She patted Rector on the shoulder and introduced him. “Folks, this here is Rector Sherman. Young Rector joined us a week ago, and he had a hard time of it at first.”

From somewhere in the audience, someone asked, “Is that the kid who fell down the chuckhole?”

“Yes, this is the kid who fell down the chuckhole.”

Rector’s freckles were on fire.

“He was chased down that chuckhole, though—and if you don’t believe him, and you don’t believe me, you can believe Houjin over here. He saw the whole thing, and he’ll vouch for it. But that’s not what we’re here to discuss. Not exactly, though I’ll likely come back around to it.” She nodded down at Huey, who caught up in his translating duties, then nodded back.

“All right, then. Earlier today, me and the three boys—Red, Huey, and Zeke over there—went looking around topside, up toward the north edges of the city. We did this because we knew there was a leak someplace. So we headed out, and we found the hole—and it’s a big hole, I’m afraid to tell you. The only reason nobody outside knows about it yet is that it doesn’t face anything but woods and wilderness. Now, Red, why don’t you tell ’em who you saw today—who you recognized.”

Rector hemmed, hawed, and coughed, then said, slowly, “It’s like she says: me and her, and them”—he waved vaguely at Zeke and Houjin—“we went looking. And when we got up toward the park, we ran into a couple of men talking. All right, so one of ’em was pissing down the hill, but you know what I mean.” He laughed awkwardly, and when no one joined him, he continued. “I didn’t know either of them, since they had masks on. But we followed them back to the tower—there’s a big tower up there; I guess you know the one I mean…”

But Angeline shook her head. “Not everybody knows.” Then she said to the assembly, “It’s a water tower, built right before the Blight came. It’s brick, it’s big, and it was supposed to serve the rich folks on Millionaire’s Row.” She nudged him. “Go on, then.”

“Yes, ma’am. Um … we followed them, and it looked like the men were setting up shop inside the tower. They’re sealing it up—so they can work there without masks, I expect.”

He paused and licked his lips. He didn’t much care for this speaking-in-public thing, but with Angeline beside him, urging him on, he figured he could finish up and sit down, and people would quit looking at him all the sooner. “While we was up there, a big machine came up the hill, through the hole in the wall. It was driven by a guy I know of, a man named Otis Caplan…”