Chapter Twenty-three

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Agnes wrinkled her nose despite the heavy scarf wrapped around her face.

“Just when I thought we couldn’t sink any lower,” she said. Even though her voice was muffled, it bounced around the sewer tunnel, a narrow passageway of red bricks that stretched off into a seemingly infinite gloom.

“I dunno,” said Dennis. He was up ahead, a handkerchief tied around his face, which made him look like a cowboy from an old movie. “I’ve drunk in worse places than this.”

“You’re aware that fact surprises no one?” Albert said from in front of Dennis. He had his own mask, a heavy towel draped over his head and around his mouth like some flannel balaclava.

“Let’s keep goin’,” Maud said from behind Agnes. The hideous wheeze of a gas mask respirator punctuated her words. “I ain’t sure if what’s niffin’ out there can be worse than the smell of rubber in this here headpiece.”

Albert rubbed at his face. “Believe me, Maud, what’s out here is worse.”

He had used the paraffin la