Chapter 262: Infiltrating the hub.

"What you see are likely the water towers." Lieve said."Hmm. How peculiar." Lee pondered out loud, "Those things look like thin spikes piercing the sky – how is the water stored there?"

"The water is stored underground." She explained, "Every hub has similar formation that allows to forcefully condensate water. Those are the only water sources we have in Hollowreach."

"That’s ... inconvenient." Lee said, "So we can’t use those to get in. But there surely has to be some kind of ventilation system, right?"

"Yes, but as I said, the world is carefully guarded. Getting in through ventilation pipes is something so obvious any trespasser will think of it." Lieve said, "There are only two ways to get in – through a rift or on board of a steamrunner."

"So we should wait for the next steamrunner to get in." Lee said.

"I doubt we can get on one unnoticed." She said, "Besides, with how we look we’ll be immediately recognized as criminals."

"Do all the inhabitants have some kind of uniforms?" Lee asked, "Or tokens that prove their identity?"

"Not really." Lieve said, "But we can’t be seen dressed like this."

Lee looked at her, then at himself, and said, "Then I guess we’ll need to wait till the evening to check out the place. We are way too much in the open."

He didn’t believe there was a place that couldn’t be infiltrated. He only needed to figure out the way to do it.

After five more miles they stopped to rest until the nightfall. Arriving openly was out of the question – according to Lieve their dead bodies would be fed to varnhollows right after they were spotted. There were no trials or arrests for illegals here – any alien was killed on sight.

The two arrived to the hub, or rather – the surface facilities of the hub, shortly before the sunrise. Under the weak light provided by the lightning discharges between the thick clouds, Lee chose to hide next to one of the water towers to have a better look at the place during the day.

Besides the three towers, there weren’t that many structures. There was the opening to the tunnel that was used by steamrunners and fifty or so ventilation shafts, but those were covered with spherical roofs that didn’t allow anything bigger than a mouse to slip in.

When the sun rose up, a squad of around hundred people lazily came out the steamrunner tunnel and began to wander around the ventilation shafts in smaller groups. From the distance they resembled cavemen, covered in pelts instead of leather armor or normal clothing.

"You still think you could’ve blended in?" Lieve whispered.

"Me? What about you? What kind of plan did you have?" Lee answered, his eyes glued to the people in the distance. It wasn’t that hard to guess the goal for the inspection, and soon a couple of rats were caught.

There!

One of the locals shouted, and half a dozen people, previously hiding behind one of the ventilation shafts, madly dashed towards the steamrunner tunnel. It clearly was a suicidal endeavor. Every single one was caught by the guards within moments. Contrary to the guards, none turned out to be cultivators, and their presence raised more questions than answers.

"There are countless greedy groups that want to infiltrate Hollowreach." Lieve said, "They promise mountains of riches to these people and every day there’s someone sent to get into our hubs. Sadly, it only means that every day batches of illegals die around the world. None of them are after lanarite – everyone wants to get their hands on varnhollow eggs and create another Hollowreach ... what? ... What are you doing?"

While she was observing how the infiltrators were killed, Lee barely payed her any heed. He had summoned a small pile of different pelts from one of his spatial treasures, and was currently sorting them.

"How do you expect us to wear those?" Lieve asked, guessing his intention, throwing on a large pelt on the head won’t help! Guards aren’t idiots!"

"Why would I do that?" Lee said, from his ring taking out a small, but sharp knife, scissors, a large needle and a handful of thick threads.

Lieve barely saw Lee’s hands from how quickly he kept cutting and immediately sewing back pieces of leather. First he made two large cloaks, then items that somewhat resembled boots. He intended to craft more, but they were running out of time.

"Wear these!" He said, "The next part will be on you. Until I pick up on the local differences, you’ll be the only speaker."

"What?" Lieve froze, threw a look at the guards in the distance and said, "I don’t think they’ll come here. We’re too far."

"They will!" Lee said, "In fact, two of them are already here – you and me! Take a few breaths, and think of what you’re going to play. The best thing probably would be if you berated me of something. Speak loud and clear, so that everyone realizes you’re from Hollowreach!"

From the looks of it, the difference in the local dialect was the pronunciation of vowels, not new words. While two guard groups were still around a hundred yards away, Lieve tried to reprimand Lee in a couple of ways, and after a few tries it didn’t sound like a regular nagging anymore.

"You idiot! You can’t run off by yourself even if you see an illegal!"

When the guards approached the back of the water tower the two were hiding behind, they heard an angry voice.

"What if there was an elemental lord? Or two? They wouldn’t get in, but many brothers might’ve died! Because of the eagerness to show off, you broke the formation! How can others rely on you if you can’t work in a team?"

Lieve’s angry shout caught the guards by surprise, but Lee’s guess was that the content of her speech had to be at least passable.

"What’s going on here?" One of the guards asked.

He was probably the leader of the small group, but neither of the two looked his way. Lee was staring at his feet, trying to behave as if he was ashamed, but Lieve was scared out of her wits to look anywhere but at Lee. Fortunately, she didn’t go mute. She said, "Sorry you had to hear that. It’s the idiot’s first time and he ran over to prove himself ... moron!"

"Don’t be too harsh. We’ve all were rookies once." The guard said with a shallow laugh, and leisurely walked away along with his colleagues.

Probably the other group just arrived, because he said, "It’s alright, we’re done for today! Gather the bodies on the way back!"

***

"I can’t believe it worked!" Lieve whispered when she and Lee were about to enter the steamrunner tunnel.

"Shh! We’re not there yet!" Lee in hushed voice, "Fuck! ... the guy is looking around, probably searching for us! I didn’t have enough time to replicate the clothing properly ,.."

Whooooooo! Whooooooo!

The distant train whistle interrupted him, and everyone instinctively turned towards the tunnel entrance. Lee barely resisted the impulse to dart out when he and Lieve suddenly found themselves standing in the center of everyone’s line of sight. No one actually noticed them – at most people saw their outlines while focusing at the small dot approaching in the distance.