“I’m here because I need help.” Welga forced the words from her reluctant vocal cords. “I quit working for my government because for the second time in my life, they betrayed me. I received an anonymous report, about Synaxel, about my condition, about Josephine Lee. My sister-in-law, a juver designer, thought that Lee would hold the keys to unlocking the full data about my problem.” Pain faded from her head. “Por Qué, enable visual.”

Welga opened her eyes. Ao Tara floated across from her bed, which stood nearly upright. Webbing held her body against the bed’s surface. Cheap, stone-patterned walls and floor surrounded them, seamless and, judging by their pristine state, self-cleaning. Behind Ao Tara, a clear wall separated them from a surgical area. A multi-armed bot nearly filled the space on the other side, its complexity like nothing Welga had seen. A station map, low in her visual, indicated that they were in an area marked MEDICAL, closer to the hub than the room where she’d been detained.

Welga looked straight into Ao Tara’s eyes. “You have a dakini here. Do you build them?”

A slight smile curved the monk’s lips. “ ‘Build’ is an interesting word choice. The dakini are born here. We developed the technology to give them life.” The smile vanished. “Do you know why we create them?”

“I’ve read the Machinehood Manifesto. You want the dakini to take over the world.”

Ao Tara waved dismissively. “Such exaggeration. The manifesto contains truths, but Eko-Yi’s purpose goes beyond it. You cannot free your limbs until you feel the ties that bind them. The Machinehood is a first step, a way to get humankind to notice their shackles. Our Neo-Buddhist precepts frame the eightfold path in a modern context, and the dakini are the hands that lead us to right understanding, to feel the bonds that keep us from moving. After that, we must step into right action. We don’t want the dakini to take over in the sense of governance or even power. We want them to guide the transformation of society, to bring all forms of life and intelligence into a harmonic existence. To end the centuries of greedy, selfish living that have destroyed the health of the planet and its life-forms. The dakini set an example of what we can all become.”

Welga had to act like she intended to be an Eko-Yi citizen, but she couldn’t help asking, “You admit that you give birth to the dakini here. Did you create the Machinehood, too?”

“I did not. But I have allowed its mythos to spread.”

“Then who’s behind the attacks? The al-Muwahhidun?”

Ao Tara smiled. “Of course, with your background and America’s experience, that’s what you would think, but no, our relationship with the empire is different. The caliph learns from us, not the other way around.”

“So he’s funding your operation.”