With his shirt half unbuttoned, Adam opened the door, and there she was, standing in the hallway.

  The tan-skinned, dark-haired girl—Juzo’s partner. The same one who had jumped out of the window that Friday night with the jetpack, disappearing for good. She was even wearing the same clothes as back then: that black T-shirt, those gold hoop earrings, the mud-splattered jeans, and those knee-high boots.

  But her demeanor was very different now.

  Gone was the beauty that had captivated him in the elevator when they first met, and the determination she’d shown while exploring the loft with Juzo. Her face spoke only of pain.

  Her attempt to hide the wound on her shoulder by letting her hair fall over it might have fooled someone like Rubén Blue, the doorman, but never Adam. Who better than a former model to know how to stand to conceal the less flattering parts of one’s body?

  Besides, the long sleeve of her T-shirt was torn and stained with blood. Ten to one that wound had something to do with a certain A60 android armed to the teeth.

  “Looks like we both need a shower,” he remarked. “Where have you been? How did you get here?”

  She responded with a gasp. Not only was she injured, but she was also exhausted.

  “As you say around here, it’s not my first rodeo, dear,” she said, staring at him for a moment. “Aren’t you going to invite a girl in?”

  Adam snapped out of his trance, stepped aside, and she walked into the loft.

  “Hey, you! Answer me!” He followed her to the bathroom. “If you’re looking for something to clean that with…” he started, but before he could finish, she opened the cabinet above the sink and grabbed some gauze and surgical tape.

  “My name is Vicky, not ‘Hey-You,’” she corrected him. “Where’s the…?” Adam pulled a bottle of alcohol out of another drawer and handed it to her. “Thanks.”

  In front of the mirror, Vicky moved her hair aside, exposing the wound on her shoulder—a red circle with scrapes and shiny traces of blood. With one hand, she lifted the torn, bloodied sleeve of her shirt; with the other, she soaked the gauze with alcohol and cleaned the wound that burned like hell.

  Adam expected her to scream, but she barely grimaced. She disinfected the wound and covered it with a makeshift bandage of gauze secured with adhesive tape.

  “What happened to you?”

  “I was attacked,” she said.

  “Oh really? And here I thought you hurt yourself playing dodgeball with one of those grenades!”

  Vicky glanced at her patched-up shoulder in the mirror. Not bad for a quick job.

  “What happened to you?” he pressed, but she waved her hand dismissively, as if to tell him to drop it. “What, you’re just gonna ignore me like you did your partner when he needed you most?”

  Vicky’s lips tightened, and as she made to leave the bathroom, Adam stood in her way.

  “You left Juzo to face that Cyclops on his own, and you turned your back on him,” he accused, voice tight with emotion and eyes brimming. “Where were you hiding, bitch? Why didn’t you come back to help him?”

  Vicky’s expression soured.

  “Call me a bitch one more time and I’ll rip your balls out, jerk,” she shot back, shoving him aside. “I already did it to one idiot today—I can do it again.”

  Adam stood still, trying to settle himself, regulate his breathing, calm the storm of emotions starting to spill over inside him. She clearly knew Juzo was dead—otherwise, she would’ve asked about him. Still…

  He glanced at the shelf, at the urn holding his brother’s ashes. He should show it to her. Or give it to her. Maybe she’d want to do something with the ashes. After all, unlike him, she’d had a real relationship with Juzo.

  Or maybe it could wait. Showing her the urn meant talking about what had happened, and he wasn’t sure he could do that yet.

  No. Standing in front of him was Juzo’s partner, and the need to confess, to own up to his share of the blame, was pounding in his chest. It was the only way to lighten the weight he was carrying, even if he wasn’t ready to talk.

  Meanwhile, Vicky circled around the coffee table—the same table Juzo had used last Friday to lay out the project files. Her head down, her mind likely drifting back to that night. Her fingers traced the surface of the table, as if searching for something Juzo had left behind—a trace, a forgotten print, something.

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  “Juzo…” she said, and when she looked up, tears welled in her eyes. “What happened to Juzo?”

  The sorrow the girl showed stopped Adam in his tracks before he could reach the shelf. He tried not to let her emotions get to him, but the image of his brother, wounded and on his knees, was too strong.

  “That night…” He cleared his throat. His words, heavy with guilt, seeped out slowly, like water through cracks in a dam. “That night, the android and some guys ambushed us, and I… Well, I ran, and Juzo…” He fell silent. He didn’t need to spell out the whole story—Vicky’s look told him that wasn’t necessary. “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “It was all my fault.”

  Vicky’s face hardened. Adam thought she might slap him—or no, punch him.

  But the punch never came.

  She sniffled, took a deep breath, and stepped away from the table—and from Adam—turning her back on him. Maybe because she didn’t want him to see how vulnerable, how hurt she really was.

  “That… doesn’t matter anymore,” she said, still facing away. “Juzo was a real soldier. He knew the risks coming here.”

  Adam still had more words of regret stuck in his throat, but he held them back. Vicky’s silence, the way she’d said it, and that ‘He knew the risks,’ made him think she hadn’t just known about Juzo’s death—maybe she’d even expected it, or at least considered it a possibility.

  He took a breath to ask her. If she hinted at it, maybe…

  No. She was still turned away, clearly asking for space, so he let it be.

  “You know what’s funny?” he said, once the tide of emotions had ebbed. “I barely had time to really get to know Juzo, but losing him… I don’t know. It hit me hard.”

  Vicky turned to face him, composed again. The pain was almost gone from her face—only deep resignation remained.

  “Yeah…” she sighed. “That was Juzo’s secret power: making people like him despite his massive smugness.”

  They both smiled, and realizing they’d shared a moment, they grew awkward. Vicky adjusted the bandage on her shoulder to avoid looking at Adam.

  “Why don’t you go to a hospital?” he asked.

  “No need. This’ll teach me not to let my guard down.”

  “Hey, and what about the A60? It’s still out there, right?”

  “The A60…” Vicky echoed, nodding. “You bet. Still out there, red eye glowing and all.”

  “Was it the one that injured you?”

  Vicky shook her head and went to the kitchen, asking if she could open the fridge. With Adam’s nod, she poured herself a glass of water and drank it all in one go.

  “That night, at the club,” she said, “the woman you told us about, the one who hurt your arm… I felt a tingling here, at the nape of my neck, and then everything went black.”

  The memory of the pale, bald woman with violet eyes flashed in Adam’s mind. That stare that had trapped him, that intimidating smile…

  “I woke up today in a small-town hospital on the outskirts of Markabia,” she continued. “Someone left me there last night, no witnesses, no security cameras catching anything… Where have I been for the last two weeks?” She shook her head and touched her temple. “There’s… nothing here. Although a nurse said they found traces of blood on my nose; I suppose Juzo told you what that could mean.”

  “Tau radiation. The Eddanian woman,” Adam said. The conversation he’d had with Mirtha at the orphanage was still fresh in his mind, and he couldn’t help but compare Vicky’s story to how he had appeared at the hospital when he was abandoned as a baby, suddenly and without anyone noticing.

  “I got my clothes back and escaped the hospital before the authorities arrived,” Vicky recounted. “I couldn’t afford to spend time in a cell; I needed to find out what happened to Juzo and you. And then, this…” She showed the wound on her shoulder. “Just a few blocks from the hospital, one of the mercenaries from the other night caught me by surprise. I’m sure they stationed him there to watch me. The good thing is, it saved me from figuring out how to get here.”

  Adam took a step back. “And how did you get here so fast?” he asked, a look of deep doubt etched on his face. “You said you woke up today in a hospital near Markabia, but there’s an entire ocean between us, and we can agree that getting a plane ticket from Pannotia to Rodinia isn’t easy for your people.”

  She smiled enigmatically. “I’ll show you if you show me what you can do.”

  Adam was puzzled. “How do you know I can do anything?”

  “Dear, because if you’re here, breathing, and Juzo isn’t, it’s because his proteins have fused with yours and the project is complete,” Vicky said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And if I was attacked so close to the place where they left me, it’s probably because the A60, or that Eddanian woman, or whoever it is, wants me away from you—so they can monitor you without interference.”

  “Monitor me?!” Alarmed, Adam glanced around, looking for something out of place, an object that shouldn’t be there; something that could hide a camera or transmitter.

  Nothing. Everything seemed in order.

  “It’s pointless.” Vicky grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Do you remember the project files Juzo had? There was such a huge photo bank on you two that they could have filled an entire album for each year. Juzo and you were monitored for almost two and a half decades! And neither of you ever knew. Right now, you could have a tracker up your butt and wouldn’t even notice.”

  Adam panicked. “So, what should I do?”

  “Nothing!” Vicky said, still amazed at his na?veté. “It’s already done. What else can you do? Go after the A60? How? For what? You think he’ll give you an explanation?”

  Her words rang true; giving in to resignation seemed like the best option for Adam at that moment.

  “Look, Adam, I don’t know the full extent of your abilities, but based on what the files said, I’m pretty sure it’s something similar to what I’ve got as a Grenadier. If an enemy shows up, I think you could defend yourself just fine.”

  “Pfft! I wish I had your confidence,” he sighed, pacing around the living room, waiting for his mind to process it all. Then a question came to him. “Hey, now that you mention those files… The missing supply—the same one that got the Project shut down before. If it’s all finished now, then… it must’ve been found, right?”

  “Clearly,” she said, gesturing at him, as if to say, ‘You’re living proof of that.’

  Adam let out a sheepish chuckle. “How silly of me! For a moment, I thought Juzo had it in his pocket.”

  Vicky gave a bemused smile. “Why would Juzo carry something like that in his pocket?”

  “I don’t know, forget it.”

  “All right,” she agreed. “So? Are you going to give me a little demonstration of what you can do, or do I have to beg you on my knees?”

  “Wouldn’t be so bad…” Adam joked. He extended his hand and, trying to hide his fear behind a serious expression, let electric currents flood his palm until they formed a handful of white flames.