“Do you really have to step on it?” Ahmad groaned. His tummy hadn’t quite recovered from their last mission. But Winnie gleefully stomped on the gas.

In spite of her questionable driving, it did feel freeing to be out in the open sky. The oppressive nostalgia fell away from Ahmad’s shoulders as he stared down on the city, watching the sun glint off the buildings—and, beneath their imposed frames, the familiar glass panes of New York City skyscrapers and monuments.

“Home is there,” he whispered. “Waiting for us.”

Winnie nodded, her face grim. “It is. And it knows we are here, fighting for it, so we can’t give up, not now.”

Ahmad turned to her, able to ask the question that had been weighing on him since the previous night. “You still feel it? That something is really wrong?”

“Of course I do! It’s too quiet. Madame Nasirah is so twitchy, too. It makes me nervous.”

“It might not be her fault,” Ahmad pointed out. “She doesn’t seem to have much control in this world.”

Winnie sighed, and the rickshaw picked up even more speed. “Maybe. I don’t know. This world has me on edge. I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel like you can trust anyone here.”

“You can trust me,” Ahmad said firmly. “And I can trust you. We have each other and that’s what we need. We promised, remember?”

“Right.”

For a moment, they smiled at each other. From behind them, there came a piercing wail.

“Oh no!” Ahmad moaned.

“Are you kidding me?” Winnie exclaimed.

Because there, in their rearview mirror, was a car that—in spite of its ability to hover and flashy side emblem—could only be one thing, and the voice that bellowed in the moment afterward confirmed their suspicions.

“THIS IS THE SAND POLICE FORCE OF PAHELI. YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO TURN YOUR VEHICLE TO CRUISE AND FIND A SAFE PLACE TO LAND TO BE QUESTIONED BY THE OFFICERS FOR ILLEGAL VEHICLE USE.”

Ahmad leaned his head out the window. “We’re players! We’re supposed to be here!”

The shadowy figures in the police car did not move. After a moment’s pause, the voice repeated, “THIS IS THE SAND POLICE FORCE OF PAHELI—”

“Forget it.” Winnie jammed her heel on the gas pedal and the car lurched forward. “This is another Architect trick, I know it. Maybe this is about that jewel we just got. We need to get out of here.”

The police car buzzed behind them. Ahmad anxiously leaned out the window. “We’re players!” he called toward the car, cupping his hands around his mouth. “We’re supposed to be out here!”

“Give it a rest, Ahmad!” Winnie hollered behind him. “They don’t seem to care!”

What happened next had him quickly tugging his head back into the car. Two great cannons sprouted from within the police’s car hood and deliberately aimed at his window.