“That won’t be necessary. But I was wondering…” Agent Atarr asked a few more routine questions—or she guessed they were, as she’d never been interviewed by the ATA before. “This is our contact information. Please let us know if you notice anything unusual.”

Like saving a dying AI and transplanting his code into a biosynthetic prototype? Once the ATA left, she nearly collapsed with relief, but this was a temporary respite at best.

Qalu feared that their time was running out and she had no idea what to do about it.

[  8  ]

Though Qalu tried to hide it, Helix could tell that she was deeply troubled as she cleared away all signs of their unwelcome guests. Aevi scampered down from her position near the ceiling and scrambled up his body to perch on his shoulder.

“She smells like fear,” the little one said. “Are the bad ones gone?”

“How do you know they’re bad?” he asked.

“They frightened Qalu,” she responded simply. “She is the best, and anyone who scares her cannot be good.”

Perhaps it was the limitation of his current form but that statement held together in a logical sense. “If only there was something I could do to help.”

If only I could remember. What if I committed a crime and they are justified in hunting me down? Without being able to recall how he had passed the last half cycle, uncertainty flickered to and fro in the disordered mess of his mind. Most of all, Helix missed the tidy collections of data, readily accessible on command. This new life offered compensation, but there were losses. The worst part of all this? He understood that he was endangering Qalu. She’d saved him, and she protected him still, even at great personal risk. What he remembered about the Tiralan judicial system indicated that she could lose everything if their ruse fell apart.

Aevi let out an ominous sound, somewhere between a rumble and a growl. “I should have bitten them.”

“That would have made everything worse,” Qalu said, returning to the main space quietly.

“I should leave,” he said.

The words came out on their own, but as soon as he spoke them, he recognized the rightness. Better that he fend for himself than drag her further into his difficulties. That way, if he was unmasked after the fact, she could claim that he had deceived her and perhaps receive a lighter punishment.

“Where would you go? And with what resources?”

He doubted she meant to injure with those questions, but he felt the sting nonetheless. Now, he understood her objection toward intimacy between them. Indeed, he brought nothing to their partnership other than himself, and how could that possibly be enough? Until this moment, he hadn’t fully grasped the concept of an emotional injury, but his whole being throbbed with a renewed sense of inadequacy.