“Get up,” Finch said. He pulled the smaller man to his feet by one arm. Looked around. Two exits. The archway behind him. Another on the far side. Didn’t trust the broken windows blinding him with the sun. Anyone could be watching.

Finch dragged Bliss into the darkness of the nearest archway. The contrast of shadows after the extreme light almost left him blind again. Black sunspots everywhere.

Pushed Bliss up against a whitewashed wall turned gray. Bricks exposed through the mortar like dark red teeth in a rotting mouth. Got close to Bliss so he could force the gun under the man’s jaw. Pinned him to the wall with a fist wrapped around his shirt collar.

His hands were steady now. Shock hadn’t set in yet. Maybe it never would.

Bliss was wheezing from the pressure of the Lewden Special against his windpipe. Trying to swallow.

“Now. Tell me what just happened.” He eased up on Bliss’s throat.

Bliss coughed. Managed, in a hollow voice, “Like I said, nothing to panic about. We just went through a door.”

Something switched on in Finch. Stark threatening him. Heretic and the skery. Falling through darkness with Bliss like moving through the doors on the Spit, like traveling through the gullet of a skery large as a behemoth.

Smashed Bliss across the face with the Lewden. Felt a satisfying give as metal met flesh and laid open Bliss’s right cheek. Bliss made a sound more like surprise than pain. Began to slump but Finch held him up. Blood flowed down the side of Bliss’s face. Spattered onto his shoulder. Another puzzled sound. Like he couldn’t believe Finch was doing this to him.

“You already said it was a door, Bliss. Tell me something new.”

Bliss’s head drooped toward his chest. Finch slapped him lightly.

“Stay with me, Bliss,” Finch said. Released his grip on Bliss’s collar. “Here.” Handed him his handkerchief. “Keep it.”

“Thanks,” Bliss said, with more than a hint of something deadly behind the word. He held the handkerchief to his face, the gray-white soon soaked with red.

“If you tell me enough I’ll let you go,” Finch said. Tried to sound reasonable. As reasonable as he could while he kept the gun trained on Bliss. Truth was, he didn’t know what he was going to do with Bliss. Or to him.

After a moment, Bliss said in a dull tone, “We went through a door to another part of the city. Across a kind of bridge.”

“That’s how you escaped the first time. There was no hidden exit.”

“No, there wasn’t,” Bliss said.

“It was night just a few minutes ago.” Couldn’t keep the confusion from his voice.

“From the position of the sun, I’d say it’s noon now. Maybe it’s the next day.”

“The next day?”