Chapter 1

"O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall."

The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio XII

Benni slipped a large piece of scribbled-on cardboard over the unfinished document as soon as he heard the bell. Master Yasher had already stepped away from his tiny desk, eased down the false wall to hide their equipment, and brought out his needle gun. They were not expecting any clients or visitors today, and none were particularly welcome. They had jobs on deadline to finish

The sound of cloth rubbing against the plastmore walls warned them that their visitor was big of shoulder and, therefore, probably male. Since neither tiny desk was visible from the doorway, for good reason, they had to wait for the target to appear. Benni, who couldn't afford a projectile weapon, let the six inch throwing blade that was his preferred weapon slide down to the palm of his hand. They both waited.

"Benni," a young male voice called before coming around the corner, "it's me, Tuto!"

Tuto was as big and dumb as they come. His ebony skin always gleamed, even through the dirt and grime. His natty hair was always full of bits of detritus, and his smile was missing a few teeth. He survived the Temperdis because he delivered messages with valuable single mindedness. His lack of understanding of the content of most messages was even more valuable. He was mentally weak and inhumanly strong, and he made it work for himself.

Master Yasher put away his gun and retook his seat but didn't reveal the hidden wall. Benni let his knife fall back into its sheath as he held up his forearm in a gesture of welcome. "Yo, Tuto. It safe-be for you. What've you got?"

"Safe-be good," Tuto said to himself aloud as he came around the corner with his hands clearly visible in front of him. Benni gave him a nod, and Tuto reached into his tunic, withdrawing a grey packet from his belly. It was a good place because it kept the document safe, and it added another layer of protection from a knife thrust. Tuto was stupid, but not so stupid.

"Upstairs man needs paper," Tuto said as he handed over the packet. Benni extracted a paper with the large words "Sewer Authority" across the top.

"Just what we wished for." Master Yasher grumbled. "Another shit tube in the Temperdis."

Benni maintained a subservient demeanor before his master. Although Yasher spouted social commentaries and condemnations of the evils that Upstairs plied upon the Temperdis, he also accepted their slugs without hesitation. To Benni, Yasher was more than a survivor of the Temperdis. He was a success, and Benni craved success also.

Nonetheless, Benni kept his ambitions in check in front of his master; he only had a inkling of what could set the man off and end Benni's nascent career.

A few of the Upstairs documents that Benni and his master created were legal, but most were forgeries. To complete a usable forgery, the document had to be embedded with the proper stamps, foil, and seals: a master's craft to be sure. The good people Upstairs knew that Yasher was a prominent craftsman. Well, they would if they had known Yasher's name. But, as with things that pass between the Temperdis below and Upstairs, layers of secrecy were the only protection from the Enforcers. Benni was the name to know on the maze of streets because that was one of the conditions of his apprenticeship. In the Temperdis, those who needed a document asked Benni, the apprentice. He would relay the request to the master, but no one was quite sure who that was. Despite the risk, the apprenticeship had been a great coup for Benni and lucrative, too.

Tuto knew, but he was smart enough for Benni and Master Yasher to trust. Go figure.

The packet jiggled with slugs, the flat, round plain-metal disks that passed for currency in the Temperdis. No one paid by digital Downstairs because the transaction could be traced. The slugs were not a method of keeping the hordes of the Temperdis down in their holes and away from the good people above. The slugs were the choice of the denizens of the Temperdis. It kept what they did and what they had from the spying eyes and ears above. It helped keep the Enforcers out.

There were money changers who processed the exchange between digital and slug, but that line of work was even more dangerous. Master Yasher had a bug zapper on the frame of the door and a bolt hole out the back in case the zapper and his weapon failed to do its job. But money changers used body guards, runners, back tracers to cover their tracks, and mobile offices to stay one step ahead of the Enforcers. The money was good, but their life expectancy wasn't very long. They did know how to throw a good party though.

Benni pulled a pouch out of the packet, counted out fifty slugs, and announced his tally. The count was high, higher than necessary, which meant that speed was requested. Yasher opened the lid to his desk and pulled out a blank form of the same type as the original Benni had removed from the pouch.

"Two hours."

Tuto nodded with his big grin and ran for the door with earnest anticipation. "Going to outer space!" he crooned, which meant that he would get paid today, and he could drink tonight. Benni felt like matching his grin because he now had enough to pay the rent a week early. Now all he needed was a fuck bunny. And Dember. He hadn't heard from his heart-friend that morning, and had gone so far as to pay two slugs to a seeker to track him down.

A heart-friend was the most precious commodity in all of the Temperdis. The pledge was not mere words, but a bond-tested trust built over years and often from childhood. No priority was greater than a heart-friend. Even if Master Yasher were to threaten him to end his apprenticeship, Benni would rush to the aid of Dember. Failing to come to the aid of a heart-friend was as calamitous as one's own death

Benni tucked away his dread and turned his thoughts back to business.

Since Sewer Authority exemption passes were not high-risk documents, Benni had to put away his own work and create the document himself. The skill level was low, and the tedious placement of the security seals meant a long stretch with a comp and micro lenses. Still, with a cut of five slugs for an unexpected job, he wasn't complaining.

An hour and a half later, he placed the completed certificate on his master's desk for review. As he waited for his master's approval, Benni began to clean up his desk and wipe down the equipment which he then returned to the hidden niche. He still had to sweep the little room and clean the skylight, which let in little natural light from far above, but did bring in light from grow lamps which mimic the daylight cycle above.

Master Yasher arose and locked his desk. "I have business elsewhere. Seal the door after Tuto comes for his package."

Benni grunted quietly in acknowledgement for the master had little use for conversation. No complaint from the master meant he had found no mistakes. Benni was sure that Yasher was off to sell the information that there would be more shit coming down a new pipeline. Benni would not attempt to exploit the information himself. It was valuable data to someone and nothing went to waste in the Temperdis, but no one deceived their master unless he was ready to kill him.

Tuto returned right on time. He must have been waiting somewhere near although Benni couldn't fathom where. Space was a premium in the Temperdis, and there were no places to loiter, at least not without paying for it.

Benni saw Tuto out and then flipped on the security apparatus. If anyone actually succeeded in breaching the door, a self destruct sequence would be initiated that would incinerate everything in the room including the intruder. Such devices were standard procedure in business offices, rendering most break-ins futile, and it had the added benefit of discouraging "search and seizure" by Enforcers. When he heard the snick of four rods securing the door deeply into the frame of the building, Benni turned towards one of the main corridors, and away from the local taverns and expensive fun-bunny houses.