At 6:52 in the morning, I was the only person on the operations floor who had slept.
Four hours, on the couch in my office, because Luna had threatened to shut down my mana circuits if I tried to run the Commons model a forty-third time. Rose had not slept. Elias had not slept. Reika had gone home at two, come back at five, and was now standing at the security wall with a fresh coffee and the expression of someone who would very much like to hurt a person she was not allowed to hurt.
"The Exchange confirmed the release," Rose said as I came in. "Our reserve lands in the Commons at 8:30, when the hold expires. Tamsin's opening the doors at nine." She glanced at the drone feed. Foundry Row was empty, wet and grey under the streetlights. "No line yet."
"There won't be one," I said.
"You don't know that."
"No," I agreed. "But I know who started the last one."
