Winter's Rains and Ruins

Chapter 3 - An unnatural sight

Hart and Prudence stepped out into the street as the rain began to fall again. They paced along the avenue until they reached the monorail station at Grantmarket Avenue. They climbed the stairs and boarded the next carriage at the platform.

The monorail routes of Alethea City largely followed the canals that snaked through the western districts. The elevated train carriages sped above them from busy central terminals outward to the the smaller stations in the suburbs like spokes of a wheel. Hart and Prudence switched lines at the 18th street station and boarded the Bayside Circular, which took them counter-clockwise around the Wind Lake toward the lower city.

As the city had grown and the land around the canals became more valuable, a natural slum had grown in the shadow of the dam. In the canyon that dipped into the surrounding flatlands like a deep, bleeding scar, the vulnerable and the poor and found refuge. Here, the dregs of society accumulated in metal and breeze-block buildings. The outflow from the dam fed a network of slow-flowing, dirty rivers in the lower city. Bridges and buildings grew between and over the canals and this part-ghetto, part-shanty town began to build on itself, up and outward from the dam like an urban moss.

On the eastern edge, a too-sharp wall of canyon prevented those who lived below the dam from reaching their superiors on the East Bank. However, on the western edge of the canyon, the sprawling hive reached a gentler slope and amalgamated into the city through increasingly gentrified districts.

It was through these that the monorail sped, dipping at a low angle to travel down into the Lower City, and Prudence watched the skyscrapers become high-rises, become six-story apartment blocks, become squat terraces until the train slowed at the one stop below the dam. Hart and Prudence stepped out into the Lower City, a maze of stairs and bridges leading to the higher and lower streets of a hive.

At the terminal they were met by an officer of the City Guard. He introduced himself as Reynolds and told them to stay close. Prudence had never been into the lower city, and tried to seem at ease in front of their guide. She was nevertheless nervous. She knew that Reynolds wasn't a guide, but a bodyguard. Hart seemed at ease, and Prudence considered his hands-on nature might mean he would be able to take care of himself if a gangbanger decided to disrespect their authority. On the monorail, Hart had told her that it wouldn't be in anyone's interest to attack a Detector. It would bring more city guards down here and make it harder for the gangs to operate. He'd also said that to some, that wouldn't matter. Generally, the people of the Lower City were respectful of the law, those who held jobs up in the Upper City did anyway. But don't mistake compliance for respect. He'd given her a badge to hang around her neck that should ward off trouble. He'd also given her a gun, in case it didn't.

Striding along ill-lit passageways, they headed away from the metal fences around the monorail station and into the center of the Lower City. The sleeting rain over the winter hadn't affected the water levels of the Upper City, the canals and the reservoir had been well designed. But the overflow from the rainwater ended up here, eventually washing out to the river, heading north. The water had begun to break some of the riverbanks, sweeping out over several lower streets. The two judiciars navigated their way along streets that had formed on natural rises in the landscape and still several meters above water. Twice they had to double back on themselves and find a way to a higher level, crossing a tall, metal bridge and carefully stepping down wet steps and sloping streets to the waterside.

They passed night-clubs, desolate apartments and street vendors huddled under tarpaulin shelters. Prudence reminded herself constantly that she had a duty to the people they passed, that they weren't all criminals or Firensian refugees. That the people here were mostly down on their luck, vulnerable. They needed help more than most. And she told herself again that she was that help. She was there for them. Despite her unease, her dislike of the tattooed Firensians, she should rise above these feelings. Be cold, like they tried to teach her at the Academy. Put the feelings aside. You're here to solve crimes, Pru.