Althea opened her eyes to find water pouring down onto her face. She coughed and spat as the water drizzled down her nose and throat. She sat up, reeling from the motion as she did. Internal system diagnostics universally showed her in the red, and Pontikos did not respond to her requests.

  When she tried to stand, her feet slipped out from beneath her and she banged her backside on the concrete warehouse floor. Three attempts later, Althea managed to get her feet under her and preciously stand.

  None of her systems functioned properly at the time, Pontikos being the biggest problem. But among the good signs: Althea did not feel like a psychopath at the time. If her CC-0 Persona still ran things, Althea could no longer tell.

  Using her arms to balance, she walked out of the warehouse into the deluge overhead. Her olfactory sensors had come back online when she short circuited the nets making her seize up. But with the heavy rain, Althea could barely sniff out the kids’ trail a meter from the warehouse. She slammed her hand against the doorjamb, giving vent to her rage and rocking her away from the door nearly sending her onto her face from the impact.

  Walking gave her trouble as she turned back around and sought the children who had been left behind to watch her. With any luck, they would be able to tell her what Tobias did with the other six.

  Althea fell silent as she stopped at the entrance to the warehouse. Dripping, slushing water filled her ears and she focused on filtering out the errant sounds. None of her digital protocols rose through her mind to dampen the constant flood of sound. Then she heard a metallic clanking in the distance.

  Based on the structure and the brief survey of the space, it probably had other exits. The notion stood up to her reasoned dissection. Rather than wait at the door to trap her prey, she stalked into the warehouse, hoping to find a lead to her wards.

  Three of the older kids who had been left behind to watch Althea huddled near where she neatly electrocuted herself. Their whispers hummed beneath the wash of the rain through the leaky warehouse. Lifting her feet and sneaking toward the kids turned out harder than she expected. When she missed a step, putting her foot down on a pile of refuse, she skidding across the slick floor as if she wore skis on her feet.

  All three of her targets bolted, flying from their huddle as fast as they could scramble over the wet concrete. Althea picked one of them, the shortest girl in the group and tore after her. After a few seconds of pursuit, Althea regretted her pick. The nimble girl skidded under shelves and hopped over boxes in her efforts to escape Althea.

  Her lack of decent motor control sent Althea toppling into those same shelves or tripping over those boxes. With her implant’s assistance, she would have caught the child in seconds. Without it, she looked like a gold knight: more money than skill or talent. Instead of helping, her chassis only made Althea’s movements more awkward and strained as she fought her ungainly frame.

  Despite her target’s agility, Althea had the advantage of reach. The girl all but vanished from Althea’s sight, except for a sleeve of her one piece uniform. When Althea managed to catch it, she wrapped her fingers around the cloth and held on the same way she did when navigating the cliff earlier. In a way, failing to stop this girl had the same consequences as letting herself drop from that overhang.

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  Squeals of panicked anguish burst from the girl as Althea tangled her hand in the girls’s outfit. The constant jerking sent Althea off her feet twice before she managed to clear the obstacles and face the child on her own. By the time Althea reached her, the girl had half-squirmed her way of the uniform, standing in the warehouse in nothing more than short tops and bottoms.

  Althea grabbed the girl’s bare shoulder and the girl’s ensuing screams made the older woman wish she could deafen herself without Pontikos’s assistance. Trying not to hurt the girl when she struggle the way she did sky rocketed Althea’s own stress. For an extended moment, she felt sympathy with the child. But the horror in her eyes at the thought of Althea capturing her came from somewhere, from someone. And Althea did not want her kids to suffer the same fate.

  Both hands on the strange girl’s shoulders, she said,

  “Tell me where Tobias took my kids!”

  The girl’s eyes widened as she opened her mouth to scream again. Althea lowered her head, shaking it and said,

  “Please stop screaming.”

  Something about the tone or Althea’s defeated stance must have resonated with the girl because she paused and looked into Althea’s eyes as if searching for something. In a tiny voice the girl said,

  “You already have a magic body. Why would you want mine?’

  Anything else the girl could have said would have made more sense then.

  “What are you talking about?”

  The girl glanced to the right and left as if hoping someone would arrive to save her and let her weight collapse into Althea’s arms. She looked surprised for a moment when Althea failed to release her and then she said,

  “Tobias and the others…” the unknown girl bit her lip, “they said that raiders come here to take our parts. Cannibals want to eat us and raiders want to see our hearts and stuff. Please don’t take my heart, I’ll die without it.”

  Althea suddenly felt like a ravenous monster, standing over a dying girl in her underwear as she quivered in fear.

  Taking a deep breath to center herself and to try to present a less-threatening face to the girl, Althea said,

  “I’m not here to take your parts. I want to find and help the kids I arrived here with. That’s all.”

  The girl looked up at Althea with big doe eyes and said,

  “Really?”

  “I promise. I am just here to help my friends. Look, if I was trying to hurt you, why would we be having this discussion?”

  Althea winced at the implication, but the girl seemed to consider her words.

  “You’re not gonna cut me open?”

  “I’m really not. Can you tell me where the others were taken?”

  The girl looked up at Althea and said,

  “I’m Melanie.”

  Althea stifled a sigh as she said,

  “My name’s Althea. Where did Tobias take my friends?”

  Melanie stopped trying to pull away from Althea and spoke in a low whisper,

  “You don’t want to go there.” Melanie held her hands up to her mouth and spoke with an even lower voice, “Toby does bad stuff there.”

  Muscles in Althea’s jaws twitched in response.

  “That’s why I want to find them. Will you help me save my friends, Melanie?”

  No one appeared at the junctions and from the corners of her eyes where Melanie checked. She seemed to finally relax and said,

  “Are you sure?”

  Althea felt part of the tension release from her own body.

  “Yes. I don’t care how scary it is, if you can tell me how to get there, you don’t have to come.”

  Melanie nodded and said,

  “There is a little shack near the mess hall. It looks like a potty, Toby set it up that way. But under the floor is a secret stairs.”

  Althea lingered long enough to draw a few specifics out of Melanie. Then she sprinted for the warehouse door and out into the rain.