Chapter 10 The City Under Warranty

• The cave under the old water plant shook with a deep, grinding noise. Marlow Reed stood on a shaky metal walkway, hands gripping the rail. He had just calmed the Unlit Choir and stopped the worst of the chaos in the city’s signal lines. But below him, huge brass gears turned slowly, out of sync. The city was falling apart, not because of war or storm, but because Lornwick wasn’t just a city. It was a machine. And one of its main supports had been pulled out.
• He needed to go deeper. He needed to see how it was all built. But to move through the broken guts of an Anchor House, he needed help.
• Marlow turned from the brass speaking tube and took a silver pocket watch from his coat. The H&V No. 0 felt cold in his dead man’s hand. He flipped it open, thinking of the rain-soaked square above, where he’d left the Inspector, and the scavenger he’d sent away.