Do your work, and you will reap its rewards.

The Manuals of the Bunker, Vol. 2, Verse 11

"Bloody kids, I'll have your hide for this." The bishop tried to push off the stone woman, but she wouldn't budge.

I pulled Amy past the two of them and down the corridor. Moments later, we left the shrine through the door. I slammed it close, trying to shut out the bishop's angered words.

But his swearing continued through the gap at its bottom. "You'll regret the day you were born."

I searched for a lock, for something to trap the man within. Sooner or later, he'd worm his way out from under the bare lady weighing on his belly and come after us.

Not finding anything to bar the door with, I pushed the sword's blade into the gap beneath it and kicked its hilt until it was firmly wedged there.

"Good werk, man," Amy said.

Desperate work, rather. But there was no time to ponder this.

"Let's get out of here," I said.

We descended the stairs of the Holy Tower, almost falling down its steps and passing the bishop's apartment without a second glance. When we reached the deserted corridor on the ground floor, I stopped.

I listened, but everything was quiet. Sometimes, farmers prayed in the temple before work. Careful to avoid sudden movements, I pulled two of the tapestries apart and peeked into the hall. "We're lucky. There's no one out there."

At the back of the hall, the door of the temple stood open. We reached wotj with a few quick steps and peered into the street outside. Two women in brownish farmers' garb passed us, busy talking and not even looking in our direction. They carried pails as they headed out of the city.

"Try to look normal, now," I whispered. "As if you had just finished a couple of prayers in here, and now you're about to tackle a day of honest work."

"There's nothing normal about prayers," she muttered, "nor about honest work in this bloody cavern." But then she took a deep breath and pushed the scowl from her face, replacing it with a sere smile.

I nodded, and we stepped out onto the street. It was empty now.

"Where are we going?" she asked from the corner of her mouth, maintaining her look of innocence.

"Out of the city."

"Let's go to yer loo house first."

"Why?" I looked at her, but her gaze was straight ahead.

"What do you think? Why do peeps go to a loo house, pray?"

"But the bishop might get out of the Shrine at any moment, and he'll call the guards to hunt us down." I tried to keep my voice level, fighting the panic churning my stomach.

"I'll run faster once I've been to the loo."

"Okay." I nodded. She had a point. We would pass it anyway, and I'd also be able to put it to good use after our night in the temple.

We retraced our steps of last night, and I was happy to find the toilet house deserted. Without a word, we entered the two stalls.

I relieved myself, trying to go about it as silently as possible.

"Ye hear me?" she said, her voice clearly audible through the wall.

"Loud and clear." And it wasn't only her voice I was hearing.

"Yer people flooded our tunnels."

I nodded, unseen by her. "Yes, I think you were right with what you told to the bishop. Frankie and Carp don't have a clue. They must have made a hole in the floor of the swamp. I'm... sorry."

"That won't help my mother, nor the others." Her words were a mere whisper.

"Nor Ed," I said.

"Yeah. Nor your friend." She paused, but then she went on. "But it's not your fault."

But I had dragged Ed down into the tunnels.

"The bishop..." Amy began again. "When we listened to him in the temple as he spoke to that other man, he said he wanted to make an example of two people. Was that yer dad he talked about?"

"Yes, him and the craner," I said. "The craner's a friend of mine."

"And the tough guy with the blue ribbon is looking fer ye now," she added.

"Right. He's the captain of the guard."

"That guy is trouble; he's as hard as granite. Ye need to hide."

"And what about my dad? And the craner?" I couldn't just hide somewhere while they were waiting to be executed.

We sat silently.

"Hey, and thanks," she finally said.

"What for?"

"Fer smacking the fat bishop when he hit me." She almost whispered the words.

"No problem." Well, it was a problem. The bishop was unlikely to forgive me. But I didn't regret my deed. "He had it coming. For hitting you, I mean."

More silence, and, again, Amy was the first one to interrupt it.

"I know what we can do now," she said. "Ye could come with me... to the control room."

The control room—she kept mentioning it, hoping for it. But I didn't want to run off chasing that dream while they were setting up the gallows here. "I can't leave them."

"Ye'd better listen to what I say," she said. "The Engineers ran everything from the control room. Even if..." She hesitated. "Even if the moving pictures back in that shrine of yers are right, and the Engineers did obey the church. The Engineers must have all kinds of buttons in the control room. If we find it, we can run the place. Push the buttons. Save your dad and your friend from being sn... from being killed. Or do ye have any better idea?"

It shouldn't be hard to come up with a better idea than that one.

I had to free my father and the craner. Then we would hide in the tunnels. But my plan was flawed, too. "I don't even know where they've locked them up."

"So, ye see. It's best we leave together."

"And where is it, your control room?" I didn't think she knew.

"I've searched all the tunnels below, but I never found it. So it must be... someplace else."

Someplace else—if there was a control room at all. And if it wasn't somewhere down among the flooded tunnels and the drifting corpses. And if we'd find it.

And what would we do if we found it? Would we just press some buttons to fix the world? That's what Amy probably hoped.

But things were never that simple.

"I've thought about it while ye were sleeping last night and being useless," she whispered. "There's only one place where it can be. It's up the shaft."

"You said there's nothing but bats and their shit up there." And the surface.

"But since it's not down in the tunnels, it has to be up there. Don't ye see? That's called logic. The Engineers believed in it, like ye in yer manuals. But logic is true. At least as true as the moving pictures we've seen."

It had to be up? Because she willed it to be there? I didn't say this aloud, though. I shrugged, instead.

"So, will ye come with me?"

Her breathing was all I heard now.

She had lost her world to the water flooding the tunnels. Yet she clung to her crazy dream of the control room even though she knew now that the Manuals were telling the truth.

On the other hand, though, I wasn't in a much better place than she was. I had lost my world, too. I couldn't return to my home. Ed was dead, and the trial and executions would be tomorrow.

Yes, I had lost it all. But there was one thing I had found—this crazy, stubborn redhead who wouldn't give up. And who wanted me to come with her.

The smile pulling at my lips surprised me. "Okay, let's go and find your control room. But we need to do it today."

There was nothing else I could do before it was dark, anyway.

"Good. That's settled, then. Ye've finished your... stuff?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I've finished mine before you even started with yers."

Then I heard her open her door.

I found her outside. She was fidgeting with her jacket, her lower lip red from being chewed.

Here we stood. That waif from the tunnels and a shit shoveler, facing the wrath of the guards and of the bishop.

We didn't stand a chance. The guards would catch up, rather sooner than later. And we'd be executed together with my dad and the craner.

But if we didn't stand a chance, why not take a risk?

I grinned and gestured at the heaps of garbage next to the loo house. "Let's both pick up some of that, and we'll carry it down to the chutes."

"Don't be an eejit." She frowned. "Do you really think I'll carry that smelly shite? And if we're seen, someone will stop us."

"The chutes are close to the door of the shaft. And if you carry garbage, people don't see you. Believe me, I've been there."