"I know," Warren answered calmly, leaning on his cane. "But their crimes don't warrant death."
"Every crime... deserves death!" Curze's roar suddenly rose, laden with merciless certainty. He moved like an arrow loosed from a bow, lunging at Warren and the children!
At that very instant, Warren moved.
Rather than retreating, he stepped forward and struck an inconspicuous, rust-covered steam-pipe valve on the wall beside him with his cane, his aim utterly precise!
Bang!
The already loose valve snapped clean off under that perfectly judged blow!
Hiss!!!
A jet of scalding, high-pressure white steam erupted from the broken pipe, forming a dense, completely opaque wall several meters wide directly in Curze's path!
Curze was instantly blinded, and the scalding vapor drew a howl of pain from him. He instinctively took a step back.
"Now! Run!"
Warren grabbed the three children behind him, turned, and rushed into the side passage he had chosen.
It was an abandoned maintenance passage, only wide enough for one person, and pitch-black inside.
"Old man, this is a dead end!" the boy cried in panic.
"Shut up! Follow me!"
Warren led the way, his steps swift and steady, as though the darkness simply did not exist for him. He guided the children through the tangled, labyrinthine pipework, every turn and every climb executed with perfect precision.
Behind them, Curze's roars and the sounds of crashing drew closer and closer. He had already recovered from the surprise blast of steam and was relentlessly tracking them with hearing and a sense of smell far beyond those of any mortal.
"Listen!" Warren told the children as he ran. "There's a ventilation shaft ahead that goes straight down. I'll lower you into it. At the bottom is a pile of soft waste at Waste Processing Station Three. The fall won't