TCB Part 39: Sunday Still (Cont.)

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Higgs was feeling tense. “If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t find it again if I tried. If you want to help me find my way back to the surface, you can trust me to keep my mouth shut about this place.”

The bearded man squinted at Higgs, sizing him up. His eye caught on the bag that he was carrying. “What’s in that bag?”

Higgs knew his face gave him away immediately upon mention of the bag. He had almost forgotten about the bag. “It’s yours if you can set me free.”

The bearded man laughed. “It’s mine whether or not I set you free.” He pulled it away from Higgs and it fell loudly to the floor with a thud. He opened it and looked inside and let out a loud laugh. “Where on earth did you get this stuff?”

“I stole it, from a train, with the help of Dr. Montebanque. He was going to meet me here, is he here?”

“Look, pal. We haven’t seen Everton down here for a long time. He went straight, and as far as I’m concerned, he was always a Vickie at heart. So dropping his name isn’t going to do you any favors. If he told you that you would be welcomed here with open arms, he was either lying or he has a terribly bad memory of the way he left.”

Higgs nodded. He wasn’t surprised. He regretted listening to the inventor in the first place. He wasn’t going to die in a tunnel, which was an improvement. He couldn’t stay here. He clearly wasn’t welcome, and he wasn’t a believer in their movement. But he couldn’t see any way that they would let him leave without a hassle.

The bearded man spoke again. “But I don’t see any reason why we should hold this against you. You aren’t one of us, but that bag tells me you’re not one of them either. Sit tight. I’ll be back.” He carried the bag away as he left.

Higgs took a plastic bottle from a young girl with pigtails and a nervous smile. Higgs smiled back at her. He must look like some kind of strange monster to her. She was from a completely different world than he was. He suspected she’d never seen the surface of the city, living her entire life underground in this Technologist compound beneath the city.

He recognized just how similar he was to these people. Their aims were different, but they both inhabited the spaces beneath the society that had rejected them. Higgs wasn’t a fighter for a cause like these people, which made him feel much less noble than they were. These people hoped for something that may never be a reality, but at least they had a hope. Higgs was a thief; there was no honor in that.

He looked over the bottle that the girl had brought him. He took a drink from it. The water was cleaner than he was used to. The bottle itself was amazing to him. He hadn’t seen any plastics since he was very young. The world had changed a great deal since then. He didn’t often judge whether the change was good or bad, it’s just how things were. These people didn’t agree. To them, the change was bad, and they fought to change it back. There was nothing that Higgs believed in so strongly that he could give up everything to fight for it. Even the money that he had stolen from the train wasn’t worth his life or his freedom.

Suddenly he felt the entire room vibrate. He heard a dull explosion. The rail tunnel that he arrived in had been raised back into the ceiling after he exited. Now he saw the ceiling above that spot crumbling. Dust billowed out into the room from there. As the dust cleared, several pairs of feet dropped through the hole into the brightly lit room.

“Everybody put your hands up,” a voice was heard shouting over the commotion of scrambling Technologists. “We’re not here for you, so if you cooperate, this will be fast.”

Higgs couldn’t make out the people who had dropped into the room, the dust around them was still too thick. He saw the Technologist with the beard come around a doorway wielding a large rifle. He shouted at the men who had dropped in, “Why should we trust you?”

“Fine, don’t trust me, just don’t shoot me,” The visitor said, “but we’ll be gone in just a minute. We’ve come for Thurmond Higgs.”

This was an unfortunate turn of events for Higgs. Not only was he caught, he was caught in a Technologist stronghold. Certainly, this would not end well. The group of strangers walked out of the cloud of dust. The first person Higgs saw was the man in the dark coat and hat that he’d spotted at Kostas’s the previous night. Walking behind him was Dr. Montebanque, a smug look on his face.

Higgs scowled at Dr. Montebanque. “Everton, I had assumed you tricked me, but I never thought you would betray me.”

“I had little choice, Thurmond.” Dr. Montebanque replied coldly. “It was my only way to avoid being labeled a Digit.”

“Well, since I’m sitting in a Technologist stronghold at your direction, it appears the label would be appropriate.”

“Hardly, I haven’t been involved with these scoundrels in years.”

At that comment, the bearded man bristled and glared at Everton.

“I can only assume you betrayed Kostas as well then? And the others?”

“Yes, he has been captured.” Everton said, expressionless. “Charlotte was in an accident and was captured before I was caught. Anabelle and Phineas had run off together. They were stopped on the river trying to cruise out of town.” Everton looked away, afraid to tell Higgs anything more.

“So you’ve betrayed us all, Everton. You weak fool. You’re lucky nobody was killed, or their lives would be on your hands.” Higgs stared Dr. Montebanque in the eye, refusing to look away as the inventor’s eyes darted around the room nervously.

“That’s not entirely true.” Everton replied. “Phineas drowned in the operation to capture them.”

At that, Higgs was on his feet and rushing toward Everton, shouting “Murderer!” He swung and hit the older man in the gut. Everton doubled over and gasped loudly for his breath. Higgs swung again, hitting Everton squarely in the jaw with a satisfying crack. He reached back to take another swing and his arm was caught by one of the other men that had dropped into the room with Dr. Montebanque. Another man came around and held his other arm. He struggled against their strong grips, hoping to get just one more swing in.

The man in the dark coat and hat approached, putting a hand on Everton’s shoulder. The inventor struggled to catch his breath and tenderly rubbed his bruised jaw. The darkly dressed man stepped toward Higgs. “Hello Thurmond Higgs, my name is Jason Hawke. It seems that this is not our first encounter.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” Higgs spat, the full emotion of hearing of his friend’s death was starting to hit him with something between anger and grief. He stopped trying to wrest his hands from the other men, seeing no point in further struggle. He continued to glare at Everton with a look that could cut glass.

The bearded man walked to Everton, standing taller than he was. His look was similar to Higgs’s, glaring anger evident on his face. “You’ve endangered this place, Everton. You’ve betrayed more than your friends today.”

“You’ve got Mr. Hawke’s word. He’s not here for you.”

“And you think that means anything? The bounty on finding us is hefty to say the least.”

“He’ll never find his way back here, anyway. We came the long way, same as the way I sent Higgs.”

The bearded man looked at Hawke. “If you return, you’d better bring a small army. We will fight without mercy.”

“I assure you, I won’t be back. This isn’t my fight.” Hawke put a hand out and shook the bearded man’s hand.

At that, Higgs was led to the tunnel section that had been lowered into the fortress. They stood while it was raised back to the tunnel above for their long journey to the surface.

Part 40 >