“This needs to end before I go nuts,” Misato replied. “I’m tired of waiting around on this ship. Anything is better than waiting to be consumed.”

“Did you ever try that AR adventure at the Dome? They had a great one with dragons on Mars, and all these characters you could team up with,” Rosalyn said, going to the cockpit chair next to her and sitting down.

Misato let out a chirp of laughter. “Red Mountain Runner,” she said fondly.

“Yes! God, I was absolutely obsessed with RMR, I think I played it sixteen times. I had to see all the endings,” she replied, shaking her head. “And, uh, see all the romances, too.”

“I did the same thing,” she said. “Who was your favorite? I liked Kali’rahn.”

“She was completely epic, for sure, but I had a soft spot for Dantis.”

“Ahhh.” Misato fluttered her lashes. “The classic hero. He usually died in my runs.”

They both laughed, and Rosalyn leaned back in the chair, gazing up at the ceiling. “I would cut off my left arm to be in the Dome right now, fighting space orcs.”

“What made you think of it?” Misato asked. “Besides finding yourself in this hellscape with us . . .”

“Just something you said, you know, about being antsy, about just wanting to get this over with. Whatever this is.” Rosalyn pulled her head back down and leaned across toward Misato, turning the tablet around. “Before I tried RMR for the first time, I asked a friend who had gone through it for spoilers. I wanted to get the good ending the first time; it gave me massive anxiety to think about messing it up.”

Misato took the tablet, chuckling. “Shut up, I did the same thing! My girlfriend forgot to retrieve the protective amulet for Janie and had a total party wipe in the foothills. She was a ball of anxiety until she got to go back and do it over again.”

“I would be, too,” Rosalyn snorted.

“But you’re not here to talk RMR strategies, I take it.”

“Correct.” Rosalyn sighed, clearly reluctant to switch topics. Then her brow turned down fiercely with concentration, and she woke up the tablet she had brought, opening a writing app.

“It’s recording me,” Misato noticed, pointing at the little red camera light shining in her eyes. “Security measure?”

“Yup. It’s Piero’s. He was up to something serious with you guys. I looked through some of his code and searched his username. It’s tied to . . . well, my old company. My family owns Belrose Industries, and he has the same sort of employee ID we all used. I have no idea how this all fits together, but I can’t stop thinking it all connects. Anyway, I’m not much of a coder, so I thought maybe you could take a look, see if any of it makes sense to you.”