One of the living-room walls was a single piece of floor-to-ceiling glass darkened by a smoky tint. Mistletoe pressed her palms against the glass, and the tint dissolved to reveal a dizzyingly panoramic view of Eastern Seaboard City. The apartment looked down on a few neighboring buildings—one of them had a roof made of yellow sand speckled with red and white tents—and the grid of empty streets far below. In the distance, the green square of the ESCU campus interrupted the steady progression of atmoscrapers. Poking up beyond the campus, the curved apex of Shimmerdome Nine sparkled in the afternoon sun. She had never seen the city from such a height, and it took her a moment to realize what was wrong: the streets were almost completely empty. She had spent her entire life staring up through the canopy at the ESC traffic flow and had been certain of one thing: it never ended. But now—or here—there were only a few stray cars dotting the streets below. Where were the overlapping patterns of elevated traffic? She ought to be getting a sense of movement and geometry, of lines feeding lines and splitting off into more lines. But ESC was a ghost town. It was impossible.

She had a queasy thought. “I need a mirror.”

The room complied, and the doorway to the kitchen became an opaque sheet of glass. Mistletoe looked exactly like eager, preppy Anna, her topside twin. Her pigtail was gone. She was wearing that awful businesswoman outfit.

“Who am I?”

“Anna 53. UniCorp Associate. Department: classified.”

She had shimmered into her twin’s fleshbound body. It was true: they shared DNA. She pinched the skin of her forearm, touched her stomach beneath her blouse. It felt like her own.

“What happened to all the cars?”

“Fleshbound commuting in Eastern Seaboard City is illegal without a permit. Ninety-eight percent of human interfacing is accomplished via Unison.”

“No. There are millions of cars. I’ve seen them. I’ve been in a cab.”

“Fleshbound commuting in Eastern Seaboard City is illegal without a permit.”

“Right. Thanks.” She stepped away from the mirror.

“You seem to be disoriented. Would you like me to play some music designed to stimulate your brain functions?”