“You’ll never understand,” I say, “because you look at data, not individuals. Before you destroyed the world I was a Regular; everything you would read about Regulars would tell you that we were scavenging, scrounging, thieving rats that made the Altereds’ world look untidy. And if you looked at the data, it would back up all these statements. But do you think any of us wanted that life? Do you think any of us chose to be born into that existence? No, but we were, and the system was set up for us to fail. Education: too expensive; housing prices: too high; jobs: nonexistent; debt keeps on growing, drugs keep on spreading, space keeps on getting smaller and smaller. And who’s at the top pulling the strings? The Alts, the rich—they needed us to be poor, they needed us to have nothing so they could look at all they had, pat themselves on the back, and say, look at all I have in comparison to them! If only they worked as hard as me! But, despite all of this, the best people I ever met were those scavenging, scrounging, thieving rats! That’s why I fight. I fight for the people I love, and you’ll never understand love because you can teach a machine to think, but not to love.”

There is another long pause as Maddox’s mechanical eyes stare at me.

“I agree to your terms,” he says finally. “Your friends may live out their days inside the Arc.”

“Then I agree to your terms,” I reply.

“So you agree to say, in a live transmission, broadcast across all regions of the world, that you have seen the error of your ways?” Galen asks, excitement in his voice. “That Happy is not the enemy? That things Happy has done were necessary for the survival of the species? You will tell the rebels of all Regions to stop fighting?”

“Yes,” I reply.

“And then you will be a part of the tests to extract the technology that will allow me … us … Happy to live forever?” Galen continues.

I laugh at him. “So that’s why you’ve agreed to be Happy’s servant—eternal life?”