“Wearing makes me think full-body, or covering my head and I mean, I had that costume thing for the training, and that didn’t last that long. How could or would I wear something else and have it last all day or whatever? I mean, I wish I could.”

“I wish I could,” I said. I didn’t want to press or be harsh, but I didn’t want to let this lie either. I went easy, instead. “I’m slightly concerned if you’re using projections like that.”

“I’m not that devious,” Kenzie said. “I wouldn’t bring something and pretend to have a short battery life so I can hide that I have a longer battery life for something else I’m secretly using. That’s not what I do and that’s not how I am.”

“I know,” I said. “I don’t get the impression you’re devious or that you’d go to those lengths.”

Kenzie looked up at the clock.

Average Ash Walk Time: −1:13

“She’ll turn up,” I said.

“I know. I just want her here before Houndstooth calls,” Kenzie said. “One second.”

She kicked the cube. It went dark, and the camera image dropped away.

“Victoria!” Tristan called me from the far end of the room.

“What?”

“Can we use your computer?”

“Yeah.”

Tristan and Sveta gathered together at my computer, Tristan’s hands at the keyboard.

“The tech you’re wearing. The distortions. I want to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. That you don’t have dark circles under your eyes, or bruises, or anything like that.”

She turned her head to look at me over her shoulder and smiled. “It’s off. I turned my tech off to synchronize everything across all fields. This is me.”

She showed me her phone, where the progress bar was filling up.

“Gotcha,” I said.

“I know Houndstooth said stuff. I think he said it in a caring way because he’s one of the best guys out there. True blue hero, like Weld. Like you.”

I was reminded of how I’d handled Presley on the train. I’d recognized how she’d needed me to be more than human, because she idolized me, she’d seen me as something to reach for.

I wondered if Kenzie wanted me to be the same thing.

“I don’t know if I am. I’m pretty angry about things. I’m… really concerned about a lot of things. Negative emotions drive an awful lot of what I do.”

The lock on the door clicked. Ashley let herself in, then locked it behind her. She smiled at Kenzie and me, then gave the other two a small salute.

Kenzie had visibly brightened at Ashley’s appearance.

“The things you do are good,” Kenzie said. “At least as far as I’ve seen and researched.”

She researched me.

“And I think that’s what counts,” Kenzie said.

“It’s nuanced.”