“We’re leaving,” Ify says, as though to say, We won’t hurt you and Don’t try to stop us at once.

But Ngozi doesn’t move.

Grace steps forward and reaches for the shockstick at her waist, but Ify holds her arm out to stop her.

Ngozi looks at the gun in her hand, as though just now noticing she’s holding it. Then something in her firms up and she tucks the gun in the back of her pants. “Wherever you’re going, you’re not leaving through the front door.” She tilts with her head to indicate a passageway. “Follow me.”

And they do. Through the maze of hallways so thick Ify thinks they’re lost until Ngozi brings them to what looks like solid wall. She feels along the stones, then pulls one out, and the entire wall rumbles open like the gates to a palace estate.

On the other side is a hangar.

Lights flicker on to illuminate a row of sleek armored personnel carriers and motorbikes lined up between them and, behind those, quadripedal ground mechs that, to Ify’s eye, can also transform into four-point maglev jeeps. But Ngozi leads them straight past the massive array of vehicles to another room where, on a helipad, a thin jetcraft sits. From its undercarriage jut protrusions that Ify knows are retractable legs. When she gets closer, she sees the grooves outlining the slides for its deployable guns. Somewhere in the aircraft’s entrails are arms that can hold any number of weapons. What was Xifeng planning to do with all of this?

Ngozi stops before the jetcraft.

Grace’s mouth hangs open.

Ify squints. “We can’t all fit in that.”

“That’s for you,” Ngozi says, then she waves her arm, activating a nearby overhead light that shines down on a broad-shouldered bipedal aerial mech with legs as thick as an Abuja alleyway and arms outfitted into Gatling guns. A laser cannon sits on its left shoulder. She nods at it. “This one’s mine.” She smirks, then focuses her gaze on Ify. “You always wanted to be a pilot, right?”

“How did you . . .” Before Ify can finish the question, Ngozi climbs into her mech and the ground overhead groans open, the helipad they’re on rising into newly empty space. Ify and Grace race into the cockpit of the jet. The console is a mystery of Chinese characters that glow golden before their faces as Grace sits herself in the copilot’s seat and searches everywhere for a helmet.