At the bottom of the ladder, my feet are submerged to the ankles in cold, dirty water, and I have to crouch inside yet another tunnel. This one is made of brick and is only wide enough for single file. It smells so bad down here that I feel like I’m suffocating, which is doing nothing for my growing sense of claustrophobia.

“This way,” Akimi whispers, and leads the way under the city.

We follow the flashlight’s beam for ten or so minutes until we reach a ladder against one side of the tunnel that leads up to another hole that has been made in the brick.

We climb up, exiting the darkness and the smell of the sewer, and enter what looks like an old tiled bathroom.

“What is this pl—” I start to say, but then a woman wearing a surgical mask sticks a needle in my arm. “What the hell?”

I watch as the woman stumbles drunkenly over to Kina and injects her too.

“What is this?” Kina asks.

And by the time she has stuck Wren with a third syringe, the world is fading out. Colors seem to drain away; everything blends to gray and then to nothing.

There are moments of consciousness. I hear a woman with a Region 100 accent speaking, slurring her words.

“For the love of … He heals so fast, how am I supposed to operate? Someone bring me another quarter patch.”

“No!” Pander’s voice now. “No more Ebb; you’re operating, for god’s sake.”

“Why am I taking orders from a child, someone remind me? Christ, these ancient tools, it’s barbaric! Where are my robots? My nanotech? And bring me a quarter patch, I work better high, get me a quarter patch.”

“You’re already high. Just keep working,” Pander mutters.

“Every day, Just keep working, Dr. Ortega! Do what I say, Dr. Ortega! I could walk away, you know! I could leave, I don’t need you.”

I try to open my eyes but I’m groggy and numb. The argument between Pander and the Region 100–sounding doctor begins to fade away until I can’t understand the words anymore, and then I sleep again.

I awake with a start.

My eyes snap open and I try to sit up, but I can’t.

I’m paralyzed. Trapped inside my tiny cell in the Block, unable to move, unable to scream, unable to cry.

The cruelty of Happy has never been in doubt, but that last trick was malicious. And for what reason? Before, Happy had at least tried to extract information from me, but now it’s just torturing me for no reason.

If I were able to, I would cry.