THE SAFE house door opened at 3:18 in the morning.
The city stayed awake behind them.
Sirens crossed the lower districts in tired waves. Emergency boards kept flashing through the rain. Somewhere under Voss Tower, an eleven-piece carried a transit car full of people through a wall it had broken more carefully than any machine could have managed.
Caleb stepped inside last.
Everyone looked at him.
Silver covered every inch of him now. His hands, his throat, the skin at his temples, the crescent scar near his ribs, the old knuckle split from the disposal yards. Every human part carried the light.
Hiro sat propped on the cot with one blanket around his shoulders and a rifle across his knees.
He looked Caleb up and down.
"You are aggressively shiny."
Caleb almost laughed.
The sound came out cracked, but it came out his.
