I pull them, light blazes from my wrists, and the tug’s side lights up with the familiar pattern. Speakers on the Otachi ring with the low noise that draws our Reckoner to the ship, and somewhere off in the blue, a puff of steam rises as Bao hearkens to the call.

The devices are heavy. The beams waver in the air as I keep them fixed at the spot I projected to. I duck my elbows down to compensate.

A minute later, Bao surges out of the sea, his nose pointed right at the projections on the tug’s side. I draw them down the ship’s hull, and he follows. It’s like a cat with a laser pointer, but with a beast the size of a house. Varma chuckles from somewhere behind me. I click off the projections and let my arms fall to my sides.

“Optimistically, we’ve got about three days before some sort of shitstorm comes raining down on us,” Santa Elena says. “Less, if SRC politicians by some miracle deliberate relatively quickly. Either way, whenever our reckoning comes, we’d better have a Reckoner of our own.”

Swift snorts, and Santa Elena aims a kick at her.

“I’ll … ” I start, but I don’t know what to say. It takes months to train Reckoners into aggression, but then again, that’s with safety considerations. That’s with standards and regulations, with pacing that avoids stressing out the beasts. If I push Bao, maybe we can get somewhere in three days. Maybe I can make him lethal.

He’s already lethal, I remind myself, thinking of Code’s bright green eyes.

“You’ll do your damndest, Cassandra, or dear Swift will be that thing’s next meal,” Santa Elena snarls.

For a moment I think she’s kidding, but I see the way Swift’s jaw clenches, the way her body leans slightly away from the captain’s side. That must have been what they talked about last night, and suddenly I feel stupid—so completely and utterly stupid—because this was Santa Elena’s plan all along.

When I was alone on this ship with nothing to lose, she could barely control me. It was a stroke of luck for her that I felt the need to uncover the mystery behind Bao’s origins. But she gave me a companion, a protector, a friend, and she bided her time until it became clear to her that I’d been snared by her trap. That’s why she didn’t seem bothered by my revelation that Bao was still docile. It wasn’t because she thought that he’d instinctively fight when the time came.