Your mask bumps against Miss Abernathy’s. She tastes, perhaps unsurprisingly, of coffee and hookah. You feel a hand on your chest, and after a moment she pushes you gently away.

“Well well, airman,” she says. “I think that’s the first time you’ve genuinely surprised me. I’m not normally the kind of girl to put business before pleasure, but we do have a masquerade to host and the secrets of the universe to secure.”

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A sudden tussel below! Screams! You and Miss Abernathy turn and sprint from the balcony.

You push through the crowd. There! Abu Aziz has killed Herr Baumgarten! The pirate stands over the corpulent form of the German laughing madly, blood dripping from his cutlass. Comrade Pyatnitsa has vanished. Guests are fleeing all around you.