Her father was on a plane home. She’d already asked him about Eliza, and he said that yes, they’d tested an earlier version for an old associate years ago. That when that associate wanted to launch the toy he decided to do it in the U.S.—a more tech-friendly place than Russia—and how Ilanka’s father had helped him find the office space, how when it failed user testing the guy had just packed up and gone home. Her dad still had a lot of explaining to do about the data—but from what she’d read it seemed like he’d be looking at a fine and not jail time. A lot of this data stuff, he’d said, was still a gray area, and it sure felt that way to her.

She still felt weirdly violated, but there was more to her than just her data.

She opened her eyes and let the train to Coney pull out without her, because she was carrying that freedom inside her now anyway.

When the train in the right direction pulled in, she got on, took a seat, and counted the number of people in the car who were on their phones.

Fifteen that she could see.

The one person not on her phone was a woman in her forties, maybe, reading a book called The Awakening.

Ilanka knew she could look it up on her phone and find out what it was about, but she opted not to and tried to guess instead. Was it about a zombie apocalypse? Maybe a robot, like the device but more advanced, wakes up and becomes human—or monster? Or maybe it was some kind of call to justice—like a wake-up call about the state of things in the country and the world?

She sat that way for the whole ride, with her hands loosely folded in her lap and her phone dark in her jacket pocket.

Eli

ELI

They all came to the funeral Thursday morning, surprising Eli’s mother, who apparently didn’t think he had any friends who would do such a thing. Which maybe he hadn’t, before all this.

They’d even come to lunch at a restaurant after. Marwan had brought cards from this idiotic conversation-starter game that Eli had seen a commercial for online—apparently they all had—and had gotten them to agree to play. But when Marwan read from the first card he said, “You didn’t really think I wanted to play this dumb game, did you?”

Eden had whacked him on the arm and said, “Give me my dumb cards back.”

“Wait, those are yours?” Eli said.

“My dad bought it,” she said. “As a joke.”