It occurred to Ambrose that he had no idea if this user was really Mistletoe. She wasn’t a ghost, but she wasn’t his Friend either. And he couldn’t get a fix on her Profile or Thoughtstream. According to Unison, she didn’t exist.

“How did you get here? The Mistletoe I know doesn’t even have topside access, much less a Unison ID.”

She jumped up and jabbed a finger into his chest. That pretty much convinced him that he was dealing with the right girl.

“First, how about Thanks for saving my ass again? What’s that, like, the millionth time since we met? And second, nice to see you, too.”

He put up his hands. “Okay, sorry, but you have to understand, I haven’t been thinking straight since I saw you last. I’ve been seeing things. I left Magnus and Ivor’s to try to get calibrated, but … seriously, how did you get here?”

“Professor Deirdre O’Hanlon.”

“Who?”

“I think when you met her she was some kind of”—she snapped her fingers, trying to think—“Application builder.”

He paused. “Sonia Carter.”

“Her real name’s Deirdre,” Mistletoe said. “She’s a professor of Unison junk at ESC University. I found out about her from Jiri’s notes.”

“Wait—you were at ESCU? How’d you get topside?”

“I know this one boy…” She trailed off like she was waiting for a reaction. Ambrose wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say.

“Huh.”

“Who got me past the airlock. And then Deirdre helped me log in.”

“Implanted you.” He tapped his palm.

She shook her head. “I wish. I had to swallow a giant pill full of bugs.”

Explains why you’re off the grid, he thought. “Do you have any idea how friending unsafe that is?” The subcanopy slang rolled off his tongue like he’d grown up with it. “Swallowing some back-alley biotech login? Those bugs are in your brain now. You can’t do stuff like this. I don’t want to—” He silenced himself.

“Don’t want to what?”

“I don’t want to lose you again.”

Despite the chaotic nature of his current brain functions, he was certain of this one truth. He had the overwhelming urge to lay a finger against the side of her neck, to feel her pulse and the smoothness of her skin all at once. Real skin, Unison skin, it didn’t matter.

She seemed taken aback.

“Ambrose,” she said, “no one’s ever…” For the first time since they met, she dropped her subcanopy street armor. “I’ve never…” Her smile was sad and somehow very old. She tried again. “I wish I’d known you before all this.”

His heart pounded. And then his Thoughtstream crackled:

Takashi Nakamura is psyched to see his Friend sing tonight!

He could feel Takashi’s presence crawling over his skin, suffocatingly happy like an overmedicated patient.

“Oh, no,” he said. “Brace yourself.”