Hassan shook his head. “That’s the going theory based on the visual evidence, especially what your swarm got, Ramírez. Nobody else saw inside these things before they went kaboom, and government agencies swept all the physical evidence. They aren’t sharing. Well-rated experts think it’s a sentient AI—they’ve already got an acronym for it—with the human organs put in as a red herring. Considering the Machinehood’s demands, that makes sense, but if it’s true, that means we’re dealing with something completely new. A SAI-based android can fool us into thinking it’s a person, and you won’t be able to keep up with it no matter how fast the zips. We’ll need to rethink our combat strategies and focus on defense.”

But what about the whole suicide-bombing thing? Welga kept the question to herself. With the evidence blown to shreds, people could surmise whatever they wanted about the Machinehood, and SAIs were high on the wishful-thinking list. The experts had nothing to go on but some video feeds. They’d cried wolf on sentient AIs before and had never been correct. Nobody wanted to admit that building a conscious mind might be impossible, even if they were secretly relieved at the prospect. The ethics of what to do with WAIs and bots had proven difficult enough. Ban human cloning? Sure, easy decision. Give up on the convenience of thinking machines? Not so much.

Figuring out the truth behind the Machinehood wasn’t her problem, but the similarity to the methods used by the al-Muwahhidun fanatics in the Maghreb glared at her. Surely others saw it? The caliph had stopped the violence once he had the region under control, but if Ammanuel’s generation could forget the history of her squad, then a new generation of radicals might disregard their leader’s ethos in North Africa.

“So what’s our first assignment?” Connor said.

The San Francisco skyline filled the view behind him, framed by the six-paned window of their apartment. She missed home—and him—but she preferred her parents’ house in Phoenix for rest and recovery. Papa spoiled her with recipes he’d learned from his mother. Connor couldn’t cook for shit, and they couldn’t afford a kitchen that made her favorites. They’d often met on islands around the world when she was on leave, eating, drinking, and scuba diving the time away.