A FEW HOURS SHY OF morning, we spotted a motel sign in the distance, its VACANCY light on. For dozens of miles it had been nothing more than a faraway spark, and now the sign turned the sky violet with its glow. The sight of it tangled my thoughts, knotting them with unwelcome memories of other motels, in other empty places.

“Phone lines,” I said, pointing them out. A feeling of triumph bloomed in me as I added, “At least I’ll finally be able to make my call.”

The only questions were what they’d try to do to stop me, and what they’d do when they realized they couldn’t.

As if on cue, Roman asked, “Can you pull over here a second?”

I slowed the truck, but didn’t pull off onto the rough shoulder.

Roman stared out at the motel, brows lowering in thought. “I was just thinking…maybe we should approach on foot. And not check in with the employees.”

I translated that into the crime it was. “You mean break into a room and use it?”

“The hotel manager or staff would be able to identify us to anyone who came looking,” he explained. “The kidnappers could have beaten us here and bribed the workers to call in a sighting of us.”

“That terrifying thought aside,” Priyanka said, “we also look like we escaped a murder scene, so maybe it is best to approach with some caution, especially since a hotel manager out here is likely to have some kind of gun.”

I glanced down at my shirt, my stomach turning at the sight of the blood on it.

“That too,” Roman agreed.

“Let me go ahead, then,” Priyanka said. “I’ll scope the place out, see which rooms are open, avoid rushing any horses.”

“Why don’t you both go?” I suggested innocently. “Or I can go, and the two of you can stay here.”

“Or Roman could go,” Priyanka said. “Or you and Roman could go. Thank you for helpfully laying out all the possible solutions.”

“That’s not all of them,” Roman said absently. “None of us could go, or all three of us could go together.” Seeing the look Priyanka sent his way, he said, “What? That wasn’t all of them.”

“I should go,” I said, fighting my frustration. I needed to get into one of those rooms myself, not give them time to find an excuse for why we should move on. “I could go in, make the call, and get out before anyone notices.”

“You’re the most recognizable one of us,” Priyanka said. “Someone is going to notice.”

“No one is going to notice,” I shot back, and that was the truth. I was used to moving unseen, even if I was slightly out of practice. “I have more experience with this kind of thing than you do.”

“Somehow,” Priyanka said, “I really doubt that.”

I slammed my foot down on the brake in anger, and it was the only opening she needed. Before I could get the truck moving again, she unbuckled her seat belt and jumped out, calling, “You two can enjoy coming up with all the possibilities of what could happen to me together.”

Priyanka took off at a limping run, her legs losing their stiffness as she wove through the tall grass and stray clusters of trees, making a wide arc across the field to approach the hotel from behind. Gritting my teeth, I guided the truck onto the shoulder and threw it into park.

I was shaking with frustration, and no matter how hard I gripped the wheel, I couldn’t stop.

“Tell me what that look means,” Roman said. “Are you all right?”

“No,” I said, and left it there for him to figure out.

Priyanka’s distant form reappeared at the edge of the motel’s lot twenty minutes later. As she neared, it quickly became apparent that the blood on the shoulder of her jean jacket and dress was bright, meaning fresh, and that she was holding a palm against the skin above her left eyebrow for a reason.

Roman let out a sigh and reached over to turn the engine off, taking the keys from the ignition. He slid across the seat to open the door for her. Priyanka didn’t bother climbing back in.

“Good news, bad news,” she said, way too brightly for someone with a gushing head wound. As she leaned in, I saw that her pupils were dilated again, and she had that look of almost feverish excitement. Her words seemed to chase one another out of her mouth.

Roman’s whole body tensed as he took in the sight of her. “Start with the bad.”

“Welllll, you see,” she began, “I happened to be trying to look into a room’s window to make sure it wasn’t occupied, and the manager—this little white dude—he just pops out of nowhere at me like a damn weasel. I didn’t really want to wake anyone sleeping nearby, so I followed him back to his office, playing the innocent, desperate ingenue. And, well, it turns out he’s got a little side business, this one of the narcotics variety. I basically had to knock him out, use his belt to chain him to the office’s toilet, and blockade the bathroom door.”

Theft and assault. Perfect. This was going to be so much fun to explain to Chubs.

“You call that being careful?” Roman said.

“I actually call that a citizen’s arrest,” Priyanka said. “I was just doing my civic duty in God’s country.”

“Did you at least kill the security cameras?”

She gave him a look. “You think this is the kind of joint that has working security cameras? A better question is if I stole the illicit bundle of drug proceeds out of his pocket, because, yes, I did.”

She tugged out a large roll of UN-printed dollar bills with their signature pale-blue paper and holographic security foil and tossed it to Roman, who caught it with an unhappy look.

“This isn’t going to get us much,” he said. “Maybe a tank of gas or two.”

“You’re joking,” I said, reaching for it. The weight of the bills alone told me it was at least a thousand dollars. “And anyway, you can’t keep that….It’s…evidence.”

“When was the last time you had to buy anything?” Priyanka asked. “Everything costs a hundred dollars, an arm, and a leg these days.”

“I buy…” I began to say. What had I bought recently? A scarf—a present for Cate’s birthday. But of course I wasn’t paying for food, or clothes, or gas. I was an employee of the government living in government housing. That made me lucky and grateful, not out of touch, like she was implying.

I met people almost every day and heard their stories. Things were tight with everyone while people reentered the workforce and new companies opened their doors. If a dollar didn’t buy much now, it would again soon.

“Things,” I finished lamely.

“Is this dirty money?” Roman asked, turning back to her. “Traceable?”

“Let me put it this way: either the guy is an employee of Leda Corp moonlighting as a crappy motel manager in the middle of nowhere, or he’s in deep with whatever network is set up in this zone.”

“Network? Like a crime network?” I asked. “You really do have a vivid imagination.”

“Okay,” Priyanka said. “Keep believing that. I, on the other hand, am going to believe what I actually saw: he was better stocked than most pharmacies. In either case, you should be thanking me. Now it can all be returned to the bosom of democracy and justice along with everyone’s favorite Psi sweetheart, Suzume. You’re welcome, America.”

“Hilarious,” I told her.

“I know, right?” she said. “But you won’t be laughing when I tell you that their phone lines are down.”

The words trickled through me, slowing the blood in my veins as they sank in. Roman cast an anxious look my way.

“You’re sure?” Roman asked.

Priyanka shrugged. “Must have been a storm or something.”

Of course. Anger shot through me, blistering hot. She had to have shut it off somehow. They were never going to let me call for help, not before they got whatever it was that they wanted from me.

“You’re welcome to test it yourself,” Priyanka said, all innocence.

“I think I’ll do just that,” I said as I climbed down from the truck.

“How did you reopen the cut on your head?” Roman asked, reaching over to inspect it. Priyanka shooed his hand away with her free one.

“Calm down, I’m fine. It’s a flesh wound, et cetera.”

“Did he hit you?”

She looked insulted.

“No. I mean, he put up a fight…” Priyanka began. “Well, a li’l fight. A cute struggle. It made me giggle.”

“You hit your head on a door frame again, didn’t you?”

Priyanka’s full-wattage smile dimmed, but her words didn’t slow. I could see her pulse fluttering in her throat again, too fast to be normal. “I’ll have you know I hit my forehead on the window when he jumped out of the bushes squealing at me like a little troll.”

“Wasn’t there also supposed to be good news?” I asked.

Priyanka reached into the partially torn pockets of her dress. Hooked on her index finger was the loop of an obnoxiously large wooden keychain, and a silver key. “I got us one of the bigger, and I’m assuming less shitty, rooms. I’m guessing we have about an hour before the manager wakes up and gets enough of the duct tape off his mouth to start screaming.”

Oh God.

Roman looked to me, as if waiting for my approval. I gave a reluctant nod.

Just this once…I thought, feeling smaller and smaller as I trailed after them. I remembered what this felt like, too: breaking the law, turning yourself invisible to avoid getting caught. My hands shook so hard that I had to press them flat against my sides.

I could do this again. Just this once.

Just one more time.

As Priyanka passed by me, an expected spark of electricity brushed up against my mind.

I angled toward her again, spreading that silver thread of my power out, letting it feel for a connection.

It found one.

There was something electrical in Priyanka’s pocket besides the cell phone I’d taken from the kidnapper. Something with power in its battery.

She turned toward the motel, leading the way. Roman subtly slowed and drifted back so that he was a step or two behind me. He marched me forward like the prisoner they believed I was.

But in the soft, milky light of early morning, I let a small smile touch my lips. I knew what that power signature was.

Another, different cell phone.

A chance.