Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [120]
With frequent references to the instruction file, Jin fed tidbits to Nefertiti, who apparently could eat some kinds of people food but not others, at least not without messy digestive consequences. Unfortunately, Ako came in just as the sphinx was having an accident in the darkest corner, which was Jin's fault really because he hadn't paid enough attention to her little mutters of Poo! Pee! during her restless explorations of the recovery room. Ako was very upset, and made Jin clean it up, which was fair, but then insisted the creature couldn't spend the night in here. Raven-sensei, at least, seemed undisturbed by biological messes, and stayed out of the debate. Jin finally promised to take Nefertiti back to his rooftop hideout for overnight, which satisfied Ako, but then Mina wanted to tag along and see the place.
Miles-san and Roic had gone off by then to meet with Lord Mark and Suze-san, so Consul Vorlynkin, after a glance through the glass at Jin's worried-looking mother, volunteered to go along and help lug the sphinx carrier, and make sure that all was well. Jin's mother smiled gratefully at him, so Jin supposed that was all right, too.
They were filing down the end stairs when they met Bhavya, one of Ako's friends, panting up.
"Jin! Have you seen Ako? Tanaka-san wants her on the second floor-an emergency cryoprep. Some poor old lady collapsed in the cafeteria, all in a heap, they say."
"She's up in the recovery room with my mom." Jin pointed back up the stairs. "Raven-sensei's there, too."
Bhavya nodded and ran on, waving thanks without looking back.
Vorlynkin wheeled to stare after her. "Should we go try to help?"
Jin shook his head. "Naw, this happens all the time. Well, not all the time, but every week or so. Tanaka-san knows what to do."
Vorlynkin looked doubtful, but followed Jin down to the tunnels.
"The layout down here is very confusing," he remarked.
"Yah, the tunnels below are all offset from the buildings above, and run underneath the streets, too. And some go down four levels, and some five or six. You kind of have to memorize them."
Jin had no trouble finding his own familiar route, even when they passed out of range of the lit section, and Vorlynkin drew a small hand light from his jacket to illuminate the steps. Mina, who had walked on her own thus far, took a prudent grip on his wide coat sleeve in the deepening shadows. They trudged upward five flights to come out at last from the exchanger tower door onto Jin's roof. Vorlynkin wasn't wheezing too badly, for a grownup, despite carting the carrier.
Jin had lost track of time in the windowless recovery room, but it seemed to have grown very late. The air was damp and chill, lit by diffuse reflections from the street lights in the area that gave everything a funny brown tinge. The city noises had quieted down the way they usually only did after midnight. But around the side of the tower, Jin found his tarps were all still up and taut, not blown loose by the weather yet. His little refuge was littered with a dreary residue of things not taken away the other day-not needed for his creatures, or too big and awkward to fit in the lift van, or too junky to salvage. He'd taken his own hand light down off its wire and packed it along, so it was now less-than-usefully back at the consulate, but Vorlynkin amiably shone his around while Jin explained his old life up here to Mina, and Mina made admiring and envious noises.
When they let her out of her carrier, Nefertiti did not at once take to her new environment. She stared around warily, crouching, then at last went off in a stiff-legged reconnoiter. Jin followed along, explaining to Vorlynkin about the gruesome fate of the baby chicks who couldn't fly yet. "I can't tell, if she went over the edge, if she'd just plummet, or flutter down like the big chickens, or even fly away." The dense muscles