Everyone relaxed for a bit. It seemed no surprises could occur here, at least not easily. The depot room appeared scoured free of most hiding places, the few crates and boxes left behind notwithstanding. No one hid in the empty train, either.

They had already made their way down the tunnel, and Lady Finley kept an eye on it at all times. There seemed little likelihood of a sneak attack coming from that direction.

The only other way into the large room was through the vault door, which moved ponderously slow. If someone tried to come in from that direction, they would have plenty of warning. Right now, Blair examined the opening mechanism, trying to get them in that way.

In short, they seemed relatively safe for the moment, Rip decided.

Chance brought out a meat pie from Tomfoolery’s, still fresh with steam drifting off the top. Twig produced a couple of forks and sat down beside him. They split it.

The girls sat down, still looking unhappy. Black marks from the silver exposure still lined their faces and hands. They had not yet had a chance to rejuvenate with blood, and Rip decided they would remain in a foul mood until then.

Bixby and Sharp sat together pouring over a map of the first level and deciding where the group needed to go in order to quickly move down to the second level. They had a rough idea of what to expect in these upper corridors, but going over it one more time seemed prudent, and the men discussed options to take if the unexpected happened.

Rip sat down on the floor, idly watching Blair. He decided to give her some space, not wanting to get his head bit off. She stared at the levers with a growing sense of frustration. Obviously, from what he could tell, it was a more complex mechanism than the storage vault door she had opened previously.

Rip took the time to bring up his implant’s messages. He had gained six points in [Lock Picking] and two in [Night Vision] the night before in Blair’s guest cottage. So far today he had earned an additional four points in both those skills.

He had also earned four points in [General Combat] and five in [Transporter]. [Vampiric Speed] picked up two, and he gained one point each in [Weaponry], [Mechanical Discernment] and [Detect Traps].

Of all the gains, his one point in [Detect Traps] made him happiest. He felt like that one had stayed at the bottom of the pile for a long time.

He brought up his status screen and took a look at the new numbers.

[You are a Tier 2.44 Battle Rogue Technologist.]

[Skill: Detect Traps, 1.11]

[Skill: Vampiric Speed (Boon), 1.14]

[Skill: Night Vision (Boon), 1.22]

[Skill: Transporter (Combo), 1.30]

[Skill: Disarm Traps, 1.43]

[Skill: Mechanical Discernment, 1.47]

[Skill: Lock Picking, 1.49]

[Skill: Stealth, 1.56]

[Skill: Weaponry, 2.22]

[Skill: General Combat, 2.42]

Overall he felt very pleased with the increases. Chasing down the streets with gunmen shooting at them, and all those narrow misses, really increased his [Transporter] skill. He supposed putting his life on the razor’s edge helped with the increases.

He wished he could pump some of the others up. Stealth, in particular, had not had a chance to increase today. Surely he would have some opportunities to do so during their time inside the vault, he thought.

Speaking of which . . .

He glanced over at Blair again and noticed the look of frustration growing on her face.

He stood, dismissing his status screen, and walked over.

Even if she bites my head off, maybe I can help somehow.

As he made his way toward the vault door and Blair, he passed by Chance and Twig, eating the last bites of their meat pie.

“What’s their problem?” Chance said, nodding toward the girls.

Twig swallowed and said, “Oh, you see, the silver marred their physical perfection. Their beauty. It’s got them in a right tizzy.”

“Ah, I see. Well, they’re still the same inside.”

“Aye, but you can’t reason with any woman along those lines, least of all vampires.”

Chance raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment and downed the last of his food.

“Have I told you my oldest has discovered boys?”

“What? No! Ah, lad. I feel for ya, I really do. Poor sod.”

“Go on, you’re a bachelor. You’ve no idea how it feels.”

“I might have a lad or two. There’s one I think is mine.”

“It’s not the same.”

Rip walked out of earshot and closer to the massive door. Here, Blair bent over staring at the lever box.

“I take it this one’s more complex,” he said. “Need any help?”

She raised an eyebrow and did not take her eyes away from the contraption while speaking.

“The other one was easy because it only had four letters in the code.”

“I remember. A, L, M and O.”

“This one is harder because it has double the number of options.”

“So, eight letters in the code?”

“Yes. And many of them share the same lever.”

He looked at the top row with A, B, C, D and E above and K, L, M, N and O below. The second row had F, G, H, I and J on top, P, Q, R, S and T below.

“As near as I can tell, the first letter is either S or T. It becomes more difficult to figure out because . . . I think they’re both pushed. But I don’t know if S is pushed first, then T or vice versa. I feel confident O and P are next, then O again. Then L, I and finally S once more. The repetition doesn’t help.”

“Well, I’m going to bet it’s S, then T.”

She finally looked up at him, her eyebrows furrowing.

“Why?”

“Because, with the first four letter, A, L, M and O, S and T would spell out ‘almost.’”

She stared at him silently for a long moment.

He shrugged and gave her a lopsided smile.

Blair said, “That would make the entire word, ‘Almostopolis.’”

“Well, there you go. It’s better than ‘Almotsoplis.’”

“No, I think . . . I think you have to be right. The doors are identical except for the longer code, twice the length here. But I’ve never read or heard about anything called ‘Almostopolis.’ Not related to the vaults or anything else.”

“Really?” Rip said, chuckling.

“What?”

“I thought you said you read every book in your library.”

“No, I never said that,” she snapped.

“Yeah, pretty sure you did. When you were talking about your [Speed Reading] skill.”

The look of annoyance grew on her face.

“Some of the books in there are for reference purposes. I have not read through them all. Now, where did you see a mention to ‘Almostopolis?’”

He kept the smile on his face while answering.

“In Marco Polo’s book.”