Unnatural

  * * * *

  Sabrina tripped over a rock, faceplanting in the dust. Her belly ached as much as her head.

  “Mama, stop running from me.”

  Youthful, gangling arms wrapped around her waist and raised her to her feet. She flung him away and staggered forward. “Governess, fire it!”

  “It’s not that simple.” Michael pulled her by the hand, beginning to sob. “Think of the political ramifications, and we can’t be sure the loss of Michael’s nanotechnological control won’t also kill him.”

  Sabrina groaned, let go of his hand, and turned to face him. His misty eyes implored her protection, but she knew it was a scheme at heart. She pushed him away as gently as possible and took off in a U-turn, fighting back her own tears. “Governess, what’s the fastest way to Livingston’s house?”

  “If you’re searching for Mr. Uriah, you’re wasting your time.”

  “What, what’s happened to Dennis now?” Sabrina jumped off the low cliff, checking for an old-fashioned automobile against which robotic control would be useless. There was none. “He isn’t dead, is he?”

  “Worse.”

  Michael was at the foot of the cliff when she turned around. He held an EM gun pointed at her ear.

  She instinctively held her hands up, creeping forward. “Governess, this’ll have to wait.” What’s your gambit now, Marshall? Not as if he’d heard enough to go on.

  “Give me that talkie, Mama.”

  Sabrina stayed statue-still, except for her eyes, which searched for something, anything that could absorb or deflect a pulse. All the while, Zolnerowich was rattling off all the information she deemed essential. “Marshall, I know you’re in there. Let’s be reasonable. You can trust me by now, can’t you?”

  “My name’s Michael, Mama. Gimme the talkie!”

  She said and did nothing for ten seconds, choosing her words carefully. “This is silly. The person I’m talking to won’t tell you anything, and keeping me from talking to her won’t help you. She’s the one with the important info, not me.”

  Michael stepped closer. “Gimme!”

  Sabrina sidestepped just as he tackled her. The puerile hands pulled her hair, bringing her left ear nearer. She grabbed his wrists with one hand and swiped off the communicator with another. In a flash, her heel crushed the machine.

  “All right, you’ve had your fun, Marshall. Now what d’you wa–”

  Marshall’s facial features were twisted in the onset of weeping. The shaggy-haired child dropped the EM gun and wrapped his arms around her legs, burying his face in the denim.

  Sabrina cast her gaze down at the little wretch, biting her lip. She closed her eyes and looked away, trying to fight back the emotions, but then she saw the bits of the earpiece. Her vision didn’t stray from that sight for a long moment, as Michael’s sobs carried through the air.

  Zolnerowich’s words echoed in her head. “Mr. Patterson could have copied his avatar to millions of androids. Unless we were to annihilate the infrastructure of modern society, the satellite would be useless.”

  And so would the gun inches from her feet. Her stare returned to the boy.

  What else can I do?

  She reciprocated the embrace, persistent though that doubt was that told her she was hugging two people.

  When Sabrina saw Michael’s face again, he hadn’t grown at all.