She raised her hand into the air, and her long-haired, manly avatar vanished, leaving the Medusa he knew in its place. Tom felt his body shift back to the one he was familiar with. He closed the distance, but Medusa planted a hand on his chest to stop him.
“I need to warn you about something. I don’t trust very easily. If you’re going to kiss me, if we’re going to do this . . .” Her small fist tightened on his tunic. “Tom, don’t burn me. I’ll hurt you.”
Petite as she was, fragile as she seemed, Tom knew Medusa was infinitely more fearsome than the strongest man in the world, and she meant every word she said.
“I won’t,” he vowed.
And then he kissed her.
WHEN THE TIME came, Tom saved two notes in his system files. One was for his father, one for Medusa—though he addressed it to “Murgatroid.” He didn’t write one for his mom. He considered it, but then decided she wouldn’t want it anyway.
It wasn’t that Tom thought anything would happen. He, Vik, and Wyatt had worked out their plan so carefully to make sure they returned . . . but Tom had this strange superstition that if he didn’t write them notes, he might end up meeting some terrible fate at Obsidian Corp. that would cause him to regret not having at least put his last sentiments on record somewhere.
He’d almost died there once, after all. It scared him a bit, willingly returning, but he had to. After he saved the notes, he donned his optical camouflage and headed to the vactrain to wait. While Wyatt hacked into the Interstice to arrange an anonymous, undocumented pickup time, Vik was visiting Yuri in the infirmary. He was going to place a pair of earbuds in Yuri’s ears to play a beeping sound.
If all went to plan, the transmitter in Yuri’s brain would record the audio input in Yuri’s ears, and the other transmitter in Obsidian Corp.’s system would receive it. That would give them a specific, active data imprint to search for when they tried to find that transmitter. Tom’s job was to carry the search program in his processor. He’d interface with Obsidian Corp.’s systems and use it to locate the transmitter.
Now his heart fluttered with a mixture of excitement and anxiety as he walked through the heavy iron doors to the Interstice and approached the rows of fake trees. Then he encountered the first snare in their plan.
From her reading of schematics, Wyatt explained that the optical camouflage would conceal them from the retina scanners, but the scanners must’ve been cued to activate as soon as someone strolled in the door. Green lights lashed out from the fake trees and began dancing across the wall, searching for a retina to scan.
Tom’s heart pounded as he tried to evade them, realizing he’d feel like an utter idiot, boldly announcing his plans to march right into Obsidian Corp. and free Yuri, and having some stupid retina scanners give him away before he got on the Interstice.
He was unexpectedly saved by Heather Akron shoving open the doors and marching into the room after him. The green beams of the retina scanner found her yellow-brown eyes, registered her identity, and faded away.
Tom held very still as she took her place by the glass doors gazing on into darkness. He quickly sent Vik and Wyatt a message.
Delay another five minutes.
Then he waited, monitoring Heather from under his optical camouflage. Capitol Summit had destroyed her prospects at the Spire for good. Wyndham Harks had withdrawn their sponsorship of her; the military had held an inquest to question her fitness as a Combatant. She’d been forced to quit; she’d been offered a position at the National Security Agency as a consolation prize. Officially, she’d be an analyst, but everyone knew what that meant when it came to trainees who’d washed out of the program: she’d be there to serve as a walking, talking computer, and if rumors were true, she’d be treated as such. Just like Nigel Harrison.
And then the iron doors swung open again, and someone else followed Heather inside. Tom gave a startled jerk when he saw Lieutenant Blackburn sweep into the room. Tom barely dared to breathe.
“Ms. Akron.”
Heather whipped around. Wariness filled her face. “You. What do you want?”
The green beams began to dance through the air, but Blackburn raised his thick forearm and tapped at his keyboard. The retina scanners blinked off.
What was this? Tom wondered as Blackburn drew toward her. “I couldn’t simply let you leave without a talk about that interesting file you sent me.”
“The time to talk is over,” Heather snapped. Her gaze darted toward the trees, and Tom knew from the sharp gleam in her eyes that she’d noticed the way Blackburn had switched off the retina scanners. “You didn’t intercede for me. You didn’t speak up for me. You could’ve told them I had a computer virus or that I’d malfunctioned, and you didn’t. So I’m going to show you I wasn’t bluffing.” Her eyes gleamed with spite. “I think the military will be fascinated to find out what you’ve been hiding about Tom.”
Tom caught his breath. Of course. Her blackmail of him had fallen through. . . . She must’ve tried it on Blackburn to save her own skin. It obviously hadn’t worked with him either.
“Don’t!” Heather shouted, her voice taking on a shrill pitch.
Tom leaned to the side to see them past the leafy canopy of a fake tree. Blackburn lowered his forearm keyboard, his brow furrowed. Whatever program he’d just tried to use had obviously failed.
Heather gave a scornful laugh. She flipped back her hair and held up her own forearm keyboard in a triumphant flourish. “You can’t knock down my firewall that easily, sir. Your little protégé motivated me to work very hard on this one. It’s a good thing, too. I knew you might try to stop me from getting away.”
Blackburn lowered his arm. “Nothing’s ever easy,” he breathed.
“What is it exactly you were trying to do?” Heather said mock sweetly. Hostility burned in the air between them. “You really think you can delete what I know? Not going to happen.”
Blackburn drew a breath that puffed his cheeks and blew it out slowly. “I was going to make you come with me to the Census Chamber. Then we were going to search for that string of very specific memories so I could delete them and send you on your way. I still think you’re going to come with me, Akron. You are too clever a girl to risk the consequences if you don’t.”
“You can’t throw me over your shoulder and take me up to the census device. Someone will hear. Someone will see.”
“You’re completely right. There are far too many people around, even this early in the morning, for me to haul you upstairs with brute force. You’re going to come with me willingly and allow me to tamper with your memory, because I’m not letting you leave here with what you know.”
Heather’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Tom Raines destroyed my whole life. Why are you even protecting him? Why do you care if the government finds out what he can do?”
Tom was wondering that, too.
“Tom Raines himself? He’s not why I’m here.” Blackburn leaned toward her. “Let me put this in terms you’ll understand: I’ve devoted seventeen years of my life—almost the entirety of yours—to one single purpose. It’s the sole reason I haven’t already swallowed a bullet. I recently discovered a potent weapon that could make my last, middling wishes come true, and now here you are, threatening to hand it over to my enemies. I hope you understand how desperate I am to stop you from leaving. Whatever thrill you think you’ll get from revenge, whatever it is, if you try and walk out that door, you’ll be making a deadly mistake.”