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even worse than usual. The thing is, how could your it get from the MEC to Bubba? I still don’t think he was there.”
    â€œWhat if it rode out inside Afoniki?” Joe asked. “It it studied him, concluded he was not a productive host, its next step would be to find someone else.”
    â€œI can kind of see why it would prefer the scummy politician to the scummy criminal. Best of both worlds.”
    â€œI do believe the ankle bracelet to have been the tipping force, though it might be attempting a double bluff.”
    Vi rubbed her temple as if it ached. “Is that why you were worried about breaching the bracelet? You think it might actually be there, but hiding?”
    â€œAnything is possible. If it probed Afoniki, there would be signs left of that activity.” It paused. “We are fairly certain it altered Afoniki’s memory, even if we are not certain it moved in. If it left drones, it would have the ability to exert some level of remote control, but I do not know how much, since it is also something I would not do.”
    â€œOr it’s hiding in plain sight.” Vi’s lips tightened, but she didn’t argue the point. “For two…entities desperate to find each other, you both seem to spend a lot of time trying not to find each other.”
    Lurch chuckled. “A fair point. But we are both seeking for a meeting in a venue conducive to our own survival and the demise of the other. It is a complicated…dance.” He tone sobered. “And I am more concerned about collateral damage than it is.”
    â€œA fair point.” Vi gazed ahead, frowning. “So I guess we use the same tack, that we’re looking at a contamination issue from his meeting with Afoniki. It’s wafer thin, will be tricky play, if he is the big, bad IT. Or even if he isn’t. He won’t be happy Afoniki sent us his way.”
    â€œAfoniki, who may be in the custody of MITSC and on track to disappearing forever,” Joe murmured.
    â€œOr who may be frying the Smiths right now,” Vi pointed out. Tired traced deep lines in her face.
    She needed rest. Or she needed a Lurch. It had kept Joe going well past human endurance.
    It would make her a target.
    She is already a target because she is with us.
    She angled so she could look at Joe. “Did you two have a plan when you beamed in here? Or were you—are you winging it?”
    â€œLurch always has a plan,” Joe protested, though his tone lacked deep conviction. Vi tipped her head to the side and widened her eyes. “On occasion, winging it IS a plan.”
    â€œYou have to know I have questions,” she said, reluctantly, “Lots of them. I should have asked them before…not sure why I didn’t. Okay, I do know. I didn’t want to know, but…I think I need to know. Even though I don’t.”
    She sagged back, staring out the front screen, so that he could not see her eyes.
    He sensed he knew the questions. He had them, too. Perhaps because he also had not asked because he had also feared the answers….
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    V i wanted to stop and get a handle on all of this. She wanted to keep moving fast enough to outrun it. And she wanted to bury her head in the sand and pretend none of it had happened. All of this wanting made her headache worse. That and being tired to her toenails. She kind of envied Joe his infestation. As soon as they’d gotten airborne, Joe’s tired had faded like water drops in the heat. She stared at Joe a bit morosely, listening to their discussion—but not with all her brain—as Lurch explained why it had taken him so long to process all the data. That was disturbing, too. It was possible the nanite was outgunned by the evil it, or at least very evenly matched. It was certainly above her renumeration grade. She couldn’t see how she was anything but a drag on the ticket at this point.
    â€œSo how worried are we that the MITSC know or