Dangerous by Default

57. Don't worry, sewer king

When Mina's feet touched the damp bottom of the sewer floor, it couldn't have come soon enough. Her T-shirt was soaked in sweat, the palms of her hands burning. She ripped off her shirt and wrapped them, her butt collapsing against the wall of the pipe. Their apartment already felt like a distant memory, and as she tried to make sense of her surroundings she knew that they would never go back.

It was pitch black, save the thinnest glimmer of light that had cracked through the top of the shaft four stories above her head. The air was foul. Living in the Tenderloin for so many years had done little to prepare her for the acrid fumes that seemed to suffocate her from every direction.

Caine wasn't far behind her. His dark bulk shifted between the shards of light like a storm cloud. Mina heard a muddy shoe slip against metal. Caine cried out and slid uncontrollably for the last few yards of the shaft, hitting the ground hard. Mina's intention was to lunge to his side, to pick him up in her arms, but her muscle strength was sapped. Instead, her body tipped over clumsily as her legs seized painfully. She landed on him heavily, banging her knee on something sharp as she tumbled into the black sewage on top of him.

"Ouch!" she yelled.

"That's the turbine. Be careful. The blades are dull but it can still tear into you if you hit it hard, and the infection down here could be deadly."

"No kidding! You ok, bub?"

"Yeah. Feeling kind of lucky this piece of crap is always jammed." she heard him gently tap the turbine, "Not to mention the tides are unusually low for King tide season. Probably won't last long. In a matter of hours this whole sewer system could be flooded with water, and nothing will stop those blades from spinning. It's too bad Pechaude wasn't as lucky when escaping mortal danger."

Mina shot her eyes up at Caine, and in the darkness she knew he'd worn a look of equal parts shock and apology at the gallows humor that had slipped out of his mouth. It was off-putting, even for them.

"I shouldn't have said that, Mina. Guess it's hard to believe that Pechaude's body is just laying up there...." His voice trailed off and Mina gave him a forgiving squeeze for reassurance.

She wasn't angry. It had just been so damn brutal, so barbaric to witness someone executed in such a way. No amount of danger stunts could have prepared her. Though it made her feel better to know she wasn't alone.

Caine broke the short silence, "Can you walk? Don't know how long until the police think to move the chair I placed over the top of the pipe. We should climb out of here as soon as we can."

Mina pulled herself up, wincing as her cramping muscles shrieked in pain. She reached out her shirt-wrapped hand to Caine to pull him up. She was grateful he grabbed onto her wrist. Her fingers would have hurt like hell.

Caine opened the duffel bag, flicking on the flashlight of his phone. The tube burst alight, the harsh whiteness reflecting off of the wet grime of the sewers. Mina realized that she liked it better in the dark.

Caine handed Mina a pair of leather gloves.

"This would have been better to give you before, but there wasn't time. They'll protect the blisters from infection."

She took them gladly. She watched as he found a panel along the perimeter of the pipe where open slits were allowing the current of sludge to pass over the blades of the turbine and gave it a kick. The panel hinged open. The opening was just big enough for them to crawl out. Avoiding getting soaked by the river of sewage was another story.

Caine went first as Mina lit the way, his strong legs pushing off of the blades to work his body through the opening against the tide, straining his nose and mouth up and out of the filth like a dog swimming in the ocean. Mina's turn next. She looked back up the pipe one last time to the sliver of light far above her head. The light called to her. For a split second she evaluated whether getting arrested for being an accessory to murder could be better or worse than this. She glanced at her wrist. Artemis was only a few hundred feet away. Janus thinks he's the womb. The womb should be with Ami. So it's now or never. And there's no time to be a damn coward. After passing the torch to Caine, she held her breath and fell into the onslaught of liquid rushing through the opening in the pipe. Caine swiftly grabbed her under her arms and pulled the rest of her through.