High Exemplar Dosia watched through the airport windows as her shuttle lifted and arced through the air as though thrown by a giant, invisible hand. It was the only plane to take off from this airport in hours, and it was supposed to be her flight from Denver back to Porto Maná—the one she'd spent so long arguing for. The flight attendants had been baffled when once the time came, she told them to send the shuttle off without her.

"There it goes," she muttered.

Now for a long, long car ride: United States, Mexico, Central America, Columbia, and finally to that small spot against Brazil's northern border where Victoria had laid her claim. Her last car ride that long was before the Collapse—in her first life. She and a group of her college friends from UC Berkeley had gone on a road trip around the US to see all those great western attractions that made America America: Grand Canyon. Mt. Rushmore. Yellowstone. They must have stopped at a thousand little places to take scenic group photos with their tank tops and large-lensed sunglasses, though she and her friends had hardly paid attention to the scenery except to remark to one another how awesome it was to be out in the Great Plains with each other. Secretly, the trip was mostly for Las Vegas.

Now she'd take a second road trip, across the Great Remains. Even with her current body being no more than forty, she felt too old for it.

At the car rental, she wondered whether her credit card would be rejected. It wasn't. Of the choices, she got a luxury self-driving drifter, and not just for the pleasure of it. Colorado's nuclear winter had phased right into old fashioned winter, and with a car that floated half a foot off the ground, she wouldn't have to worry about the state of the roads, many of which had suffered six years of winter since their last repaving. And she might actually get some sleep while the car took its trip.

It took her embarrassingly long to find the car in the garage. She set the destination for Porto Maná. It informed her that it would require many, many recharge stops. She accepted. It took off.

Once the car was on the road, she called Bishop back.

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"I'm on my way now."

"Not in the shuttle?"

"No. This car says three days. Are you sure about this, Bishop? Three days is a long time for mischief."

"I know..."

"We don't even have a plan once we're there."

"We'll have one," Bishop said. "It's... in the oven."

"In the oven?"

"Yes. Baking. I'm sure it will be ready once we're all there."

"How about this for a plan," Dosia said. "We tell people."

"That'll just get those people killed. Sakhr has already disposed of a general. You think he won't dispose of others?"

"Not if we tell everyone."

"The public?"

"Think about it, Bishop. The high exemplars announce that the princess's body has been commandeered by an imposter. We win."

"Meanwhile, everyone loses faith in the throne. The empire crumbles, and the world returns to ruin."

"Other than letting Sakhr keep the throne, that may be—" She cut off when her car suddenly braked. She looked about. The road she was on was old, made more of asphalt chips frozen in a stew of ice. No other cars were about. Yet her car was pulling over to the side. A banner on the navigation screen indicated that the emergency stop button was pressed.

"What's wrong?" Bishop asked.

"My car stopped." She tried the navigation screen. It didn't respond to her touch.

"It's them. Get out."

"Don't be silly. I'm over a mile and a half from the nearest town. I'd freeze."

"Dosia, you can't stay in that car."

"Of course I can."

"They're coming."

"Of course they are, but not Sakhr. It's been..." She checked her plaque's time. "Forty minutes since your talk with them. It has to be a subordinate coming right now. They'll arrest me. They'll put their hands on my plaque, and then they'll see into my mind. The truth is on our side, Bishop."

"And you'll reveal everything we've ever done for Victoria. Do you think those soldiers will follow you then? When they know about that?"

"I know how to control my thoughts. What else am I to do? Give up? I think not. I will wait right here." Dosia folded her hands over her plaque and waited as though at a bus stop. There was still no sign of anyone nearby, but she knew the Lakiran military. She'd go from alone to fully surrounded in seconds.

"Your mind is made up, isn't it?"

"It is. I think. Bishop, you would do well to tell people near you what you know. Knowledge will be our weapon in this—"

The car exploded as a missile collided into it. It launched four minutes ago from a military base in West Virginia. Her destruction was so quick, her senses hadn't even had time to relay the message of what was happening before her mind was no more. Her last thought was war, nothing else.