“And even if we did, it’s now obvious that retrieving memories isn’t really Mr. Goh’s forte.” Lily sighed.
Q kneaded his nape. “This was just a huge waste of time then.”
“Not entirely.” Lily sat straighter. “Now we know for sure that the stowaway we’re dealing with is extremely similar to, if not the same as, the stowaway we dealt with last time.”
“We do?” Raya said. “Did I miss something? You don’t know what either of them even look like.”
“But I remember what the stowaway left in its wake. The rotting vines. The foul water. The stench in the air. I also remember what it was like to be around it. It was the same feeling I got when that storm began brewing this evening.”
“You sensed the stowaway on the deck?” Raya said.
“And so did you, Ms. Sia. I saw it in your eyes.”
Raya frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The stowaway feels like old sorrow.” Rasmus stared at his hands. “The unshakable kind.”
Q slid his fingertips down the front of his neck. “Like a rock that’s stuck in your throat…”
“And in your chest.” Raya pressed her hand over her ribs.
“That jagged heaviness isn’t a feeling you can mistake for something else.” Lily sighed.
“If all three of you felt it, then the safest course of action is to assume that the stowaway, or something like it, is back.” Rasmus drew his shoulders back and seemed to double in size. “We may not recall how we stopped it, but the fact that we’re alive means we succeeded. What we did once we can do again.”
“I don’t understand how Raya and I fit into all of this,” Q said.“We obviously won’t be of much help. We don’t know our way around the train. We’d only slow you down, or worse, get lost. Why choose two people that could turn into Echoes at any moment to help you? The more experienced people you have searching for the stowaway, the sooner you’ll be able to find it.”
Lily shook her head. “And the faster the cracks would spread. I don’t want to involve more passengers than necessary. That would only create panic. I’m sorry, but whether you like it or not, you and Raya got involved in this from the moment storm clouds gathered over the deck. You may not have known what it was at that time, but you felt the stowaway’s presence. There’s no need for anyone else beyond the four of us to know what’s going on.”
Raya scoffed.
“Did I say something wrong, Ms. Sia?” Lily said.
“You never stop lying, do you?”
“Why would I lie about something like this? The Elsewhere Express is in very real danger.”
“That’s not what you’re lying about.” Raya looked Lily in the eye. “Why don’t you just tell us the real reason why, out of all the passengers on this train, you picked me and Q?”
Raya
Raya knew the difference between precious things and spare parts. Dangerous work required expendable tools and there were few things that were more disposable than two passengers who had yet to find their place on the train. Until she and Q located their compartments, they were just as much outsiders on the Elsewhere Express as the Echoes were. “Admit it, Lily. You chose us because we don’t matter. I don’t want to be here and Q wasn’t even on tonight’s manifest. If we fall off this train or rot like those songs you told us about, no one will notice or care in the slightest that we’re missing.”
Lily shook her head. “Ms. Sia, I—”
“And it’s not like we have a choice in the matter, do we?” Raya said. “We obviously can’t just wait for the Elsewhere Express to decay or shatter.”
“You’re right,” Rasmus said. “You can’t. Not if you want to live.”
“Just tell us what we need to do.” A tempest gathered in Q’s voice. This man, Raya thought, was not going to have his sight or life ripped from him twice.
“We need to search the train.” Lily stood up. “I lost the stowaway’s trail somewhere between the art gallery and the opera house so that should be your starting point.”
“Have you forgotten that we don’t know our way around this train?” Raya said.
“I haven’t. You’ll need a map. We store them at the Archive. Rasmus can take you there.”
“And what will you be doing?” Raya asked.
