I sleep hard but wake up early.

Even so, there’s already a spread of food in covered silver platters sitting on a cart by the door. As if little breakfast elves snuck in while we were sleeping. Fruit, pastries, some kind of porridge, hollandaise eggs, pancakes… there’s enough food for five people, and I eat most of it. Juliette’s already showered and dressed before I’m done, which for her means a fresh set of shorts and blouse. I’ll have to make do with just a shower and a shave with one of Juliette’s razors. Her bathroom is tucked inside the same shield as her expansive bedroom suite, a nice little jail cell.

But I feel a lot more human when I emerge. I still can’t believe they brought breakfast to the room.

Juliette’s perched on her bed, bent over her phone. She shrugs one shoulder. They always do that when dad locks me in.

I just stare at her for a long moment. Finally, I link to her, He does this often?

Yeah. She’s focused on her phone.

You know that’s messed up, right?

I hate my father. She thinks it casually, like this should be obvious by now. I suppose it is.

I just shake my head and pull out my own phone to scrit Aaliyah about Olivia. BABY BIRD COME BACK TO THE NEST? I’ve got to be circumspect because I’m not sure how easily Tiller can hack my phone while I’m deep inside his estate. The man is a tech billionaire, so I think the answer is easily. Aaliyah scrits back quickly. NOT YET. She knows where I am, so she’s smart enough to keep it vague and not ask questions I can’t answer. Meanwhile, I’m dying to scrit Tessa and tell her how amazing she is or how I seriously want to schedule more time together. The last thing I want is a bunch of radio silence… but I don’t dare. I can’t pull off this charade with Juliette if Tiller thinks I’m the one who’s cheating. Instead, I try to figure the odds on successfully jacking my way into and out of DARPA to bust out my mom, whether she wants to go or not. Probably zero. I could demand to see her again—that might bump it to 10% if I start out on the inside—but I need to tread carefully.

Something doesn’t add up about the whole Wright, Tiller, and my mom situation. I keep trying to sort it, but something’s off. Fact:Wright had my mom as of yesterday. Fact:Tiller knows my mom’s a jacker. Also Fact:Tiller doesn’t know I’m a jacker. He said he’ll use his evil tech to “convert” my mom, but if he has her, Wright must know—so why wouldn’t she tell him I’m a jacker? And if Wright hasn’t handed my mom over, how did Tiller get hold of her?

Maybe Tiller’s lying. Readers stink at lying, but he’s a powerful man. Maybe it’s a key skill in the high-rolling world he swims in. But lying about which part? If Tiller doesn’t have my mom, that might make sense—he wanted a bargaining chip with me, so he made one up. It wasn’t too much of a leap, given my sister went rogue-jacker, and I’ve already proven myself willing to brave a town of jackers to go after her (albeit too late). But I can’t take the chance—if Tiller has my mom, the clock is ticking until he hurts her. Badly. And the thought of that makes me lose my mind. I’m no killer, but I would cut down anyone who tried to hurt my mom with zero regrets.

I just have to assume Tiller has her until I know better.

I’m pacing Juliette’s bedroom and giving myself a headache. She’s watching her surveillance map on her phone, busy hatching plans for rescuing Sammi.

I link into her head. Any new ideas?

She doesn’t look up. We could go in through the docks. She’s talking about breaking into the north wing where Sammi is being held. The problem is we don’t know when there’s going to be a delivery. She focuses hard on her phone, growls in frustration, then brings up a holo interface that floats above the screen. She’s coding something. I can set up an alert for activity there.

Sounds good. I let her focus and go back to wishing I could scrit Tessa. Maybe I can make up something innocuous. But contact with the head of the local chapter of the Free Thinkers? That’s got to be suspicious even if we’re not scrit-kissing—

My phone buzzes with an incoming scrit.

It’s from Wolf, Major John Scott’s handle. Oh, man. I swipe it open. BOSS WANTS TO SEE YOU. The same old, no notice pickup as usual. Only I’m nowhere I can be picked up.

BUSY RIGHT NOW, I scrit back quickly.

GET UN-BUSY.

I groan and run my hand through my hair. Wright’s tracker is still somewhere in my body. She has to know where I am if she bothered to look. At a minimum, Scott must know—he’s the one coming to get me. If he comes to the estate… I’m screwed. My cover is blown. Tiller will know I’m a jacker, and it’s game over.

What? Juliette asks, looking up from her phone.

I’m jacking into the mindware on my phone to scrit, DO NOT COME GET—

Behind me, a loud click signals Juliette’s bedroom door is unlocking. I whirl around and shove my phone in my pocket all in one motion. I mentally finish the scrit and send it while the door slides open.

It’s Tiller.

I spastically remember to beam out some random thoughts from my secondary mind.

Juliette comes to my rescue. You’re the worst father who ever lived. I hate you! And I do not want to see your face in my room. Ever. She charges over from across the room and stands protectively in front of me. It’s a good play. I’m already linked into Tiller’s mind, and I can feel the reflexive anger her verbal assault conjures up. But her obvious protectiveness of me pleases him. Greatly.

I’m glad to see you two have worked things out. He means it, but he also means to rub her the wrong way with it.

Which of course it does. Juliette struggles to keep from railing at him about Sammi.

I put my arm around her shoulders but direct my thoughts to Tiller to distract him. You can’t keep us in here. Juliette has school and—

That’s unimportant. Tiller waves it off.

Juliette gets her seething emotions a little more under control. She slips her arm around my waist. You can’t keep us prisoner! Zeph has done nothing wrong. This was all… all me. All my fault. Some of the real grief from last night slips into her thoughts. It’s convincing enough that I frown and gently probe. She’s channeling her real feelings into a fake protectiveness of me… just like a pro. You’ve punished me enough, okay? Those thoughts are aimed at her father, who’s standing there like he’s king of the world and barely tolerating his subject’s insolence. You’re a hateful, horrible excuse for a human being. But I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else I care about, do you understand? Zeph is off limits!

I’m majorly impressed. Juliette, honey, I can stand up for myself—

Shut up! she snaps back.

Yeah, okay. I work hard to look chastened and not crack even a tiny bit of the smile that’s dying to come out.

A dark mental laugh is rolling out of Tiller, however, and that’s enough to kill any urge I have to smile. I’m just looking out for you, Juliette. That’s all I ever do.

Yeah, well, piss off! I’ve got Zeph to take care of me, and that’s all I need. Now disable that auto-lock on the door and let me go to school. I will not let you take away my last two days with my friends too. You’ve got what you want, now let us out.

Tiller stares at her, but he’s thinking about it. Mulling whether locking us in for longer will solidify the relationship more or put us at each other’s throats. Of course, Juliette hears all of this. She just hurls more cursing at him while he thinks it through. This is how it is with readers. They think over each other, every thought open and honest and clear—the good and the horrific all mixed—and somehow they keep it all straight. I’ve had years of practice dealing with them so I can keep up, but I’m staying out of it. Plus Juliette is doing a masterful job of warring with her father without betraying any of our plans. Which, honestly, are half-formed at best.

They come to some kind of agreement.

All right, straight to school, then I want you back here, Tiller thinks. That’s directed at Juliette. For me, he adds, I want you to apologize to Aaliyah on my behalf and let her know I’ll be sending a crew to fix her door.

Yes, sir, I link to him quickly.

My phone buzzes in my pocket at the worst possible time—it catches Tiller’s attention, even though I nudge it off. He narrows his eyes. And I expect you back here after that. I want you on call for any other security related needs I might have. There’s a vague notion about Sammi, but Tiller quickly shoves that thought away for obvious reasons—Juliette’s standing right next to me. I want to go chasing after that thought—I want to probe the heck out of Tiller’s mind and find out exactly where Sammi is and a whole lot more—but I can’t risk him sensing it.

Aaliyah sometimes has chores for me, I link quickly. Who knows how long DARPA’s going to keep me.

Fine, Fine. He waves that off. But I want you back here when you’re done.

Yes, sir.

Juliette’s still steaming at him, a low rumbling stream of curse words covering any stray thoughts about Sammi. I’m impressed with her focus.

Tiller scowls at her, but he reaches back through the doorway and taps something into a panel outside her door. I’ll see you after school. That’s for both of us. Then he turns on his heel and leaves the door open in his wake.

Juliette and I wait until he’s down the hall enough to be out of thought range.

She stops her cursing litany. We can hunt down Richards before school—

I hold up a finger while I fish out my phone. We’ve got bigger problems at the moment. I swipe it open and just stare at the words.

THEY’VE GOT THE KID. It’s another scrit from Scott.

Olivia. Wright has Olivia. No, no, no—I’ve got to go. I start toward the door then whirl back and give Juliette a frantic wave. We’ve got to go. Now! Grab your backpack.

She doesn’t hesitate, just dashes to the far side of the room, snags her bag, and races back. It’s everything I can do to not flat-out run through the estate. But I can’t make it look like we’re making a jailbreak.

What’s happening? Juliette’s mind is in a panic, but she’s keeping it remarkably cool.

It’s not Sammi, I reassure her. But the people I work for have Olivia.

What? I thought she was—

Let’s not think about it, okay? Let’s just focus on getting out of here.

She’s on that like a champ, reverting back to inventing new curses to describe her father. She seems to have an endless supply in that regard, plus it works well for the situation. We’re hustling, and we reach the front without running into Tiller. However, Richards stops us at the door.

Tiller wants you to stay close. That’s mostly directed at me.

My father said we could go to school! Now get the hell out of—

Richards calmly grabs hold of her arm and presses a small silver device to it.

Hey! Juliette’s eyes go wide, and she flinches. What the hell? Richards! She yanks back out of his grip, holding her arm where he just shot her with something.

What are you doing! I demand from Richards, shoving him away from her, which is like giving a good hard push to a brick wall. But it’s over before I even had time to react. I turn back to Juliette. Are you okay?

Yeah. She’s sending death glares to Richards.

He looks like he’s hiding a smile. Daddy wants to know where you are.

Juliette growls her frustration at him then whirls away and jogs down the steps to the waiting autolimo. I hurry after her. I don’t link anything to her until we’re inside, pulling away from the curb, and out of range of Richards, who just watches us from the front door.

Tracker? I ask.

She’s so pissed her face is turning red. Don’t worry. I’ll disable this one, just like the last. I just have to get back to my lab. Gah! He’s such a bastard!

Richards or your father?

Both!

I can’t disagree with that. But I’ve got more important things to attend to. I whip out my phone as the autolimo zips out of the estate and onto the public road.

OKAY I’M CLEAR, I scrit to Scott. MEET ME AT AALIYAH’S.

I pocket my phone again, but a moment later, it’s buzzing.

I’M BEHIND YOU.

I jerk around to look out the back window, and sure enough, there’s an unmarked white autovan following us.

Is that them? Juliette asks, wide-eyed.

Yeah. My phone buzzes again. PULL OVER.

Crap. I jack into the autolimo’s mindware interface and instruct it to pull over. Then I turn to Juliette. I’ve got to go. You need to go to school like normal then send the autolimo to Aaliyah’s. I’ll return there when I’m done.

Are you sure about this? She’s biting her lip.

No, I’m not sure. But I need her to follow the plan while I figure out how to get my sister away from Wright. It’ll be fine. And when you get out of school, we’ll have to go back to the estate anyway. By then, I’ll have a plan to get Sammi free. I hope.

She nods her agreement.

I climb out of the autolimo and pray that Scott has a plan to fix all this.

Because I’m fresh out of ideas.