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Jahns didn’t laugh "Thanks," she said, with a mask of false pain "But no, not to kiss babies" She turned her back and resu; Marnes followed "It’s not that I don’t trust your professional opinion about this Jules lady You haven’t picked anything but a winner since I’ve been mayor--"

"Even--?" Marnes interrupted

"Especially hiood man, but he had a broken heart That’ll take even the best of thereement "So what’re we checkin’ at the nursery? This Juliette weren’t born on the twentieth, not if I recall--"

"No, but her father works there now I thought, since ere passing by, that we’d get a feel for the hter"

"A father for a character witness?" Marnes laughed "Don’t reckon you’ll get much of an impartial, there"

"I think you’ll be surprised," Jahns said "I had Alice do so interesting"

"Yeah?"

"This Juliette character still has every vacation chit she’s ever earned"

"That ain’t rare for Mechanical," Marnes said "They do a lot of overtiet out, she doesn’t have visitors"

"I still don’t see where you’re going"

Jahns waited while a fa boy, six or seven probably, rode on his father’s shoulders, his head stooped to avoid the undersides of the stairs above Thedraped over her shoulder, a swaddled infant cradled in her ar what they took Two for two Just what the lottery aimed for and sooing with this," she told Marnes "I want to find this girl’s father, look him in the eyes, and ask hihter moved to Mechanical, he hasn’t visited her Not once"

She looked back at Marnes, saw hi at her beneath his mustache

"And why she hasn’t once made her way up to see him," she added

• • • •

The traffic thinned as they made their way into the teens and past the upper apart to reclaim those lost inches on the way back up This was the easy part, she re of a steel spring, pushing her down It rehte herself in, h that she couldn’t stand to breathe But they were like the occasional dreaacy of another ti ested: We weren’t supposed to live like this

And so the descent, this spiraling doard, was ht It felt inexorable and inextricable Like a weight pulling her down coe that she’d never be able to claw her way back up

They passed the garment district next, the land of multi-colored coveralls and the place her balls of yarn came from The s Acut into the curving cinderblocks looked through to a se of the district It had been ransacked by the crowds, shelves e de traffic Several porters crowded up the stairs with heavy loads, trying their best to satisfy denized an awful truth about yesterday’s cleaning: The barbaric practice brought ical relief, more than just a clear view of the outside--it also buttressed the silo’s economy There was suddenly an excuse to travel An excuse to trade And as gossip flowed, and faain for the first time in months or perhaps years, there was a vitality injected into the entire silo It was like an old body stretching and loosening its joints, blood flowing to the extreain

"Mayor!"

She turned to find Marnes alht around the spiral above her She paused while he caught up, watching his feet as he hurried

"Easy," he said "I can’t keep up if you take off like that"

Jahns apologized She hadn’t been aware of any change in her pace

As they entered the second tier of apartments, down below the sixteenth floor, Jahns realized she was already in territory she hadn’t seen in als chasing along the stairwell, getting tangled up in the slow clirade school for the upper third was just above the nursery From the sound of all the traffic and voices, school had been canceled Jahns i hoould turn up for class (with parents taking their kids up to the view) plus how many teachers would want to do the saames of Hop and Square-Four were blurred fro the rails, skinned knees poking out, feet swinging below the jutting landings, and where catcalls and eager shouts faded to secret whispers in the presence of adults

"Glad we’re almost there, I need a rest," Marnes said, as they spiraled down one ht to the nursery "I just hope this feller is available to see us"

"He will be," Jahns said "Alice wired hi"

They crossed traffic at the nursery landing and caught their breath When Marnes passed his canteen, Jahns took a long pull and then checked her hair in its curved and dented surface

"You look fine," he said

"Mayoral?"

He laughed "And then soht she sainkle in his old, brown eyes when he said this, but it was probably the light bouncing off the canteen as he brought it to his lips

"Twenty floors in just over two hours Don’t recolad we’re this far already" He wiped his mustache and reached around to try and slip the canteen back into his pack

"Here," Jahns said She took the canteen from him and slid it into the webbed pouch on the rear of his pack "And letin here," she reminded him

Marnes lifted his arht had ever crossed his mind He stepped past her and pulled one of the heavy es not co as expected The silence startled Jahns She was used to hearing the chirp of old doors all up and down the staircase as they opened and closed They were the stairwell’s version of the wildlife found in the fares were coated in oil, rigorouslyroom reinforced the observation They demanded silence in bold letters, accoers over lips and circles with slashes through open mouths The nursery evidently took their quietude seriously