Chapter 4: A Job to Do

Lukas didn’t speak of Heli or the dinner again and Ynkeri didn’t bring it up. She had nowhere else to go and so there was no choice for Ynkeri to make. For the next couple of days, Lukas made oatmeal, which had become as boring as he predicted, and continued his drawing on the cement wall. Ynkeri spent her time watching him grow his stone garden with pieces of coal that blackened his hands and face. When they both grew bored of that she went up the stairs and into the alley to hunt for mice and cats. She never ventured into other streets and so came back empty-handed each time. Perhaps there aren’t any other cats to hunt, she told herself, but it was more likely they were smarter than the one she’d killed before. Either way, she was relieved to go back to the basement room and smell boiled rice. If Lukas was disappointed, he never said so.

Heli appeared at the door a week later with some soup in a container and some instructions for Lukas that she couldn’t hear. The woman’s gaze flitted to Ynkeri only once and then not again until right before she left.

         “I’m glad you’re still here, Hero’s Daughter,” she said simply as she walked out, the door closing quietly behind her. Ynkeri sat stunned until Lukas snapped his fingers.

         “We have a job to do. You in?”

         “What is it?” Ynkeri asked, finding her heart beating hard.

         “Are you in?” Lukas said again, enunciating every word as he smeared his face and shirt with coal-stained hands.

         “I guess.” She replied, tentatively. The thought of venturing past the alley made Ynkeri feel queasy.

         Lukas handed her a lump of coal, “Rub this on your face and anywhere you have skin showing. Clothes, too, like mine.”

         “Why?”

         “Because there are lots of normal kids who live in the gutters. So long as we stay away from more heavily traveled areas, we can avoid scanners.”

Ynkeri did as she was told, rolling the coal between her hands and then rubbing her face, neck, and clothes with the chalky black soot. It went on easy enough. Her hair was already a nest, but she ran her dirty fingers through her hair anyway.

“Good. You look as grubby as me now.” Lukas said, putting colored chalk into his jacket pockets. “Just do what I say and everything will be fine, ok?” he said at the door.

Ynkeri nodded and followed him up the dark stairwell. A cold gust of air made her teeth chatter when they reached the alley and she bent her head to avoid the freezing rain on her face. In the light of day, Lukas’ coal-stained face looked silly. Except for the coal, he looked like anyone. She remembered how ugly and brown her beautiful blue shoes were just after a couple of days and frowned.

Putting a hand in a puddle, Ynkeri grabbed a hand full of icy mud at the bottom and smeared it on her clothes. She grabbed another fist full of dirt and stepped towards Lukas who jumped back.

“What are you doing?” Lukas asked.

“Coal is dirty but mud is gross and it smells bad. We hardly smell at all.” Ynkeri said through chattering teeth. She wished Lukas had let her keep the dead man’s coat, but it had smelled so bad that even after being washed three times, the stench remained. After a second, Lukas nodded and let her rub the mud on his clothes and face.

“Ready?” Lukas asked.

Ynkeri was not ready at all, but she put on a brave smile and said yes. Lukas led the way, head down and hands in pockets. Not many people were on the streets in the bad weather and those that were seemed intent on getting to wherever it was they were going. The streets themselves were muddy and slick. By the time they’d rounded the first corner, Ynkeri was soaking wet and chilled to the bone. After walking for what seemed like an hour, Lukas stopped and ducked under an awning.

He looked wet and miserable, but his eyes were clear and scanning the area. Ynkeri followed his gaze and saw that they were in a run-down part of the city, nowhere near where she lived before. The place looked more like a shanty town, cobbled together, piece by piece, from the leftovers of other buildings. Long sheets of metal served as both roofs and walls, some had cinderblocks at the base, but most were sinking into the muddy rivers the rain was creating. The air was choking her and it was easy to see why: the ditches were filled with garbage and filth of all kinds. From the stench, she could tell these homes didn’t have plumbing.

“Do you see that corner,” Lukas asked, pointing towards the right and across the street.

“Yeah.”

“That’s where you need to stand while I do my work. If a scanner is making rounds, you’ll see it first from there.”

“So I’m your lookout?” Ynkeri asked, frightened. “How long will I have to stand there?”

“I’ll come for you when I’m done. If you see a scanner coming this way, I want you to turn and walk towards me. Walk, don’t run. The scanners are programmed to look for speed changes and they will lock onto your heat signal until they catch you. Don’t make any sounds and stay calm. There are several places on this street that are good for hiding out.” Lukas put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. “I’ve done this hundreds of times. It’s easy.”

“Okay,” Ynkeri said, taking a deep breath. Looking to each side, she stepped off the sidewalk and crossed the road. She hopped the rivulet of sewage and walked easily to the corner. Looking back, Lukas was gone. Trying to stay calm, she repeated to herself, He will come back for me when he’s done. A different voice replied, You are the only person you can trust. It sounded exactly like Heli’s.

Frustrated, she put her hands in her pockets and squinted against the cold rain. There was no overhang here, her once matted hair now stuck to her face and dripped dirty water down her neck and under her layers of clothes. She was wet and miserable and terrified.

To pass the time, she imagined getting into a hot bath in the basement. It would be scalding at first, her toes would feel like they were on fire, but as she settled in, the water would begin to make her sweat. The small, downstairs room didn’t have any walls, but Lukas had nailed a blanket to the ceiling in the far corner so that she could take a bath or use the toilet with some sense of privacy. Heating the water took a long time, so they only bathed once a week or so, but Ynkeri thought it wouldn’t take much to convince Lukas it was worth the effort today.

As she was day-dreaming of her bath, a figure appeared in the distance, huddled and shuffling towards where she was standing. Before she could decide what to do though, the person turned to the left down a street she hadn’t seen. It took a couple of minutes for her heart to stop pounding. Almost as soon as she began to relax, tap on her shoulder startled her so much that she jumped into the air.

“Did you see anything?” Lukas asked, ignoring her reaction.

“Just a person, but they turned into a street a little while ago,” Ynkeri replied, embarrassed at how frightened she had been. It wasn’t so bad, she thought.

“Good. Let’s go to the next spot.”

Ynkeri blanched and Lukas smiled at her.

“We have seven more to go, then we report back to Heli. You up for this?”

She nodded, disappointed. Worse and worse news, she thought.

The rest of the locations were similar. After an hour the rain stopped, the dryer weather giving her the opportunity to notice how soaked she was. Towards the end, she was able to ignore the cold, wet feeling and pay close attention to the streets instead. As they walked from spot to spot, the neighborhoods began to look less run down and the people who walked the streets looked tired, but their clothes were clean, if not new. They paid her little mind and most even crossed the street to avoid walking past her. That might have made her upset in her old life, but it was a relief now.

Lukas never caught her unawares again, although Ynkeri suspected he was trying to.

“Alright,” he said as they turned a corner, “this is the last one.”

Ynkeri looked around nervously. The sun had started to break through the clouds and more people were walking the streets. She turned to where Lukas was standing to protest, but found him already across the street, disappearing around a corner.

Settling in, she leaned against the corner of a cobblestone building, the edge dividing her body in half. On the opposite corner appeared to be a bakery, the glass windows tall and long to show off the breads and pastries to passersby. She focused on her thin reflection instead of the baked goods.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ynkeri saw a hovering scanner moving slowly up the street. In the bakery’s window, she could see a mother and child stop where they were and hold out their hands. The machine took samples, she guessed of their blood, and she could see the scanner processing the results, the light on the front blinking from red to yellow to green in just a few seconds. Ynkeri gulped down her fear and shoved off the corner. Calm and slow, she whispered to herself as she walked very casually towards where she’d last seen Lukas. He was busy with his chalk and didn’t see her round the bakery’s wall.

“Lukas,” Ynkeri hissed, tapping him on his shoulder. Faster than she could blink, Lukas dropped the chalk, spun around and produced a blade that flicked open. Seeing her, he took a deep breath and closed the knife.

“Jeez, girl. No wonder you got that cat-”

“Scanner, a block down, heading this way.” Ynkeri said, cutting him off.

He nodded, “Which direction is it coming from?”

“Towards the bakery windows. I saw it in the reflection.”

“Did it have anyone stopped?” Lukas asked, grabbing her by the arm and leading her further into the alley.

“A woman and a kid, but I didn’t see anyone else on the street that way.”

“Then we don’t have time to get up on the roof.” Lukas released her arm and began moving some trash that leaned up against the wall opposite where he’d been working. A small door which may have been meant for deliveries was latched. Pulling out two, fine metal picks, Lukas began working on the bolt which opened almost instantly. He opened the door and waved her in, then followed into a dank, lightless space hardly bigger than they were. Closing the door, they sat in a perfect black, Lukas’ arms wrapped securely around her. She had not been held like that since she lost her family and a lump in her throat threatened to choke her. Instead, she swallowed hard and focused instead on the beating of his heart, which sounded as wild as hers must.

She knew better than to talk or ask questions, so she sat with him, huddled in silence. After what felt like hours, Lukas disentangled himself and slowly crept towards the door. In a low whisper he said, “I’m going to have a look. Stay here until I come for you.”

Ynkeri nodded her head even though she knew he couldn’t see her and hugged her arms around her knees. She started counting in her head to keep track of the time that passed and hit one hundred and forty-two before the door cracked open.

“It’s clear, but we need to move now,” came Lukas’ familiar voice. Relieved, Ynkeri crawled on all fours until she got to the door. Lukas helped her to stand. Closing the small door, he latched it again and covered it with the trash exactly like it had been before.

Their walk back was made mostly in silence and Ynkeri kept an eye out for what Lukas had been up to. Perhaps she just hadn’t noticed before, but there were a series of lines and slashes that ran as lengthwise along the alley walls. Ynkeri couldn’t stop to look at them, but she was noticing as she passed each one that they were all the same.

“What does it mean?” Ynkeri asked. 

“I don’t know. It’s a code of some kind but the only people who know how to read it are the people who are supposed to. I think about it sometimes- what the messages could mean. My guess is that it’s probably information for the runners. Schedules, maybe even instructions.”

“What do the runners do?”

“Run, of course,” Lukas replied, flashing one of his crooked smiles. Ynkeri rolled her eyes, frustrated with the unanswered question. The more she thought about it, the madder she became.

“You’re a ass.” Ynkeri said as sped up to walk by the boy’s side.

“I think you mean ‘an ass,’” Lukas shot back. Ynkeri wanted to kick him in the shin, but then thought better of it. She didn’t think Lukas would hurt her, but she didn’t want to find out she was wrong, either.

“Whatever,” she mumbled, kicking at a puddle with her boot.

After what felt like forever, Lukas said, “I’m a runner. A runner is pretty much anyone who is given a task without knowing what it means. I guess that makes you a runner, too.”

“But that doesn’t mean anything,” Ynkeri said. The blue-eyed boy shrugged.

“Isn’t that the point?”

Ynkeri didn’t reply, but thought about what he said. She had a feeling that was his way of saying he knew as much as she did. They were quiet for the rest of the walk. Ynkeri thought they were going the wrong way and said as much, but Lukas said their first stop was Heli’s. She didn’t want to go, but there didn’t seem to be a choice, so she followed behind him, this time along cobbled streets instead of rooftops.

Lukas knocked and the old man named Pik answered the door just like the first time. He turned back into the house and shouted, “It’s Lu and a muddy flower.” Ynkeri couldn’t hear what was said back, but Pik opened the door wide to let them both in.

∞

After they both got hot showers in a washroom with actual walls and a door, Ynkeri and Lukas were invited to sit down once again for dinner. The nearly toothless Pik sat next to Ynkeri on one side of the table with Lukas and Heli on the other. Instead of soup, there was rice and brown beans with what vaguely resembled meat mixed in.

         The dinner started the same as it did last time, with people eating in silence. Ynkeri was anxious about what would happen next, but no one seemed to notice.

         “Did you run into any trouble today?” Heli asked, between bites. Lukas shook his head, “No, not much. Ynkeri saw a scanner in the baker’s window so we had plenty of time to hide.”

         Heli raised an eyebrow mid-swallow. “That was smart, using your surroundings,” she said, then took another bite of rice and beans.

         Despite herself, Ynkeri smiled. “Thanks.” Lukas had done much of the work and she said so. Lukas looked embarrassed as he swirled his fork in his food.

         “He’s was a genuine knight in shining armor, saving a distressed damsel,” Pik said, pronouncing genuine as ‘gen-u-wine.’ That made Lukas’ face turn a bright red, but he still said nothing.

         “You both did good work. The message was received. We’re already getting what we needed.” Heli said. Ynkeri could see that even that much praise was hard for her to say.

         “When do we get to learn what all the hashes and slashes mean?” Ynkeri asked, knowing she was pushing her luck.

         Heli put her fork down and took a sip out of her plastic cup before answering. Both Pik and Lukas looked up and watched the old woman, waiting.

         “Why do you want to know what they mean, girl?”

         “I just…” Ynkeri swallowed and steeled herself. “I just think we could do more than running around making lines on walls.” She hadn’t really thought about what else she would say past that and so rather than saying something stupid she closed her mouth. She looked to Lukas, but he looked back to his plate. Pik was grinning.

         “Heli- I like this girl. She reminds me of you.”

         Now it was Ynkeri’s turn to be irritated. “I’m not like her. That’s dumb.”

In reply, Pik laughed, “See? Just like you.”

Heli smiled at the old man- Ynkeri thought it was a forced one. “She has a fire in her chest, I’ll give her that.” Turning to Ynkeri, Heli eyed her carefully. Ynkeri decided she wasn’t afraid of the old woman and held her gaze.

“One trip out doesn’t make you trained. You had an easy afternoon- Lu would tell you that if you asked him. ‘Running around making lines on walls’ is a very important task that I don’t entrust many others to do.” Ynkeri could see Lukas sit a little straighter as Heli spoke. “I’ll forgive your ignorance this time, but know that I will put you where I want you and if you don’t like it, you can fend for yourself out there.” As she said the last, she waved her fork in a gesture that clearly meant away.

Ynkeri knew she would need to walk very carefully. “I apologize. I only meant that Lukas is smart and I’m good at being quiet.”

Pik snorted in amusement.

“I mean I walk really quiet. I’m a good runner, too. I outran those stupid men with the guns, before.”

“It’s true, she scared me nearly out of my skin this afternoon,” Lukas spoke up, finally.

“Not an easy feat,” Heli allowed, eyeing Ynkeri once more. “Alright, Hero’s Daughter. Prove to me you can take orders. Prove to me that you can handle what you’re asked to do as quietly as everyone claims you can. Prove to me that you’re a part of this group. When you do that, I’ll consider other jobs for you to do, but not before. Understand?”

Ynkeri put her spoon down and smiled. It was more than she expected. “Yes, m’am.”

Heli nodded and stood, signaling dinner was over. “You’ve both had a long, cold day. Go home and rest. Someone will come for you when there’s a message to send.”

Lukas nodded and grabbed his coat and handed Ynkeri hers. Putting it on, she smiled. The heat of the woodstove had nearly dried her jacket through.

As Lukas shut the door of Pik and Heli’s house he said, “You are insane, girl. Do you know that?”

Ynkeri shrugged. She’d been chased by armed men for weeks and avoided a scanner by sitting in a cold dark box, not knowing if it would work or not. Heli did not scare her.