“If you can’t interface your way in,” Blackburn told him, “then I’m glad. It’s better for all of us. You destroy that transmitter, and then not only will Joseph Vengerov discover a ghost in his system, he’ll also know that ghost is someone who wanted that transmitter destroyed. He’ll narrow down the suspects for that ghost to a list of three—you, Enslow, and Ashwan. Haven’t you hurt your friends enough already?”

Tom clenched his jaw. “I’ll destroy the whole supercomputer it’s attached to. Then he won’t know I was going after the transmitter.”

“The answer’s no. I wouldn’t help you do something this stupid and risky even if I could.”

“I’d be the one at risk, not you!”

Blackburn gave an unpleasant laugh. “You still aren’t capable of making that connection between actions and long-term, unintended consequences, are you, Raines? If Joseph Vengerov ever gets you, it’s not your risk anymore, it becomes mine, because he will wipe you from your own brain, maybe pull you open to see how you work, and he’ll figure out how to turn your ability into a weapon. He’ll use everything you can do against the Spire. I hold on to this installation by clinging with my fingertips to a tiny bit of ledge as it is. You’re not chipping it away, not if I can stop you.”

“But Yuri will die! You can’t let that happen. You wouldn’t do that.”

Blackburn sat back. “When I told Joseph Vengerov I was going to use Sysevich’s processor against him, what did you think would happen?”

Tom couldn’t speak; he couldn’t.

“I can tell you what I thought would happen. One possibility was that Joseph Vengerov would simply let his asset go. Surrender him for good. I didn’t consider that one likely.”

Tom gaped at him. “You knew he might . . .”

“Choose to eradicate a potential threat once he knew I was going to use it against him? Yeah, I knew. It was the likeliest scenario. I still threatened him.”

Tom couldn’t speak.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Blackburn said darkly. “You did this, not me. Sysevich was dead the minute you took it upon yourselves to remove my software, and if I didn’t know you’d be more of a danger to me out there in the world than you are in here, I would make consequences rain down on all your heads for killing your friend.”

Tom flinched.

Through the haze over his vision, he grew aware of Blackburn rubbing his palm over his mouth. “Go to bed, Tom. It’s late.”

But Tom wasn’t done. “So what about Wyatt?”

An edge crept into his voice. “Get out of my sight, Raines.”

“She’s really messed up.”

A vein flickered in Blackburn’s forehead. He said nothing.