“When word gets out about this ambush, my boys will march north whether I tell them to or not. If I don’t organize them, they’ll be slaughtered.”

“One day, then.”

“Why?”

“So I can find your guns.”

This she liked quite a bit. She pulled back her shoulders and puffed out her great chest, and I feared she was going to sweep me into another hug.

“You’re that desperate to hear what I remember of your father’s ravings?”

“I just don’t want any more children to die. Twenty-four hours.”

“Clubber Carr could do it in twelve.”

“You may not have heard, but Clubber Carr is dead. Twenty-four.”

“Oh, all right. I’ll rally the troops, and you go sleuthing. Bring me word by midnight tomorrow, or don’t come at all.”

She offered a handshake. I turned away, and kissed Cherub on the forehead, and left before he could tell me I was being a fool. On the uptown platform, Thorne showed me to a door that led to the surface. He rubbed his head where I’d clubbed him and tried not to wince at the pain.

“If you’re smart,” he said, “you’ll stay home tomorrow.”

“Thankfully, no one’s ever accused me of being smart.”

The door slammed shut behind me. I took the steps to the surface two at a time, exited through a grate, and took a deep breath of humid, sticky, unadulterated Westside air. Pink streaked the sky, and bleary drunks spilled out of Merrill’s. I was exhausted, from the soles of my feet to the marrow in my bones, but I did not expect I’d be able to sleep.

Nine

I closed my front door, and a hunk of black metal crashed into the wall beside my head. In the kitchen crouched Hellida, panting like she had just won a gold medal. I picked up her missile—her treasured crepe pan, cast iron solid enough to take my head off if she’d had a less accurate arm.

“Where have you been?” she shouted.

“A penthouse, a speakeasy, the tunnels of the IRT.”

She lowered her voice to a growl.

“All night I waited for you, in the window by my door, staring out into the dark. I saw your death a thousand times. A cut throat. Slit wrists. Your body burned to a crisp or eaten by the night. I have done this enough in my life. I will not do it for you.”

“I didn’t ask you to wait up.”