I deflect Haruko's punch, grab the back of her neck and throw her aside. She barrel-rolls and her armour whips out, coils around my ankle — I slam to the floor.

"That's three for me, two for you," she says, haughty, circling me like a predator.

I get back to my feet and put my fists up. "You don't have to keep score, you know."

"Of course I do, I'm winning."

"It's practice."

"I'm winning—"

There's an odd sound, a thump. The one-way mirror high on the wall is quivering faintly. All of us look up at it.

"What was that?" I say.

"Dunno." She swings at the air. "But I'm still winning."

"Go easy on him, sweet cheeks." Seoyeon is blocking Junghwa's attacks without looking. "The cheese slid off the cracker with that one."

"Last time we practiced it was seven to three," I say simply.

"So you do keep score!" Haruko advances, arm shifted into a giant mallet. I duck out of the way.

The door to the gymnasium opens and Dr. Song walks in. The five of us stop sparring and stand at attention. He says something to a guard on the outskirts of the room and then approaches us, walking fast.

"At ease," he says. "Come with me, higher-ups are ordering a collective inspection."

He turns to leave the room. We follow without question, though we're only halfway through training for the day.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Lý asks.

"There's a possible problem with your satellite uplinks," Dr. Song answers. We're climbing the stairwell single file. I realize the guards from the gym are following behind us. "It won't take long, you can resume training soon."

"Good," says Haruko, "I'm going for ten to two."

She ribs me. I ignore her. I expected level 121 to be busy, crowded with scientists like it usually is. Now when I look into the lab, there's only one person inside, slouched back against the wall with their head in their hands.

Haruko sees it too. Our eyes meet.

We walk into the incubation room and the guards move to block the door. I'm trying to catch the others' attention. I shake my head at Junghwa and Lý, telling them to be cautious.

"Sir," says Haruko, "are you sure there isn't something wrong?"

Dr. Song is typing on a holo-monitor. "It's an inspection, might as well be routine. Enter the pods please."

"Before we do, I want to know what kind of tests are going to be—"

"Subject 20, not another word," Dr. Song snaps. "I am your superior, do not question me. All of you, get in the damn pods."

"Not until you tell us the truth," I say. "Why are we here? Why is the floor empty? Why isn't anybody in the lab?"

His face roils. He lifts one hand and the guards behind him advance. They push their guns against us, herding us toward the pods.

"Get that fucking thing out of my face," Seoyeon barks, standing her ground.

Lý is backing up, hands raised. "Guys, just do as he says."

"No!" Haruko says. "The hell are they gonna do, shoot us?"

"Enough!" Dr. Song shouts. "You'll all be put on stasis if you disobey me any longer!"

Seoyeon kicks the weapon out of the guard's hand and slams him to the floor. My armour shoots out and grabs the other, shoving him into one of the pods — Haruko shuts and locks the casing.

"No!" Dr. Song runs forward and grabs a gun off the floor. His finger hesitates, trembling against the trigger as Junghwa advances and punches him straight in the face. He falls backward and the gun flies out of his hands.

Junghwa calmly picks it up and crushes it to pieces. "That's for calling me 'it.'"

Dr. Song just stares, panicked, blood spilling from his nose.

Haruko thumps me on the arm. "We need to find Jai. My gut is telling me none of this is a coincidence."

"Stop right there!" Dr. Song yells. "You are forbidden to leave — you were created to save this world, don't be so selfish!"

"You know about the revolt?" I say.

"It's asinine! Don't you dare betray the ones who gave you life!"

"We already had lives," Haruko growls. "This all could have been avoided if you just treated us as humans. Sir, you can still jump ship. Make the right choice."

He steels himself, jaw locking tight, but there's emotion buried deep in his eyes. "I gave my life. You wouldn't understand."

We trade glances. Seoyeon walks forward and takes him by the collar, drags him to one of the pods and locks him in. He knows there's no way out. He curls up with his face in his knees. The four of us leave the room — Lý hesitates, looking back at Dr. Song, before she follows.

We run up the empty hallway and crowd into the elevator. I press the button for the 79th floor. Now I understand why the lab was empty: the revolt is happening, and I have a feeling it blindsided everybody.

The elevator opens. As soon as I step off, I see the impact we've made. Where usually the scientists are reserved and compliant, now there are arguments all around, people screaming at each other, all echoing the same sentiment. You can't walk out. We've made it this far — you can't give up.

I see Jai down the hall, pacing in a tight circle. He sees us and we run to meet each other.

"What's going on?" I say. "Was the revolt supposed to be today?"

He wipes the sweat from his forehead. "This is not what was supposed to happen. Someone must have given the game away. The entire building is in chaos, the guards have no idea what to do, the personnel are divided, there's been arson, fights — someone pissed in my office!"

"Are we still going through with this?" Junghwa asks.

"Yes, we have to, this is the best chance we're going to get. The chaos could play to our advantage."

"Good, then we'll—"

"But wait." He grabs his head like it's going to spin off his neck. "Christ, the Adrantine androids — they're missing, they're somewhere in the building and nobody will tell me where. The other scientists on the BEI might have programmed them to take out the cyborgs as a last-ditch effort to salvage Oracle."

"You mean they could pop out of the woodwork and beat the shit out of us?" Seoyeon says.

"Basically, yes — so you need to be careful. They've gotten new abilities over the last month — thermal imaging, impact mitigation, they can fucking camouflage, and since they're pure machines, they have no infrared signature to give them away."

"We're fighting ghosts now, that's great." Seoyeon doubles over. "Good God I need a smoke."

"Minho, Haruko," says Jai, "go to Jisung, get him out of the building. I'm gonna find as many allies as I can and get them out too. Lý, Seoyeon, Junghwa — help me find—"

"No!" Lý shouts. "I'm not doing this! This is fucked — you're throwing everything away for no reason!"

"Lý, what are you talking about?" I say.

"If you really cared about this country, about anyone other than yourselves, you wouldn't abandon Oracle. You're all obsessed with self, the shitty pasts you didn't even want to live — what about the now? What about purpose, what about justice? I don't want to be a worthless, washed-up freak of nature after the life I fought for is just a fucking joke!"

She turns and bolts down the hallway. Junghwa runs after her — Haruko tries to stop him but he shrugs her off.

"Fucking hell," Seoyeon sighs. "Woman's losing it."

"Did something happen?" I ask.

"She found out her family belongs to some kind of screwy puritan cult. She was estranged, living on the street before she enlisted in the military and Oracle. Guess some of us don't have cushy families to go home to."

"That's unfortunate," Jai says impatiently, "but right now we could really use as much help as we can get."

"We'll take Jisung somewhere safe and then come back to help," Haruko says. "Meet on level 100 in one hour to check in. Send an alert through the PA system if you locate the androids. Everybody, head out."

Jai blinks. "Yeah, what she said."