“Wayne. Youset a cat on fire?”
“Hell, no! What do you think I am? A sadist?”
Wax relaxed a little.
“You throw the cat out a window,” Wayne explained.
“Oh, Harmony…” Wax said. “Why?”
“Tosaveit from the flames, of course!” Wayne shook his head as Wax led him toward the storm drain. “That’s the plan. You start a big fire, then go around screaming and throw a cat out the window. People believe you and think you’re saving pets.”
“Then…”
“Then you shout that someone has to save the bunny,” he said. “You lead everyone in to knock on the doors and get folks outta the place, and everybody gets all crazy and distracted helpin’ you.”
Wax stopped on the street, gawking at the Silver House with everyone else. It was now almost fully ablaze, a terrible plume of smoke rising from it, like the Deepness itself.
“You did say,” Wayne noted, “that following an egregious diplomatic incident, we might as well have some fun.”
“That isnotwhat I said.” Wax sighed.
“What?” Wayne said. “You still on about that cat thing?”
“You really threw it out a window?”
“What would you have done?Leave it to burn?I hadda rescue the thing.”
“Rescue the cat. From a fire you made. A cat that you kidnappedexpressly for that purpose.”
Wayne grinned. “Oh, don’t worry. I hucked him at a tree real good. Cats always land in trees, so long as you throw them hard enough.”
“Why… why would you think that?”
“Dunno,” Wayne said as Wax started them moving again. “Must have learned it in school.”
“Did you… go to school?”
“As a kid? Nah. But I burned one down once, before I even developed Flaming Bunny. Maybe the cat thing was on the board or something in there.”
“Wait. When did you burn down aschool?”
“West’s Haven?” Wayne said. “Nine years back. It was an evil damn school.”
Wax hesitated at the mouth of the alley with the access ladder, thinking. West’s Haven…
Oh, right. Thathadbeen an evil damn school.
“Fine,” Wax said, pulling open the hatch to the storm drain. “Let’s keep moving.”
Wayne climbed down. At the bottom, he grunted.
“What?” Wax said, joining him.
“Don’t tell Marasi ’bout this,” he said. “I told her you ain’t never taken me into a sewer. Least this one doesn’t stink…” He squinted. “Actually, kinda looks like a narrow canyon, with all those lights coming in the top…”
“Why would you say that?” Wax said.
“No reason.”