“No, she’s flesh,” Yusuf said. And bonus points for him saying flesh and not human. “Just… no-nonsense.”

“And at least synths have senses of humor.”

“Also that.”

“Why’d she even bring me here?” I asked.

“She thinks Dr. Figueiredo—the other you—has a… physical connection to the machine, which seems absurd to me. More than likely he has some wearable tech that’s hidden by his clothes.”

“Creepy.”

We finished up and he said he’d show me to the hotel hallway, where visiting researchers could stay in temporary rooms while the permanent staff lived in modular housing outside. I clutched my duffel bag as we walked down another hallway with solid white doors instead of glass. I picked a room at the end by the communal bathroom. Inside the small white room, only a slim bed, sink, and a desk stared back at me. I wanted to buckle on a utility belt with hot pink spray paint cans and tag the Compound’s bare walls as a big middle-finger to Kaori for even dragging me here.

I tore my eyes away from this end-of-days bunker to glance back at Yusuf. Just beyond the doorway, he was the only splash of life and color in the whole hallway.

“Am I a prisoner?” I asked. “For real?”

“As much as I am.”

“I assume you’re getting paid to be here.”

“Barely. Dr. Nakamori will let you leave whenever you want. It’s just that getting in and out of here can be tough. There’s a desert between us and the rest of the world.”

“See, you’re really not helping the non-prisoner case. And you like being here? Or is there a shock collar on you that I don’t see?”

He tipped his head just a bit, his lips tightening. “Why would I wear a shock collar?”

I made a mental note to tweak my humor settings, if he wasn’t a fan of sarcasm.

“Right. Well. Sorry you had to babysit me all day.”

“It’s okay.”

One corner of his mouth twitched up as he worked at one of the buttons of his lab coat.