Y-yeah. Smaller than me even."

Kazan blinked in the dim light and reached further down, getting onto one knee and trying again. Finally his fingers caught on something odd, a little overhang under which was the feel of plastic. "I think-" He cut himself off and stared down the tunnel they had entered. In the shadows was a figure, starring at them. "We're being watched." He could not make out any features but as the pinpricks of their eyes met the figure held something up, his thumb raised above it. Some sort of device, or... detonator. They each pushed their respective buttons.

A terrible rumble shook the tunnel from somewhere above and fragments of rock shook themselves loose. The figure fled as boulders began to rain down. "Inside!" Kazan yelled, grabbing at both Leliel and Fenton and pulling them along as he body slammed the wall. It curved inward without a sound - not that Kazan thought they'd hear it anyway with the apocalypse sounding in their ears. Beyond was a metal platform hitched to a cable with a simple two buttoned control panel. Kazan fell onto the platform and slammed the top button on his way down.

A motor screeched and the platform began to rapidly ascend as the world fell in on itself below them. Once the elevator finally stopped, a small crane providing the cable, he wiped at the dust and debris that caked his every pore and coughed yet more out his lungs. They were in another tunnel, one that loomed on into the blackness. A small set of rails - the sort used for a mining cart - ploughed on straight ahead. He coughed again. "This is getting ridiculous," he grumbled.
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Magic. Well, there were stranger possibilities; Rei no Leliel had seen Devil Fruits in action, back on Stearr, and there were rumours (as there always were) that the World Government was busy developing newer and stranger abilities for their Marines. But it was not helpful to cast the net too wide; it was more immediately useful to assume that they were fighting an enemy with their same limitations.

Not that Kazan Tetsukana and Rei no Leliel had, strictly speaking, human limitations. No human would have been able to produce the light that of the eyebulbs on Rei no Leliel's face, for one thing. Not without, well. Devil Fruits, or some other strange capability. She tapped at the walls and floor, in case of some kind of trap-door or foot-activated switch; Kazan Tetsukana left Fenton Keys gawping in the corridor to join her in checking the walls and floors.

While he was double-checking the hollow space behind the wall, Rei no Leliel stood up and dusted herself off. She looked around, her eye-lights playing over the uneven floors and walls. The long, jagged shadows that hid everything in their angular surfaces were annoying; she felt that it was a sign of poor preparation, to not have had better lighting available. And yet that was Fenton Keys, who willingly walked into an abandoned wing of a mine with no lighting and no apparent defenses, to meet an unknown person who appeared and disappeared by means unknown. On such patsies were criminal empires built, thought Rei no Leliel.

"W-what're you looking for now?" asked that Fenton Keys, startled into some semblance of curiosity as she caught him in the eye on one pass. "I don't have anything..."

"Tools," replied Rei no Leliel shortly. "Anything that can get us through that rock to the room behind it."

"There's a room behind it?" said Fenton Keys, completely shocked. "I always thought this was a total dead end!"

Rei no Leliel fixed her eye-lights on him.

"But there's no tools here," he said, stating the depressingly obvious. "They cleaned everything up when they left. Tools are expensive, you know!"

"I suppose they are," >8/ said Rei no Leliel, for lack of anything better to say to Fenton Keys, and returned to Kazan Tetsukana's side. "Have you found anything." 8?

Yes, he had found something. And something had found them. Rei no Leliel turned to look, too, but the figure - male, at least, from the shape and size of it, but not a fishman, or not obviously so - was a dark silhouette cast in the little light from the tunnel behind them. There was only a moment to look at him, in any case; the figure held its hand up high, a little thing held in it from which wires trailed. Too far for Spine, thought Rei no Leliel as the figure pressed his button; any soft click it might have made was lost in the tunnel. On the other hand, the noise from above was all too audible.

Rei no Leliel and the figure spun away from each other in the same moment: the figure turned around and ran back the way it had come, and Rei no Leliel stared helplessly at the wall where nothing was happening, not even though Kazan Tetsukana had pressed the button. They'd disabled the door from the other side, then. Or it was only operable from this side under certain circumstances, or - a strong arm suddenly wrapped around her and lifted her bodily up. Fenton Keys was there too, screaming uselessly in Kazan Tetsukana's arms. There was a violent impact at their side, and the crunch and scrabble of rubble as they crashed through the thin rock door and fell onto a metal platform in a dark shaft.

Rei no Leliel rolled free of Kazan Tetsukana's grasp and crawled to the edge of the platform, one hand grabbing her hair into a crude bundle to prevent it being caught in the platform's motor or the rails. She looked down, watching as stray rocks tumbled through the opening they had made on the way in; that was certainly one route they would not be able to use again. She looked at Fenton Keys. He was pale green. She did not blame him for that.

Another mine-shaft, then. Not yet collapsed either, though she was sure the figure - whatever or whomever it was - was sure to be dashing about trying to cover their tracks. It meant they were at least on the correct path, and also meant... ill things about Cain and Adam. They had probably been caught and... questioned, she thought. It did mean they would have to hurry, and so when they reached the top of the shaft and found themselves staring at yet another tunnel, she scrambled off of the metal platform and onto solid ground. "We have to hurry," she said to Kazan Tetsukana, "ridiculous or not. The person with the detonators cannot be far behind."

"Where is this place, even?" wondered Fenton Keys out loud, stumbling into the rock walls with a thud.

"We should still be in the Pit," 8/ replied Rei no Leliel, running her hand over the walls. "though these tunnels seem to be old, judging by the condition of the rails." The rails were old-looking, scratched and pitted from use. The cart, most likely. "Either way, we must keep going."
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There was enough dust in his lungs to feel like he'd inhaled a roll of sandpaper, and he coughed appropriately. "Not far behind, maybe. But I have my doubts as to whether he - or she - would be able to do much more to us," he mused while looking over the edge of the platform they'd risen up on. The shaft and tunnel below were choked with still settling rock. Whether or not their assailant knew of their survival, the attack's main flaw was that it left whoever executed it unable to follow or verify their demise. There was no way they'd be able to follow them without aid of heavy drilling equipment. "Unless there's more explosives rigged in this tunnel, not much to worry about. For now." A truth they needed to accept; the only way to go was forward, and without any knowledge of where the tunnel led them, it may well be funneling them to an even greater danger.

"You're right though, Rei no Leliel. C'mon, kid. Time to march." He grabbed a hold of Fenton's shoulder and set him walking ahead as he had done previously, not that there was really anywhere else for the boy to run to. The tracks stretched on, their end alluding even Leliel's powerful lamps. "You're sure you don't know where this is?" he asked down to their young charge. "You're a runner on this island. Surely you've some sense of direction."

Fenton could only scratch his head. "I mean... not really. I never went in any tunnels like this. It's definitly still gotta be somewhere in the Pit, yeah, but um, I guess..." He furrowed his brow and seemed ready to pop a brain cell.

"You guess what? Gentle reminder. Yours and our lives are on the line. Possibly the entire island's."

He shuddered. The tunnel was certainly a cold place, but there was some air flow that brought a few tingles of heat. "Well we left my house and went south, and the tunnels weaved a bit, but for the most part they should have stayed in roughly the same direction."

"So?"

"So, you smell that? It's faint, but its there."

Kazan sniffed. He couldn't smell anything but stale air and the sweat soaking Fenton's armpits. "No?"

"You two really haven't been here long, have you? It's burdum! Molten burdum! It's got this distinct smell when you melt it down. So with the direction and the cart and the smell, I'm maybe thinking..." Fenton deliberately trailed off. He did not need to fill in the pieces of the puzzle.

"The smelting plant. Right back to where we started. You're implying Castor is there? The fishman? The people that attacked us?"

Fenton shrugged and kept walking. He'd made a childish game of balancing along one of the rails. "I'm not saying anything, but seems to be that way, yeah. This is probably an old delivery tunnel that went straight into the plant, right? But then the veins dried up so they abandon it, but don't bother sealing it off, 'cuz why waste the effort, you know?"

"Mhm," Kazan pondered as he plodded along. "Also a handy way to move deliveries partway across the island in secret. Smart. But if the fishman is moving directly from the plant, could be the management are more involved then we thought. More than just taking commissions anyway."

The fact that the plant was involved to some extent had been evident almost from the start; the parts for the vats and incubators had come from there, had been forged there. Yet, it was plausible to think that perhaps the plant was taking what they thought were harmless orders for medical components. First however came Fenton's claim of the plant's need for perfection; they were adamant those machines got made to the highest specifications. And now this; the fishman coming direct from the plant, using one of its old tunnels to boot, to get those very same machines distributed.

Kazan nudged Leliel. "If the plant is fully in on this scheme, then we could be walking into a lot of trouble. The two of us won't be able to subdue that many people." He pondered on the issue. They needed to be careful and subtle, preferably, yet neither were especially good at fitting let alone going unnoticed. A spark of curiosity lit Kazan's eyes however, and he trailed a hand across the walls of the tunnel as he walked. His fingers came back a reddish brown. True, the burdum had long since been exhausted in that part of the Pit, but the residue was still strong and thick. After a moment of rough rubbing against his arm, Kazan inspected it in what little light they had; the residue stuck as stubborn as party glitter. "We might have a means of blending in after all."
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Kazan Tetsukana had a point. Whether or not these tunnels too were lined with explosives, and whether or not the person with the detonators was in fact far behind, they had only one route ahead of them. Two routes, if you counted down. Rei no Leliel looked down, where the dust cloud was still roiling from the remnants of their impact. Where the cloud was thin, she could see stones clogging it up; they'd tumbled out beyond the initial opening, and some of the larger chunks had impacted the shaft. No, down was not an option, and only left forward.

They forged on, then, Kazan Tetsukana bringing Fenton Keys along. Either for lack of his grandmother's influence or from the shock of nearly being buried alive, the boy was being singularly... singular. Of course it was the Pit, though... where were they in it, if Fenton Keys did not recognise it? Perhaps they were older even than the drying of the vein that had led to the closure of the wing: somewhere that only the oldest of the Pit workers would remember. No: they certainly were. The process of excavation and rail-laying was a large one and sure to catch attention... but then, they had thought that about the giant vats of burdum, and yet they were only now approaching the source of one of those machines, without yet any sign of the blueprint-makers behind them.

Cold air stirred through the tunnels. Rei no Leliel held up a strand of hair, watching it flutter in the lights from her eyes: the wind was coming from directly before them, going out and venting itself into the vertical shaft they had come from. She couldn't smell anything in it, but apparently Fenton Keys could. What she could sense, though, were the brief eddies and pulses of warmer air: momentary currents of lukewarm air, which (Rei no Leliel thought) must have been much hotter before they had been forced down these passages of cold stone.

"We do not know the smell of molten burdum," commented Rei no Leliel, slightly stung at the way Fenton Keys was lecturing them on it, as if it should be obvious. She refrained from noting that she, personally, could not smell anything at all and had not since the day she woke up from the operation that had made her a cyborg. "And one would imagine that, on Rust Pit, that smell would be everywhere."

"Yeah, but it's not usually in the Pits!" defended Fenton Keys, who was finally in his own element. "That's all full of rust and burdum dust, it smells completely different!" He hopped up onto one of the rails, teetering along it with his hands held out for balance.

"I suppose so," muttered Rei no Leliel, holding out her hand. If the heated air came from the molten burdum, then she expected that the air would grow hotter as they approached the end of the tunnel. The real question, she thought, was that the burdum could not be constantly being molten: without some equivalent or greater source of cold air for the tunnels, the entire passageways would have been heated up a long time ago and be consequently... impassible. Which would work against the needs of the people using the tunnels for their clandestine shipping. Which meant a refrigerator, to keep the tunnels habitable. You couldn't keep the refrigerator and the molten burdum together, however...

Rei no Leliel shook her head irritably. The obvious and sensible thing to do would have been to have the two travel different paths: one for the people and their deliveries, and one for the hot air. The plant had chosen instead to mix the two, using the one tunnel for cross-purposes. She tapped her chin. If the two lay at different ends of the tunnel, they would simply have to go up through the refrigerators; they would not be able to survive the direct heat of the air from the molten burdum. On the other hand, going towards the molten burdum would bring them more directly to the machines they were looking for...

Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly by Kazan Tetsukana, and she flinched and nearly stumbled over the rail. "...no," she conceded. Even Adam and Cain had been troublesome enough, and they had not been dedicated, trained combatants. Any security forces the plant might have on the premises - and those that it might call as back-up - would be much more troublesome. Rei no Leliel thought for a moment. "Poison might work." 8?

But Kazan Tetsukana did not intend to use poison.

Rei no Leliel watched as Kazan Tetsukana smeared burdum-residue from the tunnel-walls on his arm and rubbed it in; in the dim light it stuck hard enough to cover the metallic shine underneath. Rei no Leliel looked him up and down, her eye-lights playing over his entire length. "You intend to go in and appear as Pit workers, in the way that Adam and Cain attempted to blend in at the Pit," 8/ she said at last. It was almost purely rhetorical. His idea stood out plain as day, and she only beckoned Fenton Keys over and had the boy look at Kazan Tetsukana's arm. "How effective is this disguise likely to be." 8?

"I... dunno?" said Fenton Keys, inspecting the smeared burdum on the arm and rubbing at it himself; as he did, Rei no Leliel compared the boy's own burdum stains to those on Kazan Tetsukana. She herself saw no difference between the two, but Fenton Keys apparently did.

"It's not, like, an even covering," he said, and there was that strange slightly lecturing tone again that Rei no Leliel did not like coming from Fenton Keys. "See, it gets under the fingernails first, and the arms, 'cos that's where the burdum touches, and arms only get smeared when you brush up against walls or things. You'll also get a lot of it on your back and legs because of all the walking in dust and lifting..." And then Fenton Keys' eyes fell on Rei no Leliel. Specifically on the long white hair on her head. "And that's definitely a big no, hair's not a good idea in the Pit, see?" He ran a hand through his own short-cropped hair as if in explanation.

Rei no Leliel only stared. "I will not cut my hair," she said, almost surprising herself with the sudden mulishness, and so she offered a compromise instead. "I will bind it up more tightly, but that will take some time."

Fenton Keys scrunched up his face. "Maybe if you had a bandanna or hairnet to keep it together?" he tried.

Rei no Leliel looked around them in the tunnel, where there were no bandannas or hairnets to be found. "I will fold up the collar of my coat."

"Which is another thing," said Fenton Keys, "those sleeves of yours..."

Rei no Leliel looked at Fenton Keys' clothing, and then down at her own baggy coat with the sleeves that hung low to the ground. His own clothing was fitted, if slightly baggy and patched, and Rei no Leliel thought for a moment about whether she could simply roll up the sleeves a little and smear them with burdum, and get by that way.

Fenton Keys' eyes said no. Shortly after, Fenton Keys' mouth said "No, I don't think anybody in the Pit dresses quite like that."

"I did not think so," said Rei no Leliel, and said nothing of what she felt about that. She shrugged off her coat, and opened up her tool-box. There were scissors, needles, and suturing thread in it. They had been packed to sew flesh rather than cloth, but... "This will take some time," she said, beginning to cut at it in fast, rough strokes. "You should prepare your own covering first." At least, then, she would have a bandanna...

***

Rubbing the burdum-residue in was a slow, tedious process, even when they were doing it as fast as they could. Fenton Keys helped to rub it in when he could, but it was still slow going: they rubbed at the walls and then rubbed the sticky dust into their clothing and skin and hair. With no mirrors they were forced to rely on Fenton Keys' judgment, and hope that his sight here was a reliable estimate. And all the while Rei no Leliel wondered if they would suddenly see a figure appear down the tunnel, raising its hand...

But it did not, and Rei no Leliel wondered if it meant they had been presumed dead. More likely these tunnels simply had not been set up that way, being more important and less disposable than the now blocked-up one. So when Fenton Keys finally looked at Kazan Tetsukana and at Rei no Leliel, now covered in burdum that obscured their cyborg nature and faces and skin, and said "Ehhhh. I guess that'll have to do?", they began moving again.

The hot winds grew in intensity, of course. "How hot is molten burdum," 8? said Rei no Leliel, once, when a particularly large gust of hot wind blasted past them. "And are we planning to walk right into it." 8?

"Um?" said Fenton Keys.

"The hot air and cold air must both come from different places," explained Rei no Leliel. "I expect the tunnel must branch at some point."

"I guess," said Fenton Keys, still teetering childishly along the rail. "Um. It's not that bad, if you don't fall into it, and if you have the right clothing on..."

"None of us have the right clothing on," said Rei no Leliel, and she regretted the monotone of her voice for its inability to convey just how dry she wanted to sound right then. She looked down, self-conscious about the strange short-sleeved coat and awkward trousers that her coat had been reduced to; and the makeshift bandanna felt tight and constricting around her hair. None of it would be any good against molten metal. "So we must find where the cold air comes from and go that way."

"I thought it was just the air in the caves," mumbled Fenton Keys, missing a step and catching himself on the ground.

Rei no Leliel said nothing, but the hot air only became more dominant the further they walked; and there was no sign of a branching tunnel anywhere. She wondered if she might have been wrong somewhere: she didn't think she had been. Maybe they had simply walked past the branch without knowing it, or... she moved close to the tunnel wall and ran her hand across it. It was still cold, despite the warming air in the tunnels.

Vents, maybe. Not a parallel tunnel, then, or... not the way Rei no Leliel had thought. The hot air travelled down the large tunnel where they walked, and the cold air travelled through smaller vents inside the stone walls and was brought out through small pores - or something like that. It would explain some of what they had felt. It also meant that they would, like it or not, walk directly towards the melting-pots beneath the plant. Rei no Leliel was irritated and embarrassed, but said nothing about it.

They heard the end of the tunnel a long time before they saw it: a loud, rhythmic sound of giant turbines turning as they forced the hot air away from the molten burdum and down the tunnel. Beside the turbines was a smaller door. Fenton Keys finally hopped off the rails as they ended, and looked at the door.

It read "EMPLOYEES ONLY".

"Do you have a plan once we enter," 8? she asked Kazan Tetsukana.
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