It didn’t take much to convince Nova to do it. We simply told her what she wanted to hear—how special she was, how she was going to change the world. Probably the only time in her life that she ever felt important. She was so desperate that she didn’t even mind becoming one of them. Of course, she didn’t know that the virus we planted in her would kill her as well. Suicide mission, and the dumb kid didn’t even know.

—Lars Nilsson, personal diary

“Shit. We should’ve expected this. When we escaped, Ethan and Lien obviously would’ve wanted to know how. Mil and Lexa were probably only too happy to oblige them.”

The emergency tunnel we’d used to escape when Ethan and his followers had descended on the compound had been caved in by an explosion. Our secret route to the compound and Tor was completely and utterly blocked by the ruins of a small mountain.

“Now what do we do? Try to clear the debris? Try to bust our way through? We should’ve brought the bloody androids.” Oliver had been crabby enough after another uncomfortable night on the ground. At the sight of the blocked tunnel, he’d sunk onto an errant boulder and dropped his head into his hands.

“Clearing that debris could take days,” I said. “We have no idea how far back the collapse goes. I think we need a new plan. And there’s a cactus on your foot.”

Ryan looked around, shaking his head. “It’s too quiet. Why are there no scouts? Why is no one waiting for us?”

“That means Ethan has a plan,” Oliver replied, gingerly pulling the cactus away from his ankle. “Probably one which wants us in or much closer to the compound. It’s still too risky for him to meet us out here, or he’s feeling cocky. Either is a good sign for us.”

“How?” Ryan asked. “They have the advantage now—they knew that if they cut off your route here you’d have to go in through the front door, which is suicide.”

“Exactly.” Oliver looked pleased.

“Since you look like the cat who got the canary, I assume you have an alternative plan?” I asked. “Care to share? Because right now, your face is so smug it had better be an amazing plan.”

“It is. Remember the other false entrances?” he asked.

“Yes, but they don’t lead into the compound, remember?”

“No, they don’t. But I don’t think that matters. I have the diagrams here, somewhere in my mind. Give me a few minutes.” Oliver braced his hands on his knees, and his expression became distant.

“Maybe we could cause some kind of distraction? Draw them out. Maybe explosives?” Pax suggested hopefully.

“That’s not a bad idea, but how do we make them? Everything we need to make bombs is either back on the island or in the compound storage room.”

Ryan spoke up. “I can make explosives. You wouldn’t believe how many homemade bombs I saw during my time on the force. All it takes is some household chemicals, the kind that most scavengers wouldn’t be interested in. There’s a farm store a couple of miles from here.” He pointed south. “I’ll go see if I can find the chemicals we need. And I’ll also look for some shovels and trowels, just in case Oliver’s plan doesn’t work out and we have no choice but to go digging.”

As he finished speaking, Oliver came back to the present. “Okay, I have a plan that might work. Is there any way to get Tor out of wherever he is?”

“You mean rather than us going in?”

“Yes. I know we’re superhuman and all, but we’re no match for a bunch of guns. We heal quickly, but not that quickly.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “So? Can you?”

“I don’t see how. I’ve only controlled him a few times, and only for short periods. And it’s not like I can just tell him where to go.” We’d been given certain limitations to curb our amassed power, and that was mine. I could be in any of the other cyborg’s minds, but aside from being able to speak to Pax, I had no agency, no way to communicate.

Or did I?

“Actually…I may be able to give him a message,” I said slowly. “It’s not a sure thing, though.”

“None of this is,” Oliver pointed out.

“Okay, so say I can get a message to Tor. What do I tell him? What’s the big plan?”

“You know how the false entrances don’t lead into the compound, but somewhere into the mountain, like a warren? One of them crosses almost directly underneath your garden. Close enough that we could go down that tunnel and dig up into your garden floor.”

“That could work,” I agreed. “But then what?”

Pax said, “In one of the futures, Tor is in the garden, waiting for us.”

“Exactly,” said Oliver. “They’d never suspect that. We could have him out of there and be halfway back to the island before they even realize he’s gone.” He looked at me. “What do you think, A? Could you get him to come down to the garden?”

I ran through the scenario in my mind. “I’m not sure…but I can try. I’ll know if he understands or not. But then, of course, there are the issues of him being drugged and under guard. There’s no way Ethan would leave him alone.”

“Me, Cindra, Grace, and Ryan can distract them,” Pax said. “With explosives.” He looked thrilled at the idea. “When the bombs go off, they’ll all come running.”

“Yes, but the minute you start causing a distraction, Ethan will know we’ve arrived. The first think he’ll do is try to lock Tor down.” I had no doubt Ethan had instructed anyone watching Tor to take him down at the first sign of trouble.

“Well, hopefully we won’t need the distraction. And if we do, Tor’ll just have to figure it out.” Oliver’s mind was made up. “Give him the message now, before Ryan gets back, so he has time to come up with a plan to get to the garden. Let’s hope he’s as clever as he is devastatingly handsome,” he quipped, “because this will be the only chance we get.”