When we arrived bae, An received a lot of berating, led by Jane, followed by lots of hugs, led by Issi. I iionally stepped aside to grab a nutribar sin and I’d already had our moment. An was obviously feeling overwhelmed and more than a little ashamed, he disappeared into his room as soon as he could.

  “I’m gd An’s alright, but I ’t believe he ran off like that,” Jane huffed.

  “Just give him a little space, you know how An hates when you smother him,” I said, nibbling on my bar. Jane gave me a disapproving look, so I backpedaled, just a little bit. “Don’t let him off the hook--just give him a tiny bit of space occasionally.”

  “Fine, but I’m still going to force him to sit down with me and have a discussion ter,” Jane decred.

  “That’s fine,” I replied, then added under my breath, “As long as it’s about dealing with hormones.”

  “What was that?”

  “I said I have to head topside to talk to the other samurai tomorrow. They helped me with Helen, and they already want to call in a favor.”

  Jane frowned. “Isn’t that fihough? Wasn’t most of your accelerated rollout and increased security just to deal with Helen in the first pce?”

  “It was, but I still have the fabricators, the stru, and a ton of other things to deal with,” I grumbled.

  “Yes, yes, you’re very busy,” Jane said, patting me on the head. “Let’s be ho, though if it weren’t for the other samurai, you’d ake any breaks. Sharron practically o force you to participate in her barbeque. Go! Talk to your friends.”

  I narrowed my eyes and sidered spouting off about how Mirage was less a friend, and more the spawn of corporate devils, but just took a bite out of my bar instead. Not only would Ja care, she’d probably find my ranting funny.

  As I sat at the table, idly listening to the various discussioween Jane and the kids, my mi wandering bairage. It was strahat he needed my help for something. There were plenty of samurai within the Family, and I wasly a specialist.

  I was so distracted that I lost track of the versation, only to be surprised by a sudden, running hug from Issi. “Evie… py chessers with me,” the little girl whined.

  I stared down at the little girl for a moment. “Do you mean checkers, or chess?” I asked.

  “Teically, both,” Professington said from behind the girl. He was holding a board with a colle of both checkers and chess pieces across it. “Although she’s trying, Isabelle occasionally mixes up the rules, so she pys sort of a hybrid version of the rules.”

  “Then how am I supposed to know how to py?” I asked.

  “I’ll teach you!” Isabelle squealed. “It’s easy!”

  I g the robotic frog, who just shrugged. “It makes her happy,” it said.

  “Fine,” I said with a sigh, “I don’t have any pns for this evening. So teach me how to py.”

  “Eddie! It’s time for Chessers!” Issi called out in joy.

  The little boy across the room frowned, “I heard. I’m gd you found someone else to py with, I’ll watch,” Eddie decred grumpily.

  “Kay,” the little girl decred while pg down the board aing pieces seemingly at random on the board. “So this is how you py…”

  What followed was one of the most fusing, and chaotic games I’d ever pyed, which carried oo the night. At least Isabelle loved it.

  —

  The m, I sat down and had breakfast with the entire family before heading out to the garage. As soon as I stepped through the door, I ran into Sharron.

  “Heading to the Family today?” she asked.

  “Yes…” I replied, slightly fused, “but how did you know?”

  “Mirage told me you were heading in and asked me to e too. I asked Aeonys to tayx for more details.”

  “You could have asked me directly,” I replied.

  “I could have, but when I checked in st night, you were trating on yame with Issi,” she said with a chuckle, “and losing quite badly, might I add.”

  “I just didn’t know all the rules, that’s all!” I said defensively.

  “Right… So, when are you going?” she replied. It felt like she was just brushing me off, but I let it go.

  “Now, I guess? I’d rather just get this out of the way as soon as possible. Do you know why Mirage wanted you to stop by? He didn’t tell me shit.” I asked as we slowly made our way across the garage towards my truck.

  “He mentiohat they needed my expertise for something, whatever that means,” Sharron said with a shrug. “He wasn’t very forthing.”

  “What else is new?” I grunted, as I opehe door and pulled myself into the driver's seat of the truck. Bob was already in the back seat, so I just had to buckle my seatbelt and wait for Sharron.

  As soon as she was seated, I set the autopilot to take us to the Family pound. “Did you inform Mirage when we’d arrive?” Sharron asked once we were in the air.

  “Nope… I figured they should be expeg us already,” I replied, pulling my hood low before we made it to the upper city access.

  Sharron huffed. “You really should think about other people occasionally. What if Mirage is away or busy? Calling ahead could save a lot of time and effort.”

  “Is this one of those upper city things?” I asked.

  “It’s more of a on sehing,” she replied with a sigh. “Fuck it, I’ll do it.” Her eyes flickered for a minute while she was on the call, only stopping when we were a few minutes out. “A member of the Family will take us to a meeting room, and Mirage will be by as soon as he’s avaible,” she said. I just nodded in response, doing my best to avoid looking up.

  It didn’t take long for the truck to get to the Family plex, and slip into the parking garage. With the roof c our final approach, I pulled my hood back a little, and checked the entrance. Like Sharron said, there was a man in a suit waiting for us.

  I jumped down from the trud waited for both Bob and Sharron to join me, before walking up. Uhe st time I was here, the man was fairly posed in our presence. “I’m Adams. This lease,” the tall, stoic looking man said, swiping his card to open the doors.

  He guided us through the maze of identical hallways. I noticed dozens of people rushing bad forth, between the various rooms. It gave the building a frenzied feeling, something I hadn’t experienced in my previous visits, even whele was being overwhelmed.

  “What’s going on?” I asked uide as I sidestepped a staff member who was carrying far too many bio be safe.

  “Emergency situation,” Adams replied without looking back at me.

  “Are you going to expin that at all?” Sharron said, stepping right up o the man.

  “I ’t. The situation is cssified, and I ot share details with other people without permission, even if you two are samurai,” he responded. “You’ll have to ask Mr. Mirage during your meeting.”

  Adams turhe er and stepped up to another one of the identical, unmarked doors, before pulling out his card to open the door. I could have sworn we went a pletely different way than st time, but beyond the door was the same meeting room we used prior to Seattle.

  “How the hell do you guys find your way around here? I always feel like I’m lost here,” I asked Adams before stepping inside.

  “That’s iional, ma’am. The plex is desigo be difficult to navigate unless ys are ected to the tral system. It’s for defensive purposes, I’m told.”

  “Defense against who? The antithesis?” I replied, slightly fused. The man just shrugged, which might have been the first unnecessary a I’d seen him take. After I realized he wasn’t going to provide a more satisfying answer, I just stepped into the room and sat dowo Sharron.

  The room was quiet, but we could still hear the activity in the hallway. “I get the feeling that there’s a lot moing ohan we were previously told,” I said, leaning ba my chair. It rocked a little, but Bob stretched out one of his paws and stabilized it before I fell.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Sharron replied. The two of us fell into silence, just listening to the chaos in the corridors while waiting for our host to arrive so we could maybe get some answers.