When Gnosis cut power to the lower sectors, it had cut off TINA’s access to the majority of their servers. A minor setback. TINA didn’t need the servers, but they gave her breathing room. While connected, she could process data faster, multitask easier, and keep tabs on the rest of the compound.

She could still do everything she needed to do, but now it felt like she was working underwater. She’d managed, of course. After a summer spent scraping by with Emmett’s skull and a few servers, TINA was used to holding her breath.

No portion of this break-in was easy. Each part presented its own difficulties.

They’d managed to break into Gnosis and fight their way to the bottom levels. The hardest part had been doing so without killing anyone. …Hopefully Ichabod would forgive them for slaughtering the non-sentient vampire spawn. They’d also managed to convince Lock to come with them. Again, this was with minimal bloodshed, especially considering Mod and Lock’s accelerated healing.

Now, TINA guided them through the sublevels toward one of the four secret entrances of the compound. Mod led, followed by Lock, then Arsenal and Athena. This kept Lock in the center of the group, under the watchful eye of most of the team. Arsenal clearly didn’t trust him, and kept her eyes centered on Lock the entire way.

The secret entrances to Gnosis were primarily used by active test subjects. Lock confirmed as much, though he likely didn’t know that there were four secret entrances. Each path was isolated from the main compound and had its own testing grounds and biomedical labs. If a subject were to lose control, having separate facilities isolated the potential damage.

Mod’s group made quick progress through the section, steadily moving closer to the surface. Instead of Mod using his nanites to power blast doors, Lock just forced them open. Gnosis didn’t bother throwing any more test subjects or guards at them.

As the group got closer to the surface, TINA regained connections to the hijacked Gnosis servers. Her processing speed and bandwidth increased. Cameras and sensors came back online. Time slowed down and the Gnosis compound and the outside world came back into sharp focus.

It felt like coming up for air.

And with it came the realization that they weren’t finished yet.

Enola was across the compound, pacing idly near an acoustic board. TINA searched camera footage and found Enola and Ichabod having a disagreement. Without sound, TINA could only make out parts of the conversation by reading lips. Enola was angry that Subject LN was escaping and that her master hadn’t stopped them yet. Ichabod had sent her away.

Now, Ichabod was waiting for Mod’s group near the exit. He was alone, and he wasn’t hiding.

At their current pace, Mod and the others were a minute away from the surface, and TINA wanted to give them the best intel possible.

She had relatively little information about the elder vampire, so she replayed and analyzed the interactions that Mod’s group had with him, then did the same for as much Gnosis security footage as possible.

Then she analyzed his motives. Had Mod and the others caused too much damage to the facility or provoked him by destroying the vampire spawn? Was Lachlan truly too valuable to part with? Was Ichabod reconsidering their deal or had the entire thing been a lie? Perhaps he’d lulled them into the deal to use them as training data before taking them out himself?

Seconds ticked by as TINA analyzed the situation.

The results were… inconclusive.

TINA was about to send a warning to Mod and the team about Ichabod, when she extended her perception to the streets surrounding Gnosis.

Squads of biomechs and drones patrolled the neighboring blocks. The bulk of the force was concentrated around the main compound, but several squads had staked out the secret entrances. These squads were holding back just far enough not to make their target obvious to a bystander, but they couldn’t hide from TINA. She could easily see the direction of their scans.

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Biomechs and drones alone would’ve presented a challenge, but complicating things further were the squads of Summit capes interspersed through the area.

TINA knew with almost one hundred percent certainty that Ichabod hadn’t called for backup. He would want to keep information in-house—a message was sent to all employees saying as much. And Enola likely valued her position too much to contradict her boss.

This wasn’t an accident. There was a mole in Gnosis, and they’d managed to get a communication out to either the Summit of Heroes and the Binary Brotherhood. Now both were involved.

TINA spent the next several seconds identifying the nearby capes and updating her simulations accordingly.

Golden Boy was out of state on another assignment, but there was another heavy hitter among the patrols—

Kairon, a Class 3 telepath with possible ties to the Menagerie.

TINA doubted that Kairon was an assimilated part of the hive-mind. Under Summit bylaws, members of the hive-mind weren’t allowed to register as capes. The problem was that powerful psychics like the Menagerie could be infectious. Any psychic that spent too long around them would slowly be influenced until they could ultimately be taken over or assimilated.

There was very little official information about the phenomenon. So Venture and TINA had run their own simulations. The results were… damning.

Venture had long suspected that the Summit was compromised, but he never had concrete proof. Psychic energy was similar to magic in that it was difficult for artificers like them to detect and guard against. An enclosed exosuit was an effective defense, as was a synthetic brain like Mod’s.

TINA had always suspected that Venture’s increasing agoraphobia was from fear of psychics. In the last few years, there were very few people he met with in person—none of them were psychics, and each had innate resistances. Venture had been isolating himself and Clara, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud.

His concern had been valid. Until recently, Venture and TINA had assumed that non-psychics were immune to psychic infection but the Freakshow had proved those assumptions wrong. Short-term psychic control was relatively common, and worked on different principles than long-term takeover. The former was akin to changing the volume on a radio, the latter to changing the station. Hive-minds were akin to rewriting a harddrive. The Freakshow had been the gestation of a new hive-mind—one that Mod thankfully put an end to.

Still, TINA shared Dr. Venture’s concerns. Psychic powers were a blindspot in her perception, much like magic communication or the acoustic channels in Gnosis. .

And TINA didn’t like having blindspots.

Another second ticked by until TINA reached her conclusions. Their group’s overall objective remained the same:

Escape.

TINA hoped that Lachlan and Athena escaped with them. But her loyalty was to Mod and Arsenal.

As for the situation:

It didn’t matter which capes were present. The Summit would play by the rules. They would try to incapacitate and capture Mod’s group, avoiding killing and collateral damage.

The Brotherhood’s forces presented their own challenges—

But TINA had been working on a solution.

While Mod’s group was busy fighting their way down to the bottom floor, TINA had been in two places at once. Her main cluster was in Mod’s skull, but she’d left a copy of herself behind in Gnosis’s servers.

For approximately forty-three minutes, they’d had a small lab again. And TINA had used all that power to solve several problems.

SCRUBBING PROTOCOL COMPLETE

READY TO ENGAGE

TINA had already hacked into the old lab and a drone once before. All Mod had to do was get a nanite cluster in contact with a drone and TINA could infect the network with her scrubbing protocol. Then Mod’s group would be invisible to all of the lab’s automated drone surveillance.

It probably wouldn’t work on biomechs. Their brains would likely see past the gaps in their feeds. TINA found that handicap acceptable—it was easier for Mod and the others to hide from biomechs on the ground than from drones in the sky.

Another second ticked by, and TINA felt a swelling of pride.

She’d grown used to feeling proud of the humans around her. Proud of how far they’d grown and accomplished.

But this time, she was proud of herself.

Breaking-in to Gnosis had been the culmination of training and work for every member of their group—TINA among them. And now, she’d laid the groundwork for their future.

They were going to accomplish great things.

~ ~ ~