Neven Korr was in the north gallery when they found the bypass. He had his boots in the hot water and a cracked gauge in both hands.
“Don’t open that door farther,” he called. “The hinge bears on the pipe behind it.”
Lessa stopped with her hand still on the latch. Iven looked through the narrow opening. A ceramic-wrapped line passed behind the door, low enough that its rising edge would strike the pipe at full travel. Someone had painted a warning there once. The paint remained beneath a newer coat of whitewash.
They took the neighboring maintenance entrance instead.
The gallery lay half a kilometer north of Ember Wash’s heating room. On the morning of day 1214 its floor held a shallow stream, warm enough to make Neven stand on two loose paving blocks while he worked. Beyond him, a large iron return pipe descended from an upper branch and joined the old line beneath the houses. A polished valve body interrupted its rusted length. The valve had been fitted recently; its packing cloth was still bright.
Lessa pointed to it. “Who put that in?”
“My crew,” Neven said. “Under a contract with the Upper Ward heating cooperative.”
“Does that contract include our return?”
