It’s another three days before they sneak me out of Paz.
The delay is feel-spinning. Now that they’re finally letting me out, every minute seems endless.
Once I’m safely in Diego, they’ve promised to make me a legal person. Someone who can use the city network under my own name. I can call Col and tell him I’m okay, and I can talk to him anytime. I can ping Trin, or Teo, or anyone else in the free world. Like a normal person.
I pace my cell, wondering where they are now. Is Col still in the Amazon, or did he come to Paz to look for me? Is X still hiding in that cavern? Has he found my sister yet?
I’ll find out everything soon enough, I suppose. My Hope feels real now when I use it, not context-missing and hollow.
But it makes me reach for Melancholy too, leaving this city behind. Sometimes when I close my eyes, the floating towers are still falling. I feel like a betrayer for wanting to leave so badly.
The hour finally comes.
Security is tight, like a military operation. A convoy of three hovercars assembles in the headquarters’ loading bay, two dozen soldiers altogether. They’re in heavy battle armor, like faceless metal giants.
They lend me some light armor of my own, no weapons. The guards have fingerprint locks on their rifles, so I can’t grab one.
Our new alliance only goes so far.
As the lifting fans are warming up, the city’s avatar steps into my car. The guards don’t seem surprised. They just ease aside to let us sit together.
‘You’re coming?’ I ask. ‘Aren’t you already in Diego?’
‘We are Diego,’ they say. ‘But this avatar is being transported home. It was brought to Paz for the sole purpose of meeting you.’
‘You’re a city,’ I say. ‘Why even bother with a meat sack?’
‘To make a connection, Frey. To build trust. Humans are hardwired to bond with pretty faces.’
‘Pretty? I thought you were going for bland.’
‘We have many forms,’ they say. ‘In Diego, we get to know our littlies as toys. A stuffed dog or a floppy-armed doll.’
‘A city AI in a doll?’ I turn away to stare out the window. ‘Thanks for the nightmares.’
‘Frey, it’s all been nightmares till now. But in Diego you’ll be safe at last. That’s something you’ve really never felt before. It changes everything.’
I don’t answer that, except with the briefest touch of Focus.
The AI is wrong. Yes, I trained my whole life to be shot at, and then my own father betrayed me. But living in a new place doesn’t change my situation.
His agents will be in Diego too.
But I do know what safety feels like—with Col, out in the wild, or with X and his crew. Under the sky, away from machines that listen and watch.
With my friends.
The roof spirals open over our heads. The hovercar lifts itself up and through.
Our two escorts fall into a shifting formation, all three cars identical so they won’t know which to shoot down first. A dozen recon drones zoom off into the distance, searching the route ahead.
The sunlight hits us, and for a moment, it almost feels like freedom.
Then the windows darken against the glare.
‘You kept me locked in a room for a month,’ I say. ‘Was that supposed make me feel safe?’
‘We had a twelve-city alliance to put together—diplomacy is a slow business. More important, we had to make certain of what you were.’ The city’s voice goes soft, so I can barely hear it above the roar of lifting fans. ‘You’re his daughter, after all.’
Two hours into the journey, a dark smudge appears on the horizon.
The city avatar sees me watching it.
‘Just a forest fire,’ they say. ‘We’re halfway home.’
‘The farthest spot from any backup,’ I murmur.
I feel exposed, here in the sky. My sister and I grew up in fancy cars like this, but it turns out alleyways and ruins suit me better. I wonder if being a rebel has given Rafi the same realization.
The car shifts beneath me, banking left—away from the forest fire.
‘A precaution,’ the city says. ‘The fire created some blind spots for our recon drones. We’re steering clear.’
My right hand reaches for my feels. If something happens, I don’t want to be Calm, so I go for Vigilance.
The formation completes its unhurried turn, angling closer to the ocean. There’s only a narrow margin of coast to our west now, but we can always flee out onto the Pacific.
My fingers are itchy for a knife.
The Vigilance takes hold, and every detail crackles around me—the antiseptic smell of the hovercar, the pulse of the engines, the whine of weapons charging up. I look for clues in everything, like a rabbit in the wild.
It’s almost a relief when they hit us—a shudder passing through the car.
My stomach lurches as we fall. Then the lifting fans roar, taking us up again.
‘Tell me what’s happening!’ I shout.
‘Electromagnetic pulse. Three drones are down.’ The avatar of Diego pauses, then adds calmly, ‘This is an attack.’
‘No kidding.’ I press hard on Steadfast. My Vigilance rounds out, twitchy edges smoothed away by the battle fever roaring in my blood.
I scan the horizon—nothing yet.
‘Does he know it’s me in here? Or does he think I’m Rafi?’
‘Unclear,’ the city says. ‘No humans knew our route, only a few other AIs.’
I sigh. ‘We’ll find out soon enough. If he knows it’s me, he’ll destroy us all from orbit.’
‘He’d have to use tactical nukes. Your father’s trying to rehabilitate himself.’
‘Killing me is more important.’
The avatar looks at me. ‘Why exactly did he turn on you, Frey?’
Because I dared to live my own life, to fall in love with the enemy. But in the sharpness of battle, I realize that his hatred is partly a riddle.
For the first time, I wonder if I’m only a symbol to my father. Something bigger than myself.
‘Because I wore a red jacket,’ I say.
The avatar looks confused. ‘You wore a—’
A wild clattering fills the cabin.
I turn to the window again. A cloud of tiny glitter drones rises up around us, beating against our hull like hail.
The car ahead of us shrieks—its lifting fans battered out of shape by the shimmering swarm—then drops from sight.
A moment later, we’re in the thick of the cloud. Our pilot kills the engines, saving the blades from tearing themselves to pieces.
We’re falling.
I look around for a bungee jacket, a way out.
‘Smart-matter crashbags,’ the city of Diego tells me. ‘You’re safe.’
I’m not.
Courage. More Steadfast.
The soldiers around us are already braced for impact. But before I can ready myself, the car rebounds beneath us. Like we’re all inside a giant bungee jacket.
The lifting fans are dead silent …
Something’s grabbed us. Like the magnetic dish the rebels used to bring me and Col safely down onto the Cobra train.
A trickle of panic cuts through my feels.
‘He thinks I’m Rafi. He wants me alive.’
‘He knows the political costs of a slaughter. Don’t worry, Frey. We have twenty-four Specials, and three other cities are responding.’
‘They won’t make it in time!’ My hand closes around an imaginary weapon. ‘He knew which way we were coming. He’ll know exactly how many soldiers you have! Give me a knife!’
The city avatar straps on body armor. ‘Calm yourself, Frey.’
I don’t.
The car bumps to a halt—we’re on the ground now. Trapped. My battle frenzy is boiling in me, spinning, with nowhere to go.
‘Let me fight him. Please!’
The city of Diego stares at me a moment, with the same expression they wore during our conversations about my upbringing, about ethics and philosophy.
Finally they nod and draw a pulse knife from their armor.
It’s the one Boss X gave me. Fully charged.
‘You kept it,’ I say.
‘This is what being trusted feels like.’ The city hands me the knife. ‘Try not to get killed.’