Content Warning: This Chapter Summary and the Chapters 16-19 Analysis reference enslavement. while the Chapter 18 Summary contains violence.

Nailer, Tool, and Nita ride the maglev train to Orleans II, hiding in the gaps between the rail cars. To pass the time, they talk. Nita reveals that Pyce is an uncle by “business marriage” (a type of arranged marriage that allies corporate interests). Pyce was secretly developing and refining tar sands—a business gamble that will net him billions. He uses Patel clipper ships to move the fuel to China since tar sands are illegal in the United States. Nita’s father sent her south to keep her out of the violence that could erupt over the corporate schism, but Nita didn’t believe that she was actually in danger. By the time she escaped in her personal clipper ship, it was too late. Pyce’s crew chased her in a military-grade clipper ship, the Pole Star, and Nita and her crew had to brave the city killer storm to lose the hunters. Nita was unable to negotiate with Pyce because in this corporate war, she is only a “chess piece, a pawn” (196). If she is captured, she will be used against her father, and her father will lose control of their company.