Chapter One Palin gazed out the wide window. The view always fascinated him. He wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't always had it to look at or if it was because the huge window so dominated the room. It took up the entire wall, from floor to ceiling. Only the domed edges were steel. The window itself was reinforced glass, as strong as brick or mortar or steel, not invulnerable, but close enough. Or at least as close as possible. He didn't live at the very top of the building, but he was up pretty high. There were only two buildings higher than The Romaliot and both stood behind it. A half dozen buildings rose higher than his apartment in front of him, but they were placed in a way that he could see the city sprawling away from its core, rolling over the land to the very edge of the sea. He couldn't actually see the water from here; the horizon was buildings, the shorter flats that were a dozen stories high and all the same. He'd come from a place like that, his parents and his sister and himself squeezed into two small rooms that were like boxes. His sister was older and she'd escaped when he was seven. She'd wanted to be an entertainer. Father had refused -- he wanted his children to live in the higher buildings, closer to the core, not serve the people that did. So she'd run away when she was thirteen. He'd seen her once after that. He and his mother had come to the core for tests and he'd seen her on a street corner. She was thin, eyes so hungry and dark. She held her hand out to him, called out to him, but his mother held tightly to his hand and pulled him along. He'd watched until the crowd ate his sister up. Looking down now, he wondered if she was still out there. Palin couldn't see the street from here, wit...