Chapter 23

~Nadir~

Erik's violin carried through from the main room. Days had passed since his device provided the first streams of fresh water. Intermittent rain supplied a steady stock for the distillery. Erik had rotated his days between assisting at the burial pit and stoking the fire on his device, by now they had turned to the ever available supply of animal feces. Concern remained that our project might be in danger since the stand off with the officials.

Erik, however, seemed far less worried about that than I had figured he would. Instead he seemed more intent on tracking the rate of the burials, which had yet to significantly decline. He repeatedly reminded the elders that it would be at least a week for those previously infected to run the course.

At length I sat up. The violin had stopped. There was no flicker of the candle. Rising up, I made my way along the edges of the bed and leaned against the door frame.

"Erik?" The faint cast of light from the streetlamps below did not reveal his outline. I stepped further into the room. His violin lay on the desk. "Are you here?" It was silly asking that. There was nowhere to hide.

My shoulders sagged. "Erik it's the middle of the night! Where have you gone?"

~Erik~

Atherton Wellspring possessed a remarkably ornate bathroom. Imported tiles on the wall formed a colorful decorative frieze. The clawed bathtub sat against the wall stocked with a number of scented oils. There was a sink with a drain pipe cleverly concealed in the pedestal. And it came as no surprise the room had a vanity mirror. The most important accessory in this elaborate room was a flushable toilet. A bowl upon which one could sit with a large chamber mounted to the wall overhead activated by a pull chain. The miracle of modern plumbing. One had to assume Wellspring appreciated this luxurious device.

The poor man sat on the toilet, not a stitch on his lower half. His head bowed over a bowl. Under a merciless barrage, both ends of his bowels took alternating turns. His color pale as a the virgin winter snow, when he stopped retching long enough to breathe. He gasped in air, shaking from the torment.

"My, what a marvelous throne you have in here."

Wellspring jerked upright in shock, his eyes wide for a moment. Then his bowels screamed at him, he doubled back over to an explosion into the bowl beneath his legs.

I daresay my presence in his private chambers troubled him, but not half as much as his other unexpected visitor. I leaned against the door frame studying my fingernails and waiting for him to recover enough to look up again. That took quite some time.

When at last he looked , tears in his eyes, I held out a hand. "Oh no, do not trouble yourself by getting up. I see you are rather indisposed at the moment."

"My servants … " His voice was hoarse through a throat so raw I expected it was bleeding.

I smiled. "Are quite occupied at the moment." This was one time the use of my voice was essential. I did not wish to be disturbed. Luckily lulling unsuspecting victims to sleep was child's play for me.

"How … " he gasped, "how did you get in here?"

With a laugh I spread my hands and bowed. "Why you practically invited me in." That is what happens when a man leaves his balcony doors open to the night wind after getting on my bad side. "As I said, do not trouble yourself concerning the notion of hospitality. I am already quite familiar with the layout of your less than humble abode, councilman. A pity your architect lacked discipline … and taste. Oh, pardon me, I may have have just insulted my gracious host. Was this all your decision?"

Wellspring narrowed his eyes and began to shout for his staff. It ended with his head in the bowl for an extended period of time.

"Dear me, I appear to have caught you at a bad time."

Sweating from the effort, he looked over the rim of the bowl. "I will … have you … arrested … for … trespassing." He winced as his intestines audibly twisted.

Crossing my arms I lifted my chin. "That would prove a rather amusing gamble. Who will you send them after? You do not know my name. A masked man? Well, there are several in the Bowery, and as you have never seen me unmasked, ensuring my identity would prove difficult."

"You are … ooohhhhh God … " The other end took its turn. Considering the odor I doubted he had much skin left down there. The effort left him hissing. Were this man not such an insufferable ass I would have felt sorry for him.

"I will be honest with you, Atherton Wellspring. I once told you you did not know me. I am not a man to be trifled with. Such an attempt to apprehend me would be an extreme folly on your part. Let us explore that I have already infiltrated your most private of chambers. And if I have done so with you, what is to stop me from reaching the rest of the council?"

His breath caught in his chest. "You … you wouldn't!"

I placed a hand to my chest. "At the moment, you are correct. I will not. You volunteered yourself for this rather important lesson."

He shut his eyes as his guts twisted, teeth clenched he spat out, "You come when I am … ill … "

"Ahh, but I came because you are ill." My smile intensified. "I already knew the condition you would be rendered to. My that is a lovely Rembrandt in your parlor. The Abduction of Europa, if I am not mistaken. Did you have a pleasant smoke from your pipe two nights back?"

Wellsprings eyes twitched. "How … how did you know?"

I held out a vial of the Bowery's well water. "Because. This was not my first visit to your residence." I plenty of time to privately admire the painting while I had made certain the pipe's mouthpiece soaked good and long in the fouled fluid before placing it back in the carved wooden box.

He made a rather unflattering gurgle.

"But do not fret. You will be back to your detestable self soon. You have plenty of servants to care for you. And this marvelous device to carry away the case of your illness. I am confident you will recover after a sufficiently miserable couple of days." I scowled at him. "The same cannot be said for the nearly two-thousand Bowery residents who died because of your ignorance."

"I will have … "

"What?" I stood at my full height, glaring down at him. "You will accomplish precisely what from your captive position? I challenge you to even stand without excrement dripping down your legs."

His head bowed over the bowl of vomit grasped in his hands.

"Now that I have your incredibly difficult to attain attention, let me make something perfectly clear. Men like you are unfit to lead. Thus, you will take responsibility for your neglect. The moment you are able to emerge from your captivity on the only throne that is worthy of you, you will abdicate your seat on the council."

"But … "

I glared him into silence. "I will be watching you. I warn you not to entertain any clever ideas. If any of your friends attempt to have me arrested or disrupt the rain distillery you will learn what an irrepressible pest I can be. None of you want to make a true enemy of me if you desire a moment of peace for the remainder of your lives."

"This … this is extortion."

I clapped my hands slowly. "I have been made to understand that such actions are the only way to get ones point across to those who feel elevated above society. If you do not like to be on the receiving end, might I suggest changing the system."

He groaned as his stomach tortured him. "You will never get away with this!"

Taking a few steps closer to him, I gazed down with a smile. "I already have, Atherton Wellspring. All of this would have been completely avoidable had you simply performed your duty as a proper public servant. Instead you chose to insult and injure." Fortunately as I walked toward the door I did not limp. It would be rather inconvenient to give him another identifying trait. I paused and looked over my shoulder. "You have a lovely wife and daughter. Would be a shame if something were to happen to them. Such frail flowers, I daresay they would not survive a struggle against this."

Wellspring attempted to rise, but his efforts failed him. He cried out in agony as his shaking legs deposited him back onto the toilet where he would remain for at least the remainder of the night. God willing—longer.

"You are fortunate. I am far easier to reason with than a disease that apparently does not trouble the moral man." I glanced over my shoulder. "Unlike the residents of the Bowery, you have been offered a choice. Your answer?"

He bowed his head, gripping his stomach. Tears ran down his flushed cheeks. "I will … resign."

"Very good." Before he could look up, I vanished around the corner.

I heard his panicked pleas, but he didn't know what to even call out. It did not last long before the cholera punished him for me.

A few days later, I emerged from the burial pit toward evening, the numbers had blessedly greatly declined. Oisin had a copy of the newspaper in his hand. There was still enough daylight for me to read aloud.

"Atherton Wellspring appeared before the city council to announce he is resigning his position due to health reasons." With a dark chuckle, I folded the paper and handed it back to Oisin. "Well well, I do hope the poor fellow is feeling better." I did have to wonder if the skin had grown back yet. What I would have given to have seen his attempts to hide the burning pain as he walked into their chamber.

Nadir narrowed his eyes at me. Just above his breath he hissed, "Tell me you didn't."

If I had, I would have been lying.