Chapter 6

Benni leaned over the little shelf on the side of the kiosk eating a rather limp soya wrap seasoned with vegetable paste. He would have been more dubious if he hadn't watched a few others eat the same dish and walk away apparently unharmed. Doyan watched his back while he ate as he had watched for her in the same manner. The corridors on the tenth level were a bit narrow by Temperdis standards.

Rumor on the concourses ran that another chem lab had opened on "one below Level Ten", which was a roundabout way of saying "the bottom of the Hole." The same rumor claimed the lab was built with double plastmore walls. Expense of that sort meant something important and nasty was cooking in their vats. Five chem labs had opened on the bottom levels since the last accident, which meant five times the risk for a big payoff. Some entity was willing to bankroll these labs. While one family might emerge with enough slugs to start a family business such a chem. lab, five families at once was impossible. If any of these labs were located outside of family enclaves in one of industrial districts, then that was proof positive that funding came from Upstairs. No one believed that the labs were brewing candy for children.

Doyan, who was the more sociable of the two, had been sent by the Patriarch Nagala to track down more information. Benni had the misfortune of standing in the street when Doyan was trolling for someone to guard her back. While it was a source of great pride that she chose him, there were other things he had wanted to do that night. He took a last swallow of the tasteless gunk and turned back to her with a silent signal that he was done.

They had run out of reasons to be standing at the kiosk. Even though the foot traffic was just as heavy as the levels above, down here strangers standing around attracted attention. Secrecy reached its pinnacle at the bottom level where family enclaves and their businesses were the darkest.

Level Ten had few straight corridors and lots of treacherous intersections where paths took off in all directions. The families that lived on this level were small and tended to be more paranoid, if such a thing were possible. Many had small family-based businesses, but most were known for their using or housing hazardous materials. The slugs came easily to those willing to take such risks and lots of people were willing to endure the danger. Doyan had chosen this centrally placed kiosk in hopes of catching sight of a familiar face. As an electronic bug hunter, Doyan got access to places and people that most others in the Temperdis never saw. Although the Enforcers rarely came down this far, they had plenty of minions on their payroll who pasted bugs for them in the most inaccessible of places throughout the Hole. She had clients on Level Ten.

No luck: the familiar faces were keeping to the shadows. Something was disturbing the usual flow of traffic, convincing the regulars to choose different and indirect paths. In and of itself, a new flow of traffic was a useful piece of information. Doyan gave up the immediate search and returned to the woman at the kiosk. The kiosk owner made her real income by acting as the security risk manager for nearby family enclaves; she was first of the gatekeepers. After a few moments of heated discussion, Doyan bought two coded tabs from the just barely convinced woman. If they had seen a familiar face, they would have saved the slugs needed to buy entry to an accommodating family.

Benni took the role of bodyguard for this was Doyan's job; he watched her back. She walked quickly taking more turns down dark tunnels than Benni could count. He didn't know how to get back to where they had started by the time they came to a narrow gate. He was nervous. Doyan handed over the two tabs, and they were admitted into a small enclosure with another, solid door four steps in from the gate. Doyan gave Benni a sign to stay where he was as she went through the door alone.

He waited with his hands in clear view and with nothing to do.

After an eternity, a grim Doyan returned, giving him the sign to follow. Neither said a word in the midst of the flow of human traffic. Once they were on the proper side of their own gate, Doyan sagged against the wall.

"That bad?" Benni asked.

Doyan nodded. "Dember was right. We may be using that new polymer barrier very soon. Families on Ten are cooperating to add quick-seal barriers to their corridors. Families cooperating, especially on Ten, is a bad omen."

"Chem?"

"Bio-chem. Second phase bio-chem to be exact — they are working with live nasties. The contract is to improve potency."

"How are they getting the raw material? Bad shit like that can't travel on the moving platforms safe-be." Benni let the question slip out of his mouth just as a snap of two little bits of data clicked in his head. He answered his own question, "There is a new sewer pipe coming down from Upstairs."

Doyan gave him a long slow look as she worked his facts into her own information base. The tumblers were churning out possibilities: analyzing, discarding, and revising scenarios. Radiation could be contained within plastmore walls, as could plasma, at least for the minutes needed for people to flee if there was a leak. However, roto-viruses and other designer biohazards had the ability to slip past alarms before barriers could be erected. About twenty-five cycles ago, Level 7 lost half of its population to a bio weapon that caused the digestive tract to break out in blisters that filled with pus. Benni hadn't been alive yet, but people still talked of the gruesome death that marked a body from the tip of the tongue through to the puckered anus. They both reflected on that fear for a moment.

Doyan said, "Certain families would have no qualms threatening to bust that pipe to extort protection money, Benni. Poisoning could happen on any level. We have to figure out how to keep the family safe."

Benni shrugged. When she said "we" she meant Nagala. They had been fuck bunnies cycles ago, but still kept close. Her statement indicated that Benni was no longer needed. Taking his leave Benni made a beeline for Dember's door, hoping to catch him coming or going. Since the evening hour was late, the street was full of family who complicated his plan with conversation, gossip and the like. Finally extricating himself from the clutches of an eager, nosey family, he made his way to Dember's entrance only to halt abruptly in front of Ceema who was emerging from behind the entrance curtain.

"He's sleeping," she said.

Benni tried to tuck his frustration behind a neutral façade but didn't quite manage the trick. "He's been sleeping a lot lately."

"They are working him hard. Something is on a sped-up deadline, and they are driving everyone to hurry." The look on her face was one of worry, as if she suspected something, but wasn't sure and was unable to get confirmation.