Siva left Eric still looking disturbed beside his motorbike and walked over to me. He motioned for us to step away, and Shawn came with us. Jess stayed behind with the man, kneeling beside him and murmuring something steady as he lay on the ground and cried.

  “What the fuck was that?” Siva demanded.

  I didn’t know how to answer fast enough, and he did not give me the time anyway.

  “You were supposed to start the fight, then get Eric to try and sever the connection halfway through. Not plant an arrow through his eye,” he said, voice low and sharp.

  He reached out and plucked the arrow from Shawn’s hands. Both Shawn and I flinched. Siva clearly did not realize what he was holding.

  He studied the arrowhead, then his expression tightened. His grip loosened immediately, and he handed it back like it might bite.

  I cleared my throat, took it, and stowed it away in my inventory.

  “I… I didn’t know what came over me,” I said. It was the truth, and I hated how weak it sounded out loud.

  Shawn squeezed my shoulder once, firm and grounding, then walked back toward Jess and the captive. He crouched beside them and started speaking softly.

  Siva kept his eyes on me. “Look, man. We’re all stressed out. But I can’t have you losing it like that.” His voice was still urgent, but the anger had thinned into something more exhausted than anything. “I had to talk Eric down from leaving the party. I even bribed him with gold just to keep him quiet.”

  I nodded, because there wasn’t much else I could do.

  When I finally looked up properly, I saw the concern sitting behind his frustration. That hit harder than the anger. I reached out and squeezed his arm.

  “I’ll do better,” I said quietly, and I meant it.

  We walked back over to Eric. He still looked pale, like he had watched something he could not unsee. I kept my voice as steady as I could.

  “That module,” I said, nodding at him. “Once it’s installed in the truck, can it do what you just did?”

  Part of me wanted the full explanation. How it worked. What exactly he had severed. Whether we had just broken something permanent.

  But I didn’t have the appetite for technobabble today, and I didn’t trust myself not to spiral if he started explaining in detail. I only needed one thing.

  Could we do it again?

  Eric hesitated, eyes flicking to the man on the ground, then back to me. “Yeah,” he said eventually. “Once it’s installed, the truck should have enough power to push the override. On augmented people. It can force a disconnect.”

  He swallowed, then added quickly, “But I have to be careful. If I screw it up, I could disconnect the wrong targets. I don’t want to cut us off from the system too.”

  That was not comforting.

  “And the OS?” I asked, because the dread was already crawling up my spine.

  Before Eric could answer, my HUD pinged.

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  Eva: I’ll do it. Have him finish installing the module into the truck and I will install myself there. You only need to touch the truck and I will begin the process.

  I stared at the message for a second, then replied.

  Chris: Does that mean you’ll leave me? Like you won’t be in my head anymore?

  Eva: No, Chris. I will still be with you. The truck will simply be another location that I can be accessed from.

  Chris: Wait. Really? So you’re splitting yourself?

  Eva: Think of it like an online application, Chris. You can log on to Canva or ChatGPT from your laptop and your phone at the same time. This will allow me to operate from more than one access point.

  I didn’t like how casually she said it, like she was moving parts of herself around without effort.

  That… was more than a little concerning.

  But I didn’t have the luxury of arguing with the only tool that had just given us a real advantage.

  So I swallowed the discomfort and nodded at Eric.

  “Finish the install,” I said. “As soon as you can.”

  Eric just nodded, then walked off a few steps to light a cigarette like he needed something familiar to keep his hands from shaking.

  Jess and Shawn came over, leaving the man where he was. He had stopped crying. Now he just sat on the ground, hunched over, cradling himself with what was left of his forearms.

  “His name is Erjun,” Jess said quietly. “He’s totally disconnected from the system. He can’t feel it anymore.” She glanced back at him, worry written all over her face. “He had hands before, Chris. He didn’t even realise the system replaced them instead of improving them.”

  Shawn’s jaw tightened. “Didn’t you say the guy you fought had implants on his legs?” he asked. “And you mentioned someone else you saw had something on their head too.”

  We all understood what that meant, and none of us liked it. The silence sat heavy for a beat.

  “I’m bringing him and Eric back to the settlement,” Jess said. “He can’t go back to the Temple like this.”

  I nodded. It made sense. It also made my stomach twist.

  Erjun might have tried to kill me minutes ago, but right now he was just another person chewed up and spat out by the same machine that was chewing through all of us. We could not leave him like this.

  “Let’s get back to base,” I said. “We all need rest.”

  And the moment I said it, the party chat lit up.

  Shaheerah: Need help. Quickly. We got ambushed.

  Chris: Where are you? And by who? The Temple?

  Shaheerah: Yes. The Temple and also mobs.

  Siva: What? So it’s a three way fight?

  Shaheerah: If you don’t get here soon there will not be a fight anymore.

  Farah: Where are you?

  Shaheerah: The Science Centre.

  I stared at the message, not understanding.

  The Science Centre?

  What the fuck was she doing there. The last I knew, she was with Shawn, heading out to speak to the other settlements. I hadn’t even asked Shawn how he got back here, or what happened on that trip. There was definitely no time for it now.

  We moved immediately.

  Jess was going to take Eric and Erjun back to the settlement. I headed for the Phantom, expecting Siva to hop on behind me, but he went straight for the parked paramedic’s motorbike instead.

  I froze for a second.

  There was pride, sharp and sudden, and right behind it was something like sadness, because the pride meant he really was going to do it. He was really going to ride.

  Siva started the bike, wobbled like hell, then found the balance and pushed forward anyway.

  Then I felt weight on the back seat as Shawn climbed on.

  “They grow up so fast,” he said in a mock dreamy voice.

  I grunted and gunned the engine, pulling out of the cemetery hard. I overtook Siva within seconds, leaving Jess, Eric and Erjun behind with the dead and the graves.

  Shawn started typing in chat while I kept my eyes on the road.

  Shawn: How many went with you and what kind of mobs?

  Shaheerah: I have ten with me.

  Something about that reply felt off. It was the second time she dodged the mob question.

  Chris: Shah. What are you not telling us?

  For a moment, the chat went dead.

  Then the reply came in, and the moment I read it, my blood went hot and my hand twisted the throttle like it was trying to tear the grip off.

  Shaheerah: Dinosaurs. We’re fighting dinosaurs.

  Great.

  Just fucking great.