From where Tom crouched, struggling on the floor to keep his mind working, he could make out the panic and confusion blaring on Wyatt’s face, her dark eyes taking in their state.

“I will put you one by one in the census device,” Yuri said, “and we will search for every reference to your suspicions about this asset. Then I’ll excise those recollections and you will all be released unharmed. If you don’t cooperate, I will continue to hurt your friends until you do. Tell me the password to drop your firewall and this will be painless.”

“Wyatt,” Tom gasped, “don’t do it!”

Yuri drew forward a step, and his massive boot careened down, knocking Tom back. His head smacked against the wall, and he stayed there, crumpled, trying to heave in air. He was vaguely aware of Vik straining to work his sleeve up his arm, to get to his forearm keyboard. Hope reared inside him.

“What . . . are you . . . doing?” Tom managed to whisper to him.

“Getting . . . help.”

Tom tore his gaze away from Vik, not wanting Yuri’s attention to go there.

“Why are you doing this?” Wyatt asked, tears choking her voice. “I don’t understand.”

“Do as I instructed you.”

“So you can do to me what you did to Tom and Vik? No! I won’t!”

And then she shrieked out in pain when Yuri’s large hand twisted her wrist. Tom felt a surge of rage and tried to launch himself up, but agony twisted him back to the floor, his head beginning to spin violently.

Vik finished typing on his forearm keyboard, and then curled up in pain, impotent fury on his face, as he watched Wyatt struggle with Yuri.

“Do as I instructed you,” Yuri repeated.

“NO!” Wyatt shouted.

Yuri hurled Wyatt, hard, toward the chair beneath the census device. She tried to bolt, but he caught her. “This culling begins with you, then.” He snared the restraints around her arms, and reared up to seize the census device, pull the metal claw down right over her head—

And then the door slid open, and Blackburn barreled in and wrenched Yuri away from Wyatt. She cringed as Yuri slammed his fist across Blackburn’s face, crashing him to the floor. Blackburn found his feet in a flash, his hand jabbing at his forearm keyboard.

Yuri started toward him and then seemed to think the better of it. He backed up one step, another.

“Who’s counterhacking me, Sysevich?” Blackburn snarled at him, when whatever program he was trying to deploy failed.

Yuri said nothing. There was an unsettling blankness to his face as he edged back as far as he physically could.

Blackburn lowered his forearm keyboard, giving up on taking Yuri down with a program. Instead, keeping his careful eyes on Yuri, Blackburn reached down and yanked Wyatt free, then shoved her toward Vik and Tom.

“Help those two,” he said.