“But that’s in the past now, and it will never happen again. Everyone is making good progress, and they’ll back to their right minds and full strength very soon. I promise, you and your mom will be able to see Albert again before too long. He is desperate to see you both. Carter, your mom too. It’s going to take a lot of patience—and rehabilitation—but you’ll have the full resources of Moncha at your disposal.”

My heart soars to hear he is okay and that the update isn’t permanent. I know it’s going to be hard on my mom, that there will be a lot of residual frustration and tears over the lost time we could have had with him.

But the important thing is he’s coming home.

“Thank you,” is all I manage to say.

Monica gestures for me to take a seat, so I squeeze in between Ashley and Zora on the couch. I lift my eyes up to Tobias, and then quickly look away again. Friends, I say firmly in my mind.

>>Yeah, right.

I hear Jinx, and I have to stifle a smile.

“My dear friends,” Monica begins. I want to listen to her, but movement down around her ankles distracts me. It’s a loping gait that I recognize, and then the baku fully comes into view: the sloth, Pardem. I recoil in disgust. I want that baku as far away from me as possible. Even Jinx tenses in my arms, the way I’ve noticed bakus tense. He seems to vibrate at an even faster speed, his electronic hum seeming even louder.

“It’s okay, Lacey,” Monica says, clocking my reaction. To my dismay, Monica scoops the sloth baku up into her arms and connects him to her leash.

“No!” I cry out.

Monica shakes her head. “It’s all right; there’s no update in his system any longer. I’ve grown attached to this baku and decided to keep him. Despite what he represents. Because it wasn’t his fault. It was his programming.”

It takes a few seconds for me to recover my breath, but she’s right. The sloth bakus were never the problem. The update was.

Doesn’t mean I find the sight of them any less triggering, though.