“Sera, calm down,” Motori snapped, grabbing my arm. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“He’s going to die!” I cried, tears streaming down my face. “He’ll die, and I can’t… Oh God. I can’t live without him. He can’t die! I won’t let him!”
I turned to the door, looking for a handle, but there wasn’t one. I patted the surface anyway, sliding my hands up and down in desperation. Even as I did that, my brain seized up, reason turning on through the haze of panic.
“The doors will open when we stop,” Isamu said. “Breathe, for fuck’s sake. She sent you that for a reason. What does she want?”
I clenched my shaking fists in my lap and shook my head, forcing myself to calm down. All I could think about were Dean’s words to me.I love you.He knew he was going to get captured. He knew and lied to me, and now he’d die, and I…
And I couldn’t let him go. He was more important than everything else.
“She wants me,” I said, clearing my hoarse throat. “I’m supposed to come visit her so I can say g-goodbye to Dean. In—in three hours.”
“That’s good, Sera!” Motori exclaimed, patting my forearm. “Don’t you see? We have time to think, make a plan.”
“What plan?” I snorted. “There is no plan! I have to go there. Because what’s keeping her from wiping Dean sooner? She could be doing it right now! Oh God. What do I do? Please!”
“You wait,” Motori said, patting my hand with sympathy. “Breathe, okay? You can’t save him if you don’t come to your senses.”
The car drove on, the doors locked. I shook, biting my nails and thinking frantically how to save Dean. I wouldn’t get out of there alive, that was plain, but there had to be a way to free him. What could I offer Reina? Myself, yes, but that wouldn’t work, since she’d have me either way. What else?
I had no idea.
“Gokiburi will meet us inside,” Isamu said when we neared the landfill gate. “She got a message from Dean right before he was taken. Sera, do you want to save him?”
“Of course!”
“Good. Then stayhereand let us help you. We’ll figure something out. Okay? Gokiburi is running through scenarios.”
I shook my head. “She hates me.”
Isamu huffed softly. “I let her listen to you freak out just now. She’s convinced you care for Dean and that’s why she’ll help.”
As soon as the doors opened, I jumped out of the car, racing to the gate. It opened on my approach, and I almost collided with Gokiburi on the other side. Not caring that the robot woman wasbigger, stronger, and far scarier than me, I grabbed her elbows with desperation, standing on tiptoes to get closer.
“How do I save him? Please!”
Gokiburi was silent, her golden eyes trained on my face. Then she smiled. It was cool and restrained, but kind. I tried to shake her—we had no time for smiling, for fuck’s sake!—but she was immovable.
“Such a desperate human. If Dean survives, which is unlikely, I am going to show this to him,” she said. “He’s cut off from the network right now. They must have incapacitated him. His foot is damaged, he badly needs to charge, and he wants you to know it’s not your fault. I sent his final words to your inbox. They should be a comfort in your time of grief.”
Final words.I wouldn’t listen to them. No way. There was nothingfinalabout this, not if I could help it.
I stared at her, my chest collapsing with heaving despair. “How do I save him? Please!”
Isamu stood by my side, patting my shoulder. “Gokiburi, would you please dial down your inner pessimist? Sera doesn’t need to hear the full truth.”
“No, I do.” I shook my head, grabbing Gokiburi’s hand. “Please. Tell me. Is thereanychance of him getting out of this alive and whole?”
“Three percent,” she said instantly. “And if you want to survive, too, the chances drop to under one percent.”
Motori groaned, pressing her palm to her muzzle in frustration, but I couldn’t hold back a smile.
“So there’s hope. Tell me your plan.”
“I don’t have one.”
I dropped her hand and paced, looking unseeingly at the heaps of obsolete, useless tech. “How’s Dean incapacitated?” I asked.
