"We're leaving," Pharah said, her voice raspy and frigid.

Zaharah opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Cammi was the Director's brother? She had no time to process the information. Pharah grabbed her by the hand and began dragging her back the way they came.

"Jade, Roddi, let's go," she said.

She allowed herself to be dragged, her mind too occupied by what had just happened. The way Skorpi reacted to him. Why? She wracked her brain for any recollection of his face and found none. Dr Will said her memories would return to her in time, but was it possible for some to be lost forever?

First, he'd commanded Skorpi, and now the mechpet was treating him like a long-lost friend. Her mind wandered back to the very first email she'd gotten from Cammi, the video. Then their conversation at the pocking pitch. When he'd commanded Skorpi and fixed her arm. She didn't know him—or remembered him, rather—but Cammi had given her what no one else would. The truth.

Zaharah bit her lip, her mind finally catching up with the present. "Pharah wait." She dug her heels in and pulled her hand free. "Please we need to think about this."

"Think about what?" She wheeled on Zaharah, cutting the air with her hand. "That bitch killed Devin. She killed Markus. You think her brother is going to help us?"

Zaharah winced as the words cut into her. "I know but..." She glanced back at Cammi who still held Skorpi in his hands while the little mechpet rolled around like a pig in shit. Skorpi wouldn't behave like that with anyone. Jade hadn't budged from her spot, and Roddi stood halfway between her and Zaharah.

"Where are we gonna go?" Roddi asked, his voice low enough so only they would hear. "It's going to be dark in an hour, and we don't have any money."

Pharah pressed her lips together and crossed her arms. "Anywhere but here. I'd rather sleep on the street."

Zaharah looked to Jade again, who was signing at Cammi. He nodded at her and signed back. And he can sign too... pretty good, as far as Zaharah could tell. She rubbed her face and looked back to Pharah. "I don't think it's wise if we stay out in the street at night. The police could still be looking for us. And I need to get to a computer so I can track the pod."

Pharah stayed quiet, and Roddi closed the distance separating them. "Look, I'd rather not be dealing with this guy either, but we are out of options here. We just have to cross our fingers and hope we've used up all our bad luck."

A hand landed on her shoulder and she turned to Jade who held out an electronic polaroid. It contained four photos according to the tiny green lights on the bottom. Displayed on the face was a photo of two men, one unmistakably Cammi with shorter dreadlocks and the other, their father. They were dressed up, black tie style, each with a flute of bubbly held up. Zaharah recognised the background as the ballroom of the Cylean Cybernetics tower, with its floating aquarium backdrop.

Jade swiped right on the polaroid and another photo popped up. This on featured Cammi with their older sister, Quelle. They stood on paddle boards—well, Cammi stood on his while Quelle was on the verge of falling off hers.

Another swipe, another photo. Zaharah's heart sunk at her smiling face staring out of the Polaroid; she couldn't be older than six or seven. Her arm was extended towards the camera, showing off the shiny metal.

The last photo was of Jade and Skorpi sitting by the big guinep tree outside their family's home. They both had on Santa hats, and the lights strung in the tree were like fireflies in the background.

I remember this photo, Jade signed. It was the Christmas after my freshman year in high school. Mom took it.

Zaharah swiped back to her picture, stared at it long and hard, yet she couldn't remember for the life of her when and where it was taken. And this guy had it, carried it around like some kind of trinket. She turned to Cammi. "Who the hell are you? Why do you have these?"

Cammi shrugged. "On many occasions your father called me his best friend. And on some occasions he went as far as calling me his brother."

"And why should we believe you?"

He arched a brow. "Jade, you have a scar on the back of your heel from when you cut your foot on a rock at the indoor beach. We had to rush you to the hospital, and you got seven stitches. Zaharah, you shake your leg whenever you're nervous or upset."

Zaharah pressed her lips together and ground her teeth. If she were sitting down, she'd be shaking her leg too.

Cammi breathed a sigh and set Skorpi on the ground at his feet. "Aleesha really screwed with your heads. Look, ni—" He cleared his throat. "Zaharah. I want to help you, all of you."

Pharah scoffed. "How can we trust you? I don't care what you are to them. You're nothing to me."

"Fair," Cammi said. "All I ask for is a moment of your time. I still don't understand everything that transpired in Denden. But..." he added before Pharah could interrupt him again. "If you're not comfortable with this, you're free to leave. I can have the shuttle take you wherever you want to go."

"But Director Sanders..."

"So long as you are in my company, Aleesha cannot touch you. You have my word." He held his hands out palms up. "Discuss it amongst yourselves. I'll be waiting inside if you want to talk." And with that, Cammi climbed the steps and disappeared through the front door.

Skorpi whined after him, claws up like a baby beckoning to its mother. Then he skittered over to the group and whined at them with long, screechy beeps. Jade scooped him from the group and looked to her sister as though Zaharah could tell her the meaning of life.

It wasn't until Zaharah turned to the group thatshe realised the Polaroid was still in her hand. Her own smiling face stared out at her from it. "What are we doing?" she asked. "I don't want to be the one to decide because... I feel I may be a bit biased now."

Jade whipped out her phone and tapped away at the screen. The robotic voice of the text reader came from the speakers a moment later. "I want to know more. I want to know what else he knows about us and our family. So I guess I'm biased too."

"There's a hurricane on the way," Roddi said. "And I'd rather not be sleeping on the streets when it gets here." He frowned at Pharah. "I'm pissed about what happened to Devin too, but we need to be smart about this. We have nothing."

Pharah rung her hands, her eyes on her shoes. Her shoulders shook, and she sucked in a sobbing breath. "I'm sorry. I'm being so selfish..."

"Pharah, no." Zaharah put an arm around her shoulders. "You have every right to be upset and skeptical and angry. I don't blame you. If I were so fucking tired and over everything, I'd be right there with you. Today has been absolute shit. If you want to leave, I'll go with you. Roddi and Jade can stay if they want to."

Pharah stayed silent for a long moment until the sun stretched their shadows into the blue oblivion of twilight. Then she swiped at her tears and shook her head. "I don't want to separate you from your sister. I just want to find Devin."

Zaharah rubbed her back. "Me too. If there's a computer in there, I can. I want to get him before the Director does."

"Okay." She sniffled again. "Okay. Let's go."

Roddi and Jade nodded their approval and together they climbed the steps to the manor's main house. Jade did the honours of knocking. A moment later, Cammi opened the door, the scents of coffee and lemon flowing past him.

"Please." He stepped aside and gestured to the interior. "Make yourself at home."

Zaharah guided Pharah into the plush interior of the house. Like the outside, it was a Victorian wet dream. Ornate, hand-carved furniture that looked more like thrones for kings and queens than chairs, a thick woven rug that depicted a sparrow in flight. The low table sitting atop it was heavy with a fine china tea set and tiered trays of pastries. One of those faux fireplaces that gave all the ambient firelight with none of the heat sat on the back wall, and above it was a painting of a woman with roses and thorns as an afro.

Zaharah's painting. One of the last she'd done before the accident. She stopped short at the sight of it and frowned. "What is this doing here?"

Cammi followed her gaze. "It was up for auction at the Cancer Society gala after the accident. I made it clear at the top of the event that I wanted it, yet some smarmy bastard tried to outbid me."

"He almost got the one in the office too."

Zaharah turned to the unfamiliar voice. Standing in the archway opposite the door was an android. His white slacks brushed the ground and his hair was tamed into neat cornrows. He rolled the stem of a red hibiscus between his fingers, the red petals blurring, and nodded to her. "Zaharah. I like the hair."

Her blood turned to ice. "Elliot...?"

A grin split his face. "Yes, and no. I'm sure Cam will be able to explain better than I can."

"Later," Cam said. He took a seat in the other armchair and gestured at the spread on the table. "Please, help yourselves. You all look as though you've been through hell."

Zaharah rubbed her eyes. The man had no idea. "I need a computer."

"Sure." He leaned over and fiddled with something on the side of the table. A console folded out and a screen popped up. "The password is Icarus#348. Capital I."

They gathered around the computer and Zaharah punched in the password with shaking hands. The browser was already up and on the google homepage, blinking cursor awaiting her command. She signed into the find my device browser app. A map of the 700 came up, a tiny blue dot blinking to the north, and everyone leaned in closer, holding their breaths.

Pharah put a hand on Zaharah's arm and squeezed hard, her breath fanning the baby hairs on Zaharah's temple.

The map grew as the locator triangulated, zeroing in on the signal from her phone. It shifted closer to the north side, the little blue dot pulsing, and continued tracking along the esplanade road. The blue dot was moving to the east.

"Shit..." Zaharah clenched her teeth. Her expletive mixed with the chorus from the others. They found it. The Director found it.

Pharah threaded her hands into her locks. "Fuck!"

"What?" Cammi asked. "What is it?" When no one answered he sighed and clasped his hands together like a beggar. "Look, I can help you. Please."

Zaharah ground her teeth and hoped Pharah wouldn't be too angry. "It's her brother. We couldn't bring him with us so we left him in the pod and I sent it to the north side of the island and I stashed my phone away and we were gonna go back for him but the director found him and we don't know where she's taking him and—"

"Easy." Cami held his hands up. "Breathe. Get it together. You're talking about Devin, yes?"

She swallowed and nodded.

"You tried to hide the pod, so you could retrieve him later and now Aleesha has him?"

"I-I-I'm not sure. We took the pod from Denden so... I think so?" She looked back down at the moving dot. "Who else would move it?"

Cammi only gave a nod of his head, then pulled a cell phone from his pocket and moved towards the window.

Zaharah bit her lip and set her eyes back on the screen. The dot broke free from the esplanade and turned south onto the central highway. Where were they taking him? A morgue perhaps, but there were none in that area she knew of.

"Ah... Zaharah?"

She looked over the screen ad found Elliot standing a foot away, holding out a cell phone. "There's someone who wants to talk to you."

She took the phone, noting the lit up speaker icon, and frowned. "Hello?"

"So you made it out." Dwight's voice came through the speaker. It was still echoing, but the noise in the background was gone. "I'm guessing you're with Cameron?"

"Yeah," she said, her voice hoarse.

He breathed a laugh. "That sly motherfucker."

"How do you know him?" Zaharah flicked her eyes up to where Cammi stood on the opposite end of the room, one hand in his pocket and eyes out the large window.

"I used to work under him and Zander at Cylean Cybernetics. I guess you could say I was their protégé."

Zaharah exchanged a look with her sister. "You knew my father?"

"Yeah. He and Cam were thick as thieves. Brilliant scientists and engineers. I learned a lot from them. From the moment I fund it was him who'd hacked us, I knew we'd lost. But the Director kept pushing me."

"And I'm here with her brother." She felt so damn stupid. Two years of her life down the gutter. Markus was gone, she had no home, no saving, no means of taking care of herself or her sister.

"You can trust him Zaharah. If anyone can shield you from the Director, it's him. I promise you."

"Are you sure about that?" Roddi asked. "She killed Devin, she killed Markus, she chased us out of Denden, shot at us, she froze our accounts."

"Listen kid. You are with the one person in the whole country who Aleesha cannot touch. Count yourself lucky you made it there in one piece. And don't be stupid." He paused for a moment. "Zaharah. You take care of yourself and your sister." His voice held an air of finality, like his was the last time they'd speak.

"What's going to happen to you?" She didn't want Dwight to suffer the same fate as Devin and knowing the Director, she wouldn't let him off easy. More collateral damage.

Dwight snorted. And hung up.