“Guess what? Guess what?” Devyn asked in an excited tone. “I grew a monkey, Uncle Hauk!”

Hauk frowned at the impossibility as he looked from Devyn to Syn, who was laughing about it. “A monkey?”

“E-e-e o-o-o ew ew,” a monkey said drily as it joined them in the room and sat down on the bed next to them. “Not that I haven’t been the sacred embryo’s monkey from birth, but this is a little ridiculous. Don’t you agree?”

Hauk was aghast as he recognized that acerbic tone. “Vik?”

The metallic monkey sighed so heavily, even his shoulders slumped. “Who else would the bonebag torture this badly? I would be more upset about it, but look.” With a large, creepy smile, he held up his hands for Hauk to see. “Opposable thumbs!” He wiggled them for emphasis. “Lot to be said for these. Makes me want to look up my old girlfriend.”

“Why?”

Vik wagged his eyebrows. “Cause now I can really turn her on.”

Hauk made a sound of irritation at the bad pun before he explained it to Sumi. “His old girlfriend was a lamp who, and I am using his words, lit up his entire world.”

She pressed her lips together. “Ah… okay.”

Devyn grabbed Vik into a choke hold. “I planted monkey seeds in a garden and I grew him! So he’s all mine!”

Vik stuck his tongue out like he was dying. “Help! I’m being oppressed and licked by a toddler! Stop sliming me, Dev. I’m going to rust!”

Sighing, Syn picked up the monkey and set it on the floor. “See what happens when your significant other can’t find a babysitter and refuses to let you go save your friend without her?”

Hauk scoffed at his annoyed protest. “You love every minute of it.”

Syn picked up his son and cradled him to his chest. “Yeah, I do.” He inclined his head to Sumi. “Hauk, you need to take a look at your transmitter I dug out of you. Fain thinks it’s Andarion. I’ve tried to get a lead on it, but this is more your expertise than mine.”

Sumi pulled it out of her pocket and handed him the small vial.

Hauk frowned as he held it up to the light to study the circuitry. “Yeah, it’s Andarion. But this is old-school stuff… kind of thing I first played with as a kid.”

“Jullien?”

He shook his head at Syn’s suggestion. “Jullien could afford better than this. He wouldn’t waste his time with something so primitive and old. I need it under a mag to see more of it.”

Sighing, Vik climbed back up the bed and took it into his hand. He opened the vial and placed the chip in his palm then turned to the wall and projected an enlarged image of it. “How big do you want me to go?”

“Twenty. I need the serial.”