“You saved me,” I say. “You didn’t have to. I ordered you to keep my family safe, not me.” It was a stupid order to give, and I can only blame the drugs. I pretty much gavea sociopathic AI free rein. I imagine a bumblebee catching a ride on a plane to the East Coast to hack computers and give my sisters whatever they want, and I’m not sure whether I should laugh or shiver.
Edgar makes a derisive noise. “Last time I checked, your family included you.”
Oh. I never really thought about it that way. For the last three years, I’ve considered myself a separate entity from my family. “My family includes you, too,” I say softly. “Just so you know.”
His functional wing buzzes. “Oh. Well. Good?” He sounds bewildered.
He saved my life. The gesture may mean little to him, but it matters to me.
I’m not sure I ever make the decision to sit down. One moment I’m standing in the hallway, and then the next my back is to the wall and my legs press against the cold concrete floor.
Edgar’s good wing flutters against my palm. “You are… functional?” he asks.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sounded concerned.” With my free hand, I push back my sweaty hair. I’m a mess—bloody and bruised, fighting off the effects of a tranq dart, and the exhaustion is impossible to keep at bay.
“What are we doing now?” asks Edgar.
I look down at my hands. “I don’t know. I don’t know what the terrorists are looking for. Well, not-terrorists. Vale’s just another hacker/thief.”
“Let’s review,” says Edgar. “They came here looking forsomething called ‘Project Persephone.’ Persephone was the Greek vegetation deity, right?”
I press a hand to my mouth. “I think ‘goddess of growth and flowers’ sounds better.”
“If this Vale is going to sell infrastructure hacks to foreign powers, perhaps she needs to round out her collection with some kind of farming hack.”
I sit up straighter. “That’s… actually not a terrible theory. I hadn’t thought the name might be significant. Usually the feds just pick something pretentious. But what kind of farming hack could be valuable enough to take an entire building hostage?”
“Hacking irrigation could do irreparable damage to farmland,” says Edgar. “Or perhaps she’s after a patented GMO formula.”
“Either way, I don’t think we’ll find it,” I say. “Not trapped down here.”
Some part of me is screaming to stand up, to begin looking for a way out of here. But that voice is distant and muted. The quiet and the stillness is addictive as a drug, soothing me into inaction. All I want is to close my eyes and blot out the chaos and the danger. I want rest. I want to eat a good meal. I want Prefect to storm through those doors and rescue me. I want to have stayed in that stupid motel with the dead raccoon. I want—
I know how dangerous wanting can be. The seductive lure of it, the whisper of desire to take the easier path, to take something or change something. Ornotchange something.
We all want things we shouldn’t.
It’s how I ended up here. I wanted a weekend near Nonna. And look where that got me.
I can’t do this alone.
And I feel very, very alone.
I’m one person. I can’t save a building of people from a killer like Hannah Vale. She scares me. Here, alone in the dark, I can admit that to myself. She’s better than I am.
“Augusta?”
“I’m fine,” I say. The lie is partly for him but mostly for me. I let my head fall forward, resting on my knees.
“You look terrible.”
I snort and that hurts so badly that a soft sound of pain escapes me. My stupid nose.
“What now?” asks Edgar.
It’s a fair question but I don’t have an answer for him. “I should never have come here,” I say wearily.
Edgar crawls through my fingers and alights on my leg. “Why?”
