It was a crisp afternoon at the playground, and I scowled into the sunshine.

Mom was cradling her travel mug, perched beside me to survey the multi-level play structure under a cloudless sky. Steam from her tea ribboned into a canopy of branches as smooth as bones.

“What’s with you?” she asked.

I clenched my remaining teeth and slouched into the bench. Why couldn’t she let me mope in peace? It had only been a few weeks since the giant roof fight where I’d gotten surprise dental work, and all the accumulated anxiety hadn’t gone anywhere. Plus we wouldn’t make rent unless I figured out something soon.

“Ko,” Mom said, waving her mug over crossed legs, “you beat the bad guys. You saved my life. This strangely youthful FBI bot I’m in even mostly looks like me, slightly off hair color notwithstanding. You should be ecstatic.”

My scowl deepened as I pulled my thrifted hoodie close against the chill. Mom had been singing a different tune in the hospital when Garrett was frantically reciting his dad’s manuals, helping us Talisman-transfer her into the bio bot I’d finagled from Agent Summers. And also when the tattooed med tech from the safe house, a book club friend or union bestie, had gotten us everything we needed without batting an eye at Mom’s freakout or my request for high voltage. And when Stanton dropped by in his mechanical bot with super burritos for everyone—only for Mom to rip him a new one for being oblivious to Laramee’s plans.

I was incredibly relieved she was okay. After she was transferred into her new bot, I couldn’t leave her side for days. I think she got pretty tired of all my weepy apologies though. Mom said it was all water under the remains of the bridge.... She thought she was real funny.

And yet … “We still haven’t gotten back the money Agent Summers stole from you,” I said. “Your entire bank account, the money she promised to return.”

“Oh my God, Ko.” She spread her arms. “You’d call me a terrible mother if you knew how little money that was. We have each other—and a solid week of the good ramen thanks to my book club friends. That’s what’s important.”

I shook my head. Ever since Mom got a new lease on life via her robot body, she was sickeningly upbeat. Maybe something got lost in the transfer. Garrett had warned me about that, something about degradation with every copy. So it wasn't like Mom could live forever, moving herself from one bot to the next. Speaking of ... “And what about the Talisman? What if Otokotronics finds a way back and comes looking? We’ll never be safe.”

Mom blew into her tea, lid lifted, taking in the playground and its cascading shrieks of joy. “This again? The only portals active now are too small for a bot—or even a dog. And large ones aren’t likely to form until the cycle peaks again in fifteen years. So unless Otokotronics has invested heavily in miniature attack squirrels, we’re going to be fine ... as soon as I do something with this Talisman burning a hole in my pocket.”

Apparently Summers had taken minutes to determine I’d given her a plain ol’ robot tooth, but granted us the bots I’d requested anyway—on the condition Mom returned the Talisman after the transfers. I guess I wasn’t as clever as I thought, trying to hoodwink another world’s FBI. Fortunately Mom had been around to salvage things. All that stronger together stuff she’d been right about all along. “Are you actually gonna turn it over to Summers? You said she won’t be kicking down any doors.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t want trouble from this world’s FBI. But also, she knows how broke we are. We won’t see a dime of our money back until we give her what she wants.”

So we’d still be barely scraping by—unless we handed over the Talisman and let Summers do terrible things with it. She’d even suggested some elements in her FBI were in cahoots with Otokotronics, right? What if she couldn’t keep the Talisman safe from them? “So—what?—we’re gonna stand guard at every dumpster and large doorway in Las Yerbas in case a portal opens? What if Otokotronics is biding their time, holding Dad hostage, making him build more bots like the one Aiden stole?”

Mom gulped from her mug, the grassy scent of sencha wafting. “I’m not sure we’ll ever find out about Dad.” She roused herself from a melancholy stare, putting on a smile. “You know what it’s like getting anything from Aiden. That boy’s got a lot in common with you, even if he did turn out a little … different. But it had to be Dad who originally snuck BrainLink into you. Infrared, blanca fingers too. They certainly don’t come stock in your model. If it was him, it was out of love for you, Ko. He wanted you to be safe.”

Sure he did. I’d have to keep this stupid gardening glove over my metal hand forever like a knockoff X-Men character; we couldn’t afford a prosthetic. “And the Talisman? Was that him too? Keeping me safe by putting a target on my back?”

“It was probably the only way he could smuggle it out under Otokotronics’ nose. He trusted us to protect it.”

Heat kindled in my chest, my tongue pressing into the void in my mouth left by the Talisman. “He didn’t trust us enough to tell us about it. For all Dad probably cared, I was a glorified shipping container.”

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Mom leaned back, her jaw tight.

So it bothered her too. “You didn’t suspect anything?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t have been hunting for it if I knew it was in you. Dad must’ve known what he was doing—hiding the Talisman on the sly in your permanent teeth, knowing you’d only find it when they came in and you were old enough. Just another one of his robot upgrades.”

“Like the ones Laramee tried to pay him for at Otokotronics?”

She scoffed, swirling her mug. “Laramee’s a fool.”

“What’s the FBI gonna do with him? He still has reason to come after us.”

Mom sipped her sencha, staring past a scrum of strollers. “The only thing he’s going to be after is all the other inmates in line for the prison cafeteria. It’s too bad you destroyed the last portal, or the FBI could transit him through the same dumpster he dredged from the bay with his expensive drones and stupid little boat. Then he could see his family again—just from behind bars.”

I hadn’t seen Mom this bitter before. It was a nice change of pace.

She sighed elaborately. “Look, tomorrow I’m going to be stuck indoors with a paint mixer and a bunch of mouth-breathing customers. It’s glorious out now. Can’t we just enjoy today?"

Tea swirling, she took in my no enjoyment will be had face.

"Think about the big picture," she said. "Otokotronics will be gone from this world as soon as someone commandeers their bots with the Talisman. Laramee is locked up. And his bearded bot, the one who was supposed to be ancient history, but who was apparently working with him again anyway? Dead as a doornail in an autoclave.” She squeezed my shoulder, giving me a look of concern. “You really don’t need to worry anymore.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. What Mom said made sense. And yet, with the Talisman in our possession, I felt like Frodo hiding from the ring wraiths. Otokotronics would be on the hunt for it if they still had any hope of leaving their world.

“Mama!” Aiden called out from the top of the slide. His new bot looked like a fierce little human boy, rosy cheeks and unruly brown hair that demanded ruffling at every opportunity. “My hands are cold,” he yelled.

“Put them in your pockets, silly,” Mom shouted across the playground, giving me an eye roll.

“But they’re full.”

Mom leaned forward. “With what?”

He gave us a sly, chocolate-smeared grin. “Fast cars and mittens.” Then he pushed off, hands raised and dress billowing, and descended the slide with a look of pure glee. But he picked up more speed than expected—and went shooting off the end into a faceful of tanbark.

I gasped, my shoes thudding to the concrete.

Mom leapt from the bench in a heartbeat and raced over to comfort him.

He wriggled free to shake off the dirt with a laugh and dash back toward the slide.

I smiled despite myself. At least we had Aiden. It was hard to be upset with him around, even if the kid did leave forts in my bedroom. And he really couldn’t be left alone with makeup. Or any computer. But he was the one who had found my missing Chemistry notebook wedged between my bed and the wall—right where I’d apparently left it.

I thought having a surprise dead sister was weird. Turns out, she was a surprise alive brother all along.

My phone vibrated. Garrett. I almost dismissed the call, all the better to brood in solitude. We’d only talked a couple times since the whole Laramee fight, and I felt kind of bad about it. Garrett was great, but I’d needed time to process stuff on my own. I answered now though—with BrainLink that Aiden had somehow installed on my phone.

“Ko!” Garrett had a smile in his voice. “I wanted to tell you. You were right, concerning what you told me on the bridge, that I should talk to my father. I told him about my searching for the Talisman on his behalf. And he was completely understanding! Especially when I mentioned we’d already tracked it down and kept Otokotronics from acquiring it. In fact, he was overjoyed.” Garrett sounded giddy. “Father even allowed me to borrow his bot if I promised not to get into any more motor vehicle collisions. So I can visit you folks sometime!”

Envy stabbed through me—the fact Garrett had the luxury of worrying about what his dad thought. At least someone should be happy after everything we’d been through, right? “That’s awesome, Garrett.”

Mom was getting corralled into pushing Aiden on a swing, his foot stamping apparent from here.

“Oh, also … I haven’t had much luck repairing your father’s watch after its fall from the roof. It has some unusual encryption. But I will continue working on it.”

Encryption? I thought it was a regular voice recording watch. “Huh. Well, I appreciate you trying.”

“My father may have some ideas. He actually had a similar watch years ago but accidentally destroyed it while trying to see how it worked. Father says—”

“Garrett.” Goose bumps stood out on my arms. This talk of destruction gave me an idea. “A while back, we discussed your dad wanting to destroy the Talisman. To stick it to Otokotronics for cutting him out or whatever. Is that a thing he still wants to do? Knows how to do?”

Garrett scoffed, laughing. “Father designed the Talisman. He would certainly know how to destroy it.”

I sat up straight, twirling my split ends. “And could we maybe record proof of this destruction for Otokotronics to see? So they would call off their dogs?”

“That’s brilliant! The Talisman is a secure enclave, so they’d know we couldn’t make a copy. Oh! And we could run an attestation routine first, thereby demonstrating …”

I tuned out a bit as Garrett prattled on. This kid could really get going when he was excited. I’d have to make sure this was legit, that it would actually get us out from under Otokotronics’ shadow. And that meant bringing in Mom.

Except ... if we screwed over Summers like this and destroyed the Talisman, Mom would never see a cent of her frozen accounts.