Denver, Colorado · 1,609 m above sea level · then
Mile high.
Mile deep.
When the Flood came, the Mile High City didn't drown so much as get moved. Block by block, copied down into the dark by people who refused to log off.
Depth 200 m · The Shelf
Nothing here is broken.
The highest district, pressed up under the dome. Corporate glass, the only view of the surface. The Curators run it. Director Halden believes the city can be made orderly. Nothing here is broken, which is how you know nothing here is real.
District briefing →Surveillance note
Subject XIOMARA entered tower 91 at 21:14 with a badge that had existed for eleven minutes. Tower now reports ninety-one floors. Security diagnostic: nothing wrong.
File 001 →Depth 500 m · The Shallows · Kestrel's stall
Paper doesn't survive the damp.
So Kestrel sells the city's record as garments. Every design is a mission file: one job, one district, one member of the cast. Printed on the surface, shipped to wherever you're hiding.
Personnel · Espionage unit
Xiomara
In Greek, "android" means "in the form of a man". Some missions require the form of a woman. Stealth infiltration, heuristic system penetration, a mono-molecular blade, ablative armour. Leaves nothing confidential.
File 002: Cherry Samurai →Depth 800 m · The Orchard
The only place with a season.
A hydroponic dome on the eastern edge, loaded with cherry trees before the Flood. Nine days a year they bloom. Xiomara counts the petals. The number is always different, and that's the only thing in the city that is.
Depth 1,200 m · The Trench
He does not accept the world as it is.
The lowest inhabited district, built into the fault line. Old servers, older people. The Code Master's workshop is down here and moves when it's found. When he walks the grid instead of the streets, the city sees a dragon.
File 004: Code the Future →
Execute.
Infiltrate.
Mutate.