Get a grip, he told himself.

He'd spent another four days lounging around with the three of them, and enjoying them very fully at every opportunity. He had been telling himself it was for safety - and they really did need to lay low after the business downtown. Disappearing from public view was the sensible strategy, but on the other hand there was no excuse for not touching base with Aventine in the near future. He needed to find out where she was at, and though she wouldn't be surprised at him being careful, there was a line where reasonable delay turned into something else.

He felt like he was getting close to that line by this point.

On the morning of day five, he powered up the phone again, and sent a maximally secure text to one of Aventine's links.

WHAT'S UP? HOW'S THE WEATHER? BEEN AWAY A WHILE AND HOPE WE CAN CATCH UP - RUFUS

It ended up taking less than five minutes before he had a text waiting message. Since he was still being extra careful, it was all handled on the phone itself rather than interfaced through his visual field.

VERY BUSY. WE SHOULD MEET. DO YOU STILL PLAY CHESS? I'LL BE AT MCGOWANS SUNDAY AT 8. HOPE TO SEE YOU!

Which meant she'd be logged in to Armentaria at six PM sharp. Even though he'd had to leave his best gear at home, the deck he'd replaced it with here was easily up to a three year old title without breaking a sweat.

He spent the rest of the day waiting for six, unable to focus on anything else. He told the girls that he wanted to start putting his online life together again, and shut himself in the room with his deck, with orders to leave him alone for a while. But ended up just staring into space for most of the time, ruminating.

Very busy probably meant she had a line on a buyer. It was what he was expecting, but the clock was suddenly accelerated on giving the girls up.

I'm sure I can drown my sorrows with fifty million credits.

It was the only thing to do in any case. They couldn't spend decades together locked into a few rented rooms. This had always been a short-term arrangement from the moment he'd stolen them from their intended master.

I'd feel a bit better if I was sending them somewhere they could live their own lives too.

He snorted.

That's it, maybe a farm full of happy catgirls where they can roam freely.

It was garbage of course. They were hardware. Nobody willing to hand out tens of millions of credits for them was going to be worried about what their new property thought about the situation.

They would do whatever he told them to do, no doubt about that. But it would break their hearts.

They don't have hearts. They have very advanced AI nets.

It was an insoluble problem. He could never know if they really felt that way. They claimed they did. He'd done some reading on the topic since they'd moved in together. By any reasonable measure of informational complexity the most advanced AI hardware was comparable to a human brain now. A bit more complex, in fact. But the gap that separated their minds from his was as unbridgeable as the gap between any two humans. You just couldn't know. From a legal standpoint they had no protection since they were still classified as controlled information technologies. The big money and the expensive lawyers had seen to that. Nobody with any power had any interest in arguing about it, and AI rights was a pretty academic area. Most people had never actually met one, so it was hard to get anyone riled up about it.

By the time six PM rolled around he was grumpy and tired. Meela had brought him a plate of dinner at five, and it still sat uneaten at his side. He put on the gear and logged in without looking at it.

Aventine was in the same tavern they'd been at on the night he found the girls. Armentaria was a popular MMO with real world money at stake, so the security was decent corporate-grade, and they could talk with a reasonable expectation of privacy. But Mike wasn't in any mood to sit at a table, so he pulled her up and they set out on a stroll around town. He'd set them to private chat the moment he'd found her.

"I've been desperate to get in touch, Mike. You’ve been gone for over a month now. Things have been going nuts."

"Sorry," he said. "I've been feeling paranoid, and wanted to drop out of sight for a while."

"Understandable. From what I've heard they're still making a serious search. Not that I've heard much."

"They definitely figure it was me, huh?"

He was worried about Maria. He wished he'd had a chance to thank her for warning him.

"You disappeared, so that was a pretty big clue. Once they got in there, all the hardware in your place likely didn't help, plus whatever trace evidence. Unless you swept it before you left that day."

"Damn. Any idea if the building manager is okay? She looked out for everyone there."

"I can put out some feelers if you want."

"Maria Blavatsky. She helped me hide them."

"No shit. She's the ten percent party?"

"I hope she's alright. I want to do right by her if I can. Not interested in cutting her out."

Aventine shrugged.

"I'll see what I can do but that's pretty radioactive. Passive probing only. The rest is between you and her."

"Thanks. Sounds like you might have a buyer?"

She laughed.

"I have a bidding war is what I have."

Two huge moons hung overhead in a night sky filled with stars, and the streets were thick with people. He steered them up towards a scenic outlook that overlooked the lands beyond the town walls, stretching away into the far distance.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

He plopped down on a bench. She sat beside him, looking slinky and magical in her Witch gear.

He wasn't in any frame of mind to appreciate it though.

"How many parties?"

"Five. I'm guessing we could be looking at upwards of seventy-five million per, if we did it in three batches. Maybe more depending on how hard we twist them."

He looked appropriately impressed for her.

So we will have to split the girls up.

"Any idea who?"

"Mars is a given, probably Europa, then either the Belt or the Oort colonies. The last two are probably Earth corps. I can make some educated guesses there but it's probably not something you want to know."

"So somebody is going to be pissed at the end regardless."

"That was always going to be true."

He couldn't deny it.

There was a dragon flying across the forest in the distance. He could see it breathing vivid orange fire down on whoever it was doing battle with.

Aventine poked him and grinned.

"Here's the thing, though. I'm a freaking genius. I turned your fuckup into our ace card!"

"How so?"

"Our selling point is that they are imprinted on an owner, and that the owner is part of the transaction. Something like that was never possible when the owner was a matter of record. Nobody has to try to break them away from some rich bastard and then worry about them going nuts trying to get home. You can order them to cooperate and they will do it. The merchandise will actively cooperate with them. It's a first, and we are a very hot property as a result."

He grimaced.

"Cooperate with them to do what?"

She sighed and frowned at him.

"Whatever the new owner wants to do with them. Promptly incinerate them if they choose. It's not our concern. But you know as well as I do that they're stuffed with protected intellectual property. That's still true even if nobody can break their AI nets. Those things are solid fucking gold, Mike."

He nodded. At seventy five million per, with thirty percent off for Maria and Aventine, he was looking at... nearly 160 million credits.

That's a hell of a payday.

Aventine seemed to be examining him closely.

"I'm pretty jazzed about this, Mike. It's going to be scary as all fuck, but I've brokered a few transactions almost this big. I'll see that we have appropriate security."

He nodded.

"It's amazing. I don't know what to say. I'd be genuinely lost without you."

It was true, and he felt a little guilty at the risks she was taking on his behalf. She gave him a penetrating look.

"My cut's pretty generous too, Mike. Don't worry about me."

"So what do we do next?"

"Right now the model is that I conclude the bidding, settle with the three majors, and then we offload the cargo as fast as we can. Might take a few weeks, one at a time. I might be able to have the first one ready to go in a week or so. You good wherever you are?"

At least he could reassure her about that much.

"All is well, really. I'm in hiding with the merchandise."

She rolled her eyes and held up her palm.

"I don't want to know any more. Everyone knows what their selling points are. Having some fun is one thing Mike, but don't get yourself caught up in their little show. They're designed to get you to be as loyal to them as they are to you. Every single weakness of the male constitution was taken into consideration by the people who built them."

Mike leaned back against the bench and stared up at the stars.

The fake stars.

"I'm not a total idiot, I get it," he said. "But I'm not going to lie. It's been pretty great and I can understand the attraction."

"There's rumors about how fanatical the owners are about their catgirls. Some treat them better than actual family. You're still with us from a business standpoint, yes?"

She was all business but he could see real concern in her eyes.

"I'm here aren't I? Anyway the only way it could work for me long term is if I stay in hiding for the rest of my life. That's not an option. I wish you could come over and have Meela cook dinner for us though. She's astoundingly good."

"Pass," Aventine said instantly. "Even if it was possible. To me they sound creepy. They're like flypaper for human affection. I suppose it makes sense in one way. Some trillionaire asshole can pay for a perfect simulation of the love he'll never have in real life. Or at least that he'd ever be willing to trust from another human."

They both sat quietly for a while, watching the dragon fight. It was too far away to really see what was going on, but someone must have scored a real hit because the beast suddenly belched flame and crashed down in to the trees. Flashes of light flickered; probably spellcasters.

"Anyway, I just want to be sure you're safe and secure until we unload them."

"I think we're good."

The factor that was eating away at him finally bubbled to the top.

"But listen," he said. "I've been worrying about the night I got them. What if it wasn't a random crash? What if that transport going down was part of someone's plan, and things went sideways? That would mean someone else besides DynCorp and the government would be after them. After me."

"What brings this up? Are you holding out on me?"

He sighed, and explained the mystery text on his old phone, right before he burned it.

She reached over and punched him in the shoulder, kind of hard.

"That is disturbing," she said. "You could have led with that. It changes the picture."

"Sorry," he said. "But does it? I stay low either way."

"We need to put the gas on this business. I'll see if I can't settle things quickly. Watch your back. Maybe someone got a line on you around the time heads were turning in your direction and they were just faster on the draw. But it might be a setup too. No other signs that you're compromised?"

"I'm paranoid, but keeping us well hidden."

She was clearly still mulling on it.

"You're right though. There's chance someone else torched the transport in the first place. Cargo with that kind of value should be better protected. There must have been a problem, and then you stepped right into the middle of their plan."

"Lucky me."

She shook her head and stood up.

"Okay, touch base with me in 48 hours. I'll see if I can't have something arranged by then. I’ll very gently see if I can get a line of which of them might know more than they're letting on. Don't hesitate to send up a flare if something looks weird. I'll come running."

He stood up and reached out, grabbing her into a quick hug that she clearly wasn't expecting.

"Thanks again, honestly. Don't put yourself in any danger, okay? Worst case scenario, I order the girls to walk into the ocean and keep going until the pressure crushes them. They would do it. There's nothing going on here worth losing your life over."

She squeezed him back and then pushed herself away.

"You'll need a new identity once this is over in any case. I have some contacts for that. Let me help, alright?"

Which means, don't completely disappear, alright?

Once she was gone he slumped back down on the bench.

Why the fuck didn't I tell her about getting spotted downtown?

He didn't know. But at least she was aware of the possible problem now. It would have been unfair not to let her know that much.

It probably wouldn't have been wise to tell her that I took the girls out for a beach stroll, and fireworks, and oh right, they were dancing in public too.

It really would make him look like an idiot. "It made them happy," wasn't going to cut it as an excuse.

But the bait in the trap had said we can help. He hated to admit it even to himself, but part of him was working on a way to test whether or not that might be a reliable offer.