“I designed this for human hands, in case of an emergency, the only means we have to defend ourselves against Similars, or those like myself inhabiting the body of Similars. It generates a charge pulse of the same type and frequency that Obelus employed against me.”

“And that you used against Obelus to rescue me,” she finished, turning it around in her hands.

“Handle it carefully; pressure in the center will detonate it. It won’t affect humans, but it will short out electronic devices. But you will not be able to test it.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, careful not to touch it anywhere near the detonator.

“If you test it, you will incapacitate me. I cannot afford to be vulnerable, not now. We do not have the luxury of testing it. If you have need of it, either it will work or it will not.”

She turned and pointed what she assumed was the “barrel” of the pulse emitter toward the door. “So even if I aim at the correct target and it works, it might still affect you.”

“Correct. I do not know how precise the targeting will be, but I don’t think it will be very precise.”

She examined it, turning it over in her hands, and turned around to ask more questions, but saw that his semiautonomous plating was on the floor in front of him, and he was about to step onto it.

“What are you doing?”

“I must depart. I have much to prepare. I have little time.”

“No, please,” she said, grabbing him gently by the forearm, at which he gave her a look so harsh she let go and stumbled back. He hadn’t looked at her like that since they had first met. “Ampersand, please, we should leave.”

“The militarists are preoccupied. It is more beneficial that they believe me complicit and contained in this space. There is no benefit to leaving.”

“I mean, we should leave the country altogether. We need to get out of the United States.”

“If your government feels that they cannot control my movements, that will only mean more difficulty for me. Moreover, it is likely that Enola Gay will land nearby; therefore, I cannot leave. It falls to you to make sure they don’t realize when I am absent from my cell.”

“You’re never going to get better if—”

“‘Better’ is a luxury we do not have. I must leave you now.”

“Please,” she said, her throat growing tight. “Please don’t leave.”

He looked at her not like he would look at his ally but an animal. Just one of the billions of flesh-eating aliens. “The situation is changed.”

He lowered himself onto the plate, the liquid metal slid over his body, and he disappeared. She watched the space where he had been, holding the pulse emitter like it was her bouquet after she had been dumped at the altar.

And once again, she was alone.