The World We Make

While exploring “Little Britain” in Manhattan, Bel encounters a group of Proud Men led by Conall McGuiness. They approach Bel and ask him where they might find Manhattan. They then reveal that they’re trying to find Neek. They imply that unless Bel helps them find him, they will hurt him. Bel makes a run for it and hears a voice telling him to turn down a particular street. There, he runs into a different group and asks for their help. The two groups face off, but after Bel’s defenders point out that there are cameras recording the entire area, the Proud Men retreat. Bel gets a ride home from one of the members of the other group, who turns out to be Manny’s former acquaintance Madison, and they flirt with one another. In the elevator to his apartment, Bel has an encounter with a blonde-haired woman with a British accent who mysteriously disappears from the elevator.

London returns to her city, trailed by Neek (who realized that she was in his city). On the Wobbly Bridge, they discuss how she once had 32 boroughs. When Neek asks if she cannibalized them, she responds that she “ate their essence—the thing, or things, that made them an aspect of London” (169).