The Inexplicables (The Clockwork Century 4)

“You have a workshop?” Rector stepped back onto the carpet because he had no choice, but he tiptoed gently to keep from smushing it.

“I have a place I work when Yaozu wants something. ”

Rector followed behind as Houjin opened the other door at the train car’s far end. Stepping out and through this door, he found himself back in an ordinary-looking tunnel, braced with the usual miner’s rafters and affixed with dirty lamps to light the way. “So the captain don’t mind you hanging out down here?”

“I don’t think he likes it, but he doesn’t try to stop me. ”

“Could he?” Rector pushed. Was Houjin secretly a Station man waiting to happen? It was an interesting thought.

He took one of the lanterns off its hook. Without turning around, he said, “I don’t know. Maybe. If he said I couldn’t fly with him anymore, I’d have to think about it. Maybe I want to live down here forever, and maybe I don’t, but I like having options. And so far, any time Yaozu has asked me to do something for him, it’s always something that’ll help the city out, so the captain doesn’t care enough to make a fuss about it. ”

Rector followed along in silence until he passed a fallen overhang that had collapsed under the weight of rocks and tree roots.

Houjin saw him looking at it. “That used to be one of the waiting platforms. Part of the wall fell down on it, during a quake. And the back yards where the tracks go are mostly buried now, unless somebody cut tunnels through them. ”

“Like that car back there?”

Zeke said, “Yeah. But I haven’t seen too much of the back lots. ”

“Because you’re not allowed down here,” Rector recalled.

“My mother doesn’t like it when I come down here. That’s not the same thing. ”

“Close enough. You said so yourself, the other day. ”

“Well I’m here now, ain’t I?”

“Must be feeling mighty brave. ”

Zeke sniffed and stood up straighter as he tagged along behind them. “I just want to see what Huey’s working on, that’s all. ”

“So you’ve got a story all lined up for when your ma finds out you was here. ”

“You already said you wouldn’t tell her, and I know Huey won’t. So I’m thinking she won’t find out. ”

Houjin led them deeper, down through an entrance that took them inside the train station proper—Rector knew it because he recognized the pretty marbled floors and the tiles that were set into the walls for decoration. There were runner rugs down here, too, but they looked worn and sad compared to the tapestries in the old train car.

Somewhere in the distance he could hear the clank, clang, and clatter of the elevator, but they were a long, many-doored hallway away from it when Houjin stopped and pulled out a key.

Rector tried to keep from sounding impressed when he asked, “Your workshop locks?”

“Yaozu thought it might be a good idea. This would have been one of the engineers’ offices if anybody had ever used this station for traveling. ”

“How nice for you,” he said, more crossly than he meant to. He’d never owned a key to anything, not in his entire life. Not even now that he had his own room.

Houjin unlocked the door and led everyone inside, setting his lantern on a small table beside

the door. On the wall above it, there was a metal bubble with a button in the middle. Houjin pushed the button. With a sputtering series of sparks, a line of bulbs lit up overhead. They were connected on a wire, and hanging low enough that he could’ve touched one if he stood on his toes.

He lifted one hand almost mindlessly, reaching for the light as if it called him.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Zeke warned him. “Them things are hot. ”

“Not yet. But they will be soon,” Houjin confirmed. “They’re electric, and it takes them a minute to warm up. ”

“I’ve never seen so many in one place. ” Rector withdrew his hand.

Houjin nodded and reached for a large box, which was sitting beside an even larger desk. The desk was littered with wires, coils, tools, schematics, stray parts, and scraps of paper covered in Chinese characters. The box was heavy, if Houjin’s posture could be gauged. He used his elbow to clear a spot, then set the box on the desk.