The Shedd Aquarium was in the same museum campus as the Adler Planetarium, a grassy stretch of Neo-classical buildings built for the World's Fair in 1893. It looked like a Greek Temple to Poseidon, ornamented with mermaids and seashells and green-copper statues. Set against the endless gray sky of the Void, it could have been standing on Olympus.

Lee stood in front of it, arms behind her back, looking smug. Brigg and I walked up the steps to greet her.

"Took you long enough," I said, "where have you been?"

Lee shrugged. "Solving all the world's problems. How about you two?"

Brigg and I shared an uneasy look. Lee hadn't seen the killings like we had, and we hadn't talked to her about them. If she really was on the edge of a breakthrough, we agreed we didn't want to mess with her head.

"More or less? Watching Moira prepare to Home-Alone Moscow," I said. "She's teaching thirteen-year-olds how to lead their targets."

"Lovely. Child soldiers. Dark times, huh?" Lee said. But she was smiling.

The door swung open. A man in a plastic suit slid past us, dragging a fish the size of a Saint Bernard. The smell hit me like a slap, and I bent over, covering my nose.

"You seem remarkably chipper," I said, coughing.

She shrugged. "Here. You'll need this. Dab some under your nose." She handed me a small jar of white cream.

I did; a sweet, chemical smell replaced the scent of rotting fish.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I had a Scavenger steal some from the morgue. It's what they use to not puke during autopsies. But anyway. Follow me."

She led us through the large double doors and into the main chamber of the aquarium. Inside, dozens of people in plastic suits and face masks dragged dead fish out of a side door, or piled them in buckets and carried them. But that wasn't what I noticed first. What I noticed first was the lights.

Electric lights. They were blinding, if only because fuel was so hard to come by that electric lights had been outlawed by Moira. For the past few days, fuel could only be used by the military and the hospital.

Lee smiled, her face upturned to the light.

"How?" I asked, but already the joy was bubbling up inside me. "How did you... Lee!"

Brigg and I ran towards her and swallowed her in a hug. I pulled back once I realized she was blushing. "It was easy once we talked to Doctor Ford. I guess I didn't realize it, but there's air here, and land here, and water vapor here, so there must be weather here, in some shape or form. It was so simple, I can't believe I was the first one to realize it. I can't believe how long it took me to realize it."

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"Quit humble bragging and spit it out," Brigg said.

Lee rolled her eyes. "When I was in college in Hyde Park, I used to walk home from class through on this street. It was between these two really tall buildings, and the alley was so narrow, and it formed a kind of wind tunnel. In the winter, the wind would be so strong that it would literally push me backwards. I'd have to fight all the way home."

Lee took a deep breath.

"So after the observatory I went back there, to the tunnel where I used to walk home from work. At first, there was nothing. And then, just like it used to, the wind started to blow. It picked up my coat and I just started laughing, like a crazy person. I knew I'd figured it out.We usually think about wind power as huge, white turbines in a corn field. But the buildings in Chicago create a kind of funnel for air that moves. And even here, air moves. We have weather. And so we have power."

"Wind power," Brigg said, "you're right. I can't believe no one thought of that."

"Right now, construction is setting up turbines all over the city, in every place where they can find steady wind. And the ones we have up and running are sending their energy here. To the aquarium."

I looked around. "But why? I thought the Scavengers said all the water here was undrinkable. Salty and..." I nodded towards the pile of dead fish in the corner, "full of rotten sea life."

Lee rocked back and forth on her heels. "Maybe. Maybe not. Yes, a lot of it is salt water, but we can eventually desalinate it, if we generate enough electricity. And there are huge freshwater tanks as well, which, while they maybe aren't suitable for drinking yet, could be in the future. Because here's what the Scavengers missed: the Shedd Aquarium has one of the largest and most complex water filtration systems in Chicago. In the world, even," Lee said. Her eyes shone. "We can route all of Chicago's liquid waste here. It might even be good enough to clean up that dirty patch of the Thames that London managed to save."

Lee raised her hands: "You are looking at Chicago's new Water and Power department. Clean water and energy, even in the Void. Indefinitely."

I looked around me. Aquarium tanks as big as small houses flanked us on all sides, extending down hallways and into separate floors. It was enough water for London and Chicago to exist for years, decades maybe, if we were smart about it. It certainly bought us time to learn to harvest water from the mist in the Void.

"Lee..." Brigg said. He was sitting, his head in his hands. "I know you're hopeful, but... we might never get the chance. Moira is set on war. Russia could attack at any moment. They've gone insane, they're slaughtering families..."

Lee looked serious, but for some reason the gravity of it never seemed to break her. "I know," she said, "and I'm still betting on us. I'm still betting on a better world. Are you?"

Brigg and Lee stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. He had tears in his eyes.

The double doors slammed open. General Eastford stormed into the atrium, followed by a platoon of Guards. With each passing day, the elite Guards seemed better equipped and more lethal - this unit marched in perfect formation and wore black riot gear that covered their faces.

"Where have you three been? We've got a bloody damn good question for you. And where's that astrophysicist?" the General said.

"What is it, sir?" asked Brigg.

"It's City X. They've made first contact. Well, one of them has. He crashed through a window on the 75th floor of the Sears Tower, wearing a god-damn para-sail. He's nearly dead and delusional from frostbite, but he's alive, and boy did he have some interesting things to say."

"Well where is he from? Where is City X?" I asked.

"Not where," said the General. "When. City X is Berlin. Berlin in 2022."