The Shelf
The Shelf is the middle district of Calder, between the flooded Sump below and the towers of the Lift above. It is where Calder does its paperwork: offices, trams, and the headquarters of CivicGuard, the city's police.
The Shelf keeps its feet dry and its collar up. The streets are wet but not flooded, the buildings are concrete and the light is the colour of a filing cabinet.
Trams run on viaducts and along the streets below them, carrying clerks up from the Sump in the morning and back down at night. Most of the people on them have never been to the Lift and do not expect to.
CivicGuard
CivicGuard is the police of Calder, and the Shelf is its home ground. Rook served here for years as a sergeant before he quit. Anselm Croy, his old chief, still works here, and signs everything in fountain pen. Una Katich is one of the officers; people say she is the last straight copper in the district. People say a lot of things on the Shelf.
In the story
The Shelf is where files are opened, and where, in Gate Six, one is closed from above.
More from Calder
The Sump
Flooded streets, walkways, noodle bars, iron stairs. Rain that never stops.
The Lift
Towers, Morrow-Kade, money. Dry shoes.
Appears in Gate Six, Book One of The Shear. Back to the world of Calder.