TYADOR BORLU: Nowhere else works like The Cities.
Beszel and Ul Qoma.
Since I was a kid, I have unseen Ul Qoma as my parents
and teachers trained me.
But there are places where the cities meet,
where it's hard to observe the borders,
to see and unsee what you should, and what you shouldn't.
[dramatic music]
It takes a lifetime.
I should know.
I'm a cop.
[dramatic music]
[water splashing]
[man shouting]
WOMAN: Bad dream?
Well?
Did you save me?
No.
[muffled announcement]
WOMAN: Thank you for having me, Inspector Borlu.
Be safe.
Be safe, yourself.
[ringing]
Borlu.
WOMAN: Good morning, chief.
Officer Lizbyet Corwi here.
Got a lady to see you.
I'll be right down.
How's it going, Hatu?
Rain on the way, Mr. Borlu.
Rain in Beszel?
Now there's a surprise.
MAN: Yes, sir.
Be safe, sir.
The usual, Borlu?
Thanks.
You Corwi?
Want one?
Don't think so.
You call yourself a Beszel girl?
Don't call myself any kind of girl, sir.
So where is she?
Volka Docks, about six kilometers out.
You better step on it, officer.
She's been waiting all fucking night, chief.
All fucking night.
Yes, chief.
All fucking night.
A gang of baby kids found her.
One of them saw a yellow van in the area.
LIZBYET CORWI: Dead girl, always the same story, isn't it?
Except it isn't.
Well, I guess she's been here around 12 hours.
Heavier than a broken heart.
MAN: There's dirt, dust.
I don't think she was killed here.
Turn her over.
What's this brown stuff?
Oh, that's brown stuff.
[camera snapping]
Can you take some without the flash?
MAN: Yes, sir.
Hooker.
This area be some dumped.
Hooker.
All right, then.
Let's get her out of here.
Just cover her up, will you?
Naustin is on hooker duty, and he
thinks he's seen it all before.
Come a long fucking way.
Oh.
Fucking this, fucking that.
It's a man's man world, chief.
She had nice hair, didn't she?
Did she?
Drive up MeisterStrasz by the arena, not
two-thirds of them are blonde.
Unless the pink was some shit.
Food for the kids and clothes comes first, then crack.
Condition is way down the list.
Her hair is in better condition than mine.
TYADOR BORLU: So not that type of girl?
Someone fucked up?
Language.
Fucked up and doesn't care.
I want you on this.
This pussy commissar wouldn't want me seconded.
Oh, Commisar Gadlem?
Oh, pussy gave it away, right?
[laughter]
[train sounds]
LIZBYET CORWI: Chief.
Heavier than a broken heart?
It just came to me.
TYADOR BORLU: Gunter Strasza.
That place, again.
[car honking]
Asshole!
Did you see that?
What, the Ul Qoma red car.
no, I didn't officer.
Fuck.
Shit.
Sir?
TYADOR BORLU: Why is my office still being
used as a storeroom, commissar?
Because it still is a storeroom.
We're short on space.
So, south suburbs, young woman, stab wound?
May be a prostitute.
Who's your sub?
I've got a beat cop helping me out.
Corwi, something.
Officer Lizbyet Corwi.
She knows the area, she seems OK.
Keep her away from polite company.
She spoke very respectfully of you, sir.
Has she?
Keep it unofficial, then.
I was going to.
It's a strange area.
In very close proximity to Ul Qoma around GunterStrasz.
A lot of cross hatching.
Are we sure she's from Beszel?
It's pretty much total, though, isn't it?
I mean, it's what, 90% Beszel?
There are some blocks here that are
off limits, that's about it.
Gunter Strasz, disputed zone.
She could have crossed illegally through there.
TYADOR BORLU: Witnesses saw a yellow van around here,
looks like a Beszel crime to me.
Maybe this case for Breach?
Breach?
We need to consider every possibility.
Breach didn't manifest, sir.
It's a murder.
I'd like to get and investigate it.
You don't want me to put someone else on it?
Why?
You know why, Borlu.
I mean, Gunter Strasz.
First time you've been back there, isn't it?
Everything's all right with you?
Everything's fine.
At least it was until I walked in here.
MAN: And hello cause of death.
I'll get this to a police artist.
Commenting on illegal unificationist protests
today on Volka Stracz, Nat Bloc leader Major Yorj Syedr
was critical of the coalition government's failure
to deal with the rise of what he termed dangerous and seditious
activism.
YORJ SYEDR: That bloc has a duty to crush all unification
and activity in our city.
Our history teaches us that Baszel and Ul
Qoma can never live together.
It would be a bloodbath.
Unificationists are at best naive, and at worst,
enemies of the state.
[people shouting]
You get off on the arty crowd, do you?
The Bohos.
Manny tries out halal, his mate Mohammed's into gefilte fish.
It's very cool.
It's dry this side, isn't it?
Well, I'm at work. What are you doing?
I'm always working, chief.
OK.
24 or five, good overall health. - Other than being dead.
Which took place around 10:00 PM.
That glass shard pierced her heart.
Sexual activity?
He or her?
Not recently.
Neither of us.
And defensive wounds?
Came quickly when she wasn't expecting it.
She had tattoos. They all do.
Drugs?
Nothing heavy.
Just a bit of smoke is all.
I think we should mess up her face a bit.
Bit of blood makes it sit up.
TYADOR BORLU: Right.
Let's get the poster up, see what we can find
out about Ms. Nice Dead Girl.
[thunder]
Here it comes.
Hey, thanks for asking for me.
We're short-staffed.
Right.
Be safe.
TYADOR BORLU: If I look hard enough at her face,
I can almost see someone else.
MAN: Ul Qoma.
Ul Qoma. Ul Qoma.
Ul Qoma.
Be safe.
[people chanting]
MAN: Unification!
Unification!
I'm taking you down, inciting people to breach.
Look behind me.
Look behind my shoulder now.
This is a breach.
Breach, yeah.
Fuck, well Christ.
You've got to help me.
I didn't see anything we shouldn't.
About time.
Right, you lot.
I want all these unificationists taken it now.
All of them.
Down the station, come on.
Everybody out now!
TYADOR BORLU: Unificationists, spoiled kids who never grew up.
They don't get that the cities is love hating each other.
It's what keeps us alive.
Nobody loves breach, but before breach, there was only blood.
MAN: Beszel and Ul Qoma [non-english speech]..
WOMAN: How are you?
TYADOR BORLU: - What are they saying?
WOMAN: From space, Beszel and Ul Qoma appear as one.
Jan walks the streets of Beszel.
He's thinking about Maria, who at this precise moment
is walking the same streets in the foreign city of Ul Qoma.
Jan only sees Beszel.
Maria only sees Ul Qoma's glass and steel.
Did they do it?
Not in the original.
The do in Selznik cut, of course.
TYADOR BORLU: Oh, then breach manifests.
I'd like to see how they portray that.
They wouldn't it's dumb.
They're not like orcs or something.
Star-crossed lovers, able to gaze into one another's
eyes across the Gulf that separates them.
Are you sure we should be watching this?
You're the cop.
You OK?
Stupid film.
I'm tired.
WOMAN: Be safe.
[brakes screeching]
Over there, sir.
Yellow Mercedes, Beszel license plates, abandoned and unlocked.
You're not taking anything out?
No paperwork or anything?
DETECTIVE: That's how we found it.
Travel documents.
We could nick him for that as well.
So, how do we know this is her?
In the back.
What's all this crap?
That's your brown stuff.
Rust.
DETECTIVE: It's her blood type.
We're waiting for a definite much.
LIZBYET CORWI: The van belongs to Mikhail Khurusch.
Yeah, I know.
Found his travel documents in the van.
Naughty boy.
[rock music playing]
Shouldn't I have a lawyer, then?
Where's your van, asshole?
It was nicked.
TYADOR BORLU: What was all that junk in the back.
Nothing.
Small scale stuff, that's all.
TYADOR BORLU: What stuff?
I trawl skips.
Tellies, CDs, whatever the other city is throwing out.
Like this decadent crap.
Whatever people are buying.
Where were you Tuesday night, Mik?
Tuesday?
I had-- I can't think with this so loud.
[music stops]
Why did you leave your papers in the van?
LIZBYET CORWI: Leaving Ul Qoma travel documents in a vehicle,
that's five years, asshole.
It was a mistake.
It happens to everyone.
Here's the thing, asshole.
Your van's a piece of shit.
But you need it.
You deal in junk.
But you don't report it stolen?
No insurance claim, nothing.
I just didn't get it together.
For three days?
Can I have it back?
It's a crime scene, isn't it asshole?
Stop calling me that!
[smacking sound]
There's no need for that.
There is.
Jesus.
Was she hit?
Hit and run?
- You hit him. - A girl died.
Someone killed her.
Chief, our friend in there is distraction.
He's just in the way.
It's not him, is it?
He doesn't report his van stolen for three days.
He's just scared his travel rights will be revoked.
How come no one's phoning in about our girl?
That is weird.
She should have friends, family.
How many flyers have you seen on the street?
I don't know.
A few?
Worked up another print run.
I don't want to see her face in tonight's papers as well.
OK?
[wizzing sound]
TYADOR BORLU: Breach are everywhere.
Your closest friend, your brother, your child, your wife.
They look just like you and me.
I knew there was another city I dare not see.
Just there.
Just on the other side of where I was permitted to look.
[muffled voices]
Stinking people I have to deal with.
Stinking things you smoke.
[chuckling]
TYADOR BORLU: Maybe I should just stick to the Klassnikos,
eh?
It was only a kid's toy.
How unsafe could that be?
You should have given it back to her.
[ringing]
Hello.
WOMAN: Is that Inspector Borlu?
Yeah.
Who's this.
[garble] - I'm sorry.
Can you speak up?
It's a really bad line.
WOMAN: I knew Mahalia.
The girl.
Mahalia Geary.
Yeah, just-- sorry, just give me a second.
Can you just give me that again?
What was her name?
WOMAN: Mahalia Geary.
She was an American, too.
Mahalia.
Geary.
And you were-- a friend of hers?
WOMAN: I was her best friend.
Look, can you come in and talk to me?
It's a really bad line.
WOMAN: I can't I can call you from outside your country.
Right.
So, are you in America now?
Or where are you calling from?
WOMAN: I'm calling from Ul Qoma.
God, I'm talking to you like this
and I don't even believe all this shit.
What about Mahalia?
Did she believe?
Did she respect it?
WOMAN: She was into all of it?
All the underground.
You mean like she was into the Unificationists?
Yeah?
WOMAN: More than that.
She needed to know everything.
Sorry, I don't understand.
What was she into?
Mahalia is dead because she found out the truth.
How do you know she was dead?
WOMAN: Your poster.
In Beszel.
WOMAN: Ul Qoma.
You-- you can't have.
WOMAN: I can, and I am.
There are no flyers in Ul Qoma.
[muffled voices]
WOMAN: I need to go.
So what is your name?
Shit!
[beep]
That was--
TYADOR BORLU: Every day since Katrynia was taken from me,
I have to remind myself of the rules.
Remind myself of the law.
She could be watching me.
I could be unseeing her.
She could be waiting for me, calling
to me, from the other city.
They let the others go?
Yeah, because I told them to.
Why are they keeping me in?
Because I told them to.
My friends get taken all the time,
and I never see them again.
Yeah, but not today, though.
Hey.
So you owe me, and you owe me here, and you remember that.
You know this girl?
She dead?
She's dead.
Mahalia.
So what?
She makes contact with the Unificationists in Ul Qoma,
right?
Yeah.
But she risked it.
Crossed illegally, joined our meetings here in Beszel.
She was trouble.
She could have brought Breach down on it.
The shit that she was into.
What shit?
It's crap.
Like weed, decadent Yank shit.
Like?
Orciny.
Have you heard of Orciny?
[footsteps]
[keys jangling]
[door opens]
Follow me.
Suppose I got a call.
Let's pretend.
A friend, a girlfriend of Miss Nice Dead Girl.
She sees our flyer. - Girlfriend wants to help?
Turns out Nice Dead Girl is into dodgy underground stuff.
Like your friend from the train station?
No.
Way dodgier than Unifs.
I just-- I just had a hunch that he might have contact with her.
You had a hunch?
A hunch.
Hey, I'm on the team, right?
I can't tell you and make you an accessory.
I thought this was hypothetical?
It is.
I can't act on this information.
The friend, the girlfriend, was calling from Ul Qoma.
She saw the flyer in Ul Qoma.
There aren't any flies in Ul Qoma.
Right.
Jesus Christ on the cross.
That girl's name is Mahalia Geary.
She lives in Ul Qoma.
She wound up dead in Beszel.
So, now you are an accessory.
Thanks, chief.
Well.
You said you wanted to be on the team.
They never found her, did they?
Sorry?
What are we talking about?
Your wife, last seen on GunterStrasz.
You've read the report. You know what happened.
She disappeared.
Happens every day in every city.
So, maybe she's OK.
Maybe she's living another life somewhere.
Her case was handed over to Breach, wasn't it?
Yeah, well this one won't be.
WOMAN: When in Beszel, see Beszel.
500 years ago, Beszel welcomed the modern world,
and adopted the Anglicized tongue of the first traders.
When in Ul Qoma, see only Ul Qoma.
MAN: Welcome to Beszel.
When in Beszel, see Beszel.
All visitors must report immediately
to Tourist Training.
Let's do this.
Mrs. And Mrs. Geary?
Mr. Corwi.
No.
I'm Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Beszel ECS.
This is Officer Lizbyet Corwi.
We're deeply sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
We know it's been an arduous trip for you.
Will take it to your hotel so you can get some rest.
We just want to do what we came here to do, officer.
We need to see her.
Of course.
TYADOR BORLU: Corwi.
Take those, please.
Babysitting duties, OK?
No sightseeing.
They stay in the hotel until the official handing over the body.
That could take months. Yeah, I don't care.
While they're here, they don't even take a piss without me
knowing about it, all right?
Come on.
Shall we get you into the car?
I'll take that.
We'd like to speak to some of Mahalia's friends,
talk to your professors.
I'm afraid that won't be possible, Mr. Geary.
Mahalia's university is in Ul Qoma.
You know how it works here, John.
I just want to meet the people who knew here.
Mr. And Mrs. Geary, you have to remember that Beszel and Ul
Qoma are separate cities.
The authorities demand strict, overt decorum.
Do they really?
There is usually a mandatory two-week
introduction for visitors.
That's a load of crap.
Lower your bullshit.
Not just ours, Mr. Geary.
Breach are cross-border police force.
We all come under their jurisdiction.
It's your choice.
Mr. Geary, you have to understand, we don't see them,
they don't see us.
That's the way it is, the way it's always been.
So if you so much as look at a person, or a building, or a car
that's in Ul Qoma, and Breach will come for you.
Believe me, you don't want that.
I'm sorry.
TYADOR BORLU: Foreigners are either bemused or
irritated by us and our laws.
This couple, they hated us.
We had done this to their daughter.
Sorry.
Reduced her to meat for the mortuary.
[sobbing]
MAN: Borlu.
Go get coffees.
We have released that Unif nutter.
Yeah, well that Nutter was part of my investigation.
You don't have an investigation.
You think you're going to receive long distance calls
without me knowing about it?
That caller was a close friend of Mahalia Geary's.
Which you didn't tell me about.
Because I didn't want to incriminate you, sir.
Because that caller had seen one of our flyers,
and she'd seen it from Ul Qoma.
Right.
We're going to the Oversight Committee.
We're going to invoke Breach.
This is my case.
A girl from Ul Qoma winds up dead in Beszel,
border transgression.
It's a Breach case.
Yeah, but Breach didn't manifest.
Borlu, I understand why you don't want to hand over.
I get it.
I really do.
Your wife.
But this is the world.
Breach is Breach.
I'm not risking it.
Wasn't sure how you liked it, sir.
Good news?
We're referring the Geary case to Breach.
Shit.
Yeah.
MAN: Looking very sharp, Mr. Borlu.
Yeah, well.
I'm the one in the dock.
MAN: Sorry to hear that, Mr. Borlu.
Be safe, sir.
How long you've been a cabbie?
Provisional at the moment, sir.
Still need my Besz transport license.
It's just waiting on police approval.
Well, maybe I can help you.
I'd be grateful for that, sir.
Besz favors, that's how we survive.
Strange, isn't it, Copula Hall, bring in both cities?
Makes me feel, well, a bit guilty, I suppose.
TYADOR BORLU: Cupula Hall, the neutral heart of both cities.
This is where the Oversight Committee
will decide if Mahalia Geary breached or not.
Breach can snatch this away from me.
They have before.
LIZBYET CORWI: Hey.
I spoke to Khurusch, the van driver.
Yeah?
I hope you got a stepladder and kicked him up the ass.
I didn't need to.
Someone else already had.
Someone scarier than me.
Made him keep his mouth shut.
Yeah?
My guess the same someone who made him believe his travel
documents in the van.
He was set up.
Have a look at this.
Especially 31-04 and 90-09.
Yeah.
I'm know.
I'm your divine fucking messenger.
You're welcome.
You were right.
Yeah, absolutely sir.
I know you're not comfortable with this.
Well, like you said, sir.
It's not worth the risk, is it?
Well, good.
That's good.
Madam Chairman, I'd like to thank the Oversight Committee
for their time on this matter.
We won't keep you a moment longer than necessary.
Inspector Tyador Borlu will make our case
for an invocation of Breach.
Inspector Borlu.
Thank you.
Afternoon.
Mahalia Geary, 24, North American.
She applied successfully to become a PhD student
at the Institute of Archeology in Ul Qoma,
and was attached to the long term dig at Bol Ye'an.
Then, a few days ago she disappeared.
WOMAN: From Ul Qoma?
From Ul Qoma.
But turns up in Beszel.
And this time she's dead, in the back of a stolen Besz vehicle.
So, as you can see, we have a serious problem on our hands.
On your hands, Inspector Borlu.
This dead foreign girl is your problem.
[non-english speech]
Yes, if Mahalia was subverting the border,
this must go to the Breach.
[non-english speech]
Trust in Breach, absolutely.
Except breach didn't manifest.
No manifestation, no breach.
These things that have happened in the past.
Mistakes are rare, but not without precedent.
Everything points to a border violation.
Let Breach deal.
It's typical of the coalition to relinquish Besz autonomy.
If you'd taken a harder line, there'll be
no need to ever invoke Breach.
WOMAN: Thank you, Major Syedr.
This is not a political event.
Invoking Breach in cases such as this
has been standard protocol for years.
If I may, I was handed something before I came in.
It might be pertinent to our investigation.
Can I play it?
What's this, Borlu? What are you doing?
TYADOR BORLU: Just bear with me, sir.
What are we looking at?
It's CCTV footage from the border
crossing under Cupola Hall, the night
before Mahalia disappeared.
OK. There.
That's our van.
Whoever stole it was crossing over into Ul Qoma.
And just bear with me.
[tape whizzing]
So, there it is again, crossing back into Beszel.
We believe, with the body in the back.
All of it at the border crossing at Cupola Hall.
Looks to me like the van crossed legally.
Yes, it does, doesn't it major.
No breach.
MAN: Borlu.
Borlu!
What was that?
Where did that tape come from?
The Oversight Committee don't seem to think
it's a case for Breach, sir.
Nor does Major Syedr.
What does Major Syedr have to do with anything?
Seems very hard being on the same side as the major.
Yeah, what?
He's very keen for me to stay on the case, sir.
You know, back then, there were certain voices asking
for your permanent suspension.
I was the one sticking my neck out,
saying you needed the work to get through it all.
Well, thanks for the favor, sir.
I thought you were doing all right, Borlu.
Maybe I was wrong.
Now, did Mahalia have any special friends
she could talk to?
Not boyfriends, if that's what you mean.
Girlfriend, someone she could confide in.
She had lots of friends.
She was-- she was a very outgoing girl.
How was she getting along with her studies?
Her professor seemed to think she was
doing excellent in her work.
And if Mahalia was happy, then--
Was she?
There were always dramas, you know.
TYADOR BORLU: Well, that's her age, isn't it?
You have kids yourself, inspector?
No, I don't.
No, you don't.
She was always saying that people were on her back.
I don't--
People were pissed at her.
I told her to come home for a vacation.
Which people?
Dissidents.
Reds, TCs, whatever you want to call them.
WOMAN: You're getting it mixed up.
I'm not mixing up anything.
MRS. GEARY: Sorry, did she mention TCs?
What is that?
True Citizens.
There are an extreme right wing nationalist group here
in Beszel.
They're connected to Major Syedr's Nat Bloc party.
Such an ugly place this is.
Whatever.
She made them all mad at her.
We just want to see justice done, OK?
The embassy is working on it.
We're confident.
TYADOR BORLU: We'll find whoever's responsible,
I promise you that.
You still have the death penalty here.
Just going to the pool.
Good idea.
Ground floor, sir.
Geary is coming down to the pool.
Roger that.
DETECTIVE: Shit.
[muffled voices]
[train clacking]
[men grunting]
[ringing]
Hello.
MAN: Mr. Borlu, I have a long distance person to person.
Oh, yeah.
MAN: Call will be recorded, as standard protocol.
Professor Ul Nadi?
It must be a terrible time for you.
MONA UL NADI: Yes.
We're all in shock.
Mahalia was a very special young woman.
Yeah.
Well, I'm just trying to trace any close friends of hers.
Do you have any ideas?
MONA UL NADI: Well, maybe Yolanda.
Yolanda?
Yolanda Stark, another American student here, helping out
at the Bol Ye'an dig.
Yeah.
She-- she knew Mahalia well, did she?
MONA UL NADI: Certainly.
They were both fascinated by Ul Qoman mythology.
Right.
MONA UL NADI: She was a real little Bowdenite.
Sorry, she was a what?
MONA UL NADI: A Bowdenite.
Someone inspired by David Bowden's early work.
It's him I blame for Mahalia's lack of focus.
He encourages a certain adoration from female students.
David Bowden.
MONA UL NADI: He dreamed of a subversive idea
of a third city hidden between Beszel and Ul Qoma.
Orciny, he called it.
Very provocative.
Stirred up a lot of trouble.
This book, "Between The City And The City"
is still illegal in Beszel, actually.
You won't find it [garble].
What?
Hello.
[music playing]
[muffled voices]
TYADOR BORLU: Whatever this is, whatever happened to Mahalia,
to Katrynia, I need to look further
than Beszel, across the border where people
pass one another like ghosts.
To that other place.
I will find the answers, whatever they do to me.
It is my duty, and my penance.
[music playing]
WOMAN: Inspector Borlu.
Senior Detective Quissima Dhatt?
Welcome to Ul Qoma.
First time in Ul Qoma?
First time in a long time.
Big changes, you'll see.
TYADOR BORLU: I need to find that girl who called
me, talk to anybody Mahalia knew or worked with,
find out who Geary was meeting.
[music playing]
[men chanting]