to get you again?” Raven was hovering, ready to catch me if I tumbled over.
“No, I think I’ve got this.”
I took a step and was both surprised and gratified to find that it was possible. I took another, and moments later I was walking on my own. Slowly and haltingly, but I was walking.
“Dr. Markov’s work is really incredible,” Raven remarked.
“I don’t think I’m doing too bad myself.”
“Don’t take it like that, you’re doing great. It’s just incredible your brain can sync with the augments so quickly. The physical therapy and training needed to get someone just to walk with these things even a few years ago was staggering.”
I hobbled into the lab on my own two feet—prosthetic though they were. When I got through the door, I was surprised to see something huge and round looming over me from the center of the room. It was the device we had found on Llyr Station.
It was exactly how I remembered it. A large metallic ring with a sort of chair suspended in the center. Andrew Jones was standing in front of it, staring into an open panel to one side of the ring. Thomas Young sat at a nearby table, swiping through something on one of his many devices. I couldn’t see it clearly from where I stood, but it looked like a blueprint or a schematic of some kind.
Jones raised a light and peered into the open panel. “Circuit 33-G. Same structure as the last three. Flow is in the same direction.”
Thomas stopped typing and gave him an impatient look.
“How many times must I say it, Andrew? Unless you are specific, there is always the possibility for error. You need to report exactly what you see, every single time.” Thomas sounded testy, and as far as I could tell he had no idea we had just entered the room.
Andrew sighed. “Of course, Thomas, of course. Circuit 33-G has… what was it, structure 15? Flow is to circuit 50.” Andrew turned and noticed us.
“Oh hey, buddy, you’re up. That was really something, Tycho. How the hell did you manage to crash the ship?”
Raven stifled a laugh. “He threw a grenade at Katerina.”
Both of Andrew’s eyebrows went up. “You threw a grenade inside a luxury yacht? You do realize that type of ship isn’t armored, right?” I was obviously never going to hear the end of this from him.
“She was going to get away. There wasn’t any material evidence on—”
“Holy shit, Panic.” He shook his head. “I’ve got to say, your devotion to this job is breathtaking, that’s the word.”
Thomas finally deigned to notice us. “I would characterize it as disturbing. In fact, I’m not quite sure how he survived it.”
For some reason, his comment made me feel like I had to explain. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. “The grenade just exacerbated what was already there. The ship was venting through a hole from an energy weapon.”
Now Thomas’s eyebrows were raised as high as Andrew’s.
I continued. “The grenade made the hole large enough, so I jumped out of it.”
“Wait a second,” said Andrew, now giving me his full attention. “Just so I understand here, you mean like those energy weapons the androids were using?”
“Yes, the exact same.”
“So someone was blasting holes in the bridge with a beam weapon? And they were doing this on the same yacht where you were chucking grenades?”
“Katerina was. She killed Li Fei with it, actually.”
“Shit, Tycho. That’s kind of a nightmare scenario, actually.”
“Once I got out, I set up for a drop on the moon’s surface. The stability thrusters on the suit kicked in when they were meant to, but I guess the insertion on Llyr took most of the fuel. They burned out early and I fell from orbit at speed.”
Andrew whistled and shook his head. “That is one for the books, my friend. Glad to see you up and with the living. You don’t look too banged up, all things considered. So, I take it you’re here for an update on the Warwick node?”
“What exactly is a Warwick node?”
Thomas’s voice was dry. “The device in front of you.”
“Thank you, Thomas. I’m asking what a Warwick node does.”
He frowned. “I should think that would be obvious from the name alone.”
“The name?”
Andrew intervened. “Never mind the name. The name is not important. What’s important is that we think this is a continuity device, like the one August Marcenn tried to make on Tower 7.”
I gave him a questioning look. “I’d say it went a