As he left the port Aristide detected a slightly frantic quality to the metropolis, as if the great city had somehow sensed it was already at war. Road traffic had a sullen, aggressive quality, and those traveling on foot seemed uncertain when they weren’t rushing along in furious haste. Even the gliders that floated overhead seemed in a hurry to get somewhere. Aristide and Daljit managed to avoid being trampled by the relentless mob of pedestrians as they walked to the nearest trackline station. She was going to Fedora’s lab, and from there to her regular work at the Institute. Aristide intended to visit a pool of life, to dispose of the Franz Sandow body and return to the body with which he’d walked across Midgarth. He supposed he would have to make a concession to the modern world and accept an implant. His capsule hissed up to the platform. “See you tonight?” he said. “Sure.”
