“Not anymore. Though he does ‘own’ Section H, keeps it as a satellite office. The rest is under the jurisdiction of the council.”

“Doesn’t he lead the council?”

She cast him a sidelong glance. “He tries.”

Skyler considered that. “Why’d he give up control in the first place?”

“Ask him yourself,” she said. “We’re here.”

A large pair of double doors opened to reveal the famous face of Neil Platz.

An image, ten years old, burst into Skyler’s mind. Posters and billboards, plastered all over Darwin, kindly reminding the citizens that Neil toiled away, up above their heads, growing crops and manufacturing the things they needed to survive.

It wasn’t long before his iconic face became vilified. Food shortages, faulty product, and numerous other miscues made him public enemy number one on the ground.

“Mr. Luiken, a pleasure.” He extended a hand.

“Mr. Platz, uh … sir.”

“‘Your excellence’ is preferred.”

Skyler faltered in his handshake. “Your ex—”

“A joke, young man. Everyone calls me Neil.”

His legendary charisma exceeded Skyler’s expectations. “Neil, then. Call me Skyler.”

“Dutch?”

“Yes. From Utrecht.”

Neil smiled broadly. “The Flying Dutchman, eh?”

“That never gets old.”

The elder man laughed. “Join me for a drink,” he said. He turned and began to walk, expecting Skyler to follow.

“It’s your show,” Skyler said.

They left the entryway and entered the main portion of the orbiting office complex. The ceiling soared much higher here compared to other portions of the station. A shocking waste of precious living space, Skyler thought. Golden light bathed it, casting a strange yellow pall. Much different than the blue LEDs everywhere else.

Platz followed Skyler’s gaze to the display above them. “Natural sunlight, reflected in. One of my favorite things. Come,” he said.

They passed through another door into a lounge area. Two steps led down to the sunken center of the room, where a pair of couches faced each other.

Skyler felt his stomach lurch at the sight of the far wall, or lack thereof. Earth dominated the view, slowly spiraling below them due to the rotation of the space station.

“If the view gives you vertigo, I can close the blinds,” Neil said.

Skyler shook his head. “I was surprised to see guards carrying firearms. How thick is the glass?”

Neil puffed with pride. “It’s no ordinary glass. A borosilicate variant. Manufactured here in orbit, in my zero-g factories. It would take a tank shell to rupture it.”

“And the walls?”

“Multilayer Kevlar and ceramic fabric, woven with our proprietary technique.”

“Proprietary?” Skyler said. “You have no competition.”

“Not at the moment, no.”

Skyler bit back the desire to argue with the man. It had never occurred to him that Platz would still be thinking like a businessman, given the state of humanity. “Amazing,” he managed to say.

“A luxury, of course. It’s a hell of a thing keeping the temperature in check.” He pointed to special vents along the edge of the ceiling.

Skyler raised a hand and felt warm air blowing. It had the sterile smell of a hospital room.

“Have a seat,” Neil said. He placed himself on one of the two couches. Skyler took the other.

“Sorry for the business with your ship.”

Skyler spread his hands. “You could’ve just invited me.”

“Not really, I’m afraid,” Neil said. “Things are … complex, right now.”

“No kidding,” Skyler said. “Look, before we go any further, have you arranged for Ms. Sharma’s release?”

“Tania? Release from what?”

Skyler leaned far back into the plush fabric of the couch. “She’s okay then.”

Neil perched himself on the edge of his seat, confusion filling his face. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“We were detained,” Skyler said, “at Nightcliff. After the mission. You didn’t know?”

Platz shook his head.

“They said …” Skyler had to start over. “Blackfield, that son of a bitch, said that they were going to keep her for questioning. I thought she was still there.”

Platz took a deep breath. He stood and went to the window. Silhouetted against the spinning planet, he said, “Tania has told me nothing of this.” His tone was grave. “I hope she …” His voice trailed off.

Skyler kept quiet, watching the famous man as he stood and stared at the blue orb of Earth. For his own part, he felt as if an enormous weight had been removed from his shoulders. Tania had returned, unharmed.

“All she told me was that the mission was successful,” Platz said. “She was unusually terse, in hindsight.”

“I thought maybe you brought me here to try to plan a rescue,” Skyler said.

Platz turned from the window and moved to a cupboard on the wall opposite Skyler. He opened a panel and began to prepare two drinks. “No,” he said, “thank God that won’t be necessary.” He returned to his seat on the couch and set the glasses on the low wooden table between them. “I owe you a great deal of thanks for bringing her back safely. She’s the key to … well, she’s critical to my operation.”

Skyler took a sip of his drink and let the liquid warm his mouth. He took his time swallowing. “I take it this new mission to find your fancy water filters is a ruse?”

Neil placed his fingertips on the table. “Something more urgent has come up. I needed to discuss it with you in person.”

“I work through Prumble.”

“There’s no time.”

Skyler decided the moral stand could wait. He’d cut Prumble in no matter what Platz said. “Go on.”

Neil’s face turned grave. “You’re aware of the sporadic power failures on the cord?”

Skyler nodded. “One happened on our way up. Good thing the climbers are designed to grip when power is cut; otherwise it’s a short trip back to the bottom.”

“Indeed,” Neil said. He stood with a sigh and crossed to stand at the window. For a moment he said nothing, as if caught up in the view of Earth. “You may have also heard rumors of SUBS appearing within the Aura.”

A pit opened in Skyler’s gut. He remembered the girl, lying dead on the ground outside the airport, her father claiming a new infection. “I’d hoped they were nothing more than rumors.”

Neil half-turned, considering the response, before returning to the view. Whatever the man wanted, Skyler realized he couldn’t make eye contact.

“We noticed something,” Skyler offered, “in Hawaii. The subs were acting different. Grouped in a big clan, working together. Other crews have reported the same thing. Newsubs, the scavengers are calling them.”

“That’s … interesting,” Neil said. “Related, maybe. Bottom line is that something is wrong with the Aura.”

The pit in Skyler’s gut grew deeper. His mouth went dry.

Neil continued. “We had a subhuman get loose aboard one of the farm platforms.”

“In orbit?” Skyler asked. “That isn’t possible.”

“So we all thought. The Aura is … malfunctioning, it seems. Or being tampered with.”

Skyler stared at the back of the legendary man. The blue and white marble of Earth spun gently, far below. Always so peaceful in appearance, no matter what ailed it.

“You’re going to fix it, Skyler.”

Skyler coughed. “What the hell can I do about it?”

“More than you think,” Neil said. He finally returned to his seat, then took a peanut from a bowl on the table and popped it into his mouth. “Contrary to public knowledge, the Elevator itself does not generate the Aura. It’s more like a broadcast antenna.”

Skyler went still. He sensed that very few people knew what he was now being told.

“The Aura is actually created by a … machine … deep below the surface, below the end of the cord itself.”

“I had no idea.”

“It’s a guarded secret,” Neil said with a wave of his hand. “We explored down there, back when the Elevator arrived. A shaft was dug to ease access. Poked around for a while but eventually decided the object was another anchor, like the shell ship. Deadweight.”

“What changed your mind?”

“SUBS broke out,” Neil said. “Didn’t take long to realize the Elevator offered safe haven. We sent a team back to the bottom, to see if the Aura extended the entire way, and they found the object was no longer inert. In fact it was generating quite a lot of heat.”

“Switched on,” Skyler said to himself. “Maybe it’s switching off, now.”

“Quite right.”

Skyler ran a hand through his hair, buying time to think. “Why aren’t you still studying it? Send a team back there.”

“That’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

Neil held a hand out, motioning Skyler to be patient. “A decision was made, five years ago, to seal the place off. As control of Nightcliff, and thus our access to the place, shifted to authorities on the ground, it became clear to me that it would be better if nobody was going down there and doing any tinkering with it.”

“They might break it,” Skyler said, nodding. “Cause a malfunction.”

Neil’s eyebrows slowly rose. He looked at Skyler as if he’d never seen him before. As if the comment marked a revelation. The expression faded. “Which brings us to our present situation.”

“Doesn’t answer my question, though. Why us?”

“If this is being caused by some malcontents trying to break the thing, I don’t need scientists down there, I need people who can stop them.”

“I see where this is going,” Skyler said.

Neil shook his head. “There’s more. It could truly be a malfunction. The Aura generator is, itself, outside the Aura, which makes it complicated for most of us to visit. Your crew, on the other hand …”

“What do you expect us to do, exactly?”

“For now, go down there and have a look around. It’s information we need. Look for … anything. Signs of decay or failure. Malfeasance.”

“We’re not scientists,” Skyler said.

“What you are is immune. And you understand the business end of a gun. You can go in quietly and stay awhile. You can take care of saboteurs, if needed. You can look around, if not. Any team I send will be detained by Blackfield.”

Skyler glanced out the window at the planet below. “Is all this related to the data cubes we went out to retrieve?”

“No,” Neil said.

Skyler figured he had little to lose by challenging the man. Worst case, he’d get thrown out and sent back to Earth, where he could return to a regular routine. Business as usual. He decided to push. “You’re lying.”

Neil Platz stared at Skyler for a long moment.

I’m lying, too, Skyler thought. Business could never go back to “usual,” now.

The man eased back into the cushions of his couch and folded one leg up over the other. He spread his arms out along the back of the seat. “The truth is, we’re not sure yet.”

“What was on those data cubes?”

He looked down at the fabric of the couch, running his hand over it. “I’m not at liberty to discuss—”

“Look, if you want my help, I need to know what the hell is going on. I already lost one of my crew over this, and whatever payment you plan to offer now won’t cover that.”

Neil slowly closed, then opened, his eyes. “I’m very sorry. I had no idea.”

“He knew the risks, but his sacrifice still holds.”

Platz stood again and walked to the window, his steps heavy this time, and slow. “What would you say to living up here?”

The words hung in the air. Most people in Darwin dreamt of being lifted from the squalor to a life in orbit, yet few ever were. The first problem was simply one of living space; there was no room, unless someone else got kicked out, or died. Even then, the children of existing Orbitals took precedence.

The second reason had to do with the quality of the person. Most of Darwin’s population could dream of ascending all they wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that they had nothing to offer. No applicable education, no skill set to bring along. With so little space, the last thing needed in orbit was deadweight.

“I’m hardly the right stock,” Skyler said.

Platz spread his hands wide. “On the contrary. I need people like you. Leaders. Fighters.”

“I’m not much of a leader. But fighters, what for?”

Neil ran a hand over his mouth, as if trying to take the words back. “What fighters do.”

Skyler shook his head. “Isn’t that Alex Warthen’s job?”

“Loyal fighters, Mr. Luiken.”

Skyler turned to the giant window made from exotic materials. “You’re really going to wage a war? In this place?”

“War …” Neil paused. “I just need to protect my interests. Present and future.”

“What about my crew?”

“Of course, they could come, too.” He downed the contents of his glass. “But first …”