Slowly, I see the realization start to hit the Undercity. It ripples through the streets in a wave. Murmurs turn into exclamations, and then into shouts.

The system is down.

The Levels are gone!

And just like that, the ripple becomes a tidal wave. The system is down, the Levels are gone, the system is down, the Levels are gone.

After the scene in the Undercity, the Sky Floors seem eerily quiet. It’s midnight now, and even though we’re at least a hundred floors high, I can see the orange glow of fire coming from the Undercity far below. Smoke rises in plumes as the city brings in the military to try to contain the chaos.

Even the AIS headquarters itself is struggling to stay operational, running on limited backup power. Here in the main lobby, a large screen plays live footage from the Undercity as a newscaster talks rapidly over the scene. It’s weird to see video like this without our Level systems in place.

“Why would Hann just let you go?” Daniel asks me as I pace restlessly by the windows. “Did he hurt you?”

“No,” I reply, distracted. I’m trying to place a call manually on a phone to Pressa, but nothing’s getting through. On my dozenth try, I swear under my breath and turn to my brother. “He didn’t do anything to me,” I reply. “He told me that he would release you if I helped him install my drone’s engine into his machine.”

“And then?”

“And then…” I hesitate, wondering whether I should tell Daniel about Hann’s history. My eyes go to my brother’s bandaged finger. Hann had promised he wouldn’t hurt Daniel at all—but his promise had only been partly true. Daniel was apparently hospitalized for dehydration. The guards broke one of his fingers.

Because of me, he’d hurt my brother. The thought makes me so sick to my stomach that I have to pause for a moment to fight down the nausea.

“After I finished installing the engine,” I say, “Hann told me that he would let me go, as a gesture of goodwill. But he said that I’d be back.” He knew, fundamentally, that Daniel and I would find ourselves at a crossroads again. That I’m not like my brother.

Daniel frowns at me. “It makes no sense,” he mutters.

“Hann said he has no interest in forcing me to work for him. Besides, he’s already got what he wanted.” I turn back to the windows, where we can see plumes of smoke rising from the streets below.

Daniel narrows his eyes at me. “He’s playing a game with you,” he finally says. “It’s what he’s known for. I’ve seen several cases of him winning over loan victims by giving them the illusion of safety with him.”

Something about the way Daniel just assumes that Hann’s playing a game with me makes me feel wary. It’s true that he’s a dangerous man—he kidnapped us both, after all, and held us hostage. Just the fact that he let us go on a whim … well, it’s something only a confident criminal would do.

But I can’t help thinking about what he’d said to me. What had happened to his son and wife. The genuine grief that had been etched onto his face. The way he seemed to know exactly what was going on in my mind, better even than what Daniel knew.

The call I’m trying to place fails again. I grit my teeth in frustration and toss the phone onto a nearby couch. Then I turn to look at the elevators leading out of the AIS headquarters.

“You’re not going down there,” Daniel says automatically as he watches me.

“I have to,” I reply. “I can’t call through to Pressa at all. If the AIS headquarters is this stripped down in terms of tech, the Undercity is probably completely cut off.”

Daniel’s lips tighten. “No.” He nods at the screen, where they’re showing the streets down below. Barricades have been put up in some parts of the Undercity, but they’re doing little to stop people from hopping over them and organizing into furious crowds. Some are marching down the streets, shouting. Others are breaking windows and flooding into shops.

“See that?” he says, glancing sternly at me. “The President himself is flying out tomorrow for his safety, and he’s taking his security detail with him.”

“Anden has offered to host him in the Republic,” June finishes. “He has invited us to evacuate with him too.”

Even the President’s leaving this behind. The thought of us all flying out sends fear rippling through me. What about Pressa and her father? I can’t just leave them here and run like a coward. And even then, tomorrow is far away. Daniel’s heading down to the Undercity in a few hours with the rest of AIS to get things under control.

I turn determined eyes on my brother. “Isn’t your shift next, down in the Undercity?”

“It’s my job to contain this mess,” he replies.

“Your job. Always your job.” I throw up my hands. “You think I don’t worry about what’ll happen to you every time you head out into that? You put yourself in danger’s way every day. But you won’t let me in. You won’t let me join you.”

“I do it so that you don’t have to,” he snaps.

“I have to!” I suddenly burst out. The anger burns in my throat. “When you head out there and don’t come home until late, when you’re captured by a dangerous criminal, I have to deal with it. I have to bear the idea of losing you. You can’t let me just leave Pressa to fend for herself down there. That’s not what you would do.” I take a deep breath and glare at him. “If June were down there, you would tear every street of the Undercity apart to find her. You would keep going until you were dead, and you wouldn’t care what the hell I said.”

June clears her throat uncomfortably at my words. Across from me, Daniel’s quiet. His face has turned pale, as if he’s remembering something from his past.

“It’s going to get worse down there,” June says after a while. I can’t tell if she’s siding with me or not. “People who have suffered for that long, who don’t have the ability to attack higher powers, turn on one another instead. They’ll destroy every shop and stall and home down there, and they’ll do it quickly. So if we’re going to get anyone out of the Undercity, we have to do it now. It’s about to become impassible.”

Daniel’s gaze goes from me back to the dark windows. When he finally speaks, his voice is pulled tight. “Fine. But you’re not going alone. I’m coming with you.”

“Same,” June says.

Even with this compromise, I can feel the chasm widening between us. No matter what Daniel says, he makes me feel small, like a little brother asking for permission to do anything and everything. I turn away, disgusted with myself, and start heading toward the elevators.

* * *

Even though it’s past midnight, the streets of the Undercity are fully lit tonight—with lights from the backup electric system; with handheld lamps, glowsticks, torches, and portable screens held up by protestors; and with floodlights set up along the streets’ barricades, monitored by police and soldiers alike.

Now I run through the streets with Daniel and June at my side. Shouts come at us in all directions. The streets, always narrow, are crammed full of people in every form of celebration and confusion. Some are uncertain, standing outside the front of their stalls or shops and wringing their hands, looking meekly at the police that rush by. Others hang out the open windows of the floors above, squinting at the buildings in disbelief at the lack of any augmented layering. Others take photos with old-school cameras, now that their systems are disabled.