“Sure—that’s what everyone would do. And that’s basically what people who do what I do are using: a sophisticated version of your terminal’s maps function. But what if you didn’t have that? What if your terminal was dead and you had to find your way in a strange place, and you didn’t speak the language, so you couldn’t ask anyone for directions?”

Aynur was motionless for a while. Outside in the darkened city dogs were calling to one another.

“I think I would look for a major road,” Aynur said. “One that led toward the center of the city. And for buildings getting bigger. Plus … I might watch the way people were heading—where more of them were going. Because that would probably be toward the center. I would keep doing that: looking at the buildings, the kinds of shops and things in them, watching the people and the cars. Most cities are similar. You can tell when you are in the outskirts, because they are a bit more run-down, and that’s where there are things like warehouses, old factories, lots of old train tracks, and things like that. Toward the center you would see things steadily getting better taken care of. You would start to see shops and more activity, that sort of thing. Plus, I guess I would be building a map in my head of where I had been. I’d be looking at landmarks. And I’d be looking farther on the horizon for the size of the buildings, too—much farther down the street, if I could. There’s usually a cluster of bigger buildings in the center, and there are usually places you can see that from … certain intersections that have a better view of the place.”

No, that’s not what is at the center.

“That’s exactly it,” Rustem said. “You take that set of strategies, and you multiply the complexity, and you have what I learned to do.”

“So—where are you now on this project of yours? This thing you’re trying to crack?”

“I guess I’m past the outskirts—the old brick warehouses and the train tracks. But the intersections are confusing, and there are people headed all over the place. Even so, I think I’m making progress. I see the general direction, but I can’t get there by following any single road. At every intersection, I have to stop and reorient myself, make sure I haven’t gotten turned around. It’s like one of those old cities with no grid—like Astrakhan itself, but more complicated—one of those cities where the streets curve too much for three right turns to equal a left.”

Rustem heard the slight whir, and his eyes followed the sound in time to see the thing land on the wall, not more than ten centimeters from Aynur’s naked shoulder. You could have mistaken it for an insect, an oversized horsefly.