Max wanted to leave the gauntlet and Zero behind, but Zero argued to bring it.

  "It's completely synced to you! And it's my power unit! I want to go with you, so you have to bring it. You don't have to wear it all the time. Only sometimes."

  Max wore the gauntlet during the car ride to the police station in morning traffic. Zero stayed in the socket in the back, where apparently she charged her battery or whatever. Max rode with his fingers stroking her smooth metal. He hadn't expected to like the little robot this much, but Zero was growing on him. After all, it was her fault that he was hiding out with strangers. But then, Zero couldn't help it. She'd been shaped by the Emperor, whatever that meant. Probably programmed or built or something. Having her in his head was kind of cool, too. She responded to some of his thoughts, but she couldn't seem to hear them all. Maybe she only heard when he thought directly at her.

  That's about right, Zero agreed. I'm attuned to the foremost frequency in your prefrontal cortex, where your thoughts are one step below speech. Any deeper would be too confusing for both of us.

  That's a relief, Max thought. At least I have some privacy in my own head.

  As they drove, he gazed out the window and worried about what the cops might do when he walked in. Arrest him instantly? Surely Watkins had reported the gauntlet stolen by now. Walking straight into the police station was like throwing himself to the wolves. Hopefully James and Indal would vouch for him.

  When they arrived, Max stashed the gauntlet in the glove box, which he thought was an appropriate place. Zero, however, insisted on riding in his pocket.

  I know you're worrying about what they might do to you. I want to be there, whatever happens.

  All right, fine, Max thought uneasily. But you have to stay in my pocket and don't move.

  She made a hard, uncomfortable lump in the pocket of his jeans. Indal advised him to pull his shirt down over it.

  "We have to go through a metal detector, though," said Indal. "Won't it pick her up?"

  Don't worry, Zero assured Max. I can foil any detection field.

  "She says it won't notice her," said Max.

  Inwardly he groaned. He was being asked to trust people, and it scared him more than being caught by the Cult of the Dawn. Trusting Indal, trusting Zero, meant that they could let him down at a moment's notice. Or stab him in the back. Everyone else he had ever trusted had broken that trust: his mother, Omniscient, other runners … Everyone he had ever come into contact with. Well, he would give it a trial run. If he trusted Indal and Zero, and he walked out of the station after this meeting, then maybe, just maybe, he'd trust them in the future.

  Max followed James and Indal into the police station, although the formal stone building made his stomach squirm. The last time he had been here, it had been in handcuffs. If his parole officer was here, he was history.

  But nothing happened. James went to the nearest window and asked about his appointment, then they all walked through the metal detector. True to her word, Zero went undetected, even when a cop waved a detector wand up and down their bodies, searching for Atlanticite. Nobody looked twice at Max.

  They were taken to an office where Detective Argent waited for them. A woman with flowing golden hair sat beside his desk, her prosthetic leg stretched awkwardly in front of her. Max recognized her and gulped.

  I feel your discomfort, Zero said in his mind. Who is she?

  Dawnlight, Max said. Superhero analyst on HeroTube. She nearly cracked Omniscient's ring by herself. All us runners hated her because she was so smart.

  What about Detective Argent? Zero asked.

  He worked with Jayesh to take down Omniscient, Max thought resentfully. I know we were criminals, but … I don't have to like the cops who caught us.

  James greeted Argent and Dawnlight like old friends. "Hey, guys! Wait, Illianna, are you the suspect I'm supposed to meet?"

  "No," said Dawnlight with a small smile. She studied Indal for a moment, then turned to Max. Her blue eyes seemed to stare straight through him. Max dropped his gaze and shuffled his feet.

  "Oh, this is Max," said James. "We rescued him from the Cult of the Dawn and we couldn't exactly leave him behind."

  Dawnlight turned to Argent and they whispered together for a moment. Then Argent folded his hands and rested them on his desk. “What do you know about Elephon Olaro?”

  James shrugged. “Media mogul, used to run Magishard Industries. Borderline mafia don. Scumbag who kidnapped me and a couple of friends all the way from Atlantis last year.”

  Max blinked. He'd watched the videos about Olaro's mysterious disappearance. It had caused quite a sensation on HeroTube at the time.

  “Mm-hm," said Argent. "Any idea why he may have done that?”

  James hesitated and looked at Max, as if unwilling to share the information in front of him.

  "It's fine," Indal told him. "If the kid doesn't know now, he's going to find out."

  Max looked questioningly at Indal, then James. They were talking secrets here. "Should I leave?"

  "Nah, don't bother," James said. "It's about the Lost Isles." He turned back to Argent. “Olaro wanted access to the Lighthouse. Said it would give him world-changing power. He wasn’t wrong.”

  Argent nodded. “And do you know where he is now?”

  “Uh." James again gave Max an uneasy look. “I tricked him into entering a portal … to somewhere.”

  “Somewhere.” Argent raised an eyebrow at Dawnlight.

  “My fault,” Dawnlight assured him. “I told James to open a portal to somewhere he’d never been or seen. I had no idea it would lead there.”

  James glanced between the two. “Okay, seriously, what’s going on? What did I do?”

  Argent leaned back in his chair, apparently satisfied. “Nothing I wouldn’t have done in your position, with your power. Unfortunately, it seems the Law of Unintended Consequences has come back to bite us all in the butt. That portal that Olaro went through? It went to Tyrona.”

  James looked blank for a moment. Max, however, had heard the word so often from the Cult of the Dawn that he recognized it instantly. His heart sank, fast.

  James finally caught up. The blood drained from his face until his freckles stood out like a rash. “Wait. The Atlantean Exiles’ world? He got sent there?”

  Argent and Illanna nodded in unison.

  “Well… crap." James shook his head and laughed a little. "He’s probably dead by now.”

  Argent chuckled. “Oh no, he’s not dead. Though he certainly wishes he were. And he most definitely wishes you were.”

  There was a short silence. James gulped audibly.

  Argent rose to his feet. "He's in the interrogation room, waiting for you. The rest of you can watch from the observation room."

  Max found himself in the observation room a few minutes later. It was just a small room with a few chairs that smelled of cigarettes and stale sweat. The window in the wall was one-way glass that looked into the interrogation room. A shriveled old man with stringy gray hair sat at the metal table, his handcuffs chained to a metal loop.

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  "Never thought I'd be on this side of the glass," Max muttered to Indal.

  "What an education you're getting," Indal remarked with a smile.

  Dawnlight had accompanied them, walking carefully on her prosthetic leg. Now she stood at the window, gazing at Elephon Olaro with her arms folded. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen," she muttered. "He used to be a formidable enemy, always two steps ahead of everyone else. And now … look at him. The Emperor left him in ruins."

  "How did he get back to Earth?" Indal asked.

  Dawnlight shook her head. "They only said that they found him wandering somewhere in Phoenix. I suppose he escaped through an unattended waygate."

  "Or was sent," said Indal grimly.

  Max watched as Olaro tugged at the handcuffs and then slapped at his wrists, as if attacking enemies that weren't there. His eyes never stopped moving. His head swiveled in nervous jerks, like a bird's. When the outer door opened and James entered the interrogation room, Olaro's wandering gaze fixed on him. His hands curled into claws, and he bared his teeth, as if wishing to leap from the chair and tear out James's throat.

  “Well well well," Olaro snarled, "if it isn’t the self-made hero, here to look down on a fallen rival.” His voice rasped badly, as if he had damaged his vocal chords with months of screaming.

  “Whatever,” James replied. He didn’t sit down, but paced slowly across the room and back. Olaro watched his every move.

  James gestured at the handcuffs. “You brought this on yourself, you know. Kidnapping us. Blackmailing Xironi. Getting me fired so I'd be compelled to join your network. Then you had the nerve to rip my shard out!"

  "So you threw me to the Emperor?" Olaro said, his voice cracking. "He tore me apart, piece by piece, James Chase. You've had your revenge, all right. The few paltry things I did to you were nothing–nothing!--to what the Emperor did to me."

  James pointed to himself. “You think I wanted to send you there? You think I wanted to deliver someone of Landorian descent into the hands of the people who hate his kind more than anyone in the freaking universe? That power was still new to me. Heck, I’m still learning what I can do.”

  Olaro sneered, the hatred on his face changing to scorn. “And yet you think you can control a machine that can shape the world to your wishes.”

  Max glanced at Indal and Dawnlight, hoping one of them would explain this. But they were listening in silence.

  Zero, what's he talking about?

  I'm not sure, her thought replied. But I do know of the Lost Isles. Let's see what else they say.

  The drama in the interrogation room continued.

  “It’s not about control," James retorted. "It’s about protecting that power from people who would abuse it." He pointed at Olaro. "People like you.”

  Olaro sneered. “You still have no idea how it works, do you?”

  James folded his arms. “I have a better idea now than I did when you were still chasing after its power.”

  Olaro flexed his hands in their cuffs, his fingers curled into claws. “I would have used its power to protect the world from what’s coming. You still have no idea what’s out there. What comes for you and everything you want to protect.”

  James leaned onto the table and into Olaro’s face. “Try me.”

  Olaro leaned forward until they were nearly nose to nose. “The king of old. The very myth upon which the tales of the Calamity are founded.”

  “Solaris?”

  Olaro nodded.

  James abruptly backed away and resumed pacing. “You know, for someone who ran a HeroTube network, you’re way behind on current events.”

  Olaro’s face shifted from a smug look of I know something you don’t to one of wait, what? in the space of about five seconds.

  James continued. “You’ve been gone for about a year, give or take, so let me fill you in on some recent history. The Mercurion has been found. Its crew has fought off not one, not two, but three hostile takeover attempts. Wolfhead died during the third such attack. Solaris has been psychically influencing people on Earth to build waygates, likely in preparation for a mass invasion. We don’t know how he’s still alive after all this time, but we’re going to stop him. We have to.”

  Olaro stared for a moment. Then he began giggling, a high, crazed sound. “If you know that much, you know it’s hopeless. He’s coming for you. I told them all about you, you know. The fledgling Islesworn. Of course, they all thought I was lying. ‘How could there be a new Lighthouse?’, they asked me. But I told them everything I knew anyway. That’s why he’s coming for you. He’s going to claim dominion over the entire world, and everything you care about, everyone you love, will serve the Emperor or die. Oh, but it would be such a shame to see little Xironi, her will and body broken--”

  A metallic crash filled the room.

  Olaro’s gaze traveled from James’ enraged face to his hands on the metal table. Magic blazed from both of them, green aurora licking across the table and darkening the metal.

  “I am Islesworn,” James growled. “Xironi Heartlight is under my protection, as is the Lighthouse. I swore to defend them. Doesn’t matter if it’s from you, or some death-defying wannabe Emperor. Now, we can start talking about any useful intel you might have for those of us who want to protect Earth from Solaris, or we can see what gamma rays do to the human body. Your choice."

  "James," Dawnlight whispered on a warning note.

  For a moment, the pair faced each other over the table. Then Olaro grinned. "I made you a job offer once. I'm offering it again, Islesworn. Help me destroy the Cult of the Dawn and cripple the Emperor's operation, and I'll give you all the information anyone could ask for."

  James straightened and moved away, still playing with his green aurora. "What's the catch?"

  "The catch is that we can't win," said Olaro. "I just told you, nothing can stop Solaris now. But he needs his precious Cult, and if they collapse, it'll set back his timeline by years." He jerked a thumb at his chest. "I'm Landorean. I understand why my people hate his kind so much. So you know what? Let's deal. I want him dead, you want him dead. Let's destroy the Cult of the Dawn."

  James and Olaro again locked eyes for a few long seconds. Max watched, holding his breath, waiting for James's reply.

  "All right," James said at last, with a glance toward the one-way window. "The best place to keep a snake is where you can see it. What's your plan?"

  "Tell the guards to give me a pencil and paper," said Olaro. "There's a lot. It will take time."

  The drama was over. James asked for paper and returned with two guards and Argent, who questioned Olaro on his plans. Olaro said that he would write it down so he didn't have to repeat himself. Bickering ensued, and Olaro got his way. He filled out sheet after sheet of paper, both sides, sometimes with writing, some with diagrams and lists.

  Max sat in one of the smelly armchairs. Dawnlight sat in the other, stretching out her prosthetic leg with a groan. They sat in silence, Max afraid to look at her for fear of being recognized.

  Inside his head, he whispered to Zero, I don't know what the old man was talking about, but it worries me. All the stuff about shaping the world to your wishes. I thought it was a metaphor, but James acted like it was a real thing.

  I know, Zero agreed. I know the Lost Isles are powerful, but I didn't know they were capable of that.

  What are the Lost Isles?

  Atlantis built several magitech-based floating islands, Zero replied. Each one has a different function: defense, offense, support, and so on. All but one were destroyed in the Calamity that sank Atlantis. If the Mercurion has already fought off three takeover attempts …

  The Mercurion?

  That's the offensive island. It sounds like James owns a second one, but I'm not sure which it is. Olaro seems to have tried to take it from him once already.

  Max crossed his arms and thought about this. It was so far outside his own small, lonely world that his whole mind seemed to latch onto the idea of secret, flying islands armed with magical superweapons. It was fantastic, something unbelievable from a movie, not real life. But he had just witnessed James and Olaro snarling at each other over it. It put the Cult of the Dawn into clearer perspective. Instead of being a quasi-religious group, they were bent on world domination alongside their master, Emperor Solaris.

  He thought of John Walter Watkins coming after him with that needle, and felt cold and sick inside. At the time, he hadn't been afraid because he didn't understand the Cult that well. Now, in retrospect, he was terrified. He had stolen unattuned armor from a Cult leader … armor that would have helped Watkins usher his master back from exile. Max would have a target painted on his back for the rest of his life. Did he dare go to work, even?

  Hey, Zero's thoughts said alongside his own. Don't be afraid. I'm here.

  But it's because you're here that I'm afraid, Max replied. They'll kill me to take you away.

  Not if we kill them first, said Zero cheerfully.

  Max mentally gave her a hard negative. NO. I'm not going to kill people. Neither are you.

  He focused on Zero, waiting for her reply. To his surprise, he realized that he could feel her thinking. He had expected her to operate like a computer, processing data. Instead, he felt her mind, similar to his own, full of worry and a sense of protectiveness. She thought about his order not to kill, considered several possibilities, then said, May I hurt our enemies, then? I could damage their arms and legs so they couldn't harm you.

  That would be okay, he replied. I just don't want either of us to be murderers.

  All right, said Zero.

  Something about her changed, then. Max wasn't sure what it was, but something in her being brightened and grew stronger. He sensed her more clearly, now, as if she stood at his shoulder and spoke into his right ear.

  Did you used to be human? Max thought.

  No, Zero replied. I'm me. I've been reshaped, that's all.

  What's that mean?

  Something the Emperor did to me. I don't know how. It hurt. But it was worth it, because I have you.

  Max slid his hand into his pocket, where he stroked Zero's smooth metal. You're a good girl.

  I hope so, Zero replied.