"Yah, the tunnels below are all offset from the buildings above, and run underneath the streets, too.  And some go down four levels, and some five or six.  You kind of have to memorize them."

Jin had no trouble finding his own familiar route, even when they passed out of range of the lit section, and Vorlynkin drew a small hand light from his jacket to illuminate the steps.  Mina, who had walked on her own thus far, took a prudent grip on his wide coat sleeve in the deepening shadows.  They trudged upward five flights to come out at last from the exchanger tower door onto Jin's roof.  Vorlynkin wasn't wheezing too badly, for a grownup, despite carting the carrier.

Jin had lost track of time in the windowless recovery room, but it seemed to have grown very late.  The air was damp and chill, lit by diffuse reflections from the street lights in the area that gave everything a funny brown tinge.  The city noises had quieted down the way they usually only did after midnight.  But around the side of the tower, Jin found his tarps were all still up and taut, not blown loose by the weather yet.  His little refuge was littered with a dreary residue of things not taken away the other day—not needed for his creatures, or too big and awkward to fit in the lift van, or too junky to salvage.  He'd taken his own hand light down off its wire and packed it along, so it was now less-than-usefully back at the consulate, but Vorlynkin amiably shone his around while Jin explained his old life up here to Mina, and Mina made admiring and envious noises.

When they let her out of her carrier, Nefertiti did not at once take to her new environment.  She stared around warily, crouching, then at last went off in a stiff-legged reconnoiter.  Jin followed along, explaining to Vorlynkin about the gruesome fate of the baby chicks who couldn't fly yet.  "I can't tell, if she went over the edge, if she'd just plummet, or flutter down like the big chickens, or even fly away."  The dense muscles Jin had felt beneath the golden fur didn't help him decide.  "Maybe I'd better tie a line around her leg like Miles-san."

"Hm?" said Vorlynkin, so Jin explained his first night's safety procedures, which just made Vorlynkin go "Hm!" and set his teeth to his lower lip.  But from the way his eyes crinkled, Jin didn't think he was mad or anything.

Jin's old bedding of shredded flimsies was still piled against the wall; if he slept out here, he could keep an eye on his new pet.  Would Mom miss him?  She'd have Mina—or would Mina try to stay out here with him?