I wasn’t about to lay claim to being genuine, but I was pretty sure Vista could. And part and parcel of that was that if I asked her for something as a friend and colleague, then she would go out of her way to do it. Even while hurt and mending.

As Vista broke the hug, I turned my back to the conference room, leaning against a table piled with rolled up concept sketches. The nice thing about these offworld installations was that they often had an amazing view. This place, as gray as it was, was up there. What had come up here as a rough equivalent to tall grass had matted, grown in dense, and curled into itself until it looked like lichen. The snowfall hadn’t really done anything to wipe it out or flatten, it, only gave it a look like it had been doused in powdered sugar.

“Any biokinetics or bio tinkers in the prison right now?” I asked.

Vista turned my way. I could see her eyes and eyebrows vaguely through the textured glass of her visor. Eyebrows up, the eye closest to me wide.

“No,” she said. “Why?”

I shook my head.

“Doesn’t seem like something you’d ask.”

This wasn’t easy.

“For Sveta. Just… considering options.”

“Sorry,” she said. “That’s…”

“Not an easy thing to bring up,” I said.

“Yeah, that.”

“I want a good outcome for her.”

“Even though she’s kind of playing a role in cutting you out, right now? Not to poke at the wound, but…”

You really suck at changing topics and distracting, I thought. But I’d raised the line of conversation and of course she’d have questions.

“If she came out of that conference room, and they said they wanted me off the team, and that she was a major voice arguing for it, I’d still want good things for her.”

“They’re not going to do that, Vicky.”

“I’m just saying, worst-case scenario—”

“I don’t think that scenario’s happening.”

“Let me finish?” I asked. I poked her.

“Fine.”

“I love her like family. She’s been there for me, and no matter what happens I want to do right by her. Part of that is keeping an eye out for answers.”

“She’s doing so well, though,” Vista said.

“Maybe,” I said. “I’d like to do something.”

Vista nodded. Looking down at the table in front of her, she turned a piece of art around and smoothed out the paper where the edges rolled in.

“Orchard,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“They’ve been active for a long time. They were in Boston. Not big, but they’ve earned enough to buy their way out of trouble. Good lawyers, staying off the radar, moving around a lot. And they manipulate biology. They’re about as scummy as they get, Victoria.”

“Okay,” I said. “They sound vaguely familiar. I’ll look them up, see if I have any notes.”