Houjin remained dubious. “That’s a better idea than mounting an expedition to save the sasquatch.”

“If it works, there’s some chance the sasquatch could get better, too.” She put down her fork beside her mostly empty plate and put her elbows on the table. “I hate to think it can’t be saved.”

“Is it worth saving?” Rector asked, likewise putting down his fork.

She nodded firmly. “It’s not bad. It’s just sick. Tomorrow, let’s go back out there, back where I caught up to you today. Let’s finish working around the wall—around that back part, anyhow—and see if we can find the hole.”

“How does that help us help the sasquatch?” Zeke asked.

“Maybe we can lure it out. It followed Red; maybe it’ll follow us if we look nice and harmless.”

Zeke winced. “I don’t want to look nice and harmless, not with a sasquatch out there, sick and hunting people.”

Angeline laughed, fast and too loud. “I didn’t say we’d be nice and harmless. I just said we’d look it.”

Chapter 16

Sixteen

Rector awakened to a firm shove to his shoulder. It startled him upright in a tangle of covers, fueled by the alarm of someone who hasn’t awakened in a bed enough times to remember where, precisely, he’s been sleeping.

“What? Who? What?”

Beside his bed stood a sturdy-looking woman with dark blond hair. “Three questions in a row, and you’re sitting up already. You’re easier to get moving than Zeke is.”

Her voice was odd to him—the vowels rolled strangely and he couldn’t place their origin—but he’d heard this voice before, in that half-dream state he’d occupied for his first few days in the underground.

“You … you…” His breath caught up to him at last, and his brain kicked reluctantly into gear. “You must be Miss Mercy.”

“Very good. You’re even alert at such an hour, which is one small thing to recommend you. I have to admit, I wasn’t entirely sure you were going to pull through and dry out, but here you are—and you’re looking well, I might add. Better than before by a long shot.” Her eyes moved over him in quick, efficient snaps.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, scanning the dim room for his jacket and seeing it hanging on the bedpost. He reached for it, missed it once, and snagged it the second time.

She left his bed and went to her shelves, where she drew down a large lantern and lit it. The whole room went white, and Rector shielded his eyes. “Damn, lady! Warn a guy, would you?”

“Sorry,” she said. She didn’t sound sorry. “Let me get a look at you.”

“Do I have any choice?”

“No. Sit there, hold still, and don’t bite me.”