Bleak Seasons

74

Uncle Doj relieved me of most of my guests. I ended up sharing quarters with Thai Dei and his son To Tan, plus Sahra. Sahra helped with the baby and struggled to put together meals, though the Company kitchen could serve everyone in the warrens. She needed to stay busy. Thai Dei followed me almost everywhere. Both he and Sahra were lethargic and uncommunicative and added up to about half a human being between them.

I began to worry. They belonged to a hardy people accustomed to surviving cruel disasters. They should show some signs of recovery.

I assembled the brains of the outfit: Cletus, Loftus, Longinus, Goblin and One-Eye, Otto and Hagop. "I got some questions, troops."

"He got to be here?" Goblin meant Thai Dei.

"He's all right. Ignore him."

"What kind of questions?" One-Eye demanded.

"So far we haven't had any major health problems in the Company. But there's cholera and typhoid out there, not to mention plenty of the old fashioned drizzling shits. We all right?"

Goblin muttered something and passed gas loudly.

"Barbarian," One-Eye sneered. "We're all right because we follow Croaker's health rules like they was religious laws. Only we can't make the rules stick much longer. We're almost out of fuel. And these Nyueng Bao. They don't like to bother boiling water and keeping clean and not shitting where they live. We got them going along right now but it ain't going to last."

"It's been overcast and nasty for a few days, I hear. Are we collecting any rainwater?"

"Plenty for us," Loftus told me. "But not enough for us and them, let alone getting any put back into the cisterns."

"I was afraid of that. About the fuel, I mean. You guys know any way to fix rice or beans so you can digest them without cooking them?"

Nobody knew. Longinus suggested, "Maybe soaking them a long time in water might help. My mother did that."

"Damn. I really want us to get through this. But how?"

Goblin seemed to develop a small secret smile at that, like he had a definite idea. He exchanged glances with One-Eye.

"You guys got something?"

"Not yet," Goblin told me. "There's an experiment we still have to try."

"Get on with it."

"After the meeting. We need you to help."

"Wonderful. All right. Can anyone tell me what the rest of the city thinks about our disappearance?"

Hagop coughed, clearing his throat. He did not say much ordinarily so everybody paused to listen. "I been doing watches in the lookouts. Sometimes you can hear talk. I don't think we done our reputation any good. Also, I don't think we fooled anybody. They don't talk about us much but nobody figures we just cut out. They think we found some way to dig a hole and fill it up with wine, women and food and pulled it in after us and we ain't coming back out again till the rest of them are good and dead."

"Guys, I tried to get the wine, women and banquets but all I could come up with was the hole."

Out of nowhere, Otto said, "The water's going down."

"What?"

"It is, Murgen. It's down five feet already."

"Would flooding the city make that much difference? No? Why's that?"

Goblin and One-Eye exchanged significant looks.

"What?" I demanded.

"After we do our experiment."

"All right. The rest of you guys. You know the problems. Go see if there's anything we can do about them."