City of Ashes

The formidable glass-and-steel structure rose from its position on Front Street like a
glittering needle threading the sky. There were fifty-seven floors to the Metropole, Manhattan's
most expensive new downtown condominium tower. The topmost floor, the fifty-seventh,
contained the most luxurious apartment of all: the Metropole penthouse, a masterpiece of sleek
black-and-white design. Too new to have gathered dust yet, its bare marble floors reflected back
the stars visible through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows. The window glass was perfectly
translucent, providing such a complete illusion that there was nothing between the viewer and the
view that it had been known to induce vertigo even in those unafraid of heights.