28
THEY CAME OUT OF the tunnel in the same place they had entered: the service passage behind the shops. Jao was the first to reach the panel that gave access to the ladder that led down into the dead alley. Melati helped him lift the panel aside. The lights were on in the passage, but somewhere in the distance an alarm went off. Fire?
“How are we going to get him down?” Ari asked.
Jao said, “Me and Elko are going to go down and the rest of you will lower him down the hole.” He descended the ladder.
Elko wormed himself past the others and did the same.
Ari and Melati took one of Paul’s shoulders, Troy and Budiman the other. The light from below made Melati see her own reflection in Troy’s facemask.
“We must get the body to Jas,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t care what else happens
