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The Great Wheel had fallen over, crushing people and machines.
 
He was pretty sure that had been Finnagen.

Burke clanked around behind him.
 
“Fucking hell,” he said.
 
“Fucking kids.
 
I never shot no fucking kids before.
 
Fucking hell.”

“I don’t understand it,” said Harry, the link hissing.
 
“How…
 
How did Mason do this?”

“Well,” said Lace, “it’s possible that he didn’t, you know.”

“He set up the meeting.
 
The time.
 
The place.”

“Right.”
 
Lace cleared her throat.
 
“Let’s work a hypothesis.”

“Where’s my air support?”
 
Harry watched as Finnagen stomped through the muck, reaching down metal fingers to touch the side of a woman’s face.
 
She looked more peaceful than she had a minute earlier, the lower half of her body gone.

“Coming,” she said.
 
“Still a minute out.
 
Second wave of those freaks is massing out there.
 
Stay with me.”

“I’m with you,” said Harry.
 
“I’m always with you.”

There was a pause, and he could hear the smile in her voice.
 
“I know,” she said.
 
There was a beat, two, then, “So, this hypothesis.”

“This yours, or Carter’s?”

“You can go off some people,” she said.
 
“You know, really start to dislike them.”

“Ok, it’s yours,” said Harry.
 
“Sorry.
 
I was just asking.”

“Let’s say Mason wanted to meet with you.”

“With you so far.”

“Let’s say that there’s some kind of leak within the Federate.”

“Hm,” said Harry.
 
“IA still crawling all over you?”

“It’s like we’ve got fleas,” she said.
 
“Let’s say that the leak organized this.”

“Ok,” said Harry.
 
“There’s a problem with your working theory.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.
 
You’ve still got to have someone make up some kind of psychotic drug that turns three thousand people into bloodthirsty killers.
 
One that’ll affect kids and cause their parents to drag them into battle against a syndicate enforcement team.”

“Ok,” said Lace.
 
“The theory still needs some work, I’ll admit it.
 
But let’s say for argument’s sake that was a side effect.”

“Pretty big side effect.”

“Let’s say you wanted Reed and Apsel here.”
 
Harry could imagine the frown on Lace’s face.
 
“It just so happens that Reed brought three thousand blood thirsty killers.
 
We brought a syndicate enforcement team.”

“You know what I think?”
 
Harry watched Burke carrying a child’s body, cradling it in massive metal hands, and place it next to some others.
 
He was working slow and steady, laying the children out together.

“No,” said Lace.

“Someone else is trying to get their hands on Mason.”
 
Harry paused.
 
Got to be careful what you say over the link
.
 
“And you know what that tells me?”

“What?”

“Fire a memo up to the boss.
 
Let him know there are outside interests.
 
Heavy outside interests.”

The drop ship roared over harsh and loud as the machine came scudding in over the trees.
 
The pilot had it low and hard, right on the deck, and trees thrashed and bent as leaves scattered under the turbines.

“Ok,” said Lace.
 
“I’ll send a memo up.”

“One more thing,” said Harry.

“Yeah?”

“See if you can get some time off for Burke and Finnagen.
 
I don’t think they’ve had a good day.”

“You seem fine.”

“I’m not fine, Lace,” said Harry.
 
“I just…
 
Never mind.
 
I’ll be ok.”

The link chattered for a moment.
 
“You can tell me,” she said.

“I know,” said Harry.
 
“And I will.
 
Just…
 
Later.
 
Ok?”

“Sure,” she said, her voice distant.
 
“Get on the plane already.”

“You what?” said Haraway.
 
“You did
what
?”

“I told Carter to send help,” said Mason, looking her in the eye.
 
Man, she’s
pissed.
 
“Sort of.”

Haraway’s mouth opened and closed.
 
Her face was pale, almost white.
 
When she spoke, her voice was flat.
 
“You told Carter — a core syndicate asset — where we are?”

“No,” said Mason.
 
He pulled out one of the battered chairs and kicked himself back into it.
 
“Grab a seat, Haraway.”

“I want you to—”

“Take,” said Mason, leaning forward, “a fucking
chair
, Jenni.”

He wasn’t sure if it was something in his voice, but she swallowed before grabbing an old stuffed chair and pulling it across the floor.
 
It scraped against the pitted surface, flakes of old linoleum pulling away.
 
She sat.

“I didn’t tell Carter where we are,” said Mason, leaning back.
 
He watched her face, confusion chasing anger away for a second.

“You just said—”

“I said that I’d told Carter to send help,” said Mason.
 
“We need supplies.
 
Ammo.
 
Something to eat other than chocolate-flavored protein.
 
I don’t know about you, but I could use a stick of deodorant.”

Haraway looked down at her hands.
 
“It’s just that—”

“Scratch that,” said Mason.
 
“I do know about you.
 
Yeah.
 
You need a stick of deodorant too.”

She blinked at him again, then laughed, a short brittle sound.
 
“You’re a piece of work, Floyd.”

Mason nodded, not sure if he was agreeing with her or not.
 
“Still.
 
You’re not spring fresh, you know?”

“How is she going to send help if you didn’t tell her where we are?”
 
Haraway’s eyes searched his face, looking for… something.

“She’s not going to send help,” said Mason.
 
“Besides, she already knows where we are.
 
She sent us here.”

“But you said—”
 
Mason watched as Haraway caught herself, stopped for a second.
 
“You…
 
You’re insane.”

“Sure,” said Mason.
 
“Let’s go with that.”

“You’re asking for another
syndicate
to get involved?”
 
Haraway stood, turning to face the windows.
 
She walked over to them and looked out.
 
“You’ve involved another syndicate to get a better
breakfast cereal
?
 
You’re crazy in the coconut.”

Mason watched the set of her shoulders.
 
“What’s the connection, Haraway?”
 
He leaned further back into his chair.
 
“I need to know.”

She turned to look over her shoulder.
 
“Connection?
 
What do you mean?”

“Don’t,” said Mason.
 
“Just — don’t.”

“Ok,” she said, and turned back to the window.
 
“She’s a good kid, you know.”

“I know,” said Mason.

“I wasn’t sure what it would do,” said Haraway.
 
“They…
 
There’s no instructions on the box, Floyd.
 
It doesn’t come with a spec sheet.”

“She has a brother.”

Haraway ignored him.
 
“I’m still not sure.
 
There’s no science that shows how it’s possible.”

“And there was another guy,” said Mason.
 
He looked up at the ceiling, remembering the pain.
 
“Real asshole.”

“I…
 
I wanted to broker a deal.
 
Money, so I could keep looking,” said Haraway.
 
She turned to face him.
 
“Do you know what this has cost me?”

Mason caught the clenched fists, the set of her jaw.
 
“I’ve got some idea.”

“No,” she said.
 
“No, you don’t.”

“It doesn’t matter how much you paid,” said Mason.
 
“It’s not going to matter if Apsel turns us to ash.
 
It’s not going to matter at all.”

She spun away from him.
 
“It was from my division.
 
Deep research.
 
Mothballed.”

“Atomics?”

She laughed, the sound sharp.
 
“Did that hole in the world look like atomics to you?”

Mason sighed.
 
He stood up and walked to the windows to stand next to her.
 
He looked down into the street outside, saw Laia and Sadie out on the street below.
 
Mason watched them talk, their words lost on the wind that was pacing the street below.
 
“It looked like a doorway, Haraway.
 
A big ol’ doorway to another planet.”

He felt her start next to him, but he didn’t turn when she spoke.
 
“How did you work that—”

“Different sky, you see,” said Mason.
 
“Through that hole in the air, there were two moons.”

“Two—”

“There were two moons in the sky,” said Mason.
 
“It’s been bugging me.
 
I don’t know much about stars, hell, I can barely get two blocks down without GPS.
 
But I figure I’d have noticed if there was a second
moon
in the sky.”

“I didn’t notice that,” said Haraway, her voice quiet.

“So,” said Mason, “it’s why I asked.
 
What’s the connection?
 
I tracked the broker of stolen Federate tech to a bar, a bar which turns into a war zone.
 
Same night, I find a torched basement, an Apsel crate with your division’s name written big and black on the side.
 
You know what they sent me there to track down?”

“No,” said Haraway.

“‘Unauthorized reactor signature,’” said Mason.
 
“That’s what they called a basement full of dead men.
 
With one of your boxes of toys in it.”

“It wasn’t my box,” said Haraway.
 
“It was—”

“And then there’s the photo.”

Haraway swallowed.
 
Didn’t ask any of the filler questions, like
What photo
?
 
She just looked at him.
 
Waiting.

“Where’d Marlene go?”
 
Mason’s overlay flipped the photo of the girl with green hair up.
 
He turned it on the overlay so he could see the writing on the back.
 
Jenni —
 
I’m free!
 
See you soon.

“She was abused,” said Haraway.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“She was on a fast track.
 
Smart kid,” said Haraway.
 
“Smarter than me.”

“Clearly,” said Mason, “because she didn’t try to steal from the syndicate that pays her well.”

Haraway ran a nervous hand through her hair.
 
“When did you know?”

“Just now,” said Mason.
 
“I’ve suspected for a while.
 
But it was your office.”

“My what?”

“Your office,” said Mason.
 
“You had a photo.
 
On your desk.
 
This beautiful office, planned to the last centimeter, and then there’s this old tech photo on the desk.
 
No one keeps photos.
 
It’s all digital.”

“Maybe I’m nostalgic.”

“Maybe you’re concerned that our facial recognition software would trigger on a digital record of her.
 
Maybe the only thing you can keep to remind you of her is something off the link.”

“Reed,” said Haraway.
 
“She went to Reed.
 
It cost me everything I had.”

“No it didn’t,” said Mason.
 
“You still had a little something.
 
Enough to sell us out.
 
What was it?
 
You figure that I had little dirt on my record, it’d be easy to drag me down with you?”

“You want the truth?”

“I think I’ve earned the truth,” said Mason.
 
“It seems to be in short supply.
 
I’ve played it straight up the middle, and now I’ve got…
 
Haraway, there’s a kid out there from God knows where.
 
It’s not her
fault
.”

“It’s why I picked you, you know,” she said.

“Picked me?”
 
Mason took a step back.

“It’s a gate.”

“A what?”
 
Mason swallowed.
 
“Like a wormhole?”

“Like you said.
 
A doorway,” she said.
 
“I…
 
No, it’s not an Einstein-Rosen bridge.
 
Like I said, the science doesn’t make a lot of sense.
 
What’s on the other side can come here.
 
What’s here can go to the other side.
 
It’s stable.”

“The other side?” said Mason.
 
“What other side?
 
What do you mean, you picked me?”