Chapter 20: The Bonecutter

Marlowe and his small escort enter Cento Biotechnic on March Station after canvassing several similar clinics. Confronted by the city’s rampant commodification of flesh, Marlowe reflects with disgust on identity, embodiment, and the moral cost of elective transformation.

Doctor Yevgeni Cento greets them, instantly recognizing Marlowe’s palatine genetics despite his alias “Gibson.” Cento notes Marlowe’s cryoburn scar and offers cosmetic regrowth, which Marlowe refuses. When Cento proposes anti-aging or mechanical augmentation, Marlowe rejects “machines,” clarifying he seeks not longer life but another life—survival despite catastrophic death.

Pressed for clandestine options, Cento first refuses and claims such work cannot be done on March Station. Marlowe produces a universal bank card, offering payment for information. Dropping his showman’s persona and revealing his cybernetic eye housing, Cento explains that access to Vorgossos lies solely through its Undying ruler and the Exalted who serve as intermediaries.

Cento emphasizes the Exalted are not a unified order; some serve the Undying while others do not, and only their networks know Vorgossos’s hidden location. He denies having those contacts himself and warns Marlowe to seek leads among traders and shipping companies on the docks, where Exalted-linked agents operate.

Leaving without a direct contact, Marlowe gains a crucial directive: to find Vorgossos and the rumored cure for death, he must navigate March Station’s commercial underworld and the Exalted’s opaque networks.