Duke of Two Cities

Chapter 17

In what seemed to be a continuing trend ever since he left the house, Devon had only continued to benefit from strangers at the cost of his own dignity. All he wanted to do now was get to his suddenly free hotel and go to sleep.

The line for the convention reduced some from earlier, but there was no avoiding the wait. Back he would need to go into the sun. The heat of the day had reduced from blazing to merely stewing hot. The worst of the day’s sun was over, leaving its scorched slag behind. Heat radiated from the sidewalk and everyone who stood upon it was an upright sausage roasting in casings of felt, plaster, and sculpting foam. No dogs allowed at the NHCC, but if any dogs could walk along that sidewalk, they would have been overwhelmed by the collective chemical screams of over a hundred people at once.

But despite the opinions of certain staff members of the NHCC, Devon and the convention goers were, in fact, not animals. The only messages they heard during the half an hour w