The front of the tube opened onto a lit street cornered by blocky skyscrapers. More buildings marched off in lines on either side of us, clogging up the horizon.
I had many kinds of computers. I had books. I’d seen cities. But there was nothing I could see that made this city different from any other. Abraham could have taken us anywhere.
“Chicago?” I asked.
“Yes.” Abraham started the engine and took the ramp down to the street that was filling with cars rolling down the other dozen unloading ramps.
I craned and dipped my head, peering down dim alleys draped with drying cloths and wooden crates and tables with people hunched over them.
Even though it was still dark out, every street was filled with cars, bicycles, and people tangled in a mess of movement that didn’t seem to be getting anyone anywhere.
I’d never seen so many people hurrying in great, clotted crowds, each wearing a dominant House color with stripes of secondary colors on their arms or legs, striding in and out of buildings, across intersections, and climbing stairs to the skyways, where they became silhouettes: caged like birds against the sky.
It was enormous, and so crowded and overfull it felt small, busy, and constricting. I was suddenly glad for the generous space inside the car, for the luxury of not being pressed against the endless crowds and rush.
Abraham drove the streets with the sort of familiarity that made me wonder if he had lived here for most of his life. Or one of his lives, at least.
“Thing I don’t follow,” Left Ned said, “is how a stitch from House Mineral is going to help us.”
“She needs to remain off the loop for as long as possible,” Abraham said. “So you,” he said to me, “have a chance to choose a House before anyone lays claim to you.”
“Anyone except House Gray?” I asked.
A brief smile played across his lips. “We aren’t above stacking the odds in our favor.”
“Is that how your House operates? Cheating?”
He glanced over at me, possession in his gaze. “We are willing to do anything it takes. When we see what we want.”
“And have you?” I said. “Seen athingyou want?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Is that what you think? That I, of all people, see you as inhuman?”
“I don’t know what you think.”
He tipped his head down so that my gaze was caught by his. “I think you are a stubborn, strong, clever woman. I think you are frightened?—”
“Hey, now,” I interrupted.
“—as any reasonable person should be in this situation,” he said right over my protest. “And I think you are fierce, loyal, and kind. Very much,” he said slowly, to give his words weight, “the sort of woman I’d want.”
Oh. That hadn’t been the answer I was expecting. Heat stroked up my neck and cheek. I was having a hard time thinking over all the noise in my head.
Had he just told me he wanted me? That he had feelings for me?
“What are you offering?” I asked. “Exactly.”
“My House is offering you protection,” he said, nicely dodging my real question.
“Maybe I don’t want your House’s protection. Maybe I want freedom.”
He shook his head. “You are galvanized, Matilda. Freedom is the one thing we’ll never have.”
He turned the car and we rolled through an impossibly crowded street, then into what appeared to be a concrete gully.
“But what I can give you is choices,” he finally said. “Robert is helping me achieve that.”
“The same Robert who is keeping secrets from his own House?” Left Ned asked. “Sounds trustworthy.”
