But it wasn’t poor. The people weren’t ragged, the food seemed plentiful and everyone had been clean. There was a communal shower system where the companions and the sec men had cleaned up after eating and before retiring. And the baron had hinted that they had some old tech.
There appeared to be no particular hang-up from the baron or from the ville dwellers about personal possessions. Things that people would buy the farm for elsewhere didn’t even seem to be a matter of interest here. There was space, and privacy seemed assured by these flimsy defenses.
It was so alien to Jak and the others that it worried him more. Everyone seemed peaceful and happy, yet that smell was driving him crazy as he tried to reconcile it, to trace it.
Because he was sure now that it wasn’t the furnaces that caused the lingering odor.
Jak had no idea where he was in the ville. There had been so many spiraling and strangely constructed connecting passages that he was disoriented. But he knew he was leaving the furnaces to the rear of him as there had been a minute change in the temperature. As he moved through the ville, Jak noted the pipes that took heat and water to the different areas, the hot water dispensed from taps let from the pipes at regular intervals. These pipes were at the mercy of the pumping system, and the farther he got from the furnaces, the cooler the pipes became as the water pressure lowered, pushing the heated water less and less.
He had passed close to the furnaces at one point, feeling the heat increase as the system worked to its optimum. But here the pipes were more sluggish, the air around cooler. And yet the smell of charred flesh was fresher and stronger.
Raw had a secret, one that promised to be a triple-red threat for Jak and his companions.
The narrow and low tunnels connecting the different sections of the ville made Jak feel hemmed in and made his nerves jangle. There was nowhere for him to hide, and no routes for a quick escape if he was discovered. The tunnels were either long with nothing leading off except at either end, or else they had the small, partitioned living units that were full of potential enemies.
This tunnel had nothing. Nothing except the closed door that stood at the end of the corridor formed by the low enclosure.
Jak felt the pit of his stomach grow cold. It was the first time he had seen a door during the whole of his exploration.
The albino stopped in his tracks and hunkered down against the wall, keeping each end of the tunnel under watch. So far in his exploration he hadn’t come across any sec men. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even heard any moving about within the ville. Could it be that there were no sec men within the underground ville itself, but only stationed at the farthest reaches, to protect the hidden entrances from intruders?
If so, then there was a very good chance that Jak would come across some sec men very soon. From the drop in temperature, and the extent of tunnel he had traveled without seeing any living quarters, he was pretty sure that he had to have hit one of those extreme reaches of the ville.
Given time, he could find his way back to the sleeping quarters the companions had been allotted. But did he have time? With no wrist chron to measure how long he had been exploring, he had only his instinct—blunted by the lack of natural daylight—to aid him. This told him that he had been roaming the ville for several hours, and he wouldn’t have time to find his way back before the inhabitants were generally awake and questions would be asked. Even if he had seen nothing, any sec chief worth his salt would assume that Jak had discovered any secrets that may be hidden.
So, with retreat and perhaps another night’s exploration denied, Jak figured he may as well press on. Whatever was behind the door ahead, he would need to know if he and his companions were to make it through their stay in Raw in one piece.