“I rented a blanket once,” Dex told her, sidestepping the little droid as its face-screen flashed him a discounted price. He was tempted to offer up Havoc in exchange for a few Krevs. Surely the Fellibrag would make a lovely blanket.

“How’d that go?” Andi asked, her lip curling in disgust as she nudged the droid away with her knee.

Dex shrugged. “It gave me fleas.”

She snorted, then said, “The Underground isn’t here. Let’s go.”

He laughed as she turned on her heel and exited the pub like it was on fire.

“Alfie,” Dex said to his wrist once they were back out in the street, hiding in the deep shadows cast by the towering buildings overhead. They could see the top of the dome from here, where night and the storm darkened the outside world. Dex thought of Klarisa and her comrades, their bodies now frozen and covered by the snow. He sighed deeply and looked back at his watch. “Where to next?”

“Dragon’s Breath,” Alfie’s voice said.

“That’s very rude, Alfie.”

“I do not compute.”

Andi rolled her eyes at him. “He doesn’t understand jokes. You know that.”

A group of people approached them, hefting a Solis banner over their heads as they cheered Nor’s name. Dex plastered on a smile and took Andi’s arm, and they both waved at the silver-veined citizens.

“It was worth a shot,” he murmured to her as they made their way to Dragon’s Breath.

Over the next couple of hours, their visits to the other pubs offered little to nothing, and Dex began to feel like their efforts to find the Underground were doomed to fail. They had hardly any information to go off of, and the longer they stayed out in the open, the more dangerous their situation became. At some point, he knew someone would see the truth written across their faces, behind their false smiles.

“That’s it,” Dex said wearily. “We’ve checked them all.”

Alfie spouted off the list of pubs again, and sure enough, they’d been to them all. Yet there was no sign of the Underground.

“We’re not going to find them, are we?” Andi said, stopping short before a narrow entrance to an abandoned stone storefront, its sign barely visible under the awning.

Iceman Antiquities.

Dex leaned against the frosted glass shop window, eyeing the pile of strange old antiques. Rusted old war helmets and ancient-looking weapons, broken bottles of Griss long since forgotten. The place had clearly gone out of business ages ago.

It struck him suddenly that he was standing with the General of Arcardius. Andi had no idea of the truth yet, but when she did, she’d have the resources of an entire planet available to her. How different their situation would be, if Andi had gained the title another way, instead of in desperate response to Nor’s attacks.