“We’ve never been specifically forbidden,” said Kira. “If somebody sees us, we play the ‘new folks in town’ card and thank them for keeping us out of a dangerous building, then we regroup and go back at night. But if there’s even a chance we can get in now, I want to at least try.”

“Okay,” said Samm. “You armed?”

“Semiautomatic in the back of my waistband.”

“Ankle holster,” said Samm. “Here’s hoping we won’t need them.” They sat in silence, watching the game; Phan got on the line of scrimmage, ready to run, not pausing as he had so often to call Kira and Samm into the game. The rest of the players lined up as well, the quarterback called hike, and Kira and Samm slipped away. They were around the corner before the play had even finished.

“This way,” said Kira, and led Samm along the building toward the center of the complex. The spire reared up behind the building, so tall it was visible from almost anywhere in the Preserve. People said hello to them here and there, but nobody Kira recognized from her brief tour with Phan. She waved back, hoping no one would stop them for conversation, and no one did. Two buildings later they were at the edge of the large central clearing. Beyond them was the low wall, a mishmash of broken tables and filing cabinets and here and there a boulder or a fallen tree, and beyond that was the massive, blackened shape of the ParaGen spire. The outer wall was a lot like so many other skyscrapers Kira had seen—once covered with windows, now a checkerboard skeleton of shattered glass and dangling wreckage—but unlike those other buildings, this one had been directly attacked and then pounded with years of corrosive rain, and portions of it were blackened or twisted or pocked with grotesque holes. It was also shaped oddly, tapering into weird juts and angles that might once have looked modern and beautiful, but now only added to its strange, brooding menace. Kira could almost imagine she saw lights inside, and imagined for a fleeting moment that they were the ghosts of old office workers, still toiling endlessly in their forgotten tomb. She chided herself for being silly, and thought of more plausible explanations. Was the power that still ran the complex still running in the spire as well? What was left in there to be powered? The clearing looked blocked and overgrown, as if no one had entered the building in years.

“Heron was here,” said Samm.

“Was or still is?”

“The data’s too faint to tell,” said Samm.

“Now we know Vale’s hiding something,” said Kira. She looked around. “If we can make it over the wall, we’ll be completely hidden in the underbrush beyond,” said Kira. “We can probably get in without being seen.”

“It would be better to wait for night.”