The City & the City: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Borlú begs to be allowed to contact Corwi and Dhatt, but Ashil will not let him. Borlú then says that they need to focus on Yorjavic and figure out if he has an alibi for all the evenings when Mahalia locked up at Bol Ye’an. Borlú again asks to speak to Corwi and Dhatt, but Ashil sternly reminds him that he is in Breach, and thus doesn’t “get to demand things.” The next morning, Ashil returns to Borlú’s room and hands him coffee and a pill. After discussing Borlú’s hypothesis about Yorjavic, Ashil leaves and returns with the information that Yorjavic was under policzai surveillance most of the nights when Mahalia locked up the site.

Borlú asks about Syedr, and Ashil says he was also accounted for, attending events with the Chamber of Commerce. Stunned, Borlú suddenly realizes that their focus has been all wrong. He points out that it’s a strange coincidence that these trade events would be happening on the exact nights Mahalia locked up the site. Borlú becomes increasingly frustrated with having to tell Ashil how to investigate the case and demands to be let out so he can do his job. However, Ashil reminds him, “You’re a breacher […] It's you we’re investigating.” Borlú asks who else was at the trade events, looking through a list of companies. One company in particular stands out: Sear and Core. The CEO was in attendance at the trade events every night Mahalia had the keys to Bol Ye’an.

Borlú notes that there are rumors that the artefacts at Bol Ye’an have “special properties.” Sear and Core wanted them, and persuaded Mahalia to hand them over by pretending to be Orciny. Confused, Ashil asks why anyone would “put money into superstitious nonsense.” But Borlú points out that it won’t have cost too much, and would be a sound investment just in case the artefacts did turn out to have special powers. They discuss the plausibility of Borlú’s new hypothesis, and Ashil agrees to investigate. However, he admits his powers are limited: as foreigners, Sear and Core do not have the same natural terror of Breach as citizens of Ul Qoma and Besźel.

It is clear that in order to successfully intimidate Sear and Core, Breach will have to show up in huge numbers. However, assembling people is not easy; Breach are spread all around the city, and many are resistant to the idea of congregating for this single mission. Then, Ashil gets a phone call that clearly rocks him in some way. He tells Borlú that two buses have collided and breached. Both buses were taking refugees to camps, and now the refugees are wandering around the city, injured, confused, and “breaching everywhere.” Citizens will be reluctant to help them in case doing so means breaching. Ashil says that the cities have been placed on “complete lockdown,” and all of Breach will be attending to the incident until it is resolved. 

Borlú is surprised by the severity of this reaction, but Ashil then explains that the bus crash was intentional, Besź and Ul Qoman unifications planned it together. This is the unificationist “insurrection,” a dramatic attempt to fuse the cities. Borlú stresses that it can’t be a coincidence that this has happened now. He reminds Ashil that the unificationists are a little pathetic; organizing something like this is clearly beyond their capacity. He asks if planes are grounded, including private jets. Ashil says that they are, but it’s possible private planes could get away. Borlú says they have to go to the Sear and Core building immediately—the bus crash is clearly a decoy.