A seven-storey tower in the bureaucratic quarter of Charterhall, a few blocks east, among the city hall, the courthouse and a handful of buildings that keep the city’s records. It is headquarters for the Bluecoats of the whole city, for the Charterhall station, and for the inspectors, the less bribable officers such as Edrin Holt. A central carriage yard holds the prison wagons. The building holds only a few cells; it is mainly the seat of the Bluecoat bureaucracy, and officers come and go at every hour.
- Second sub-basement. Unlit and damp, it smells of rot. A small block of four cells is closed off by a barred iron gate, where Samantha Oliver has been held for nearly ten months. The rest of the level is a dumping ground left untouched for decades: crates of uniforms twenty years out of date, moulding files, and furniture under canvas. At least one wall stands where an opening into the old catacombs once was. Session 17
- First sub-basement. A lit, lightly used corridor runs behind an iron door marked Authorised Personnel Only. A filing room keeps a steady stream of clerks going back and forth. The long-term evidence lock-up is manned around the clock: a small clerk’s room with a desk and a file cabinet, the gate key hanging on the wall behind the desk, and beyond the barred gate a long room of labelled shelves. Session 17
- Upper floors. The main floor is busy even at three in the morning. Open stairs rise through a central atrium. The third floor holds officers’ offices and small bullpens where the inspectors work, including Holt’s desk. Session 17
- Entered from below by the Old Town Echoes on 3 March, 848 IE, through the catacombs, to recover “The Aria” from shelf 37A of the evidence lock-up. Freakshow and Watcher went up to the third floor in Bluecoat uniforms. Session 17