It was midnight in the streets of Davao.

I didn’t know how I had ended up there, and looking back, you could have convinced me I had stumbled out from the Haven in a drunken stupor. It certainly felt like it.

“Are you alright?” Shay asked.

The burner phone was different from the day before. It was a cheap plastic ripoff. Shay’s voice came through cracking. She liked calling instead of texting sometimes.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”

“Clearing your head doesn’t mean going out and meeting women. Try meditation.”

Yeah. Okay. I wasn’t sure if she was mad at me for going out alone or genuinely curious as to my love life. There wasn’t anything to be curious about, anyway. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Are you?”

Shay liked to tease me about getting with others. This wasn’t the first time she made the joke, but it was ill-timed at this hour.

“You should be asleep,” I told her. “Doesn’t Reggie have you working on BFO?”

“Not really. He’s been tight-lipped about it recently. I feel like…” She paused. “Like I’m getting shut out, you know? Like I’m disturbing someone else’s work.”

I had noticed that too. Reggie was hesitant before, but after weeks, he had taken to BFO like a pet project, and now the software felt like his own.

“I can’t blame him for working harder,” I said.

“Yeah, but you can blame him for keeping things from us.”

Shit. It was as if Shay wasn’t speaking to Reggie but to me.

The place’s name was Josie’s. It was basically a street food cafe, the kind that had no qualms serving isaw (pig intestines) and an espresso side by side. It was the kind that was open at this hour. It was also a lame attempt at blending the West and the East. The juxtapositions irked me at first, but I thought little of them when I saw her sitting there.

To my surprise, Carlotta looked unchanged from the last time I saw her. She wore her hair in a ponytail, and a tennis racket slung in its case on her back. She scrolled through reels on her phone and barely heard me take a seat across from her, not bothering to introduce myself.

“So,” she began, “that was you. Why so cryptic? I thought I was getting hacked. Why didn’t you just send an e-mail?”

I didn’t explain the obvious point to her. Maybe she was goading me to answer out loud. From the way she smiled, she could have been.

I double-checked my phone to see if Shay was still on the call. When I knew she wasn’t, I sighed. “Listen. “Have you been feeling… sick lately? Since the bug?”

She blinked. “Gosh. You’re still bringing that up?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it was serious.”

Shit. That was the wrong thing to say. Carlotta tensed in on herself. I could see she wanted to be out of there.

“I saw how you flickered,” I told her. “I mean. You stuttered, right?”

She frowned at me. “What are you talking about?”

“When I gave you the money. In the hotel. You looked up at the ceiling, and you just… stopped comprehending. Honestly, it looked like you were going to have a stroke.”

“If I felt that, I would have seen a doctor, don’t you think?” She frowned. “Why do I even bother with you people? I could easily turn you over.”

“Please don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re powerful.”

She blinked again, comprehending me like some scared cat. “Beg pardon?”

I didn’t correct her usage of the phrase. “We’re powerful, alright? We know who you are. If you tell anyone about this, we will know.”

“How will you know?”

I didn’t stutter. “Because we’re in your head, Carlotta. Right?”

Now. Listen. Just listen. I wasn’t prone to lying. I didn’t want to. Carlotta was a nice person and hadn’t done anything wrong to us. In fact, she had helped us quite a bit. But if she planned to expose us, she should know the consequences. I couldn’t let that happen to my family. If I had to bend the truth to make her act the way she should be doing anyway, so be it.

“How is that even…” she stopped and frowned. “You motherfucker.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Don’t try anything,” I said to her, staring head-on. I had no doubt Carlotta could stomp the floor with me. She looked trained in martial arts. But I had some leverage, and I would use it. “I have a gun.”

I didn’t, but she didn’t need to know that.

Carlotta had been chowing into a skewer of isaw when I arrived. She placed it on her plate now. “Okay. Okay. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Really. Maybe you just mistook me as going through something when I wasn’t.”

“I know what I saw.”

Her squint spoke volumes to me, but her following words surprised me. “You know, you’re pretty fucked up. I thought I was done with you. I didn’t even really want to do Black Fire, but I tried it, and yeah, it’s great, but I didn’t expect anyone to come after me like this.”

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“You can help me by leaving me alone.”

“No, actually, I don’t think that will help you at all.”

Carlotta looked at one of the waiters. I thought she was going to flag him. I became painfully aware of how exposed I was in this place. It wasn’t too late to text Shay and warn her I was in danger. I had come here on a whim, and I could also leave on one. Still, it seemed cowardly.

Then, she did it again. Carlotta stared off, uncomprehending. Her mouth hung open. She looked again like she’d have a stroke.

I did the intelligent thing—for once—and pulled my phone out. I recorded a quick video, hoping other people wouldn’t notice and think I’m a creep.

Then, a blink later, it was gone as quickly as it came.

“See,” I said.

She looked at me. “See what?”

“Jesus. You didn’t notice that?”

“This is really pissing me off, you know. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me exactly what’s happening.”

I pulled out my burner phone and opened the video app. “There,” I said, handing it to her. I thought only briefly that she could have run away with it and checked my texts with Shay. She could have traced my whereabouts back to the Haven with enough time. I didn’t care.

Carlotta watched the video of herself with a strange fascination, keeping the phone on the table so we could both see it. I appreciated that. “That’s crazy,” she said. “I didn’t even know that was happening. I… don’t remember any of that.”

The phone vibrated, and a text came up. I snatched it away.

Carlotta smirked. “Who’s Reggie?”

Fuck.

I didn’t have time to answer the text before the call came. It was from a number I didn’t recognize, but I knew it was Reggie.

I picked it up. “Hello?”

It wasn’t Reggie who spoke, though. An artificial, female voice dominated the line and said one phrase I wouldn’t forget.

THERE IS A FIELD AGENT IS NEARBY.

Another text, also from Reggie.

[Reggie: Dude, did you get that? Sorry, I didn’t mean to send it out.]

I looked around. Carlotta stared at me, but I ignored her, frantically texting back.

[Jayson: What the hell was that? I don’t see anyone.]

There was no reply for a minute or so. I waited impatiently, hammering my leg on the floor while Carlotta looked at me.

[Reggie: Shay just told me where you are. I thought you were here. Shit. It must have worked.]

THERE IS A FIELD AGENT IS NEARBY.

This time the message came as a text. When it did, I figured out what was going on.

[Jayson: You made this script?]

[Reggie: Yeah. Get to safety.]

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I shot up out of my seat.

“Where are you going?” asked Carlotta. “Am I free from this bullshit now or…?”

I didn’t answer, leaving through the front door. A food festival was in full swing outside. The cafe was placed right next to a dry market. There must have been hundreds of people enjoying the festivities, following the guiding lights of their selfie drones. A band played somewhere inside.

The field agent could have been anyone—the vendors, the food couriers, the group of teenagers huddled around a parking space barrier outside a 7-11. Anyone.

[Reggie: Where are you, man? We can come get you.]

[Jayson: Don’t. I’m with Carlotta.]

[Reggie: WTF. Why?]

It was a lot to explain through text, but I did my best, starting with what I’d seen in Carlotta.

[Shay has joined the group chat.]

[Shay: Jayson? We’re getting you out. I told your Uncle Nestor everything. Sorry.]

I deserved that.

Carlotta stepped out of Josie’s, having taken her coffee to go. “So, I guess this is it?”

“No, wait.” I searched through my phone again, then at my surroundings. I couldn’t wait any longer. “Come with me. We need to go.” I stuttered, thinking of reminding her that I had a gun, but I guess she had already caught me lying about that. I wasn’t the most imposing presence.

I realized what I was asking as soon as the words left my mouth. I had confessed to knowing about a condition Carlotta wasn’t even aware of, a condition that was Black Fire induced. So, it was my fault. And yet, here I was, asking her to come along.

I was prepared to offer her more money, but to my surprise, she folded her arms and nodded. “Lead the way,” she said.

I would soon find out why she was so complacent.