The truck moved slow through the rain.
Glitch drove. He sat up front with his datapad balanced on the steering wheel, one eye on the road and one eye on the screen. The route to Server 12 ran through Sector 2 — the Undercity. Flooded streets. Dead buildings. The kind of place where people disappeared and nobody asked questions.
I sat in the back with the pod. My hand — my left hand, the only one that worked — rested on its surface. Cool metal. Smooth chrome. The hum of the machine vibrated through my palm and up into my chest. A good hum. A living hum. The sound of a thing that was built to save people.
Sarah sat across from me. Quiet. Her hands were folded in her lap. Still. Not shaking. She'd gotten them under control since the Butcher's Mile. The Queen was holding steady.
