- On the train, Nailer regrets not packing food for their escape.
- Riding the train is dangerous. Sleep is impossible, and they ride in the gaps between cars, because there are no entrances into the cars. Worst of all, though, they have no water. After two days, they debate jumping off, but Tool convinces them to stay on, and while they ride, they talk.
- Nita confesses that Pyce wants her because her father learned Pyce has misused the company's resources. Pyce wants to use Nita to get Nita's father to do something.
- Pyce has been secretly refining oil and shipping it to China. Tool explains that the fuel is black market (illegal), which is why Nita's dad is against it.
- Nailer thinks that Nita's dad should have taken the deal since he stands to earn billions.
- Nita says she was sent south to be kept safe, but someone betrayed them; their clipper was chased into the storm, and the rest is history. Nita knows that if she's captured it "would be the end of the game" (16.36), so she has to escape because otherwise she can be used to force her father's hand.
- Nailer prevents Nita and Tool from arguing, and Tool says that he came as a favor for Sadna.
- The trio approaches Orleans on the train. What readers know as civilization (cars and roads) has been retaken by the jungle and natural world.
- Nita tells Nailer and Tool that people used to drill for oil everywhere, and that's why the city killer storms are so bad.
- They approach Orleans II.