When we arrived back home, Alan received a lot of berating, led by Jane, followed by lots of hugs, led by Issi. I intentionally stepped aside to grab a nutribar since Alan and I’d already had our moment. Alan was obviously feeling overwhelmed and more than a little ashamed, he disappeared into his room as soon as he could.

“I’m glad Alan’s alright, but I can’t believe he ran off like that,” Jane huffed.

“Just give him a little space, you know how Alan hates when you smother him,” I said, nibbling on my bar. Jane gave me a disapproving look, so I backpedaled, just a little bit. “Don’t let him off the hook--just give him a tiny bit of space occasionally.”

“Fine, but I’m still going to force him to sit down with me and have a discussion later,” Jane declared.

“That’s fine,” I replied, then added under my breath, “As long as it’s about dealing with hormones.”

“What was that?”

“I said I have to head topside to talk to the other samurai tomorrow. They helped me with Helen, and they already want to call in a favor.”

Jane frowned. “Isn’t that fine, though? Wasn’t most of your accelerated rollout and increased security just to deal with Helen in the first place?”

“It was, but I still have the fabricators, the construction, and a ton of other things to deal with,” I grumbled.

“Yes, yes, you’re very busy,” Jane said, patting me on the head. “Let’s be honest, though if it weren’t for the other samurai, you’d never take any breaks. Sharron practically needed to force you to participate in her barbeque. Go! Talk to your friends.”

I narrowed my eyes and considered spouting off about how Mirage was less a friend, and more the spawn of corporate devils, but just took a bite out of my bar instead. Not only would Jane not care, she’d probably find my ranting funny.

As I sat at the table, idly listening to the various discussions between Jane and the kids, my mind kept wandering back to Mirage. It was strange that he needed my help for something. There were plenty of samurai within the Family, and I wasn’t exactly a specialist.

I was so distracted that I lost track of the conversation, only to be surprised by a sudden, running hug from Issi. “Evie… play chessers with me,” the little girl whined.

I stared down at the little girl for a moment. “Do you mean checkers, or chess?” I asked.

“Technically, both,” Professor Froggington said from behind the girl. He was holding a board with a collection of both checkers and chess pieces across it. “Although she’s trying, Isabelle occasionally mixes up the rules, so she plays sort of a hybrid version of the rules.”

“Then how am I supposed to know how to play?” I asked.

“I’ll teach you!” Isabelle squealed. “It’s easy!”

I glanced at the robotic frog, who just shrugged. “It makes her happy,” it said.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh, “I don’t have any plans for this evening. So teach me how to play.”

“Eddie! It’s time for Chessers!” Issi called out in joy.

The little boy across the room frowned, “I heard. I’m glad you found someone else to play with, I’ll watch,” Eddie declared grumpily.

“Kay,” the little girl declared while placing down the board and setting pieces seemingly at random on the board. “So this is how you play…”

What followed was one of the most confusing, and chaotic games I’d ever played, which carried on late into the night. At least Isabelle loved it.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

—

The next morning, I sat down and had breakfast with the entire family before heading out to the garage. As soon as I stepped through the door, I ran into Sharron.

“Heading to the Family today?” she asked.

“Yes…” I replied, slightly confused, “but how did you know?”

“Mirage told me you were heading in and asked me to come too. I asked Aeonys to contact Nyx for more details.”

“You could have asked me directly,” I replied.

“I could have, but when I checked in last night, you were concentrating on your game with Issi,” she said with a chuckle, “and losing quite badly, might I add.”

“I just didn’t know all the rules, that’s all!” I said defensively.

“Right… So, when are you going?” she replied. It felt like she was just brushing me off, but I let it go.

“Now, I guess? I’d rather just get this out of the way as soon as possible. Do you know why Mirage wanted you to stop by? He didn’t tell me shit.” I asked as we slowly made our way across the garage towards my truck.

“He mentioned that they needed my expertise for something, whatever that means,” Sharron said with a shrug. “He wasn’t very forthcoming.”

“What else is new?” I grunted, as I opened the door and pulled myself into the driver's seat of the truck. Bob was already in the back seat, so I just had to buckle my seatbelt and wait for Sharron.

As soon as she was seated, I set the autopilot to take us to the Family compound. “Did you inform Mirage when we’d arrive?” Sharron asked once we were in the air.

“Nope… I figured they should be expecting us already,” I replied, pulling my hood low before we made it to the upper city access.

Sharron huffed. “You really should think about other people occasionally. What if Mirage is away or busy? Calling ahead could save a lot of time and effort.”

“Is this one of those upper city things?” I asked.

“It’s more of a common sense thing,” she replied with a sigh. “Fuck it, I’ll do it.” Her eyes flickered for a minute while she was on the call, only stopping when we were a few minutes out. “A member of the Family will take us to a meeting room, and Mirage will be by as soon as he’s available,” she said. I just nodded in response, doing my best to avoid looking up.

It didn’t take long for the truck to get to the Family complex, and slip into the parking garage. With the roof covering our final approach, I pulled my hood back a little, and checked the entrance. Like Sharron said, there was a man in a suit waiting for us.

I jumped down from the truck and waited for both Bob and Sharron to join me, before walking up. Unlike the last time I was here, the man was fairly composed in our presence. “I’m Adams. This way please,” the tall, stoic looking man said, swiping his card to open the doors.

He guided us through the maze of identical hallways. I noticed dozens of people rushing back and forth, between the various rooms. It gave the building a frenzied feeling, something I hadn’t experienced in my previous visits, even when Seattle was being overwhelmed.

“What’s going on?” I asked our guide as I sidestepped a staff member who was carrying far too many binders to be safe.

“Emergency situation,” Adams replied without looking back at me.

“Are you going to explain that at all?” Sharron said, stepping right up next to the man.

“I can’t. The situation is classified, and I cannot share details with other people without permission, even if you two are samurai,” he responded. “You’ll have to ask Mr. Mirage during your meeting.”

Adams turned the corner and stepped up to another one of the identical, unmarked doors, before pulling out his card to open the door. I could have sworn we went a completely different way than last time, but beyond the door was the same meeting room we used prior to Seattle.

“How the hell do you guys find your way around here? I always feel like I’m lost here,” I asked Adams before stepping inside.

“That’s intentional, ma’am. The complex is designed to be difficult to navigate unless your augs are connected to the central system. It’s for defensive purposes, I’m told.”

“Defense against who? The antithesis?” I replied, slightly confused. The man just shrugged, which might have been the first unnecessary action I’d seen him take. After I realized he wasn’t going to provide a more satisfying answer, I just stepped into the room and sat down next to Sharron.

The room was quiet, but we could still hear the activity in the hallway. “I get the feeling that there’s a lot more going on here than we were previously told,” I said, leaning back in my chair. It rocked a little, but Bob stretched out one of his paws and stabilized it before I fell.

“We’ll know soon enough,” Sharron replied. The two of us fell into silence, just listening to the chaos in the corridors while waiting for our host to arrive so we could maybe get some answers.