"What should we do, Alicia Ivy?"

"Finish getting the necessary supplies and then round back to collect the Reverend."

Nicholas rubs his hands together excitedly. "And then?"

"I'll tell you your next step."

Dropping his hands, Nicholas frowns. "Why are you such a control freak, Alicia Ivy?"

"Because you are a loose variable, Nicholas, and I can't afford anything going wrong in my algorithm."

Nicholas sticks his tongue out at me, as if that somehow makes him a more secure variable.

Since I trust Killa to mostly keep him in line, I transfer my main focus from that hologram back to Shipping's.

He's in deep conversation with a receptionist, apparently trying to describe why he needs the best cyborg specialist they have in residence.

"Nicholas and Killa are coming to pick you up," I tell him. "Be ready."

"Okay," Reverend Shipping says, never looking away from the receptionist.

Then I transfer focus back to the one following Orion and his captor.

The captor is talking as if I never left- well, consciously. Physically, he has no reason to assume I was relaying information contrary to his mission.

"You're really good at your job," I say, since it is true and it's simplest to start a con by not overruling my truth-telling software.

The officer stops talking mid-word. Then he turns and gives me what I analyze to be a bashful grin as he shuffles his left foot back and forth. "Well, shucks. I don't know if artificial intelligence has ever said that to me. But it has to be doubly true to be coming from you."

"I cannot tell a lie," I lie.

-Banner by

-Signature by -krystallite