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floating city.
    “I like coming up here, just watching all of it,” the man continued. “Reminds me what we can do, when we’re inspired by the right things. A decade ago, if you’d told people that a world of children would build the things it has, they’d have said you were crazy. Yet here we are. The power of faith.”
    “Yeah,” Mira replied, eyes back on the drop in front of her. “It’s downright inspiring. How about pulling me back? You made your point.”
    “Have I?” The man finally turned to look at Mira. His eyes were cold and blue and completely, enviously clear of the Tone. “Armitage is my name. But Reiko tells me you already know that.”
    Mira craned her neck to look back at the Asian girl holding her over the void and staring at her dispassionately. So that was her name.
    “Purveryor of information, huh?” Mira asked.
    Reiko shrugged. “Told you not to trust me.”
    Mira saw Armitage nod out of the corner of her eye, and Reiko stepped back, letting the chair loose. The moment she did, Mira pushed back away from the edge and exhaled a sigh of relief.
    Reiko turned and left, disappearing through a door to the roof stairwell. Armitage stood and moved toward Mira. She was away from the edge, but she was still tied to the chair, still captive.
    “Listen,” Mira started. “I think our negotiation has gotten off on the wrong foot.”
    “A negotiation?” Armitage asked with amusement. “Is that what this is?” He grabbed the back of her chair and spun it around. Strings of bright, colorful Christmas lights hung between poles on either side of the snowy roof. There was a large brass telescope at the opposite end and a table and chairs nearby. On the table, Mira saw something—and when she did, everything stopped.
    It was a stack of posters, a hundred of them. Images of a person—one from the side, one from the front— printed in red ink. They were drawings, but they were well done. Anyone who compared them to Mira would have no trouble seeing the resemblance.
    Wanted ALIVE: Mira Toombs, Freebooter
    —
    For Crimes Against MIDNIGHT CITY
    and the Gray Devils Faction
    At the bottom of the poster, the reward was stipulated in the usual way: a choice of a substantial amount of Points, or a list of trade items that added up to one hell of a price. Mira’s heart sank into her stomach. With a grimace, she looked up at Armitage.
    He studied her sympathetically. “ Negotiation’s always better when everyone’s cards are on the table. Don’t you think?”
    Mira didn’t say anything, because there wasn’t anything to say. This Armitage knew who she was. He had her, and they both knew it.
    Armitage nodded to the posters as he took a seat at the other end of the table. “Not sure how they got here so quick, but I wouldn’t put it past Midnight City to have Portals linking to Winterbay. Fortunately, they came to me first. Just like everything does.”
    Mira just stared back at him. “What do you want?”
    “The real question is, what do you want?” He studied her with a slow, detached look, then held up the patch Mira had been showing around the trade district. “Reiko gave me this, showed me what you’re looking for. A trade like this one, I don’t think I have to tell you, would require some hefty recompense.”
    “Such as?”
    Armitage leaned back and put his boots up casually on the table. “Tell me, Mira Toombs … what do you know about the Machine?”
    Mira’s eyes thinned. That’s what this was about? “Winterbay legend, isn’t it? A big room full of booby traps, protects something valuable, but no one knows what, because no one who goes in ever comes out.” Mira frowned as she heard her own words. They sounded silly, even for a place like this one. “Sounds more like an urban legend to me than anything.”
    “Oh, no,” Armitage replied. “The Machine is very, very real, I’m afraid. It was built years ago by the Quorum, right after the surface level of Winterbay. Giant