With a heavy sigh, I pulled my phone out again and called Gigi.
“Are you upstairs, or did you go back to the safe house?” I asked when she answered.
“I’m upstairs. Why?”
“Josef Krall is sending a rescue team. Stay there and watch for it, okay?”
“So youdidfind some others. Sure, I’ll keep watch.”
“Call me when they get here. These people can’t make it up the stairs, so—”
“Oh! Then I’ll pop down there and start to ’port them—”
“You stay right there, Gigi. I mean it. The rescue team will handle it.”
“All right. I’ll call you when they’re here.” She sounded like she was smiling when she said, “You’re nice to wait there with them. They must be scared.”
Scared? Nah, they’d gone past scared a long time ago and were cruising on numb. When you’ve been hurt so bad for so long, you don’t fear what might happen next.
#
Josef came to stand next to me in the dungeon as his team of healers got right to work on the mutilated nephs. We stood there in silence, our arms crossed in matching poses. He kept his eyes fixed on the opposite wall, and I wondered if it was the grisly scene before us or myself he couldn’t stomach seeing.
Maybe both.
At last he spoke over the moans of the wounded and the soothing murmurs of the healers.
“You said you found seven alive.”
“You sure you wanna know the details?” I glanced over at him.
“I want to know what I’m dealing with.”
“He skinned two people. Don’t know if they were humans or nephs. Their souls were gone, but their dried-up bodies were still trying to breathe.”
“You gave them mercy?”
I nodded.
“Any other remains to clear out?”
“Just those two, but not right now. Get the charnel house to do it later. None of these little healers need to see that.”
He whipped his head around and pushed his tattered ball hat back enough to stare up at me.
I don’t like being stared at. It makes me edgy. That’s why my “What?” was a rumble of thunder that ricocheted off the concrete walls. One of the healers shuddered, and another looked at me with frightened eyes. That made me feel like a jerk, so I muttered an apology.
“Nothing.” Josef adjusted his hat to its usual eye-hiding position and went back to staring straight ahead.
“So,” I began, “I talked with Og’s accountant earlier this morning. He’s deeding this place over to you. Well, the outpost, anyway. You can do whatever you want with it. Make it a safehouse or barracks maybe.”
“That’s generous of you.”
“Not like I have a use for it.” I shrugged. “I told him to send everything else to you, too. He’ll contact you later to arrange things.”
“You didwhat?” Josef barked.
“I don’t have time or energy to deal with it, and what am I gonna do with Og’s stuff?”
