Laramee's words cut right to the bone, like I’d plunged into a frozen lake. And as I craned back, still pinned to the roof, the ticking sound grew deafening. Another figure stepped into view beside the stairwell—the figure I’d seen when I opened the door. It hadn’t been Laramee moving fast; there were two of them.

The man was backlit by the light of the stairs, hunched forward in joggers and a ball cap, a long face with a dark beard.

Athleisure.

My heart seized up, my vision narrowing. No. Not him. He must have been working with Laramee all along. The map card I’d given Laramee—Athleisure conveniently had one the next day.

But before I could react, Athleisure dropped to a crouch, sinking his fingers into my forearms. Dad’s watch was casually clasped around his wrist, a broken chain tattoo just like Laramee’s on the other.

Terror took flight inside me. He was going to kill me like he'd killed Aiden’s bot under the bridge. I kicked, flailed, clawed at his face, sending his wrap-around sunglasses flying.

He growled, pinning my arms back with a savage grin, a tremor in his hands. The light from the stairwell painted a sliver of his swollen face, asymmetric and inverted above me, his dead eye covered with a peeling X of electrical tape.

I shrieked, my heart fluttering in my throat. And as I craned up, staring into his good eye was like looking into Laramee’s—because it was Laramee’s.

Oh my God. Athleisure was another Laramee. Stanton wasn’t the one in Executive Guard. Dia had been talking about Laramee at the safe house—and Athleisure, the bot created in his image. His face a little fuller, maybe a few more pounds on him, but … Jeeesus.

I shuddered with a primal fear, writhing and kicking against them. But Laramee had all his weight on me, his legs crushing me against the roof.

He dug his fingertips into my mouth, levering my jaw open, his anger fading to resigned bitterness like he’d regained control of his emotions. I tasted acrid machine oil or whatever was on his fingers. My insides churned with panic.

With his other hand, Laramee drew a pair of pliers from his tool belt. “Look, I can’t send him back to my family in his degraded state. The portal cycle is nearly at its peak—our best chance at a successful transit. Please. I need the Talisman to re-flash him. I need your help.”

“Start with the molars,” Athleisure growled. “The design spec had room for it there.”

I screamed my throat ragged, my tears streaming freely, Laramee’s sandpaper fingers rooting around in my mouth. The Talisman? Inside me? They were both crazy. Laramee and his psychopath bot—the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. They were going to murder me. I had to fight back. A far-off part of me prayed Aiden couldn’t hear this.

Laramee came at me with the pliers.

I sunk my teeth into his hand.

He pulled it away with a grunt, came back at another angle, jamming the pliers into my mouth—and clamped down on a tooth. He winced like it hurt him too, like he didn’t want to be doing this.

But he didn’t stop.

Adrenaline flooded my veins, the taste of dirty metal on my tongue. I thrashed against him with all my strength. Against them. Fear blossomed in my chest as my pinned wrists were ground against the roof.

Laramee wore a deep frown, his brow lined with effort, the pliers twisting against my gums—until there was a jagged pop and an ice pick of pain in my jaw.

I howled, my back arching, the coppery tang of welling blood on my lips. He was taking my teeth. Why was he taking my teeth? How had his source gotten this so wrong?

An elusive thought danced around the edges of my mind, like the answer was in there, just out of reach. But I couldn't focus. I couldn't think.

Laramee squinted at his handiwork, inspecting the spoils. “I'm sorry, but that wasn’t it.” He flung the tooth away to skitter against the roof—and dove back in with the pliers, the heat of his knuckles pressing into my cheek.

I swung my head around wildly, trying to wrench free. My arms were on fire, my legs numb and tingling. It was futile. They were too big, too strong.

Laramee drew back, sweat and anxiety lining his brow. “Ko, I know this isn’t pleasant. Believe me, I don’t like this any more than you do. But if you can’t cooperate, I’ll have to subdue you.”

Fire bloomed in my veins and I spat a wad of blood, the taste of pennies overwhelming now. “What, like your asshole twin here subdued Aiden?” I needed to keep him talking, buy time to figure something out.

“Things got out of hand,” Laramee exchanged a frown with Athleisure. “My bot was there by himself. He doesn’t have the same … self-control he had back when we were partnered in the Guard.” His face darkened, his throat bobbing. “But let me be clear. I’ll do what I have to.”

Athleisure leaned over me with a wicked grin, one pale eye in a misshapen face, his iron grip pinning my arms back. “So will I.”

Laramee shot him a look of reproach.

Panic surged in my chest, blood dribbling through my remaining teeth.

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Before I could respond, the steel of the pliers pressed between my lips again—and bit down on another tooth.

Pop.

I screamed through the agony, my throat raw, hot tears dribbling to the roof. They were dismantling me, and I couldn’t stop them.

“Nope,” Laramee said, worry reaching his eyes, “that wasn’t it either.”

“Laramee, listen." My speech was slurred with pain, my pulse going a mile a minute. I couldn’t take any more of this. My chest felt like it was going to explode. “Please. There’s gotta be another way. How’d your bot get so messed up? Why can’t you send a mechanical model—or go see your family yourself?”

He leaned back with a complex sigh, his twin anvils still on my legs. “They deserve better than a remote-control tin man. And I wouldn’t survive the transit even now.” His gaze settled on Athleisure, and I almost saw an opening to writhe free. “But he would survive—he was designed for it. The problem is his AI was made from me, an imperfect brain scan that’s become hopelessly degraded over time. With the Talisman though, we can do a full scan this time, restore him completely.” He ground his teeth. “A destructive scan.”

Laramee was rooting around in my mouth so he could move his consciousness to Athleisure? This was madness. My gums screamed with pain and I could barely form words. What could I possibly say to talk them down? I craned back at Athleisure, a leaden knot in my belly, my last flicker of hope dimming. “You want this? Won’t you get overwritten by Laramee?”

Athleisure’s good eye regarded me, an uncharacteristic flash of grief on his bruised face. “It was my idea,” he growled. “I approached him when the stolen bot transited last week, we assumed with a smuggled Talisman. You think I enjoy living like this? Hiding off-grid, visual processing shot, my motor functions crumbling? I’ve got six months, tops. I was made from John to begin with. A restore gives me a second chance. A reset.”

“This way is best for everyone.” Laramee levered forward again, his face stony with resolve, the pliers raised. “Now lie back.”

My cheeks blazed, the ache in my gums watering my eyes. I’d failed. I hadn’t convinced them of anything. “Please, no,” I heard myself plead from far away, the haze of agony and despair overcoming me. “Please!”

Laramee dug back in, my jaw cradled in the crook of his hand, the pliers clacking against my bad tooth. “It’s almost over now. I promise.”

Wait. He’d said the Talisman was embedded in a particular bot—a model just happening to match Aiden’s. But who did I know with the exact same model bot as him? God. Damn. Could the Talisman really have been in me all alon—

Laramee levered out the tooth with a sickening crunch I felt more than heard, metal scraping through flesh, the rolling waves of pain becoming everything in the world. It really was all over for me.

He held his bloody prize aloft, a tiny light embedded in the underside fading to black.

I shuddered, my tongue exploring the aching void in my mouth.

“That’s the one.” He pinched an evidence bag, dropping in the tooth. Then he lumbered off me as my arms were released. “It’s going to be alright.”

I struggled to sit up, coughing and sputtering against the blood in my throat, my arms numb but my fists pulled tight.

Laramee’s Iriguchi was already trained on me. A foul odor from his direction made me gag.

If Dad put the Talisman in me like Laramee said, why? Shit, did Mom know? My indignance flared at such a betrayal—but I still needed the Talisman if I was going to save her. With that gun on me though …

Laramee handed the Talisman to his hunched clone, giving him a long look. “Why don’t you get started on the preparations.”

Athleisure nodded and limped toward the opened HVAC unit across the roof, lowering himself to plug his arm into a dangling bundle of wires.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” Laramee said. “I wasn’t planning on transiting my bot tonight—the cycle hasn’t quite peaked. But we’ve got the Talisman ahead of schedule, and there’s no time like the present. You stay put while we do this, and I promise you won’t get hurt.”

I spat again, blood slicking my chin. Flames smoldered behind my eyes and I willed myself to my feet. A little late for not hurting me. “You selfish asshole!” I screamed, my voice ragged, the drumbeat of pain closing in. “You never even checked on my mom at the hospital, did you?”

Laramee adjusted his grip on the outstretched Iriguchi, his eyes clouded with sorrow. “I’m sorry to say your mother isn’t going to make it. Just too much radiation. I’m so sorry, Ko.”

I gulped a silent sob and crumpled to the roof, my arms around my knees, the smoldering fire extinguished by equal parts grief and guilt. Laramee’s railgun didn’t track me on my way down.

It was all my fault. Fresh tears carved down my cheeks, joining the blood as it pattered my hoodie. I’m sorry, Mom. I failed you. I failed us. I tried, I really did. I’ll never forgive myself.

Amid the anguish, a tentative spark unfurled inside me. Maybe all wasn’t lost. Maybe there was still a way to save Mom. “When will you be done with the Talisman?”

Laramee’s eyes flickered in recognition of my ask. “It’s too late. I’m sorry. We have a buyer on the other side. I ... I need to provide for my family.”

My lips quivered, despair balling in my gut as the riot of pain in my mouth consumed me. Laramee would leave for the other world, taking my only chance at saving Mom with him. I was alone and outgunned. Matt probably hadn’t even seen the text I’d sent on the way here. Mom would die. My only solace—Laramee might kill me too once he’d transferred into Athleisure. I knew too much.

My chest tightened, the world shrinking around me like I was back in the bay flailing in the water, everything I’d worked for evaporating before my eyes.

I always had to be in the driver’s seat, didn’t I? Only ever at ease with a white-knuckled grip on the wheel. But the tighter I gripped, the more slipped through my fingers. I hadn’t let Matt do anything on the bridge—effectively sentencing Mom to death. God, if only I’d let people help me instead of doing everything myself, I might not be in this mess.

How’s this for a little dose of reality?

Matt’s final words echoed in my head. My best bet was to do what Laramee said, maybe save my own life. But with Mom on her deathbed, what was the point?

My sobs no longer silent, the city lights blurred before me. I needed to get my shit together. I wasn’t going to save anyone if I—

Wait a goddamned minute. I didn’t have cell reception, but Aiden had hacked together some way to text, right?

“Aiden,” I said, my eyes locked with Laramee’s. “Text Matt. Tell him—I need your help. Please.”

“Hey!” Laramee started toward me with the Iriguchi.

“Who’s Matt?” Aiden asked from my backpack.

My heart plummeted and I gave a great sob, the despair returning to envelop me.

“Is okay,” Aiden said. “I text all Matts.”

It was too late. Laramee would leave with the Talisman—while Mom died all alone.

But the stairwell door suddenly banged open behind me, Matt’s familiar voice calling out.

“Oh no you didn’t.”