the elevator rose, Harris watched the metal girders flash by. “These look like the ones at home. Steel I-beams and H-beams.”
“Yes.”
“They’re steel? I thought you people had a problem with that.”
Doc nodded. “That’s why he gave us gloves. You don’t need them; I do. Workers wear very heavy protective gear so they never touch the metal. Hundreds die every year from heat; and in spite of the fact that they try to hire only those with some immunity, many others die of poisoning. But if we’re to have modern towers, we have to have steel frames.” There was a melancholy light in his eye that Harris found unsettling.
Harris drew off his gloves again. “I guess when you put up all the wood and Sheetrock around the girders, it’s safe to live in.”
“Not entirely. I invented a process to bond neutral agents against the steel when it’s all erected, and that is how the Monarch Building was crafted; but not every builder uses it, as it’s costly. And when buildings that don’t use it get old, cracks open, rain leaks in, rust seeps through, and rust poisonings take place. A particular problem in the tenements, where rust poisoning makes hundreds or thousands of babies mind-damaged every year.”
“Oh.” There was not much Harris could say to that. It all sounded very familiar, and he was struck by how much things were the same between this fair world and his grim world, despite their many differences. “You helped build the Monarch Building?”
“It’s what I do. I design things. Buildings, aircraft, devices. But there tend to be interruptions. Such as when people try to kill me. The Monarch Building is one of mine.”
Harris heard metallic clanking and banging long before Doc brought the car to a halt at one of the unfinished upper levels. In front of the car was a wooden platform; beyond that, open air a long way down. Harris stepped out on the platform but stood well back from the edge; he managed to quell his stomach’s mild rebellion as he looked around.
He stood on the only flooring to be found on the whole level. But all over “up eighty” and the floor below, men worked, creating the cacophony Harris had heard.
One story down, odd metal contraptions were set up on small wooden platforms. Each device looked like a small metal cauldron