A glint peeked out from the skeleton's collar. Bending over, then crouching down, he reached for the glint. It was a chain, like the ones Hyram wore but not as bulky or golden, on the end of which were two flat sheets of metal and a key.

Hurk, for reasons he didn't understand, pocketed the key.

"Found some of those dodge tags on this one."

"Yeah, this one has got them too. Guess they didn't help dodge whatever was killing them. Wipe off that window will ya? See if it's worth busting open."

Pulling back up to almost his full height, Hurk wandered over to the big window that made up one wall of the room. In his pocket, his hand caressed the key. Wonder what it'll open, Hurk pondered. Wonder if it'll open another one of these rooms somewhere else.

"Reckon we should start taking this desk apart. It's full of wires and copper or I'll eat my hat."

Hurk looked at Dav for a long moment. "You don't have a hat, Dav."

"Then I'll buy one and I'll eat it especially."

Sounds like a dumb way to spend money, Hurk thought, but he didn't say a word, just kept fondling the key in his pocket. Something about it felt important.

The dust and the dirt that had built up on the big window made it more dirt than glass, if it was glass at all. It was cool, like the glass in the windows at the barn in Treetown, but there had been big curtains over them to keep out the sun. Dav had said it was so people couldn't get a good look at the food or the booze or the girls who took men upstairs. But most glass they found in the wastes was broken into pieces too small to be of use to anyone.

In a barn near Salt, when Dav had passed out drunk on the shine they were selling and Hurk was practising his numbers at the card table, Hurk had heard a yarn. A digger, in the same line of work which Dav and Hurk followed, had told Hurk about motor cars and how they took people everywhere they wanted to go, until everyone sent bombs at each other and most stuff like that had just stopped. Hurk had pondered the story for the rest of the night, then got scared by the idea of that many bombs being sent around and willed himself to stop thinking about it.

It took him a minute to realise what was behind the glass, barely visible, despite his big hands clearing away centuries or more of undisturbed dust.

A bomb.

"Dav? You should look at this bomb."

Dav didn't even look up from the skeleton he was checking. A glint of gold had caught his eye way down in the suit, past the ribs. "Don't be stupid, Hurk. All the bombs got sent around a long time ago, when these two guys still had meat on them."