"Tasìa," Alisha screamed. "Back to planet Earth, please!"

He would kill for me. Would he really make a baby with me like he teased?

Her mother's singing voice flowed through an old English language tune, would you marry me anyway . . . would you have my baby?

"Tasìa!"

Her mother's English was so beautifully fluent and she dreamed of making it big in the States like Astrud Gilberto did so many decades ago.

That was before the Nanospores ruined everything.

If Tasìa's second test succeeded, she would have to contact her parents to arrange for the third test.

She only avoided calling them because she didn't want her affairs coming back on them. But this was too important not to involve them.

Alisha lurched her head up and pulled against the clawed restraint. Before the American spook could speak, Tasìa wagged her finger.

"Keep calm. The gremlin likely wont do anything else unless we trigger its riot response."

"Where were you just now?"

Alisha whispered that question in exasperation.

"Planning for a beautiful future."

Tasìa glanced at the display on her PA. Ninety-seven seconds. She would be cutting it close with her second test but there would never be a better time to exert some pressure then now to get real answers.

"How did you know that is a deadman switch?"

Alisha stared at Tasìa as if she were stark raving mad, but then volunteered:

"The alarm sounded. I recognized it from previous experience with them."

Tasìa laughed.

"A limited hang out, at this time? Come on. You knew of Rubin's set-up but you didn't warn me. Why?"

Alisha bit her lower lip and chewed upon her answer before she spoke. Apparently, she chose to speak the truth.

"I didn't think Beauregard would do it. Those are his asshole buddies he volunteered to kill for you."

Tasìa gave her a cold stare down as she expended a few precious seconds before speaking again.

"Is he one of you? A spook?"

Alisha shook her head fiercely.

"No. Never has he trained with the agency. The most he has ever got entangled in our affairs is the fence work he does on occasion."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"What about the second coming of Rome bullshit club, is he a member of rank?"

Alisha eyed the box of desecrated relics; she batted her lashes at them fearfully.

"Honey, I know less about them than you do."

Tasìa nodded, affirmatively; she believed her. The PA read sixty-five seconds. She slid the device in her front pocket, reached behind her ear and removed a long, thin lock pick and a pair of bobby pins.

"This little guy is not going to like it that I keep doing this to him."

She could tell by the sensor readout on its head that the gremlin was essentially innate. It only woke up on them as a feedback response to the deadman switch setting off. That action overloaded all of the electronic systems.

After that momentary flow, it shut back down. Still, that didn't do Alisha any good.

Tasìa found the two switches that locked the claw in place and kept its assembly together. That was key to the weakness of the design - when the claw clenched it talons, it had to internally reverse the center of pressure.

Hence the need of the switch placements.

"How can you be so calm?"

Tasìa shrugged. How did the Americans put it? Then she remembered!

"You and me? We are not the same."

She said as she worked the pins and leveled the lockpick in place beneath them.

She learned from the incident where the Gremlin confronted her in the ducts of Ward Ocho that the switches would only move if done in concert.

That saved an enormous amount of time.

The bobby pins were each placed folded against the tips of their respective switches. Once set in place, Tasìa worked the lock pick beneath the claw rotaries, as she carefully snagged each of the bobby pins by their curved-sided ends.

She ripped the pick back towards her and thrust downward. The claw fell loose and plunked on the floorboards.

Alisha shrieked loud. Equal parts terror and relief as she screamed, "done with this shit. So done! Done! Done!"

She quickly got up in a mad scramble, and pulled herself through a side window not even taking care to avoid the shards of shattered glass that remained in place.

There was little time left for Tasìa to focus on Alisha's minor wounds so she grabbed the netted bag, and carefully dropped it out of the side window.

The box of desecrated relics, she lifted, and delicately placed them to set steady on the window seal as she used her gymnastic core strength to roll through the window.

Tasìa took the bag and the box a good dozen yards away. A fire began to blaze through the van.

As for Alisha, Tasìa caught a glimpse of her as the spook darted down the road. She didn't even stop for the Flamenco Rosa. She just kept going.

Tasìa dropped to rest.

The PA vibrated. It was Demona.

"I believe you may have just broken my agent with that improvised interrogation."

Tasìa winced.

"Are you mad at me?"

Demona's virtual visage gave a dismissive side jerk.

"It is better that I find out now that she is likely to flake out under enormous pressure than to find out under a more crucial set of circumstances later. Still, she is now in danger. There is one who is still alive who would like to see her dead."

Tasìa stood up.

"I'll get right on it."

She glanced back to the van. Its battery was finally melting and the chemical composition sizzled loudly.

Tasìa needed to back further away from it.

"One last thing before you do," Demona continued. "I contacted Sachmilli Cuervo and he actually did the navigation involved. I want you to know that before you get angry with me."

Tasìa's lips grew pensive.

"Anything happen to Mel I should know about?"

"He's fine. But you can mark one place off of your itinerary. He dive bombed and swooped it up without the lanceros being any the wiser. I have him flying back with my neoPalm to a shed in your friend Annebél's backyard for safe keeping."

Tasìa leaned her back against the garage, and she let out a 'whew!' She glanced up the street in the direction Alisha disappeared.

A trickle of blood marked the American spook's trail. Tasìa recalled how the wound from Petro's severed finger and the accompanying bleeding drew the phase-beast's wrath upon him.

Tasìa asked:

"How many phase beasts does Fodor have left in his corral?"

"A dozen," Demona answered back.

Fodor was the vengeful sort. He had to have known of Alisha's betrayal of their operation. He would release absolute mayhem on the streets.

With that thought, Tasìa pushed off the wall and darted up the street to find Alisha before Fodor did.