Rector knew it was Zeke even before he got down to the fox’s room.

The door was cracked open. He pushed it, letting a little more light inside.

Zeke crouched next to the cage, his fingers precariously close to the fox’s quivering, pointed nose. The boy looked up when Rector entered. “Oh, hey Rector. Just checking on the fox. Angeline told me he was down here.”

“Making plenty of noise, ain’t he?” Rector rubbed at his eyes, and scratched at the sweaty, itchy seams where his mask had sat against his face for too many hours.

“He’s scared. And he doesn’t feel good.”

“He drank the water. That’ll make anybody feel like shit.”

Zeke nodded and said, “I brought him more, though, and he drank that, too.”

“You get him to eat anything?”

“Some jerky.” He held it up, and Rector saw that he’d been hand-feeding the fox through the slim wire bars.

“You got to be careful. If that fox bites you…”

“He’s not trying to bite me, he’s only trying to eat. I think he’ll get better, if he gets enough grub in him.” Zeke gazed at the fox as though he’d give almost anything to pet the thing’s ears.

“Don’t be a dummy,” Rector warned. “That fox ain’t nobody’s dog. It’d bite you even if it weren’t sick. That there’s a wild animal, and if it gets better, it’s going right back outside the wall, where it belongs.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind turning him loose; I just don’t want him to be so damn sick. I feel sorry for him, is all.”

Rector sat down beside Zeke and drew up his knees. “I’d feel sorry for you, if we had to cut off your hand or something.”

Zeke smiled, but didn’t withdraw his fingers or the jerky he offered the fox. The animal took another bite, chewed it, and then retreated to the cage’s far end. It turned in a circle and flopped down, looking dejected … but maybe less dejected than it had the day before.

“You couldn’t sleep either?” Zeke asked.

“I been asleep. I just woke up.”

“Everybody’s riled up. All this talk of dynamite and fire … the Station is going to war with the tower. Only the tower don’t know it yet.”

“I hope they don’t know it,” Rector said nervously.

“What do you mean by that?”

He told Zeke about the inexplicable and Captain Cly, and how he and Houjin had almost been caught. He added, “I can’t imagine they knew who we were, or what we were doing. They might’ve noticed we opened some of the dynamite and took a bit, but there’s always the chance they’ll write it off to boys being boys.”