Kade looked around him, searched for anything that might be a first aid kit. The dash of the jeep was a riot of displays. The interior of the doors and ceiling were covered with weapons: rifles, pistols, knives, grenades.

“Map,” Feng said. “How do we get out of town? Back streets.”

Kade looked at his friend – bleeding and in pain – and nodded.

Kade found the map control, zoomed it up onto his side of the windshield, and began to shout directions. “Left. Straight. Next right. Here, here!”

The alert came moments later.

[Alert: Coercion Code Alpha AUTHOR Detected. Confidence: 93%]

Details scrolled after.

[Match: Nexus 0.72 binary]

[Match: Nexus 0.72 source]

[Match: Coercion Source Code. <sample>]

[Match: PLF Self-identification.]

[…]

It struck him dumb. He stopped talking, stopped navigating.

“Kade?” Feng asked. “Kade!”

“Feng. It’s them. I’ve found them.”

He clicked on the link to the mind in the alert.

“Kade!” Feng said. “This not a good time!”

“I might not get another chance, Feng! I have to.”

Kade entered the passcode.

The jeep turned hard, pushing him against the door. Dimly he was aware of the sound of bangs, of something clanging against the armor, of adrenaline coursing through Feng.

“Really not good time!” Feng said.

And then Kade was in.

It took forty-five minutes to turn Miranda Shepherd. At the end of that time, the woman was theirs.

The modified version of Nexus lodged in her brain, waiting to come online at the right signal from the phone, to turn her into a living weapon against her husband and Daniel Chandler. The memory script was deeply embedded, ready for Miranda’s own imagination to embellish it, to create a false recollection of a hair appointment as real as any other.

When they were done, Ava left with Miranda Shepherd to return the woman to her car. The Nigerian went with her, in the backup vehicle. Breece and Hiroshi started the process of tearing down their gear and sanitizing the garage, leaving absolutely no trace of what had happened here.

Kade took stock of the mind he’d infiltrated. He’d give away nothing this time until he knew what was going on.

He was in a building of some sort. A warehouse or a garage. There were rolls of a fine metallic mesh, like a window screen, lying at his feet. He had tools in his gloved hands.

Kade turned, scanned his surroundings. Across the room there was another man, using similar tools to take down another panel. He was whistling as he worked.

Kade reached out for that other man’s mind, to take him as well, hold them both, until he could find out where they were and call the authorities.

But there was no mind there, no Nexus for him to hack into.

Kade could feel his pulse picking up, his breathing coming heavy.

Act normal, Kade told himself. Find out what’s going on.