I feel a jolt of weirdness as I recall that Nazarin, with his implants, probably remembers every detail of his encounter with me better than I do. I try not to think about it. If my emotions right now bleed through my perception, what will they think of a flash of panic? I force myself to calm, tapping the hollow of my throat again to turn it off. That same feeling of focus dissipates. My headache and nausea fade.

They play my video. Nazarin glances at me during that surge of emotion. It feels strange, experiencing that same echo again, almost like I’d gone back in time to a few moments ago. How the hell does all that bleed through? It’s disconcerting, for sure.

“Well, it’s a job well done for me,” Kim says, eyes narrowed in satisfaction.

“Thanks, Kim,” Nazarin says. “Really. Thank you.”

She waves a hand. “For you, anything.” Then she pauses. “I want to give you one last thing before you go, Taema. For Ensi.”

“What?” Nazarin asks. Kim doesn’t answer right away, but takes out a box from her pocket and opens it. Inside is a little white strip.

“This will mold around your tooth and harden. I can link it to your brain through a nerve in your gum. If you think a trigger word, then you can bite down and break it.”

“And why would I break it?” I ask.

“It’ll bleed a liquid. It won’t affect you—it’s exempt to your DNA—but it’ll affect Ensi. Kiss him. Dose him. This will do the rest.”

“What is it, Kim?” Nazarin asks, wary.

She doesn’t directly answer him. “You realize what he’ll do to either of you if you’re captured. How he … disposes of those who have particularly displeased him.” Her voice grows thick. “What he probably did to Juliane.”

Nazarin’s lips thin in pain. “Yes.”

“Promise me you’ll do this, Taema.” She looks at me, deep into me. “You’re the only one who can get close enough. Even if you catch him red-handed, he has so many people in his pocket—judges, politicians—that he’ll find another way to weasel out, or ways to hand over the Ratel to his successor without a hitch. Or send out Verve to the whole city, let it tear itself apart. I wouldn’t put it past him. This. This is the real way to get him once and for all.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I say. “I can’t promise until I understand what it is you want to put in me.”

Kim explains what it will do, and she also explains, in great detail, how Ensi disposes of those who displease him. I very nearly puke on her expensive shag carpet.