“No, no, that’s all wrapped up,” Pip said gruffly. “Here.” Ze handed Fift the Ticket. “Compliments of Politigus. Some kind of show. I have no time for this nonsense, but we can’t let them go unused.” Fift stared at the thing in confusion. Pip lay a hand on zir shoulder. “Banker-historians must do a great many things, Fift, to cultivate relationships with their clients. If that means walking the byways with a Ticket, looking to be ambushed by a band of pretentious Clowns, so be it. You’ll want to contact Pom’s apprentice . . . what was vir name, Shria Kwonk Fnax? Ve’s going too. The show isn’t anywhere in particular, but take a body and wander around the below and beyond for a few hours, and you might see something or other . . .”

Chapter 5

5

They’d never been this deep before. They’d never been this far from home, either, unless you counted field trips to the surface, but that was out—boring trees and cold dirt and badly cooked bunnies—and this was in.

They could pick out both Foo and Stiffwaddle in the middle distance above their heads, two colorful landmarks amid the several hundred thousand habitations visible from the platform where they stood: Foo grinding in its slow rotation with ponderous solidity, Stiffwaddle dangling and glimmering in gracile wispiness. Far above, the roof of Fullbelly was mottled like a forest floor at noon, with light from the glowtubes far below filtering through the jumbled array of habitations.

“What do you think?” Fift said.

Shria squinted over the edge. “Let’s take the fast sluice over there.” Ve pointed at a pair of travelers zipping down the twisting ribbon of the sluice, impact-dampening foam sloshing around them. “It’s the quickest way to that pavilion.”

Fift chewed zir lip. “Hardly anyone in the polylogue thinks the sighting at the pavilion was real.”

Worldwide, about three million people had Tickets to the Cirque Fantabulous’s latest Show; in Fullbelly, the number of Ticket Holders was two hundred thousand, roughly one per million inhabitants. A few tens of thousands of them could be found on the “Ticket Holders In Search Of the Show!” polylogue.

“I don’t think any of the sightings are real,” Shria said. “I don’t think it’s started yet.”

“Do you think there even is a show?” Fift asked. “Or is it like . . . a meta thing? Where looking for the show is the show?”

Shria shrugged. “Maybe. But I doubt it. I think it’s going to be real.” Ve looked off into the distant habitation-sprawl and vir eyes grew hungry. “I think it’s going to be big.”