Chapter Twenty Five
Late that night, far past midnight, Torus awoke with a start. He had tried to stay awake after the family had gone to sleep, but he was exhausted, and wound up sleeping until nearly dawn. He slid silently off the bed to avoid waking his family, and crept across the floor toward the entrance. He was nearly out of the den when suddenly he found himself nose to nose with another rat in the darkness. His heart leapt into this throat, but he stifled his urge to yell. The other rat was apparently surprised as well, because he jumped straight up into the air and turned around running before he hit the ground. He scampered out into the main tunnel with Torus chasing him, until he stopped a short way down the tunnel and turned around to face him.
It was Moki, staring at Torus in panic, with his eyes wide and every inch of fur standing straight out. Torus laughed with a mixture of aggravation and relief.
“Moki!” he whispered. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing,” Moki replied, trying to catch his breath.
“No, you first,” said Torus. “You’re the one sneaking back in while was sneaking out, so for the moment you’re in more trouble than me.”
Moki started to calm down, and his fur started to level out. Even so, he was nearly as big as Torus now, and Torus was struck by how grown-up he seemed, even though he still acted like a pup.
“I was out looking for something to eat,” Moki finally said. “I gave most of mine to the girls last night, and then I woke up hungry, so I went out looking.” He paused, and then continued defiantly. “It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I’ve been doing it forever.”
“It is a big deal,” said Torus. “Does Dad know?”
“I dunno, probably,” said Moki. “He knows all about what you do, so I guess he knows what we’re all doing, right?”
“What does he know?” asked Torus, suddenly apprehensive. “I don’t do anything…”
“He knows all about the gang you hang out with,” said Moki. “He knows you’re up to something with them.”
“It’s not a gang,” said Torus. “And we’re not up to anything…”
“Sure,” said Moki. “So what are you doing now? Meeting up with them in the middle of the night to plan more trouble?”
“No,” said Torus, “I’m…going to look for something to eat…”
“Whatever,” said Moki dismissively. “Good luck with that, I didn’t find anything.” He turned and headed back toward the den. “I’m going back to bed.”
Torus watched him leave for a moment, and then the thought of heading up to the attic alone filled him with a sudden anxiety.
“Hey, Moki,” he called quietly. “Come back here for a second.”
Moki turned and shuffled back.
“What is it?” he asked irritably.
Torus wasn’t sure how to start. “You’re half right about me and my friends,” he said finally. “We were planning something, but it didn’t work out, and now I have to go take care of something so it doesn’t get worse.”
“Hah!” said Moki, gleefully. “I knew it!”
“Knew what?” said Torus, confused. “I thought you said Dad…”
“Oh, Dad doesn’t know anything,” said Moki. “He just thinks you’re chasing Nevi around all the time.”
“What does he mean ‘chasing?’” said Torus uncomfortably. “Does he mean chasing chasing, or just hanging around?”
“I think he means chasing chasing,” said Moki, grinning.
“Well that’s just weird,” said Torus.
“I know, right?” said Moki.
Torus shook his head to clear his thoughts and changed the subject.
“Okay, so anyway I have to go do something,” he said. “Do you want to come along?”
“Sure,” said Moki, “is there food?”
“Probably not,” said Torus, heading off. “And we have to be back before anyone knows we’re gone, so let’s go.”
Along the way, Torus explained to Moki the plan they had put together for the raid and what had happened.
“Wow,” said Moki, sounding impressed.
“You can’t tell anyone it was us, okay?” said Torus.
“Sure,” said Moki, casually. “So what are we doing now?”
Torus explained about his idea for a flying machine and how it had failed and how they had left the wreck where it fell and now he had to go retrieve it. As he talked, he led the way along the tunnels and passages that led finally to the secret entrance to the attic.
“The attic?” said Moki, sounding alarmed. “Are you crazy? It’s full of pigeons!”
“I know,” said Torus, “and tomorrow the cleaning crew is going up there and if they find the machine I’ll get banished, so come on.”
He made his way through the tunnel and then paused just inside the entrance to the attic space. He could smell the strange scent of the birds and the cold winter air that blew in through the broken windows. He turned and whispered to Moki.
“I think they sleep at night,” he said, “so we should be okay. But be careful. Try to stay in the shadows.”
Moki nodded silently, and his whiskers quivered excitedly. They crept out into the attic space and Torus gazed around in the dim light. He looked up and his breath caught in his throat. Nearly every surface above floor level was lined with sleeping pigeons. The top of every stack of boxes, the windowsills, the rafters, even the exposed wooden frames of the walls provided roosting spots for what looked like hundreds of birds, huddled shoulder to shoulder with their heads tucked under their wings. Torus listened carefully, and could hear the combined sound of their soft breathing, and an occasional quiet chuckling sound as one of them murmured in its sleep.
“Shooooo!” breathed Moki at his side. “How many are there?”
Torus shook his head.
“All of them, I think.” He gazed around again, carefully scanning the birds for any that were awake. “I don’t think they have any guards,” he said finally. “Let’s go.”
They had only gone a few steps when he heard a stifled wail from behind him.
“Eeeeew!” said Moki. “Pigeon…stuff.”
“Yeah,” said Torus. “Pigeon droppings. What did you expect?”
“Ick! It’s everywhere!” said Moki.
“So walk on your tippy toes, then,”
“I am,” said Moki. “This is so gross!”
They picked their way carefully along the shadows, keeping an eye on the birds above, while Torus tried to remember exactly where he had left the machine. He found his way to the high stack of boxes he had launched from and looked out across the wide expanse of floor he had crashed on.
Moki looked up at the top of the stack, and at the pigeons huddled far above them.
“You jumped off that?” he said, incredulously.
Torus nodded grimly and crept cautiously out into the open space. It wasn’t as dark there, and he felt exposed in the splotchy light that fell from the windows. He looked through them to the sky and guessed they only had another hour or so before dawn, which meant the birds might start waking at any time. He continued on, nervously trying to determine where he had crashed so he could work out where he had thrown the wreck. Finally he found a scrap of cardboard with characteristic teeth marks along the edge.
“Here it is,” he said. “This is where I crashed it, so the wreck must be over this way…”
“Way out here?” said Moki. “At least you flew further than you fell. That’s pretty good, right?”
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Torus grumbled. He continued checking in the shadows around the bases of the towering stacks of boxes, but without success.
“Where is it?” he asked the air around him. “Maybe they already got rid of it?”
He was on the verge of giving up when he actually stumbled over it in the dark and fell on top of it, with Moki on top of him. The sudden sound caused a few of th
e nearby birds to shift on their perches and ruffle their feathers, but as Torus and Moki held their breaths, the birds settled down again to silence.
“This is it,” Torus whispered finally. “I need to get rid of this.”
“Where will you take it?” asked Moki.
Torus sat back with a puzzled look on his face. “I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t thought beyond getting up here and finding it.”
“Well, is there a dumpster chute up here?” said Moki helpfully.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Torus. “Besides, if anyone found it in a dumpster, that would be almost as bad as them finding it up here.”
“What about out a window?” suggested Moki. “There’s a broken one right over there we could throw it out.”
“Don’t be dumb, there’s a pigeon sitting right in front of it,” said Torus. “What are you going to do, ask him to move over?”
“Sure, why not?” said Moki, yawning hugely. “Can we go now?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a minute,” said Torus. “Just let me think a minute…”
They sat in the dark and Torus listened to the silence and tried to think. Moki started to doze off, and then shook himself awake.
“I’m gonna look around,” he said.
“Be careful,” said Torus, “don’t fall in the elevator shaft.”
“Okay, I won’t,” said Moki. “What’s an elevator shaft?”
“It’s a big hole that goes all the way through the building,” Torus said impatiently. “If you fall down that we’ll never find you to get you out.”
“Oh yeah?” said Moki. “Why don’t you throw your wrecked thing down there then?”
“No, that wouldn’t work,” said Torus, “because…” He stopped to think, but the only reason he could think of for it not to work was because his little brother had thought of it first.
“Okay,” he said finally, “you’re right. Let’s do that.”
“Really?” said Moki, sounding surprised.
“Sure,” said Torus, tiredly. “Just help me with it, okay?”
Moki started pulling on one end of the wreck, but Torus stopped him.
“No, we can’t drag it, it’s too noisy. We have to lift it and carry it.”
They each picked up one end and made their way toward the far end of the room, with Torus leading the way. The wreck was difficult to carry and kept bending out of shape so they had to readjust their grips. For Torus, every awkward step was a reminder of his failure. He even imagined a dull ache beginning in the wrist he had injured, even though it hadn’t bothered him for weeks. Finally, after much wrangling, and while becoming increasingly nervous about the coming dawn, they reached the elevator shaft.
The top of the elevator shaft was a huge, square opening in the floor, with the rusted frame of the actual elevator surrounding it. It was pitch dark inside, and seemed to go down forever, with the one remaining cable leading down into the darkness below.
Moki peered over the edge and whistled.
“Wow,” he said. “That’s far,”
“Yeah,” said Torus grouchily. “Fascinating, I know, but we’re running out of time.
“Okay, then, what do we do?” asked Moki.
“Just step back,” said Torus. He gave the contraption one last look, and then braced his feet and pushed hard, sending it over the edge. He expected it to plummet away instantly, but instead it sailed out into the air, looping lazily in a big arc until it struck the far side of the shaft. From there it flipped over a few times, but stayed sailing for the most part, fluttering down the shaft in a big, slow spiral while the two rats watched from above.
“Not bad,” said Moki, appreciatively. “It flies pretty good, for a wreck.”
“Shut up,” said Torus, darkly. The machine faded from view and he heard it come to rest far down at the bottom the shaft. “It’s gone now, so just forget about it.”
The sky was noticeably lighter when Torus turned away from the hole and led the way silently out of the attic. He said hardly anything on the way home, and when he and Moki slipped back into the den and climbed back into the bed, he only grumbled, and left it to Moki to make some excuse to their groggy father before they all fell back to sleep.
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