“Is it working?” the boy called out as someone pounded on the door from the other side.

“I can’t tell,” the girl said.

She moved away from Sam, joining the boy by the door. Sam didn’t know what they were doing, and now he was distracted by the intense pain that had ripped through his head. He cried out.

“What’s wrong with him?” the boy said.

“I don’t know,” said the girl. “I don’t know how this is supposed to work.”

The room grew suddenly cold. Sam shivered and moaned as a fresh wave of pain broke over him.

“It’s Spike,” the girl’s voice said. “He’s trying to freeze us out.”

Sam’s body spasmed. His teeth chattered. It felt as if a giant hand was squeezing his head. Then someone was beside him, putting a hand on his face. Sam’s vision blurred, but when he looked up he saw a girl standing in front of him. Not the first girl, but a new one. She regarded him with a sad expression.

“Get away from him, Ghost!” the boy shouted.

“I’m sorry,” the girl whispered to Sam.

He felt the world dissolve around him. For a moment he had no body. His atoms had been pulled apart, and he existed only as pure thought. It felt wonderful to be free of his tormented body, and he experienced several seconds of joy before he was slammed back into the prison of flesh and bone.

He was outside. It was night. The moon seemed to hang just overhead, fat and white. When Sam looked out, it appeared he was floating in a sea of stars. Then he realized that they were electric lights. He was somewhere high up.

“We’re on the roof of the hotel,” a voice said. “Magdalena told me to get you out of there if anyone came for you.”

Sam saw the girl from before standing a little way away. His mind was rapidly clearing. He was starting to remember.

“Ghost,” he said.

The girl nodded, smiling a little.

“And Nemo,” Sam said, recalling the name of the other girl. “Nemo was there.”

Ghost’s smile faded. “I wish they hadn’t come,” she said. “I wish she and Max had stayed away. There’s nothing they can do.”

But they had done something. Sam felt different. Better. More and more memories flooded his head: the Mogs, the parasite, the bunker, Six. Then he recalled the sting on his arm. Had Nemo injected him with something? Is that why he was remembering?

Ghost walked closer. She turned and looked out over the city, pushing her hair behind her ear with a small gesture that made her seem younger than she was, like a little girl. “I want to go home,” she said softly. “But I don’t know where that is anymore.”

Sam recalled the first time he’d seen the girl, the details coming to him with surprising ease. New Orleans. Only a few months before. She’d seemed weak then, unsure of herself and her Legacy. He remembered seeing her lying on the street in a puddle of blood after being shot by Dennings. Dennings, who was dead now. So much had happened to this girl. So many terrible things. She had become someone different.