The story begins with The Director. Elsewhere, Julin lay in cramped darkness. He focused on breathing. The air in the crate had grown warm, stuffy and stale, but he didn’t want to think about that. Just

The story begins with The Director. The next day, Romik sat in the sky car, watching the city pass by beneath them. They’d been flying for hours now since dropping Julin, Sari, and Vhen off at the freight

The story begins with The Director. As Sari looked up at Altolcz, an intense revulsion welled up in her. Something about the man set off alarm bells in her head. She pushed the feeling down, but she could

The story begins with The Director. Despite being married to a military man for nearly ten years, Sari realized now she had not spent much time with the men of his command. They prepared for the night’s

Council of War The story begins with The Director. One moment, Sari had been in the confused, muddled misery of a fever dream: horrid people were chasing her, and the walls were all wrong, and she couldn’t

The story begins with The Director. The sun was beginning to set on Siben as the sky car passed through rush hour traffic on the way back to Dorgio’s. The number of cars in the sky this time of day always

The story begins with The Director. When Vhen Rani arrived, Julin almost didn’t recognize him. He didn’t have his gray cloak, but instead wore workman’s overalls and a skullcap over his black curls. His

The story begins with The Director. Meanwhile, Julin was just getting off the line with owlish Vhen. He’d gone back to catch the slideway again, figuring those were the safest public terminals to use,

The story begins with The Director. Kolteo felt relieved to see Marrem’s face. He had come to rely on this man for much. “Marrem! It’s good to see you. This isn’t a secure line, so I’ll let you do most

The story begins with The Director. “I’m really beginning to hate these tunnels.” Julin ducked another pipe. The section they were walking was older and had a lower ceiling, just high enough for Kolteo

The story begins with The Director. One step after another, one foot in front of its brother. The singsong rhyme bounced around Kolteo’s head as the party plodded along. Dim tunnel gave way to dim tunnel.

The story begins with The Director. As they barreled down the edge of the river, a thin cry prompted Kolteo to look over the edge. Sari! “Shields up! Shelter us!” he ordered, then dove to the ground at

The story begins with The Director. “Alright, open ‘er up!” called Romik from the head of the line. The two squads were braced against the bulkheads on either side of the downed sky car. Kolteo and Sari

The story begins with The Director. Kolteo had done many things in his life. Crashing in a sky car was not a new experience. He had done it once before on the day his parents had been murdered. As he braced

The story begins with The Director. Romik and Major Mus burst into Director Ais’s office. The Director looked up from his data pad, clearly annoyed. “Marrem, I told you...” he started to say. Then he saw

The story begins with The Director. Dev Iani had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a round face, but nobody would dare say he was fat. He was young and handsome, and he counted on it. It was still early in the

The story begins with The Director. Back in his office, the Director had appeared reluctant to visit his prisoners. Instead, he had called a council of war with Romik, Major Mus, and himself. Usually,

The story begins with The Director. Romik met Director Ais on the flat roof of Central Command, an enormous building looming up above the rest of the skyline like a great black cliff. He had received a

The story begins with The Director. Sari sized up the situation. The two Enforcers weren’t controlling access to the diner, just keeping watch. A couple left the diner, their talk hushed by the sight of

The story begins with The Director. As the two women walked to the sky-car perch, Sari’s mind raced. Everything moved too quickly, and she had to pace herself not to walk ahead of Ciah. She needed a plan