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said Q.
    â€œGood thinking,” said Clair, even though that was bound to attract attention. “No one use the Air. It’s too dangerous.”
    â€œPK Sargent is alive,” said Tash, looking up. “Lucky she’s wearing armor.”
    Clair hurried to the fallen PK’s side. Kari’s eyes were closed. There was a round, silver indentation just below her heart, where the bullet had struck her. She was lucky also, Clair thought, that Drader hadn’t aimed for her head.
    â€œI am detecting activity in Mürren and Lauterbrunnen,” said Q. “Freshly fabbed drones are on their way.”
    â€œHow long?” asked Clair. “Who sent them?”
    â€œThey are under peacekeeper control. You can expect them in five minutes. Maybe longer: there’s a storm coming, so the winds are strong.”
    Really real, Clair reminded herself. If the simulation could make people move and bullets fly, why not wind and rain too? And drones, and evil peacekeepers, and worse. All the Yard had to do was wind them up and let them go, like clockwork dolls on a tabletop. How wasshe going to fight them all?
    Save your friends first, she told herself, then the world.
    â€œWe need to get out of here before they see us and take us in.”
    â€œThe elevator connects to an underground train line,” said Ronnie. “We could get out that way.”
    â€œAnd after that?” asked Clair One. “What then?”
    â€œWe’ll work that out on the way.”
    â€œOn the way where?”
    â€œI don’t know, all right?” Clair rounded on her, out of patience. “Stay here if you want. I’m not going to kidnap you or threaten you or anything like that. But I’m not giving myself up and I’m not leaving the others behind. If we stay here much longer, we’ll all die.”
    â€œAre you going to shoot me, too, if I get in your way?” asked Clair One.
    Zep, Ronnie, and Tash were staring at them as though they were a glowing red timer counting down to zero.
    â€œThis party sucks,” said Libby with bright decisiveness. “Let’s blow this joint. Argue later. That’s my suggestion. Okay, ladies?”

[6]
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    CLAIR ONE GLARED at Clair for one long second, then at Libby. Finally, she nodded.
    â€œOkay, but I’m not happy about it.”
    â€œTake a number. I was expecting a new face and a crashlander ball, not this funky little shindig. Ronnie, which way is the elevator?”
    Before Ronnie could answer, Kari woke with a groan.
    â€œSon. Of. A. Bitch. . . . He shot me!”
    Clair took one elbow, Ronnie the other. Together they levered the heavy peacekeeper to her feet.
    On seeing the blood and PK Drader’s body, she asked Clair, “Was that you?”
    Clair nodded, her face turning warm.
    Kari gripped her shoulder. “Had it coming to him. How long until he comes back?”
    â€œI don’t know if he will,” said Clair, remembering what Q had said. She didn’t even want to think about the possibility that Q might have been wrong. “We need to get moving.”
    â€œThis way,” said Ronnie, guiding them through the observatory.
    Clair didn’t remember seeing the actual elevator the other time she had been here, just its existence on a floor plan. That was because it was concealed behind a loose plywood panel, unused for years but apparently still working.
    Zep pulled the panel off, exposing two sliding doors that Q had opened in readiness. The space within resembled a large d-mat booth with ample room for all of them. The walls were bare metal, broken only by a simplepush-button control panel, UP or DOWN . When they were all inside, Tash pushed DOWN . The doors closed. Clair’s stomach seemed to rise into her throat. She could smell Zep’s cologne mixed in with her friends’ perfumes and the dust, sweat, and grime that she and Kari had brought with them from the outside.
    â€œThis is