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looked past the floor, hoping it would help with her sudden vertigo. Afoniki’s block had been shifted over the old Metairie cemetery, she realized, after studying it for several moments. It had been some kind of racetrack prior to becoming a city of the dead. From this angle, the track made an elegant curve through the dead space. Pieces of old freeway poked up out of the green spaces here and there, and she could see the skeletons of old buildings, heavily coated with moss, though all of it showed signs of fresh scarring from WTF. From this place, she could better see the standing water glinting where it had not glinted before WTF. From a distance, it was pretty. Until she remembered what it was like down in the goo.
    The low hanging clouds shifted, giving her a glimpse of what might have been the old airport. Had its floating version shifted, too? She hadn’t been over that direction to see. It shouldn’t matter. Logically one knew that floating locations floated. Moved. But…New Orleans had always been this thing and now it wasn’t. It had been shuffled like a deck of cards, and no one knew if it could be put right, even if her mental metaphor was so wrong it was embarrassing. Two wrongs still didn’t make it right, as her Great Grand Paw Paw liked to say.
    She spotted a lean, elegant figure gazing, well, she wasn’t sure if he was looking at the fake or the real reality, over by one of the windows. He did look a bit posed, which made her lips twitch. Vi couldn’t deny that the sight of him made her pulse twitch a little. Snakes could be pretty, as long as one didn’t forget that they could also be lethal. She could never decide if Afoniki flirted with her because she was a girl and it bugged her many relatives or—well, the why didn’t matter. They were as opposite as—north and south poles weren’t opposite enough, even for someone really bad with metaphors. More like the equator and whichever pole was the coldest. Was that a metaphor? She wasn’t sure. She was sure she had a headache that was getting worse.
    Vi knew she was trying to keep her thoughts light so she wouldn’t panic. Were they walking into some crazy nanite battle? Would it all be fought out of sight? Was it dangerous to them? Could it be contained or would there be collateral damage? She should have asked more questions. She knew that now. Maybe. She might not like the answers. She’d known that at some level, so had been afraid to ask. It had seemed straightforward heading over here, but now it felt a bit like falling into a maze. One as murky and dangerous as what they’d faced on the surface. Only without the wind, rain and green ooze. So better, without actually being better.
    Afoniki turned to face them, as if he’d just become aware of their presence, which she knew he hadn’t. They’d never have been admitted without his permission.
    â€œDetective Violet Baker.” A dramatic pause. “This is an unexpected…pleasure.”
    The hint of surprise was as fake as his smile. Did the dude ever have a normal human reaction? Of course, them coming here was unexpected. They usually “met” at HQ in an interview room. Which brought her circling back to wrong and would-things-ever-be-right-again?
    Afoniki’s gaze flicked Joe’s direction and real interest gleamed in the dark depths. It was true that Captain Uncle hadn’t let Joe play good cop in interrogation yet, which was a pity because he really was a good good cop. He was also a bit distracting, which would have been helpful. Funny how hard it was for Orleanians to get used to purple skin when they had no problem with purple everything else.
    â€œA partner who matches your eyes. How charming,” Afoniki murmured. “He must be a huge hit at Mardi Gras.”
    This annoyed her, even though it had been her first thought at their initial meeting.
    He moved toward them, but didn’t make