Living down the hall became more like living on another continent. Tom saw Vik hanging around with Giuseppe sometimes, like they were actually becoming friends. Most of the time, Vik was with Lyla, though. They’d gotten back together, for longer than twelve minutes this time. Tom usually saw them arguing, or sometimes being way over-the-top affectionate. She seemed angry a lot, which Vik always appeared to find hilarious.

Tom wasn’t upset. He was sure he wasn’t hurt. There was this strange sense of crystallization inside him, like something had grown very hard and still in his chest. Things were the way they were. Maybe even a close group like theirs couldn’t survive watching a friend get murdered.

Tom deleted his bunk template and the Gormless Cretin statue. He got rid of all of it.

OF COURSE, AT first, Tom was angry. When he learned Yuri wasn’t getting another processor—that his life wouldn’t be saved—determination flooded him. He would do what he could do—enter machines, go right through Obsidian Corp.’s firewall into Vengerov’s systems, and he’d blow out that transmitter on the other side. Failing that, he’d blow up Obsidian Corp. itself if he had to. That was his plan. Then Yuri wouldn’t be a security breach anymore, and he could get a processor.

But he tried. And failed. Obsidian Corp. had something he’d believed impossible: a firewall he couldn’t penetrate.

When Medusa showed up in his plane during the Battle of Midway simulation, Tom turned back toward her. “Medusa!” He’d almost forgotten to think of her lately, with everything that had happened. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I know I’ve been staying away,” she said. “I wanted to tell you—”

“Medusa, I need to ask you something.” He steered through the chaos, only a sliver of his attention on the conflict. “It’s important.”

“I need to ask you things, too. About, well, when you kissed me—”

“Not now,” Tom said. “I can’t right now. This is a bad time. Look, have you ever been bounced out of a system while interfacing with it? I need to know.”

There was a thick silence. Her voice grew icy. “What do you mean?”

Tom missed it. “If you try to interface the way we do, and you enter a system, but then get bounced out again, what does that mean—”

Her fingers dug into his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“I have to get into Obsidian Corp.’s system. It’s important,” Tom insisted.

“Obsidian Corp.? Obsidian Corp., Tom?” Her fingers dug harder. “Are you trying to get caught? You’re going to give us both away.”

“I have to do this!” Tom turned on her, and the plane began to descend wildly, g-forces pressing in on them. “Medusa, I have to get something out of their systems. Can you tell me how to do it or not?”