Remember that one week, where I wrote 15,000 words in fanfic (Back in the Knights) and 1,500 on my undergraduate thesis?
This is turning into one of those weeks.
Chapter Three – The Ride Down
The doors shut, the little light above them dinging to indicate what floor we were on. As usual, with a child's glee in pushing buttons, Maya had positioned herself directly in front of the panel. It was just as well: standing in front of the two of us, she couldn't see Edgeworth, who had quite simply closed his eyes. It was a completely different, much newer elevator: solid stainless steel instead of wood and glass. But the claustrophobic effect, I imagined, was probably not much different.
I was tempted to do the same, if only to summon a prayer that a random power failure or – worst day ever – an earthquake wouldn't occur on the way down. But I fixed my sights on the little numbers, one blinking out just as another lit. 12…11…10…
An almost uncomfortable silence had descended upon the tiny compartment. My thoughts were suddenly sprayed with memories of reading the DL-6 case file, the contents of which Edgeworth must surely be trying to push out of his own mind. But Maya could always be counted upon.
"Ooo, I'm so hungry." She clutched her stomach.
"Maya, when are you not hungry?" I just barely saw the corner of Edgeworth's mouth lift slightly. Good.
She looked upwards again with that contemplative little moue. "Well, usually right after I eat a lot. When I'm sick I'm usually twice as hungry, and when I'm tired my stomach is the only thing I have to distract me." She beamed. "So, yeah. Whenever I've just eaten."
I had to laugh. Thank God no one was getting on any other floors – Edgeworth's unease was practically palpable, though his face was set in amused indifference, eyes once more open. This had to be the slowest elevator in the world, and if the door had opened I might well have made some excuse to get out. "Well, don't look at me, tonight dinner's on you. I'll probably have to skip out before we're done, remember? I have an important duty."
She pretended to pout – as if the thought didn't occur to her that if I didn't pay, some mysterious third person would – then said "Fine," in a sulky tone that didn't match her devious grin. "I forgot to go deposit that check from our last client for you, anyway."
I groaned, remembering. Since she'd been made an official "partner" in my tiny, unassisted law firm, Maya had cheerfully been doing quite a lot of clerical work, which included depositing and filing payments. The check was probably in her pocket right now. If either of us were serious, she would actually have the upper hand.
Finally a ding sounded, and the letter B lit up. Edgeworth very calmly (albeit very quickly) stepped out into the basement, and Maya changed gears, plowing after him. I wondered if she would ask if we could take his car. Probably. It was about three blocks to the pizza parlor, but she was never more gleeful when her nose was pressed against the passenger window of his BMW.
I myself didn't particularly care: as soon as we were finished with dinner, maybe before, I was walking over to the driver's licensing center, to finally take my written examination and to sign up for driver's practical lessons. If Maya were lucky, I would be engaged until long after she was done talking to Edgeworth for the night, and she could con her way into a more luxurious ride back to Wright & Co. than the city bus.
Not that I could blame her: today had been rough on them both. They needed distraction. The lights flickered slightly as I stepped into the garage, but I ignored them; all fluorescents, they tended to do so on a regular basis. No, they needed something more than distraction. Maybe after this trial was over all three of us should go out for a real dinner, and maybe take Detective Gumshoe, too.
The lights briefly blinked out. Even thought they came back on almost immediately, all three of us had stopped. "What was that?" demanded Maya, unperturbed.
I shrugged, moving to stand next to her. "Maybe a power surge." Even as I spoke, my eyes were on Edgeworth, and a lurking thought in my mind was thankfulness that this hadn't happened in the elevator. The lights flickered again, and Maya suddenly drew closer to me.
"Nick… you've got your phone, right?" she asked nervously, and as her hand came to my elbow, I groped in my pocket for the reassuring lump of metal and plastic.
"Yeah, it's –" I stopped talking as a sound rose, like the distant roll of thunder. Then I realized I wasn't hearing it, so much as feeling a vibration that had nothing to do with my phone. "Oh, great." Maya wasn't the only one standing close to me now. "Stairwell. Now."
My words weren't drowned out by any noise, so much as lost amidst the rising tremors in the ground. The vibrating stopped for a tiny instant, then the lights snapped out and everything started to roll. "Damn it!" I roared, groping for my phone with one hand and Edgeworth's arm for the other. Maya was clinging to me, and I bolted as fast as possible for where the stairwell had been.
Everything was happening fast, too fast: I couldn't get my phone to light, and we were fleeing blindly, Maya's arm snaked around my waist, Edgeworth dragging behind, all three of us struggling to stay upright as the asphalt bounced and swayed. "Run!" I tried to yell at him, but my voice was lost in a sudden noise: God, let it not be the roof collapsing.
My forehead suddenly slammed into something, my hands inadvertently rising to clutch my head. The pain was so blinding that I almost didn't notice the phone, which had fallen from my hand, finally lighting up in protest. "We're in the stairwell!" Maya shouted in my ear, clinging to me like a mussel. I briefly noticed that I'd whacked my head off the stair railing: the light from the phone was negligibly helpful, since it kept jumping up and down and side-to-side.
Somehow Edgeworth had managed to keep a death grip on my sleeve, and I was frankly amazed he wasn't curled up in a ball yet. I was tempted to do so myself: this had to be the longest earthquake I'd ever been through. Some part of my mind grouchily noted that it would probably be in the records.
A split second before I heard his low voice in my ear, his weight suddenly shifted against mine, and I lost my balance. Maya shrieked as I turned an ankle, lost my footing, and tipped sideways. She suddenly fell away as Edgeworth and I plunged to the floor. This time, when my head hit the pavement, all the sounds went out very suddenly, and with them my grim realization that he'd finally given in and fainted.
