“Maisie,” he said breathlessly. Her eyes popped open.

He turned a corner and skidded to a stop. “Oh, thank god. Can you wal—”

Her body convulsed, her mouth opening in a silent scream. She went limp again.

“That’s a no.” He held her tighter and ran, ducking in between buildings until he found a tall patch of bushes on a quiet street. It wouldn’t hide them for long, but he just needed a minute to figure out what to do.

He gently lowered her to the ground and pulled off the backpack. He fished out the radio and pressed the talk button.

“Hadley.” He waited. Nothing. “Hadley. It’s an emergency.”

“I’m here.” Hadley’s breathless voice came through too loud, and he quickly turned the volume down and glanced around. They were still alone.

“Maisie’s hurt,” he said.

“What? Hurt how?”

“I don’t know. The cops here have some kind of Taser. They hit us with it. I’m fine, but Maisie is unconscious.”

“Unconscious?” Hadley screeched.

“And she was convulsing. I don’t—” He cut himself off and took a deep breath. “I need to know what those Tasers are and what it did to her. Can your contact tell us where to go? Is there a hospital or something? Can I even take her there? They keep asking for our permits and I—” He stopped abruptly again and took in a breath. Calm. He couldn’t afford to panic.

“Hold on, I’m trying to contact him now. Are you in East Spencer?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not great, but we’re going to have to work with it. Give me a minute, okay?”

“Sure.”

The line went silent, and he looked down at Maisie. She convulsed, and moaned. He put a hand on her arm. She immediately shook it off.

“Okay.” Hadley’s voice came through the radio a few minutes later. “It’s not the best news, but, um…”

His heart seized in his chest. He barely knew Hadley, but he could hear the fear in her voice.

“Those Tasers are some real dickhead technology that sends a tiny device into your body to attack artificial matter.”

“Artificial—”

“Like, most of her organs.”

“Oh.” That was bad.

Don’t panic.

“And it sends out electric currents that—never mind, never mind. Queso gave me an address. It’s not a hospital, but they can help. If you get her there quick, they might be able to…they might be able to do something. But it works fast. Really fast.”

He swallowed. “I’ll go as fast as I can.”

“Okay. You have your map? Queso walked me through how you can get there.”

—

Lennon ran as fast as he could with Maisie in his arms, following the route Hadley laid out for them. The location wasn’t far, but he had to stop twice and prop Maisie up until a cop passed by, angling her toward him so they couldn’t see she was missing a necklace. One of them gave Lennon a knowing smile after his gaze skipped from the necklace to Maisie slumped against him, and he’d had to resist the urge to smash his gun against this guy’s head too.