Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,110

here, that’s the place to look.”

“Any advice for how to get up there?”

“No. I’ve no idea what doors will be locked or what passages will be blocked or guarded. You’ll be on your own. I…assume you don’t want me to come with you?”

“Two house-breakers makes for a quick trip to the loop,” said Sancia. “It’d be better if you kept a lookout.”

“Fine with me. I can go back to the streets outside, and if I see something I’ll try to think of some way to warn you.”

Sancia slipped her feet into the hole. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more useful rigs, would you?”

“I do. But they are destructive, and foundries are delicate—meaning if you cut through or break the wrong thing, you would die and probably take a lot of people with you.”

“Great. I sure as shit hope we get something out of this,” said Sancia, sliding forward.

“Me too,” said Berenice. “Good luck.” Then she trotted back down the tunnel.

* * *

Sancia slipped through the hole in the wall, stood up, and tried to get her bearings. It was pitch-black in there now, and she was reluctant to use up her talents just to get around a room.

said Clef.

said Sancia, stumbling over to the door. She fumbled for the lock, stuffed Clef inside, and opened it. She was relieved to see weak light filtering through the hallway on the other side,

Using Clef, Sancia unlocked door after door as she penetrated the depths of the foundry. She was astounded at the sheer density of the thing, all tiny passageways that led to huge, complicated processing bays, full of giant loomlike devices or cranes that perched over tables or lathes like spiders weaving cocoons about their prey. The heat within the foundry was immense, but there was a constant wind in every hall and passage, carrying the hot air out to—well, somewhere, she assumed. It was like being trapped in the innards of some kind of giant, mindless creature.

Most of it was deserted. Which made sense, since only a portion of it was being used now. But then…

said Clef.

Sancia looked ahead. The passageway ended in a closed wooden door. Presumably there was some kind of hallway being guarded beyond it.

she asked.

She took off a glove and felt the wall, then the ceiling. The foundry was so alive with scrivings that this felt like walking under a powerful waterfall—the sudden pressure almost knocked her over. But she held on, walking along the walls, her bare fingers trailing over the stone and the metal, until she felt a long, narrow, vertical cavity just ahead…

A hatch. A shaft.

She took her hand away, shook herself, and withdrew back down the hallway until she found a small door. A sign on the front read: LEXICON MAINTENANCE ACCESS. The lock on the front was deeply forbidding.

She took Clef out and stuck him in the keyhole. There was a burst of information, and Clef batted the lock’s defenses away like it was a wall of straw.

she said, opening the door. The shaft within was narrow and ran perfectly straight, up and down, with ladder bars on the opposite side. It was dark within, so she couldn’t see what was above or below.

She reached out and started climbing up.

Sancia climbed until she came to the third floor. She turned until she was facing the door, and blindly found the handle.

She did as he asked, came to the fourth floor, and opened the hatch. This floor, unlike the others, had windows. Slashes of moonlight lay scattered across the blank stone floor. It looked like this area was mostly storage—lots of boxes, but not much else.

She glanced out a nearby window, got her bearings, and started off toward the administrative offices.