New York’s mayor was a handsome middle-aged man with a close-cropped beard, white teeth, and crisp gray Armani suit. The Pentagon’s head of biomechanical research looked very different. She was short and wide, with her straw-blond hair in the eternal Marines buzz cut. Her face was untouched by war, but both her arms carried vivid blue reprint tags from a field hospital printer. They projected from her military uniform like broken sticks, the crude pixilation of her skin a badge of honor.