The line moved forward, and they boarded a glass pod meant to hold four. “Sorry, my friend,” Dex said as a man with icicle hair tried to climb in with them. He lifted the backpack with Havoc yowling inside. “Not friendly. Pisses quite a lot, too.”

The man’s eyes widened in horror.

Andi kicked Dex’s heel and stepped past him, giving the man a sweet, vacant smile. “We wish to...sing our praises to the queen in private, while we ride.”

“Of course,” the man said, bowing out of the way, careful to avoid Dex and his backpack.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Andi murmured to Dex.

“I can’t have some fun?”

Andi sighed as the door slid shut behind them, and with a quick voice command, they were off to the Briog Sector.

A small holoscreen sat inside the pod, playing ads that were similar to many Dex had seen in his lifetime, for beauty products and restaurants and the latest transport ships. But as they watched, the city flying by them on all sides, a familiar voice suddenly spoke from the screen.

Dex saw Andi’s body go rigid beside him as Nor Solis’s face appeared. Music played in the background, a sickeningly sweet instrumental tune.

“People of Mirabel. A new future awaits us all,” Nor said triumphantly. She was clad in a glorious bloodred gown, a golden crown balanced on her dark curls as a camera panned slowly from left to right, showing every side of her. “We must root out all who seek to defy me, all the Unaffecteds who cannot be convinced to see the light. We must shed our brightness across the galaxy, before the dawn of a new day approaches. Let no man, woman or child be left in the dark. Discover them. Turn them in to the authorities, who can guide them to new light. For I am the One True Queen, and I have come to bring a new dawn to Mirabel—a future that will unite us all.”

“Turn it off,” Andi growled.

Dex looked out the pod windows. All across the city, people had stopped moving, watching the buildings above as holograms echoed what they saw now in their pod.

Nor’s face, magnified and on display for all to see and praise.

A cry went out across the city as the image of the queen disappeared—a roar that seemed to make the pod tremble on its track. It silenced just as quickly as it had begun.

“I hate this city,” Andi said. Her words came out like a curse. “I hate every part of it.”

“We need to get to the Underground first,” Dex said matter-of-factly. “Then you can set this place on fire.”