Angeline smacked him in the back of the head—harder than was strictly necessary to make her point, in Rector’s opinion. “You don’t have to see it to die from it, you silly boy. If I had any polarized glass, I could tell you true if it was safe to breathe. But I don’t.”

“We’ve got some back at the Vaults,” Zeke noted.

“Next time, bring some. I expect that’ll be the next step in the repair process, sending folks down through the tunnels with the lenses, seeing what’s still safe and what’s not safe anymore. After they fix up those cave-ins, I mean.”

Rector almost said, Yaozu will probably add that to his to-do list, but remembered in time not to say the Chinaman’s name.

He caught Zeke and Houjin looking at him, and he shrugged. If they were worried he’d blabber about his employer, they shouldn’t be. Despite the recent smack, he liked the princess in that idle way that required no actual investment on his part. And he also believed the one other thing Yaozu had told him about her: She was useful. Very useful.

“Where are these carts you promised me?” Rector asked, looking around and seeing nothing but the same excavated, unfinished tunnels he’d seen so much of already.

“This way,” Houjin said, lighting his lamp and leading with it.

Angeline looked behind them, glancing at the freshly locked and sealed doors above. It seemed to Rector that she didn’t trust them, as though she wanted to climb up and give them a yank to remind herself they were secure. Instead, she rejoined the small group, this time falling into line behind Rector.

As they walked through the dank, squishy tunnel with its square beam braces, no one talked. It was as if the habit of whispering or staying quiet was sticking with them, even there beneath the city where there were no rotters to lure.

Finally they reached a bend in the tunnel that revealed a set of carts, as promised. Just like the one that had taken them up the hill and under the city, these two were parked off on a short, dead-end side track. Rector said, “Hey, look! We get to ride back home.”

Zeke told him, “Most of the way. And pumping’s easier, going downhill.”

“And we’ve got four of us this time.” He nodded at the princess. “Now it won’t be uneven, side to side.”

Angeline laughed and slapped him on the back. “I think I like you just fine, Red. Half the men in this city would be god-awful horrified at the thought of a woman working alongside ’em, much less a woman of my years. But you didn’t even think twice about it—just assumed I was along for the working. I like that.”

Huey sighed. “He’s not noble. He’s lazy.”