A faint, dry scratching sound scraped along the inside of the sheet-iron ventilation shafts.
It sounded like hundreds of tiny needle-points tapping against tin.
Down in the corner of Bay Seven, Kaelen kept his eyes closed while his ear twitched beneath his loose hair. The sulfurous odor in the room suddenly grew sharper, laced with the metallic tang of molten centipede venom.
Overseers who release poisonous vermin at midnight have no respect for labor relations, Kaelen thought with deep annoyance. If I have to get up from these comfortable sacks just to step on bugs, someone is going to pay a heavy extermination fee.
Near the flue, Sera tightened her grip on her iron shovel, her gray eyes narrowing as red glowing antennae poked through the wall vents.
Across the room, Mina Vance sat quietly on a wooden box, her hands tucked neatly in her lap.
Kaelen didn’t move his torso. With a tiny flick of his wrist, he tossed a small rounded river pebble across the floor.
The pebble clicked softly against Mina’s boot heel.
