So. I guess they’re no different from everyone else when it comes to coin.
A part of me always knew they were not any different than the other government officials that came before them, but it still burns. And it’s disappointing.
So I sigh and just shoulder my way through the crowd until I make it to the ground level. The staircase does keep going down, but you have to walk around the backside of the stairwell to find the opening for it.
There is a thick crowd of people coming up to see what’s going on, same way there was coming down, but after a single floor it thins out. Mostly because that’s where the stairwell ends.
I walk a little further into the small lobby so I can see down all eight of the hallways that fan out from the stairwell like spokes, then sigh. Because I don’t see any more stairs. Not out in the open, at least. So I guess I’ll have to start pulling open doors.
I choose a direction and walk, checking out doors. Upstairs there are open stairwells at the end of every hallway, plus several hidden somewhere in the middle, and they are mostly marked. But down here, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
An old woman is standing in a doorway smoking, her attention fully on the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. But when I stop in front of her, she turns her eyes up to meet mine. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for stairs going down. Do ya know of any?”
She points her chin in the direction I was heading. “End of the line that way.” Then points her chin the other way. “End of the line that way too.”
I’m not sure if this means there is a stairwell at the end of each hallway or not. But I don’t hang around to ask because I spot Anneeta staring at me just a few doors down.
“Thanks,” I tell the old woman, then walk over to Anneeta. “Are you spying on me?”
She shrugs up one shoulder, unimpressed by my intimidating question. “Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to watch you get yourself lost trying to find the basement.”
“How’d you know I was going to the basement?”
She taps her head. “Doors can’t stop me, Tyse. I hear everything.”
“That’s a creepy answer. You should probably not tell anyone you’ve got the god inside you.”
She scoffs, then full-on laughs. “If they don’t already know that, they’re kinda stupid, aren’t they?”
I laugh too. “Probably right. Anyway. You wanna tell me how to get to sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2?”
“No. But I’ll show you.” She turns and starts running, weaving her way through people in the crowded hallway. I just watch for a moment, trying to decide if I should play this little game with her. But then she looks over her shoulder and yells, “Come on, Tyse! I’m the white rabbit and you have to follow me!”
A part of me knows this is just another tea party invitation, something I should definitely decline. But it could take me hours to find sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2 on my own. And she’ll probably get me there in ten minutes.
So I follow, losing sight of her several times when the hallway splits and zigzags. And I realize that the hallway is kind of a ramp. Slowly, very slightly, angling downward. At the bottom of this gradual drop Anneeta is waiting, sitting on a concrete step. Her right arm is raised over her head and her finger is pointing up at the ceiling.
Not all the lights are working down here—the spark must be low—but there are enough still sputtering for me to see that it’s not the ceiling she’s pointing to, but something spray-painted on the door she’s resting against.
It’s a circle with a lightning bolt crossing through it from left to right. “What’s this?”
“The rabbit hole. Do you want me to go with you?”
I reach for the door handle, find it unlocked, and pull, forcing Anneeta to get up and get out of the way as I open it.
Looking in, I find that it’s pitch black and smells stale. “Where does this lead, Anneeta?”
“Down.”
“Down how far?”
“Mmmmm.” She hums a little, shrugging up that shoulder again. “Maybe… six levels.”
“Is that sector 4?”
“Nope. It’s Sector 1. All this is sector 1.”
