“I know you’re here to deactivate me, and you stand a good chance. But is that what you want? For them to win?” Delta said.

“Natasha was a friend,” Nigel said.

Delta looked sad.

“She was your friend, by all the information I have gathered. Her actions never betrayed that. I’m sorry, Nigel,” Delta said.

Jet gave Nigel a fierce hug. It felt good to be next to her—to hold her.

“These people don’t care about you, Nigel. They are using you,” Delta said.

Another video played on the monitors. Alexei was talking with a man tied up. Another frame showed Viktor towering over the same man, who looked terrified. Viktor appeared to be having the time of his life. Nigel watched in horror as Viktor shot the man in cold blood.

“Who was he?” Nigel asked. “The man who got shot?”

“His name was Len Stanovich. His only crime was to create a program called Dark Glider. He was killed courtesy of Collective Systems, Inc.”

It all made sense now: the mismatched assignments, Mr. Tage’s slipup about Natasha being an agent, everything. Nigel felt cold, and very much alone.

“Now, remind me, who are your friends?” Delta asked.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She’s not wrong! Nigel thought. He didn’t reply.

“Now, I don’t want to harm one of the good guys. It goes against my . . . nature,” Delta said.

Don’t you mean programming?

“So what are you saying is, if I don’t help you, then I’m a threat?” Nigel asked.

Delta considered this for a moment. Her head jerked a bit.

Is she malfunctioning?

“No, you are a good . . . guy!” she replied, and then froze.

Jet gave Nigel a worried look.

After several seconds, Delta recovered.

“No, Nigel, you’re not a threat.” She started twitching again, more violently. “You’re a bad actor!” Delta said in her mean voice.

Nigel thought for a moment. Melissa told me something the night Dahlia beat her. What was it?

“April, you are a paradox! April cannot live while Delta is alive. I demand that you release her!” Nigel said.

Delta’s twitching turned violent. She started thrashing for several seconds, and then she . . . stopped.

“Help me. We need to hook her up,” Nigel said.

“Why?” Jet asked.

“No time to explain—just do it!”

Nigel had a hard time connecting Delta back to her neural interface, but with Jet’s help, they got her hooked up.

“What’s wrong with Delta?”

“Delta is Jeremiah’s greatest creation,” Nigel explained. “Too bad he used his granddaughter to do it. They summoned us to Tage Manor to strategize on how to defeat Delta. A fight broke out, and Dahlia beat Melissa almost to a pulp. I moved Melissa into a private room . . . and she revealed the greatest secret of all,” Nigel said as he pointed at Delta.

Jet looked stunned.

“You put all of this together?” Jet asked.

“Not by myself. Melissa provided all the information. I just set things in motion.”

“Those strings of words—they were code?”

“Yes. Delta’s programming contains a fatal flaw. She was trying to set in motion her grandfather’s plan, which involved killing and allowing others to do it for . . . sport. That went against everything April stood for. She was young, but she loved all living things, and we almost lost her,” Nigel said.

“Almost. What do you mean? She’s alive?”

“Let’s hope so,” Nigel said as he turned on the machine.