The trainyards were set at the bottom of the Upper City, just inside the Wall. Maris was trembling with the effort of holding on when the train slowly came to a halt, the sound of clashing linkages loud in her ears.

She glanced over to the right. If the hole had been patched, they were in for a world of—

No, there it was. A gap in the fence separating the trainyards from the rest of the Upper City. She waited, timed it…

Then released her gloves and fell to the ground, jumping away just as one of the steel wheels rolled through where she’d been, sparks flying from the tracks. Liam followed her, and they darted into the hole before the train moved away.

“Sooner or later, someone’s going to plug this hole,” Liam muttered.

“Maybe.” Maris said. “But nobody can see it from up above, and I bet the locomotive drivers don’t see it either. They’re focused on what’s in front of the train, not to the sides. She flicked a light stick and with a hissing sound, a little globe of light formed on its tip, the aether mixture combining with the air now that Maris had scratched the protective covering. “Let’s go.”

The hole had originated with some storm, the water running down from the higher levels of the Upper City, eroding a path through the dirt, and eventually opening the gap in the trainyards. Now, it was a narrow cave, the smell of mold and rot heavy in Maris’ nostrils.

It actually wasn’t as bad as some of the things she smelled in Drudgetown. They kept moving, the winding cave sometimes narrowing to the point where Maris and Liam had to turn sideways and exhale to fit through, sometimes wide enough that she couldn’t touch both walls a the same time.

Behind her, Liam was panting. Maris turned, raising the light, the glow turning Liam’s dark face green. “How are you doing?”

“Don’t like tight spaces, but we don’t have a choice,” Liam said. “I’m going to register a complaint with the management.”

“Oh, can I watch?”

“Of course, you’ll be writing my complaint down.”

Maris giggled. “See, if we ever decide to stop working as thieves, you can become a street comedian!”

“And what will you be?”

“His attractive assistant who runs everything from behind the scenes,” Maris said.

“Just as long as I get most of the money.”

Then they fell silent as the cave started curving up and to the left. Now other sounds joined them. The murmur of far off voices, the rumbling sound of a car moving through a street, the blare of a horn.

“Get ready,” Maris said.

The cave turned into a narrow canyon, one side a blank concrete wall, part of the foundation of one of the great palaces of the Upper City, the other side was moss-covered granite, the bones of the mountain range that had not yet been torn down. The far end of the canyon was blocked by a brick wall, but…

“Hand holds are still there,” Liam said. “So either a trap or we’re lucky.”

“We’re lucky. C’mon.” Maris reached out and started up the brick wall, gripping the places where previous thieves had carved out little depressions where a skilled climber could find a purchase. With every move, the noise of the Upper City got louder.

Can’t they go to bed like normal people? Maris shook her head. Of course not. Nobody here was laboring sixteen hours a day. Here there was time for play, and parks to play in, and food and light—

She snapped the train of thought off. People who got angry at injustice made mistakes, and mistakes got you killed, on the breaker line, or when you were trying to rob a house. The world was what the world was, and Maris wasn’t going to change it. But now she was at the top of the wall. Maris reached down and pulled a small prism from her pocket and raised it up over the wall.

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The park beyond was deserted, aether lights gleaming in the darkness, haloed by orbiting insects.

“Park’s clear.”

“Good, let’s go,” Liam said. With that, Maris scrambled over, Liam right behind her. They moved to a dense mass of bushes that screened them from the main body of the park. Maris put her backpack to the side and opened it up.

“Time for the most expensive part of this operation,” Liam said as he pulled his own tool out.

A suit.

Maris had a skirt and blouse, bright pink and yellow, along with a folding parasol.

Well, it looks like one, she thought, whipping the closed parasol through the air. Instead of a wooden shaft, it had a steel tube with lead pellets at the end. Anyone she needed to hit wouldn’t be getting back up.

“Scrubber,” Liam said.

Maris nodded and grabbed the pungent smelling cloth, running it over her face, the dark shoe-polish dissolving as she cleaned her face, hissing at the way the scrubber stung her skin. Tomorrow her skin would be red and sensitive, but tonight it’d look like she was blushing. Then she was skinning out of her clothing, the air cool on her skin, before she pulled her dress and blouse on. Liam was doing the same, and Maris took a moment to peek.

“Love the muscles,” she said.

“Only because you need me to carry our winnings,” Liam said as he fastened his shirt.

“Well, yes, but I still love them,” Maris replied. “Ready?” she put her tools in the purse she’d brought, while Liam turned his backpack inside out, the dull fabric giving way to the bright colors that were the current fashion in the Upper City. He put his tools inside the backpack, making certain they were wrapped so there were no betraying clanks.

Finished, he nodded to Maris. “Ready. Shall we go on our date, Dearest?”

“Oh, of course!” Maris said. “But first let us put these terribly low class clothes where they belong.”

“Indeed, allow me!” Liam replied. He took the two bundles and placed them under one of the bushes. “There we go. And if someone finds them…”

“We’re screwed anyway,” Maris said. “But not as screwed as we’d be if someone found them on us.” Because from this point on, it’s about not attracting attention.

With that, Maris took Liam’s arm and they walked out into the park.

Nobody had seen them enter the park, but nobody seemed to care as they walked onto the street. Probably assuming we just found a little hiding spot for some romance.

Liam now and then said some idiotic joke, and Maris giggled in response, leaning her head against his shoulder. Liam was bigger than she was, broader and taller, so it looked perfect. Two young lovers out on the night.

An enforcer came by, an aether-golem stomping along behind him, and Maris felt her skin crawl. The golem was shining, metallic skin polished to perfection, but the integrated cannon mounted on one arm looked entirely functional, as did the enforcer’s shock baton. But he didn’t pay any attention to them as he strolled on by, nodding to an attractive woman who waved at him.

You belong here, Maris reminded herself. That was the key. Nobody would look twice at her unless she called attention to herself. Even better, her hair color was close to what many teens were showing in the Upper City. After all, who had the money for dye in Drudge down, and Maris didn’t know anyone else that had her natural hair color. So she didn’t stand out. Not here.

That was why so many thieves didn’t survive in the Upper City. They ran along the rooftops or skulked in the alleys and when they were seen, everyone knew they didn’t belong there.

Not like two teens out for a night on the town. Granted, if anyone looked in her purse or Liam’s little backpack…

Well, if they had attracted that much attention, they were pretty well doomed anyway.

“Founder Street. Shall we walk this way, Dearest?” Liam said.

“Of course!” Maris said with a giggle. They turned down the broad cross street, a larger crowd moving back and forth. There were candy shops, tea shops, little cafes, some of them where you could actually watch the food being made behind big windows.

Back home, you use wood or coal for that. Not here. Here they were using aether stoves. Maris’ stomach reminded her that she hadn’t eaten a lot. But she could carry off the masquerade here, or if someone just heard them in passing. Sitting down and talking? Nobody would miss her Drudgetown accent. So she just leaned into Liam and they continued with their jokes and giggles, heading down the street at a leisurely pace.

Here, the streetlights had been integrated into statues. The Founders. The men who had built the world with their genius and organization.

Or so the books said. Little was truly known about the founders, Just that they’d come to this world from a stifling dictatorship and turned it into paradise.

None of those books talked about Drudgetown.

“Well, there’s the Betrayer.” Liam nudged Maris.

Maris glanced over where Liam was looking. There was a statue, but it was unlit. The brass nameplate had been ground down so there was no sign of raised letters that had once spelled out the name on it, and the statue’s head had been hacked off. The man who had turned on the Founders. What he’d done, or why he’d done it, nobody outside of the Founders knew.

Just that the crime was great enough to end the very memory of his name.

“Let’s go,” Liam said. “Time to get to work.”

Maris nodded and they turned away from the headless statue, heading along the broad, well-lit road.

It’s time.