Standing behind him was Hearne, holding the first guard’s dagger in his hand, the blade covered in blood right to the hilt, more of it splattered over the front of the worker’s gray tunic.
Hearne sighed and dropped the dagger, then he fell to his knees and sat there, heaving for air. Billie moved to his side.
“Are you all right?”
Hearne shook his head, his bloodied hands clutching at his chest. “Yes and no. I mean, they’ve done worse. I’ve seen them do worse. But I’ll live.” He looked up and smiled. “Thanks to you.” He sat back on his haunches, his eyes roving up and down Billie. In the commotion, her borrowed cape had ridden up around her neck, revealing her red leather jacket beneath. She straightened the cape, restoring the disguise, but Hearne was still looking at her with narrowed eyes.
“Who are you?” he asked, the suspicion heavy in his voice. “Which sector are you assigned to?”
“It’s okay. I’m not one of them,” Billie reassured him.
Hearne winced at her. “So I gathered. And I’m grateful, believe me. I didn’t think they’d ever go as far as killing me, but it seemed that their patience had finally run out.” He winced again, then, apparently seeing the blood on his hands for the first time, he began to wipe them on his dusty jacket.
Billie turned to look down at the bodies of the two guards. She couldn’t hear anyone else approaching the hut. The fight had been far from quiet, yet the noise of the construction outside must have drowned out the commotion. And if the two guards had planned on beating Hearne to death anyway, clearly they hadn’t expected anyone to come looking, no matter how much noise they made.
“Don’t worry,” said Hearne, noticing her look toward the door. “This is a large site, and as you heard, accidents happen, and people go missing, frequently. This foreman’s office is out of use. We can leave the bodies here. I’ll get someone to come in and make them disappear.”
“You’re a leader, here? Among the workers?”
Hearne nodded. “Union leader. Some of us have been trying to organize for months now, right across the site. But as soon as Leviathan got wind of it, they banned all gatherings. So, we kept it quiet, organizing ourselves in the shadows. We were okay for a while there, but recently Leviathan started searching for us again. Hunting us down, eliminating us.”
Billie frowned. “And then they finally came for you?”
Hearne laughed; the laugh quickly turned into a cough. “Like I said, looks like my luck ran out. Severin can only be pushed so far, I suppose.” He tapped his chest and winced again. “See, I’m the only one they couldn’t touch, till now. Severin could pretend all he liked that the union didn’t exist, while his men made sure those who joined it disappeared. But me? I was untouchable. If anything happened to me, that would risk everything—the other workers wouldn’t have been able to ignore it. It would have been an admission from Leviathan that the union existed and that they were frightened of it.” Hearne paused. “Well, at least until now.” He shrugged.
“This Severin? He’s in charge?” asked Billie.
“Yes,” said Hearne. “Miles Severin is the boss. The guards were right—this whole project is his undertaking. His leadership, his direct command. He came up with the idea for the Leviathan Causeway, spent years petitioning the Queen and King of Morley to commission its construction.”
“Before the Three-Day War?”
“Oh, years before. But nothing ever got off the ground. It was the war that finally did it. Alba had been reduced to… well, you’ve seen what Alba has been reduced to. The city had to be reconstructed. Severin adjusted his pitch to include that, and the Queen and King accepted. Work began almost at once. All that you see around you is the result of a single year of construction.” Hearne cocked his head. “That’s something I have to give Severin credit for. He’s a master planner.”
“And then the Void rift appeared?”
Hearne looked puzzled, then his eyes lit up. “Oh, you mean the Barrier? Huh, Void rift. Haven’t heard it called that before. But yes, it appeared quite suddenly. The causeway’s lower half was cut off by the Barrier. It’s almost completely inaccessible now, other than by climbing the scaffolding.”
“And yet work continues?”
“Oh yes. If anything, Severin stepped up the pace. He didn’t appear to be concerned by the change—but then, Severin isn’t a man who shows his feelings. But he said the causeway was undamaged—on this side, anyway—and work went on. He built the wall at the bottom of the Barrier, and I believe he turned at least some of his laboratories over to studying the phenomenon. He held a big meeting—actually, it might have been the first time he had gathered the entire workforce together. At that time, there was room enough on the west side of the zone for everyone to gather—there were only a few hundred of us workers at that point. Afterward, Severin expanded the operation to the thousands—that’s when some of us tried to get the union together, because the Leviathan Company wasn’t just hiring people who came to Morley of their own free will. They were shipping people in—recruiting them from all over the Empire, selling them the project. Of course, once we heard about the conditions they had imposed on these workers, it was clear it was nothing but indentured servitude…”
Billie shook her head. She wasn’t concerned with the state of affairs among the workers—no matter how brutal Severin and his mysterious company apparently were. No, she needed to investigate their relationship with the rift, because something wasn’t adding up.
According to what Hearne had just said, the construction had begun prior to the rift appearing. Strangely—coincidentally?—when it had appeared, it split the project exactly in half, without, apparently, disrupting the project. More than that, the work had accelerated, Leviathan bringing in even more workers, expanding the operation significantly.
But was that despite the rift? Or… because of the rift?
It almost sounded like Severin had expected the rift to appear, just as construction had started. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Hearne made to lift himself off the floor, wincing all the while. Billie helped him up, then, with the man leaning on the desk, she moved behind it and righted the overturned chair, helping Hearne to lower himself into it. Stepping past Blanco’s body, she cast her gaze over the shattered remains of the display board. The map that had been affixed to it had been torn into four large pieces, but the paper was thick and each section was more or less intact and quite readable. Billie found the piece she wanted, and she pulled it clear of the debris. Moving to the desk, she flattened it out. Hearne, watching her, caught on and grabbed the other side of it, helping to hold it down as Billie pointed.
“This is the central administration block?” she asked, tapping the collection of squares on the hill that was labeled CONTROL.
Hearne nodded. “Leviathan Company site headquarters. Severin’s private office is here, along with the master site office, control room, and laboratories. It’s easy enough to find; you can see the tower from everywhere. And we are here.” Hearne traced his finger from the complex, along the barrier, to the torn edge of the map. He kept going, finally tapping the bare desk about three inches from the paper.
“Looks easy enough.”
“Oh, you’ll be able to find it, all right,” said Hearne, “but the path isn’t necessarily an easy one. This close to the Barrier, any worker not in their assigned sector is likely to be stopped and searched by Leviathan guards.” He chuckled to himself, then fought to suppress the cough his laugh quickly developed into. “That’s how they caught me. I was going to meet one of the representatives from a different zone, and I got sloppy.”
Billie stood up and folded her arms. Then she turned and looked down at the bodies of the two guards. She nudged Blanco’s leg with the toe of her boot. He looked about the right size.
“I’ll take a uniform,” she said. “They wouldn’t stop a guard, would they?”
Hearne shrugged. “Probably not. There are hundreds of Leviathan
men and women all over the site. You’d certainly have a better chance of reaching Control as one of them. Although I’d still advise discretion.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Billie. “I can be careful.”
Then she crouched on the ground and began to remove Blanco’s uniform. There was a little blood at the shoulder, but it was hardly visible against the black fabric, and with a little judicious application of the ubiquitous gray dust, it would be easily disguised.
“There is one thing you can tell me,” said Billie, as she undressed the guard’s cooling body.
“Yes?”
“What’s the causeway for? I mean, really for? I know it’s supposed to link Morley and Gristol, but the distance involved is enormous. The causeway is big, but it’ll still take decades to span the continents.”
Hearne laughed. “You underestimate Severin’s resolve.”
Billie paused, looked at Hearne, then continued her work. She had reached Blanco’s belt, which was five inches wide and made of very thick, very heavy tooled leather—to support the weight, clearly, of the two large, square pouches that sat on the left side.
Hearne continued. “The great Leviathan Causeway is to be a wonder of the modern world—not just a link to Gristol, but the first part of a great transcontinental rail car system, a network so vast that, when completed, it will link every part of the Empire together. The interminable journeys by sea will be a thing of the past.” He paused. “I have to admit, Severin’s plan is impressive, even if his methods are suspect. Just think of it—fast travel, to any part of the Isles. Think of it!”
Billie recalled not only her long sea journey from Dunwall to Alba, but also her years of travel around the Isles. Condensing the huge distances that separated the four corners of the Empire to journeys that would take far less time was an incredible thought, and she said as much.
“Exactly!” said Hearne. Billie looked at him, and he smiled. “It would be a revolution. And it wouldn’t just affect travel and trade. It will change everything. Economics. Politics. Everything. And all under the control of the Leviathan Company. You can see the position it would put Morley in. The whole balance of power in the Empire would shift.”
Billie whistled between her teeth. “No wonder the Queen and King bought his plan. They’d become more powerful than the Empress herself.”
Hearne nodded. “And now perhaps you can see why Severin was so concerned with continuing the project after the Barrier appeared. The stakes are too high to stop.”
Billie unbuttoned her cape and slipped it off, then began to put Blanco’s uniform on over the top of her own clothes. The guard had been her height but much broader, so overall the fit wasn’t bad, although it wasn’t comfortable. With some careful arrangement of her hair under the man’s garrison cap, even the eyepatch covering the Sliver of the Eye of the Dead God was somewhat less noticeable—at least, according to Hearne’s appraisal. As she adjusted Blanco’s belt, pulling the two pouches into a more comfortable position over her hip, there was a tiny crack across her fingertips, a static discharge, she guessed, from the uniform having been rubbed against the floorboards as she pulled it off the dead body.
Hearne heaved himself to his feet, and looked Billie up and down. “That should do it,” he said. “Just keep your head down. There’s nothing more I can do for you. I don’t know who you are or what you’re hoping to find, but I wish you luck, all the same.”
“Thank you,” said Billie. “You’ve been very helpful. What will you do now?”
“Carry on, of course,” he said. “I still have to meet with the other representatives. And arrange a cleanup.” He gestured to the bodies. “I have to say, I’m rather glad I ran into you today.”
He moved to the door and carefully pulled it open, peering out through the gap. “It looks clear. You should go.”
Billie nodded her farewell, and stepped out of the hut. Adjusting her tunic, she checked both directions, noting the workers and the guards as they went about their business. Nobody seemed to have noticed her coming out of the prefab.
She turned left and headed west, following the Barrier, toward Control.
12
LEVIATHAN CAUSEWAY, ALBA
17th Day, Month of Darkness, 1853
Hearne had been right; the path to the control complex was a simple one—all Billie had to do was head toward the complex that sat looming over the site, at the top of its carved-out hill. She didn’t know what had occupied the site of the great crater before it had been turned into the causeway construction zone, but, apart from the giant bridge to nowhere soaring high above, the control complex itself seemed to be the only permanent structure, the last remnant here of the city of Alba. If it had been chosen as the Leviathan Company headquarters deliberately, then it was an admirable decision. The Royal Morley Observatory, its golden dome dulled by the dust, was in an excellent position, commanding a view of the entire construction zone around it. What better place for Miles Severin to look out over his domain?
Around the base of the artificial hill, more prefab huts clustered, and the whole area was a hive of activity, with workers and Leviathan guards alike busy with their assigned tasks. High above, the lattice of the causeway arched, nearly every surface covered by the insect-like forms of the workers. There was a pathway cut into the hill, spiraling up to what would have been ground level, back when the Observatory had just been one landmark in the once-fine city.
Billie followed the path, eventually reaching the complex, a large, low building of pale stone covered in decorative architraves and arches, bas reliefs charting the stars and constellations rendered in gilt, incongruous after the functional, temporary buildings of the construction zone. The main entrance was a large set of iron double doors, intricately engraved, the lines and patterns inlaid with more gilt, which shone brightly under the ever-present arc lamps despite the dust. As Billie approached, she watched black-uniformed Leviathan guards come and go without pause. It seemed that there wasn’t any kind of guard or checkpoint inside. That was logical, given that nobody was here who wasn’t supposed to be. For those employed by the company, the door was, quite literally, open.
Billie picked up her pace and, keeping her head down, walked into the building. She came immediately into a large atrium, the stone walls a mix of white and gilt. Several corridors led off from the atrium, and stairs went up on two sides.
Billie had brought the section of the map from the site office with her, hidden inside her tunic, but there was no point consulting it now—not only would it draw attention, but the map itself had been largely schematic. The central control room and surrounding laboratories had been shown as being part of the former Royal Observatory’s main tower. She needed to find a way up.
Billie picked the stairs on her left.
***
As she had suspected, the old building was a labyrinth of corridors and offices, although Billie found this very much to her advantage as she made her way deeper into the complex. The place was buzzing with staff—men and women, all wearing the same black uniform as her own. From every office came rumblings of conversation and discussion, the clack of typewriters, the whirr of audiograph recorders being dictated to and being played back. The corridors were thick with people.
It was the perfect cover. Nobody paid Billie any attention.
But she also wasn’t getting anywhere. She was somewhere in the administration sector, that much was obvious—and precisely where she didn’t want to be. What she wanted to see were the laboratories and the control room. There she could find out what Severin and his company were up to with the Void rift, what experiments they were carrying out to destabilize the fragile barrier between this world and the next. And, if she could find out what they were doing, and how—and maybe even why—then she would be able to either stop their experiments, or at the very least sabotage them, while gathering as much information as she could to take back to Dribner. Perhaps then the Academy would listen to them. Emily would, anyway
. She trusted Billie, and she’d either be back from her trip or Billie would have enough evidence to get the Imperial court to recall her.
Billie kept moving, looking out for any indication she was heading in the right direction. The offices were all signposted, but none of the words meant anything to her until she reached a corridor that ended in a large set of glass double doors, beyond which Billie could see a wide staircase. Above the doors was a large sign in an elaborate script, the letters fat and curled, in typical Morley style, to look as if they were made of flowers and plants.
MAIN OBSERVATORY
OBSERVATORY WORKSHOPS
This was it. Billie reached for the doors, then heard sounds behind her—footsteps and voices. People coming, at least three, maybe four, deep in conversation.
While she had passed by dozens of people in the control complex, she had been just one of many, hidden by the crowds of black uniforms. Here, she was alone. She would be noticed, probably questioned—and that was something she couldn’t risk.
Looking through the doors, she could see that the stair lobby beyond was large, the stairs themselves more of the intricate, complex ironwork in the typically ostentatious style of Morley. There was plenty of room beneath the stairs to hide, and plenty of shadow to vanish into.
Billie slipped through the doors and ducked under the stairs. A moment later, the doors opened again, and four people passed through. Billie watched as the first man, a broad-chested guard with a wiry gray beard, held the door open for his companions—two women, one with long brown hair and dark skin, the other pale and blonde, her hair cut into a bob. The fourth member of the party was a very short, thin man with red hair brushed sideways across his scalp, and a pair of silver-framed glasses with large square lenses balanced on his nose.
Dishonored--The Veiled Terror Page 10