Carmody launched from the outcrop on the east side of the ravine, soaring as if on an updraft. The sky was gray and cloudy. Below him the inlet curved northward like a slowly uncoiling serpent. He saw the rough grain and contours of the ravine’s sheer limestone walls, their surfaces cracked and pitted by ages of erosion and geological upheaval. He saw the folds and wrinkles of the rock faces, saw subtle gradations of color in the veins of iron ore lacing through them. He saw clusters of bare, stunted oak trees clinging to the slopes, and leaning firs with gray, resin-blistered bark. As the steppes marched to the west and inland there would be miles of towering pine woods. But not here.

He was above the inlet now, looking down, casting only a brief glance at the pixelated smudge of its western shore. The water’s surface was as dark and smooth as glass in the overcast. On either side of the inlet’s southern entrance were the two stone watchtowers. High up the mountain slope to the north were plain concrete structures that looked like industrial buildings. Outside them, piles of gravel, tractor-like vehicles and a spur of the rail line. The ravine became a narrow cleft there, the channel water running fast and rough, foaming white over its rocky bed. He could see that it was without bottomland, no banks or roads or bridges.

Carmody glided north for a closer look at the rail line spooling around the mountain’s shoulder from the west. But as he dropped low, he hit another patch of unnatural distortion, like an aircraft flying into heavy fog. The air around him warped and became nearly opaque.

“Damn it,” he said. “Enough.”

The HIVE’s immersive environment vanished. He was sitting next to Kali at her dining room table. He lifted off his headset and turned to her.

“The scenery’s better,” he said. “I don’t feel so much like puking. But does it help us?”

She looked at him. “No.”

“And it won’t.”

“No,” she said. “I can continue to refine and sharpen the virtual environment. Pull current satellite transmissions from the distortion field’s periphery. Interpolate imagery from older classified archives.”

“But without real-time satellite recon, it’s just a glorified video game.”

She said nothing.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

Kali said nothing, her eyes on his face.

Carmody frowned. “OK, I’ll say the words,” he said. “We’re done in the States. We have to make ourselves scarce and finish what we started. Off the grid. You satisfied?”

Kali nodded.

“Yes,” she said.

New York

“About time you showed up. They move Teaneck to the moon?” Ki said, sitting in front of his computers. He cranked his head around toward the office door as Musil stepped through. “We need to talk about Stephen Gelfland.”