The prone man reached up with one astoundingly long arm and accepted the wrench. He didn’t look at it, but he grasped it with his hand and felt its contours. “This is it, thanks.”

“Fourth try’s what did it,” Troost said under his breath.

Zeke overheard, and objected. “It’s not like they’re marked or anything.”

From under the dirigible the big man said, “Let him alone, Troost.”

“Captain Cly, if you’ve got a minute, you should come out and meet my friend Rector. I knew him in the Outskirts, and he’s all right.”

The captain slid down off the brace, which turned out to be the back half of a church pew.

And to think, in Zeke’s hand that wrench had looked big.

Even seated on the ground, Captain Cly was nearly as tall as those who surrounded him. He was long-waisted and nearly bald, with buzzed-short hair that was a darkish shade of blond. He didn’t require any further description. Rector would never have mistaken a man that size for anybody else. No wonder he’d been Houjin and Angeline’s first point of reference when Rector had told them about the monster at the chuckhole—but no. Not a chance it was him.

“So you’re Rector, huh?” the captain asked, looking him up and down the same as Troost had, minutes before. “Quite a head of hair you’ve got.”

“Yes sir, that’s what they tell me.”

“I hear you were dealing sap on the Outskirts. Is that why you came inside the wall, for better access to business?”

Rector may have been burned out in the brain, but he wasn’t completely stupid. “No sir, I’m leaving those ways behind me,” he said, wondering if he was lying. “I came inside the wall because I’m eighteen now, and the orphan’s home threw me out to seek my fortune.”

“Not a lot of fortune to be found around here, son.”

“I don’t need a lot of fortune. I just need a roof over my head and some supper once in a while.”

The captain didn’t say anything, only held his steady stare. Rector gave it back, mostly because he was too tired to be flustered, not because he was feeling particularly brave. Eventually, Cly sighed. “Zeke says you were good to him in the Outskirts, and that’s worth something. But he also told us you’re the one who gave him the maps that led him in here. I’m not sure how good a friend that makes you.”

“I was trying to help.”