Her foot pumped on the gas pedal as Ahmad peeked out from beneath his lashes. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus on keeping his very delicious breakfast down. His stomach lurched. And Vijay Bhai hadn’t turned up yet. There was no note, no awkward bumbling through the door, and no sign. It didn’t make sense.

Winnie insisted that the Gamekeeper shouldn’t know that his uncle was even in the game, but Ahmad was no longer sure. Shouldn’t they tell the one adult in here who actually cared if they were alive or dead? Maybe she was too focused on them to notice that Vijay Bhai had entered the game with them.

Winnie took a hard left and Ahmad’s head jerked against the glass. He blinked the stars out of his eyes.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Winnie turned and looked at him ruefully. “Traffic.”

Sure enough, there was a long line of floating cars trailing off into the near distance. Ahmad groaned and sunk into his seat.

“Great. It figures.”

“Never mind,” Winnie said sunnily, her smile returning to her face. “We’ve already seen most of this main avenue by foot anyway. How about we try and find a shortcut instead?”

Ahmad sat up straight. “Wait, I don’t think you should—Winnie!”

She was already steering out of the line, ignoring a few horns being blown in her direction—and man, it was weird that the sound was comforting to Ahmad—before sidling in between two buildings and cruising down an unfamiliar street.

For once, the car maintained a good speed, and Ahmad craned his head, looking down with interest. This street wasn’t full of the familiar shops. He did see what looked to be a restaurant or two: not with fancy metal tables outside or sunlit balconies, but small lines of people waiting eagerly for packed bags and little containers.

“Fast food,” he whispered to himself. It warmed him. Paheli still had some good city roots to it after all.

But something else caught his eye.

“Wait, Winnie. What’s that?”

He pointed, and then regretted it, as the entire car slid to the side along with Winnie’s eyes.

“The wheel! Keep hold of the wheel!”

“Okay, okay! Sheesh.” Winnie peered over it owlishly. “It looks like some sort of alleyway. We can go through it if you want.”

Ahmad could only nod. He was sure he’d seen a flash of bright neon blue, like the sparks that flew when you tried to plug a charger into a slightly dented and twisted wall socket. There was something down there.

Something different.

Winnie took the car down lower, and Ahmad gasped.

“Look at that!”

“Oh man,” Winnie muttered. “What is it?”

She descended to street level, narrowing her eyes as the car hovered.