“Well,” the lead researcher said—a Terriswoman with curly hair and a V pattern on her shirt. “We pulled most of this information from a lawsuit he filed against his former employer. Seems that they… um… ‘refused to listen to his vital discoveries about the impending end of the world.’”
Wax and Marasi shared a look.
“Go on,” Wax said.
“There’s not a lot to tell, unfortunately,” the researcher said. “The lawsuit was dismissed before reaching even the first stage of trial. In this, he mentions pamphlets he’dcreated, but that’s not the sort of record we archive. Instead we have his legal case, his apartment lease, and one police blotter record of an arrest.”
“For disturbing the peace,” the junior researcher said. “He was banging on the doors in his apartment complex, yelling that ‘They’ve almost split harmonium, and when they do, it’s going to destroy us all.’”
“We’ll leave you with the information,” the lead researcher said, patting the papers on the desk. “And we’ll keep searching—but I doubt we’ll turn up anything else. We keep careful track of the names of anyone arrested, for cross-referencing, and these were the only three hits.”
“One more thing, if you don’t mind,” Marasi said as they prepared to leave. “Can you find any reports of food shipments vanishing? Particularly nonperishable items?”
“Oh, that’s been happening steadily for two years now,” the lead researcher said. “Captain Blantach has us watching for such reports, as she finds it baffling. Why would the city’s criminal underground be so interested incanned beans?”
“Why indeed,” Marasi said, lifting up a sheet from the lawsuit documents. Where Copper had claimed,Someone is building shelters against a cataclysm, maintained by inexplicable technology. The city government is in on it, and so were my employers! They fired me because I got too close to the truth. You have to listen. They’re splitting harmonium, and once they do, they’ll make bombs to turn us into turtles.
That… last part seemed a little far-fetched.
The researchers vanished out the door, leaving Marasi and Wax to read over the three documents in turn. Unfortunately, itwasn’ta lot to go on. The blotter said that after Tobal Copper had calmed, they’dreleased him. He had not reoffended.
The last sheet gave an address in an area the researcher said was expensive. Marasi supposed a head chemist would be paid well.
“They probably killed him,” Wax said softly, “once the hubbub died down—so it wouldn’t look too suspicious.”
“Possibly,” Marasi said. “But it’s equally likely they grabbed him to make him work on their projects.”
“Death said he vanished two weeks ago,” Wax said. “This trail might be cold already.”
“But it’s the best one we have,” Marasi said.
“Agreed. Kim, do you know where this apartment address is located?”
30
The apartment building didn’t look much like a plateau.
Wayne stood with the others, hands on his hips, staring up at the thing. It was too shiny, with too many windows—like a big bottle of something expensive. Buildings shouldn’t look like that; they should look like bricks. And have alleys that smelled of what came out of a fellow after he’dhad a bottle of something too expensive.
Most of all, he’dexpected a plateau.
No, wait,he realized.There’s a canyon next. That’s how the story goes. We gotta find that first.
Comforted, he followed Marasi, Wax, and that Kim woman who tried too hard to be fiddly. The foyer had a doorman and everything. This placewasfancy. Maybe Wayne should buy a building like that. A doorman sure would be helpful in carrying him up to his flat afterhe’dhad too many bottles of something expensive.
Or, well, more often he had bottles of something cheap as piss. Just because he was secretly rich and posh didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate terrible booze anymore. He merely had to call it “retro” or “authentic” or something.
The doorman sent for the building manager, who turned out to be a man shaped kind of like a brick—so that was a nice nod to proper building protocol. Marasi and Wax explained they needed to investigate the missing man’s apartment, while Wayne took a long walk around the foyerwith its enormous paintings of people dancing. They wore suits and dresses, their legs stretched really long, their backs all straight, as if they were made of rulers and not flesh.
Was this the canyon from the story? Ma had said it was beautiful. But no. This didn’t work. No self-respecting canyon would have pictures of dancing folks on the walls.
And why did he assume this would be like the story? Well, because he’dthought of it, he supposed. Once you had a thought, you had to keep ahold of it. That was how things was.
The building manager listened to Wax and Marasi’s explanations, squinted at Kim’s credentials, then grunted. He pointed the way to the elevator, and they all squeezed in.
Wayne didn’t much like elevators. It wasn’t just being trapped in a little box, or not knowin’ how it worked and needin’ to rely upon an operator. It wasn’t that you could smell everyone a little too much when pressed together, or couldn’t see where you were going, which ruined the experience of going up high.
Wait. No, it probablywasthat last one. Elevators were like a carnival ride designed by an overprotective parent who didn’t want you getting scared or actually having any fun. He’dhad more faith in them when they’dbeen moved by people, not electricity. Folks were overly trusting of this strange power what leaked from sockets in the walls. After all, Wayne was a primary investor in the technology, and that should have been a big red flag for everyone.