When the implication of losing the warehouse to Otokotronics set in—that the Talisman might already be lost—everyone drifted gloomily toward the door. But not before Mom and Laramee had a tense conversation in the kitchen that included phrases like “never should’ve brought them in,” “maybe stay in your lane,” and “oh there are lanes?” I got the sense everyone blamed me for revealing our presence to Otokotronics. It didn’t feel great.

After the front door closed behind Garrett, anxious to return his dad’s bot, I waited in my bedroom for Mom to come out of the bathroom and tell me what was up with that photo. We were supposed to be done with secrets.

Shoving aside my blanket, I threw myself onto my bed in the dark. There was a tentative knock on my door and I sat up too fast, light-headed.

Mom hovered in the doorway, backlit, her pink bathrobe pulled tight. “It’s … not what you think.”

How could I go along with her plan if she didn’t even trust me? Sure, I’d kind of screwed up with the bots, as the pit in my stomach continued to remind me. But Mom’s dishonesty began well before that. “You mean you don’t actually have a secret daughter you’ve been lying about for years?”

She picked her way through the mounds of clothes between my desk and dresser, wilting onto the bed beside me. “Not exactly.”

The sheets crumpled under my hand. “Isn’t that the kind of thing where either you do or you don’t?”

“Otokotronics was doing genetics research when I worked there.” She took a sudden interest in her slippers. “And it’s possible, since I left … they’ve done a tiny bit of cloning.”

My skin tingled. “Excuse me?”

“Cloning. You know, when you take a sample of DNA—”

“I know what cloning is, Mom.” It didn’t make sense. “How would they even get my DNA?”

She slumped forward, letting her arms hang. “Our genetic code was on file—part of the conditions for employment. Otokotronics is kind of paranoid about corporate security.”

“That doesn’t explain why they’d make another me.” If this was true, and someone had copied me without my consent … This was all kinds of creepy. Ko Prime had been only a glimpse in a dumpster, but now it sounded like she was an actual flesh and blood person. Another human being with my face. I shivered, and it wasn’t just from the night air creeping through the blinds.

“You need to understand I didn’t have anything to do with … her. Their genetics program was shut down when we left fifteen years ago. We … saw to that.” She pivoted toward me, her jaw set. “But it’s possible Otokotronics has restarted the program and continued where they left off, using genetic data they already had on hand.”

“Then how the hell was she my age?”

Mom adjusted her robe. “There was a department at Otokotronics working on growth acceleration tech. But it wasn’t even in trials when I was there.”

My head swam like when it was super late and I still had hours of studying left. “How can I trust you on this after you kept all these secrets—and more just keep popping up? It’s like you don’t even trust me.”

Her expression softened and she leaned in. “It’s not a question of trust. You’ve always been so grown-up for your age, worrying about bills and your education. But like I told you yesterday, I didn’t know how you’d deal with all this. If I can spare you from the worst of it, give you the childhood you might not have had …” There was a distant look in her eyes.

I folded my arms. This didn’t make me feel better. “So you haven’t even told me everything.”

She bit her lip in frustration. “Have you even been listening to what I’m saying? I’m trying to protect you.”

“We’re way past you being able to shield me from the horrors of the world, Mom! There are murderous robots now.”

She dipped her head, her voice small. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

“First, how do you expect me to believe you had no part in cloning this girl?”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” She wrung her hands. “I knew about their genetics program, and I knew they had our data on file. That’s it.”

“Then why would she have a photo of you looking like you’d just gotten caught stealing a bottle of Bacardi?”

She gave me a thin smile in the gloom. “My best guess is somebody recruited her to smuggle the Talisman out of Otokotronics where it’d been hidden for years—and bring it to me. Except I had no idea this was going on. Hand to God!”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

My jaw was tight. Part of me wanted to buy this story, that Mom was just an unwitting delivery destination. It would be so simple. “Why you?”

“When I was a union organizer at Otokotronics, I was trying to stop them from wiping us out using bots and the Talisman. Someone on the other side must have expected me to know what to do with it. Somebody aware of Otokotronics’ migration plans and their need to keep them secret at any cost.”

The catch in her voice made me think she had someone particular in mind. I clutched my blanket. “… Dad?”

“I’d love to believe he’s anywhere other than rotting in a cell. Maybe …” She smoothed the sheets, a plaintive tone creeping into her voice. “Maybe he got out and holed up somewhere lacking an extradition treaty. He could’ve slipped back into Hungary…. So many people were displaced during the droughts and famines, the climate changing so fast. It sure didn’t help when the portals opened and the war started. But no, he’s probably not kicking around Otokotronics headquarters exfiltrating Talismans.”

I grasped my bare wrist, the spot where Dad’s watch used to be. I’d always assumed he was out there somewhere, living a life, maybe thinking of me fondly. But this wasn’t the time to be sentimental. We had dead clones to worry about. “So, in summary, this girl had a photo of you, but you’ve conveniently never met her.”

“You still don’t believe me.”

“I don’t know whether to. I need the truth from you if I’m going to do this and be part of your little club.”

She squeezed my shoulder. “You’re right. I owe you that much. The way we get through this now is together. In the union, collective action was what kept us strong. Safe.” Her arm curled around me. “I can’t lose sight that keeping you safe is the whole point of this. We really only have each other.”

A strange combination of indignance and warm fuzzies warred in my chest. “I get why you didn’t tell me everything. But I still wish you had. I really don’t like having decisions made for me.” I left out Like you always do.

“The same as when you were little.” She pushed back my hair. “If I tried to tell you it was nap time? Forget it.”

My shoulders loosened, but I still didn’t really buy her act. “Okay, so what now? If Otokotronics found the Talisman in the warehouse, we’re all dead?”

She frowned. “Let’s … assume for now they didn’t. They’ll continue retracing the girl’s footsteps to find wherever she unloaded it. We’ll need to do the same—just faster. Or else we’ll all have a big reunion when they transit Sunday night.”

There was that napkin from Mission Pizza in Ko Prime’s nest. She must’ve gone out for pizza—or met someone there. But it probably wasn’t wise to chase leads where Otokotronics was known to lurk, especially since I looked just like Ko Prime. Mom’s search crew would find the napkin anyway.

She pulled back, regarding me. “You’ve got that look in your eye like when you’re about to sneak out after curfew and/or borrow cosmetics.”

“I’m not sneaking out, Mom.”

“But I should lock up my lipstick?”

I snorted. “Is a girl not allowed to think?”

She gave me another long look. “Tomorrow we’ll reconvene. You and Matt can pilot your bots again to hunt for the Talisman, assuming the overnight crew doesn’t find it first. I powered off your console earlier because, frankly, we just needed to end that shit show. You’ll do better at a less crowded venue.”

I wiggled my big toe through a hole in my sock. It was kind of a shit show; our bots almost got captured. But I knew better now. “It seems like we’re only searching places the girl went instead of figuring out what she was doing with the Talisman.”

“We’re doing both. Stanton and Laramee are working the case. It’s just tough while keeping the rest of LYPD in the dark. I realize you’re frustrated, but we’re moving as fast as we can.” She pushed aside my blanket and extended an arm. “Come here.”

I leaned into her warmth, still salty at being lied to. “Have you talked to Laramee about the girl? Like who she is and what she’s doing here?” Maybe he’d learned something from his source.

“I haven’t told him she looked like you. I actually deleted Garrett’s replay video of her, instructed him to go easy on details during interrogation.” Mom scrunched her robe. “Look, I trust Laramee on most stuff. He recognizes the importance of family. If you ever can’t get ahold of me, he’s the person I want you calling. But he blabs everything to Stanton at the pub. They went through some real shit together in the war, and I get that. Still, Stanton always gives me a weird vibe whenever he’s not hiding behind his bot. Like he’s keeping secrets and pleased as punch about it.”

I didn’t blame her. Stanton and his buzz cut creeped me out too. Then again, so did every cop. But here I was thinking Mom’s ex-union buddies were one big happy family.

Mom pushed to her feet, drifting toward the door between stacks of thrifted romantasy novels.

I cleared my throat. “If this isn’t going to work out—you know, staying in town with your buddies to find the Talisman—we can still run, right?”

She turned back, tightening the belt on her robe. “On that topic … Today I discovered my credit cards are frozen. But it’s not just me. Others from the union have the same problem. Bank accounts, everything. I suspect Otokotronics is locking down our finances so we can’t flee—with or without the Talisman. I just don’t know how they have such pull in this world.”

My pulse quickened. “Jesus.”

“We can get help from my book club, and there’s always open houses. You know, the food they have to entice buyers. Remember that showing with the chummy real estate agent, the master bath bigger than your bedroom?” There was a wistful look in her eyes. “We had so many Aram sandwiches. Somebody’s living there now, gets to wake up and pee in that giant bathroom every morning.” The edge of yearning faded from her voice. “Money is just one more thing to worry about.” She turned to lumber toward the hall.

Otokotronics targeting our finances was bad news. But if Ko Prime was really at the center of everything, we had to follow up on her visit to Mission Pizza. I could waltz right in with one of those BrainLinked bots without fear of Otokotronics jumping me for looking like a particular dead girl. Maybe tomorrow when Mom let us search for the Talisman again, assuming she wasn’t lying about that too.

And then it hit me—I simply didn’t trust her anymore, and no amount of Q and A would fix that. But maybe I didn’t need to trust Mom to make this work. Maybe it was enough that we were on the same team. Because she was still right about one thing.

We needed each other if we were going to get through this.

Right?