“No.” Laramee met our expectant faces with a stony look that thawed after a silence. “Fine, but only because your mother has already read you in. It’s not the Talisman. It’s for finding game consoles. Uses the same tech as the robot tracking devices…. Apparently we need to work on our shielding. I haven’t seen one of these cards since before I crossed though. Otokotronics keeps tight control of them for obvious reasons.”

So the dots weren’t portals or robots after all. They were consoles.

“Why would the girl have it?” Matt asked.

Laramee rubbed his chin. “She must’ve transited with the card to track something down. Or maybe a particular someone using a console. That’s what Otokotronics used them for.”

I angled a task light out of my eyes. Was she hoping to track down Mom with the card? “Your source said the girl already had the Talisman when she transited.”

“My source suggested she had it. I didn’t get anything about her plans.” His expression hardened. “Is Janice aware the two of you are looking into this?”

Matt rummaged idly in a bin. “Oh, she’s not aware of anything, Sir. We just like doing things ourselves, don’t we Ko?”

I sighed inwardly. “Laramee, why’re you playing with disassembled robots in some lab with a bunch of consoles?”

He gripped the workbench, pulling his stool closer. “A buddy I served with owns the building, lets us pilot and service bots here. But I was working on a project—until your vehicle showed up on our security feed and I had to send out a drone. You must’ve picked up our consoles on that card.”

“What about your cop partner?” I motioned at the electronics. “Is he in on your project?”

The lines around Laramee's mouth deepened. “Stanton is more … by the book.”

If that was by the book, jeez. I’d seen enough of Stanton not to trust him. I squeezed the card to turn off the display. “What’s the project, Laramee?”

“Why are you running your own investigation without us? What are you hoping to accomplish?”

Matt folded his arms, an eyebrow lifted. “Yeah, do tell us, Ko.”

I ignored him. But Laramee was totally not sketchy sounding at all, dodging my direct question. I saw my chance and went for it. “Is your project something my mom knows about?”

Silence for a beat. The cop drew his face into a squint. “Look, it’s not anything nefarious. It’s personal.” He thumbed his ring. “I don’t think your mother would understand.”

I was sensing some history between them that he wasn’t volunteering. “What exactly are you working on?”

Matt’s narrowed eyes shifted from me to Laramee.

Some equipment kicked on, a low-frequency rumble deeper in the building. Laramee’s usually cool demeanor peeled back to reveal a grimace, anguish visible through the cracks. “I’m trying to find a way back to my family. On the other side.”

Despite myself, a pang of sympathy shot through me. “I thought it’s too dangerous for humans to transit.”

He lowered his head, a fire behind his eyes. “That’s what I’m working on—a work-around. When we fled to this world, we were young and foolish. So many lives were lost during that transit. I know better now. But your mother would say it’s still too risky, that I’m better off putting all that behind me.” He stared through me, his thumb working at his wedding band.

“And what does this have to do with the dead girl?”

“What makes you think it does?”

“I guess I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re here working on a project somehow related to stopping Otokotronics from slaughtering us all in two days.”

He stared at me, simmering.

Matt put down whatever robot parts he was fiddling with. “Did the girl have this tech you’re working on, Sir? Is that how she transited?”

Laramee shook his head grimly. “The odds of making that transit were not in her favor. It must’ve been an act of desperation. But enough questions. I need something from you two.”

My belly flip-flopped. “What?”

He extended his long hand, palm up. “The card.”

“Why?”

“You really can’t help yourself, can you?”

I waited.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Laramee finally huffed. “Anyone piloting a bot has one of these consoles.”

“You’re looking for someone,” Matt said. “Sir.”

“And you think it’ll lead you to whoever has the Talisman,” I said. “But then what?”

Laramee nearly smiled. “Do you know what your father taught me?”

My guts dropped right into my boots. The fuck? “You knew my dad?”

The cop looked introspective. Wistful. “So ... at Otokotronics I started in Reclamation, recovering leased bots gone trackerless. Your father was in R&D, took the job to pay med school loans. Whenever another storm of the century took out primary power, I’d swing by his office for the off-books bot upgrades he built to make our jobs easier. He’d drop everything, activate a pot of sencha, show me his designs. You couldn’t help getting caught up in his excitement. You knew it was good when his scruff was grown out and his desk was covered in foodpacs.”

My chest tingled. Dad was like … a real person. It shouldn’t have been surprising, but it was more than I’d gotten out of Mom in like my entire life.

Laramee continued. “Once, I tried to bring him cash. He said the upgrades were gifts to repay only with friendship. You see, your father was somehow building a thriving gift community inside the beating heart of a megacorporation. And what he hoped to teach me—teach all of us—was the importance of trust.” His wistful look faded and he fixed me with a knowing glare. “If only I’d been paying attention.”

Matt opened his mouth, only to snap it shut under my withering glare.

My fingernails dug into my palms. Laramee was invoking Dad’s name to manipulate me. “What is this, Aesop’s Fables? Did he also always floss his teeth and clean his room too?”

He frowned, waggling fingers on an upturned hand. “The card.”

“Maybe we should hand it over,” Matt said softly.

Maybe, but not out of some ill-conceived notion of duty or trust or whatever bullshit Laramee was peddling. The real move was to pump him for information in exchange for the card. I shook my head and slid it forward, my fingertips staying on it. “So the girl went to the warehouse after Mission Pizza. But how’d she actually get into the building?”

“Keypad near the door. My CI thinks she must’ve hacked it.”

But the building we’d scaled last time didn’t have a keypad near the door. Only the other warehouse did. Shit. If this informant was right, everyone had tried to break into the wrong building to find the Talisman.

Matt’s face betrayed the same realization.

Laramee frowned, looking between us. “What?”

“I … er … should’ve realized she hacked it,” I said. “My bad. But where’d she go after the warehouse?”

He regarded me for a beat. “We can’t protect you if you insist on playing detective. You don’t know how dangerous it is out there.”

Matt threw up his hands. “Thank you! Sir.”

Laramee had no idea how dangerous it was—he didn’t even know Ko Prime had my face, assuming Mom still hadn’t told him. I pulled back the stone card, fixing the cop with a glare. “You realize you’re lecturing me about going off and doing whatever I want—while you’re going off and doing whatever you want.”

He scoffed. “The difference is this is for my family.”

“And—what?—I’m doing this for kicks?”

Laramee let the question hang longer than I really appreciated. “We don’t know where the girl went after the warehouse. But she was … briefly spotted in Bayside the next day.” He spat out the sentence like it didn’t agree with him.

“Doing what?”

His eyes burned with an anger I couldn’t decipher. “Dying.”

Matt froze, and I jolted upright. Jesus. She was killed in Bayside before getting dumped behind the pizza place. I had no idea the cops had gotten so far so quickly. “Does LYPD have a suspect?”

“Without a body, LYPD is more interested in Wednesday’s officer-involved shooting with Otokotronics—and the EMP that blacked out an entire neighborhood.” Laramee gave me a dour look.

My cheeks warmed. “But you and Stanton have your own investigation.”

“And guess what we’ve found? That Otokotronics has been asking around about Garrett and the Talisman, probably thinking he got it from the girl. But they won’t stop there. It’s only a matter of time until they track down everyone Garrett has talked to on the off chance he unloaded the Talisman. That includes the two of you. Do you understand now why it’s not safe out here?”

I gulped, my skin prickling. This did sound bad. And we couldn’t even run, given Agent Summers’ extradition threat hanging over us. We needed to find something substantial about Ko Prime before Otokotronics realized I was involved. At least Laramee had helpfully drawn a perimeter around our investigation—she’d likely lost the Talisman somewhere between Mission Pizza and her murder in Bayside. Quite possibly at the warehouse with the keypad we’d accidentally ignored.

“Sir,” Matt said, “have you seen anyone with one of those hand cannon guns? Some guy chased us right after Ko found the dead girl. Pretty sure he had one.”

“He was at the Otokotronics gunfight too,” I added. “Just chilling on the roof.”

Laramee blinked rapidly, a spool of solder clenched in his hand. “Describe him.”

“Let’s see,” Matt said. “Creepy white dude about your height, Sir, maybe a little heavier. Sunglasses and joggers, tidy little beard. Swaggered around like he owned the place.”

Laramee set aside the spool, his jaw firm. A wayward screw went skittering to the floor. “He’s a dangerous bot. Unstable. You two need to stay away from him.”

I knew it! “If he’s Otokotronics, shouldn’t you be going after him?”

“I have limited room to maneuver with the recent increase in LYPD scrutiny.”

“And that concerns me how?”

Laramee peered down his nose at me. “Let me ask you something, Ko. Why do you feel such a need to disrespect an officer of the law?”

“Why, is one hiding in here?”

Matt coughed.

Laramee shook his head, really nailing the disappointed dad look.

Getting help from Laramee was like pulling teeth. If he wasn’t giving us anything else, there was no use hanging around. I knew where Ko Prime was killed now. And more importantly, Laramee had unwittingly handed me an untouched warehouse where she had ample opportunity to stash the Talisman. This could all be over soon. Only now the clock had run out, and I had to bring in Mom.

I shoved the card forward and leaned way in.

“You best keep it safe.”