Nowhere else works like the cities.
Beszel...
and Ul Qoma.
Since I was a kid, I have unseen Ul Qoma as my parents and my 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.
It takes a lifetime.
I should know.
I'm a cop.
*CREDITS*
Bad dream?
Well, did you save me?
No.
'When in Beszel, see Beszel.
Trust in Breach.
Be safe.
When in Beszel, see Beszel.
Trust in Breach.
Thank you for having me, Inspector Borlu.
Be safe.
Be safe yourself.
Borlu.
Good morning, Chief. Officer Lizbyet Corwi here.
I've got a lady waiting 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.
Be safe, sir.
The usual, Barlu?
Thanks.
Are you Corwi?
- You want one? - I don't think so.
You call yourself a Besz Girl?
I don't call myself any kind of girl, sir.
All citizens of Beszel, join us...
So where is she?
Bulkya Docks, about six kilometres out.
Well, you'd 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.
Dead girl?
Always the same story, isn't it?
Except there isn't.
I guess she's been here around 12 hours.
Heavier than a broken heart.
She's dead in the dust.
I don't think she was killed here.
Turn her over.
Ready?
Go.
What's this brown stuff?
There? That's brown stuff.
Can you take some without the flash?
Yes, sir.
Hooker.
This area. Beat up, dumped.
Hooker.
AlL right, then, let's get her out of here.
Just cover her up, will you?
Naustin's on hooker duty and he thinks he's seen it all before.
We've come a long fucking way.
- Oh, God, fucking this, fucking that! - It's a man's man's world, Chief.
She had nice hair, didn't she?
- Did she? - Drive up MeisterStrasz by the arena,
two thirds of them are blonde,
unless they're pink or some shit.
Food for the kids, and clothes comes first, then crack.
Conditioner's way down the list.
Her hair's in better condition than mine.
So, not that type of girl, someone fucked up?
Language. Fucked up who doesn't care.
I want you on this.
My pussy commissar wouldn't want me seconded.
Oh, Commissar Gadlem?
"Pussy" gave it away, right?
Chief.
Heavier than a broken heart?
Just came to me.
GunterStrasza.
That place...
again.
Asshole!
Did you see that? What?
The Ul Qoma Redcar? No, I didn't, Officer.
Fuck!
Fuck.
Sir.
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?
Maybe a prostitute.
- Who's your sub? - I've got a beat cop helping me out, Corwi,
something or other?
- 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.
We're in very close proximity with UI Qoma around GunterStrasz.
A lot of cross-hatching.
Are you sure she's from Beszel?
It's pretty much total, though, isn't it?
I mean, it's what?
90% Beszel?
There's some blocks of flats here that are off-limits
but that's about it.
GunterStrasz. Disputed zone.
She could've crossed illegally through there.
Witnesses saw a yellow van around here.
It all looks like a Beszel crime to me.
Maybe this is a case for Breach.
- Breach? - We need to consider every possibility.
Breach didn't manifest, sir.
It's a murder. I'd like to get on and investigate it.
You don't want me to put someone else on it?
Why?
You know why, Borlu.
I mean, GunterStrasz.
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.
And hello, cause of death.
I'll get these to a police artist.
Commenting on illegal unificationist protests today on GunterStrasz,
NatBloc leader Majoy Syedar was critical
of the coalition government's failure to deal with the rise
of what he termed dangerous and seditious activism.
NatBloc has a duty to crush all unificationist activity in our city.
Our history teaches that Beszel and Ul Qoma
can never live together.
It would be a bloodbath.
Unificationists are at best naive,
and at worst, enemies of the state.
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, innit?
Well, I'm at work. What are you doing?
I'm always working, Chief.
OK. 24 or 5, good overall health.
- Apart from being dead. - Which took place around 10pm.
That glass shard pierced her heart.
- Sexual activity? - Me or her?
Not recently. Neither of us.
Any defensive wounds?
It came quick or when she wasn't expecting it.
She had tattoos. They all do.
- Drugs? - Nothing heavy.
Just a bit of smoke, is all.
I think you should mess up her face a bit.
A bit of blood makes them sit up.
Right, let's get the poster up and see what we can find out about
Miss Nice Dead Girl, eh?
Here it comes.
Hey, thanks for asking for me.
We're short-staffed.
Right.
Be safe.
If I look hard enough at her face...
I can almost see someone else.
'Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma
Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma,
Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma, Ul Qoma.
Be safe.
Taking you down, inciting people to Breach!
Look behind me. Look behind my shoulder now.
- It's... it's Breach. - Breach, yeah.
Fuck. For Christ...
You've got to help me. We didn't see anything we shouldn't.
About time! Right. You lot!
I want all these Unificationists taken in now!
All of them! I want them down at the station.
Come on! Everybody out now!
Unificationists.
Spoiled kids who never grew up.
They don't get that the cities love hating each other.
It's what keeps us alive.
Nobody loves Breach.
But before Breach...
there was only blood.
~
How are you?
What are they saying?
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.
Do they do it?
Not in the original.
They do in the Selznik cut, of course.
What, then Breach manifests?
I'd like to see how they portray that.
You wouldn't. It's dumb.
You look like Orcs, or something.
Star-crossed lovers...
unable 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.
Are you OK?
Stupid film.
I'm tired.
'Trust in Breach.
Be safe.
Over there, sir. Yellow Mercedes, Beszel licence plates,
abandoned, unlocked.
So you've not taken anything out, no paperwork or anything?
That's how we found it.
Travel documents?
We could nick him for that as well.
So how do we know this is it?
In the back.
What's all this crap?
That's your brown stuff.
Rust.
It's her blood type. We're waiting for a definite match.
The van belongs to Mikyael Khurusch.
Yeah, I know. We found his travel documents in the van.
Naughty boy!
? Help I'm a rock
? Help I'm a rock Somebody
? Help I'm a rock Please... ?
Shouldn't I have a lawyer here?
- Where's your van, arsehole? - It was nicked.
What was all that junk in the back?
Nothing. Small-scale stuff, that's all.
- What stuff? - I trawl skips -- tellies, CDs, clobber,
whatever the other city are throwing out.
- Like this decadent crap? - Whatever people'll buy.
Where were you Tuesday night, Mik?
Tuesday?
I, er...
I can't think with this so loud!
Why did you leave your papers in the van?
Leaving Ul Qoma travel documents in a vehicle,
that's five years, arsehole.
I-I-It was a mistake.
I-I-It happens to everyone.
Here's the thing, arsehole,
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, arsehole?
Stop calling me that.
- 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 a 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'll be revoked.
How come no-one's phoning in about our girl?
It is weird. She'd have friends, family.
And how many flyers have you seen on the street?
- I don't know. A few. - Well, double the print run.
And I want to see her face in tonight's papers as well, OK?
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.
The stinking people I have to deal with.
The stinking things you smoke.
Maybe I should just stick to the Klassnikos, eh?
It was only a kid's toy.
How unsafe could that be?
You should've given it back to her.
- Hello. - Is that Inspector Borlu?
- Yeah, who's this? - A friend of...
Sorry, can you speak up?
It's a really bad line.
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? - Mahalia Geary.
She was an American, too.
Mahalia...
Geary. What, and you're a...
you're a friend of hers, yeah?
I was her best friend.
Look, can you come in and talk to me?
- It's a really bad line. - I can't.
I'm calling from outside your country.
Right. So, are you in America now or where...?
Where are you calling from?
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?
She was into all of it.
- All the underground. - What, you mean like...
she was into the Unificationists, yeah?
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?
Your poster.
- In Beszel? - Ul Qoma.
Y-Y-You can't have...?
I can. And I am.
There are no flyers...
in Ul Qoma.
I need to go.
So, what's your name?
Shit!
That was...
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, that's cos I told them to.
- Why are they keeping me here? - Because I told them to.
My friends get taken all the time, and I never see them again.
Yeah, but not today, though.
Eh?
So you owe me, and you owe me here.
You remember that.
You know this girl?
Is 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've brought Breach down on us.
The shit that she was into, it was...
What shit?
It's crap.
Like, weird, decadent Yank shit.
Like?
Orciny. Have you heard of Orciny?
Follow me.
Suppose I got a call.
Let's pretend.
A friend, you know. 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. It would make you an accessory.
I thought this was hypothetical!
The point is, I can't act on this information.
The friend, the girlfriend, was calling from Ul Qoma.
She saw the flyer in Ul Qoma.
But there aren't any flyers in Ul Qoma?
Right.
Jesus Christ on the cross!
The dead girl's name is Mahalia Geary.
She lives in Ul Qoma.
She winds up dead in Beszel.
So now you're an accessory.
- Thanks, Chief! - What?
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. It 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.
When in Beszel, see Beszel.
500 years ago,
Beszel welcomed the modern world and adopted the anglicised tongue of
the first traders.
When in Ul Qoma, see only Ul Qoma.
Welcome to Beszel. When in Beszel, see Beszel.
All visitors must report immediately to Tourist Training...
Let's do this.
Mr and Mrs Geary?
- Mr Corwi. - Er, 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.
We'll take you 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.
- Corwi. - Take those, please.
Baby-sitting duties, OK? No sightseeing.
They stay in their hotel until the official handing over
- of the body. - Well, that could take months.
Well, 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 her 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 her.
Mr and Mrs Geary,
you have to remember that Beszel and Ul Qoma are separate cities.
The authorities demand strict avert decorum.
- Do they really? - There's usually a mandatory two-week introduction
- course for visitors. - That's a load of crap.
More of your bullshit.
- John, please! - It's not just ours, Mr Geary.
Breach are a 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.
Foreigners are either bemused or irritated
by us and our laws.
This couple...
they hated us.
We had done this to their daughter.
I'm sorry about...
Reduced her to meat for the mortuary.
That's her.
That's our daughter.
Borlu.
Go and get coffees.
We've released that Unif nutter.
Well, that nutter was part of my investigations, sir.
You don't have an investigation.
You think you can 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.
I wasn't sure how you liked it, sir.
Good news?
We're referring the Geary case to Breach.
Oh, shit!
Yeah.
Looking very sharp, Mr Borlu.
Yeah, well,
- I'm the one in the dock. - Sorry to hear that, Mr Borlu.
Be safe, sir.
How long have you been a cabbie?
Provisional at the moment, sir.
I still need my Besz transport licence.
It's just waiting on police approval.
Well, maybe I can help you with it.
I'd be grateful for that, sir.
Besz favours, that's how we survive, isn't it?
Strange, isn't it, Copula Hall,
being in both cities?
It makes me feel, well, a bit guilty, I suppose.
Copula 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.
Hey!
I spoke to Khurusch, the van driver.
Yeah, well, I hope you got a stepladder
and kicked him up the arse.
I didn't need to. Someone else already had.
Someone scarier than me made him keep his mouth shut.
Yeah. My guess, it's the same someone who made him leave
his travel documents in the van.
He was set up. Have a look at this.
Especially 31-04, and 90-09.
Yeah, I know, I'm your divine fucking messenger.
You're welcome!
- Are you all right? - Yeah, absolutely, sir.
I know you're not comfortable with this.
Well, like you said, sir, it's not worth the risk.
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 Archaeology in Ul Qoma,
and was attached to the long-term dig...
at Bol Ye'an.
And then a few days ago she disappeared.
- From Ul Qoma? - From Ul Qoma.
But she 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.
~
TRANSLATOR: She was from Ul Qoma, and her body was found in Beszel...
Yes, if Mahalia was subverting the border, this must go to Breach.
Trust in Breach, absolutely.
Except, Breach didn't manifest.
No manifestation, no Breach.
These things 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 would be no need to ever invoke Breach.
Thank you, Major Syedr, this is not a political rally.
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? Thank you.
What's this, Borlu? What are you doing?
Just bear with me, sir.
What are we looking at?
It's CCTV footage from the border crossing under Copula Hall,
the night before Mahalia disappeared.
There, that's our van.
Whoever stole it was crossing over into Ul Qoma.
And... just bear with me.
Yes, 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 Copula Hall.
It looks to me like the van crossed legally.
Yes, it does, doesn't it, Major?
No breach.
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?
It seems very odd being on the same side as the major.
- You 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 favour, 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.
A girlfriend, you know, someone she could confide in?
She had lots of friends.
She was...
She was a very outgoing girl.
And 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...
- And was she? - There were always dramas, you know?
Well, that's her age, isn't it?
Do 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.
- No, you're getting it mixed up. - I'm not mixing up anything.
Sorry, did she mention TCs?
- What is that? - True Citizens.
They're an extreme right-wing nationalist group here in Beszel.
They're connected to Major Syedr's NatBloc 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. - I'll find whoever's responsible, I promise you that.
You still have the death penalty here?
I'm just, um...
- going to the pool. - Good idea.
Ground floor, sir.
Geary's coming down to the pool.
Roger that.
[Well, we can have the bags taken up to your room...]
Shit!
- Hello. - Mr Borlu, I have your long-distance person to person.
- Oh, yeah, yeah. - The call will be recorded as standard protocol.
Professor Ul-Nadi, it must be a terrible time for you all there?
Yes, we're all in shock.
Mahalia was a very special young woman.
Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to, you know,
trace any close friends of hers.
Do you have any ideas?
- Well, maybe Yolanda. - Yolanda?
Yolanda Stark, another American student here,
helping out at Bol Ye'an dig.
Right, and she...
she knew Mahalia well, did she?
Certainly. They were both fascinated by Ul Qoman mythology.
Right.
She was a real little Bowdenite.
Sorry, she was a what?
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.
He dreamed of a subversive idea of a third city
hidden between Beszel and Ul Qoma.
Orciny he called it.
Very provocative. He stirred up a lot of trouble.
His book Between The City And The City is still illegal
in Beszel, I believe.
You won't find it in any of the old...
What? Hello?
'Trust in Breach.
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.
_
- Inspector Borlu? - Senior Detective Dhatt?
Welcome to Ul Qoma.
First time in Ul Qoma?
First time in a long time.
Big changes, you'll see.
I need to find that girl who called me,
talk to anyone Mahalia knew or worked with,
find out who Geary was meeting.
TC, TC!
*CREDITS*