“Houses rise and fall, Mr. Harris,” Abraham said. “Galvanized stand forever.”
Ahead of us was another blocky building, old enough and disused enough the concrete had peeled away to reveal snags of bricks beneath.
The building straddled the gully, creating a tunnel that Abraham drove into. The only light was from the streets around us, stabbing through the iron grille windows. He drove up a slight incline to a second level that opened onto a working machinery garage, though the equipment and workbenches were all silent and empty.
He turned off the engine and twisted back to me as he opened his door. “Please stay here a moment.”
He got out and straightened his bloody jacket as if adjusting a tuxedo, then strolled a short distance to the green metal door in front of us.
“How much of this do you understand?” I asked Neds.
“Which part?” Right Ned asked. “The driving into a trap or the agreeing to drive with a complete stranger into a trap?”
“The Houses suddenly wanting me and my property?”
“Nowyou ask me my opinion?” Left Ned said.
“Now I’m terrified I made the wrong choice. Talk to me, Harris.”
Left Ned rolled his eyes, then refused to look at me.
“There’s been talk,” Right Ned said. “In the bar in town. Something big’s been brewing for months now. House Blue has some kind of announcement at the gathering. Maybe they were tipped off to you and your property. Maybe they think they can own you.”
“That doesn’t make sense. I’m not big news.”
“A living, modern, feeling galvanized?” Left Ned said. “There isn’t a House that wouldn’t do what it took to possess you.”
“Why?”
“What I’ve been saying,” Right Ned interrupted, “is you are not safe here. Not in this city. Not with this House. We should go. While we still can.”
“Where? What House is better than Gray?”
“I don’t know.”
He wasn’t telling me everything. I just couldn’t figure was what he was trying to hide from me.
The green door opened and a man stepped out to greet Abraham. He was nearly a foot shorter than Abraham and bald, with narrow features and a short beard and mustache.
Abraham was built like the sort of man who could pull a tree out of the ground with his bare hands. The other man was whippet thin and bird sharp. He wore an orange long-sleeved shirt and brown slacks.
They spoke for a moment, then shook hands, and embraced in a brief hug.
“Do you know him?” I asked.
“Robert Twelfth,” Left Ned said.
“Galvanized?”
“You can’t tell?”
From here I didn’t see any stitching on him. From here, I’d think he was standard human like Neds. Well, not like Neds, but not stitched.
Then the two of them started toward the car, and the light hit Robert just right. A line of orange stitching zippered from his right eyebrow up his forehead and over his skull.
Galvanized. Pieced together just like me. Just like Abraham.
“Tired of sitting around,” Left Ned said. He opened the door, got out.
