The old rail under the bathhouse kept grinding.
Ty felt it through the tile against his spine. The sound was too deep to belong to pipes. It moved through the floor in sections, one heavy answer after another, like something huge under the pools had started remembering its job.
JJ stood three steps away from him with her arms folded tight.
Steam moved between them from a cracked vent, thin enough that he could still see her face. She looked tired. He hated noticing that before he decided whether she deserved it.
Ty shifted his shoulder against the wall and made his ribs complain. "Start with the part where Rui-Chai used me as cargo."
JJ's mouth tightened. "Start by sitting where your ribs stop making you stupid."
"I am already on the floor, so your medical advice needs work."
"Then stop trying to win the room with your posture."
