Vortex

“Which is exactly what I’ve been saying since you two did it, I’d like to point out,” Vik said.

Wyatt shook her head over and over again. “You’re wrong!”

“We should at least put the question to him,” Vik said. “You can write some sort of program to make him feel like being truthful, Evil Wench. Maybe there’s something going on we don’t know about.” Then he seemed to get a great idea, and a crazy-eyed grin came over his face. “Hey, maybe the Android’s been reprogrammed and doesn’t know what he’s doing. Or maybe he’s being blackmailed.”

Tom felt a surge of hope. “Yeah. Yeah, like, Vengerov could be threatening to off his family or something.”

“Have you heard him talk about his mother? I haven’t,” Vik said optimistically. “Perhaps because she’s tied up in a basement somewhere, and Vengerov is planning to shoot her if Yuri doesn’t inform on Tom.”

Tom was very heartened by that possibility. Wyatt still didn’t believe it. “If someone was threatening his family, he would spend all his time figuring out a way to rescue them. Then he’d do it. And he’d succeed.”

Tom and Vik exchanged an unhappy look. That was something Yuri would probably do.

“I’m positive Yuri wouldn’t do this,” Wyatt insisted again.

And then a voice drifted over to them.

“Do what?”

They all three jumped when Yuri stepped into the room from the corridor.

“I was searching in all places for you. What are you three up to?” His blue eyes roved over them, so kind and guileless beneath his wavy brown hair. Tom froze where he was standing, feeling like he’d been caught doing something awful.

A wave of doubt crashed over him. What if they were wrong?

Vik didn’t share his hesitation. “Yuri, no offense, man, but someone sold Tom out, and all signs point to you.”

Yuri’s eyes grew round as saucers. “I beg your pardon, Vikram?”

“You knew Tom was in contact with Medusa,” Vik said, and threw Tom a look. “Which, I maintain, is incredibly stupid considering you’ve already been charged with treason once, Gormless Cretin, but let’s focus on the matter at hand, which is you, Yuri. Yes, you. The question here is, did you share what Tom knew about Medusa with Joseph Vengerov? If so, are you spying for Joseph Vengerov? If so, you’re a dirty, rotten traitor and that really sucks, man.”

As Tom watched Yuri’s face, something happened at the mention of the name “Vengerov.” His eyes flickered, and his features all sharpened, soft edges turning to taut, tense lines; even his pupils constricted. Such a subtle, tiny shift, it could’ve been blamed on the lighting, or on any number of other factors, if Tom didn’t have perfect photographic recollection of that day in the weight room when Yuri’s face showed the same reaction at the mention of the name “Vengerov.”

“Just be honest,” Vik urged, but Tom barely heard him, he was so disturbed. A dizzying wave of anxiety crashed over him, because he was so sure he couldn’t trust Yuri, he would’ve bet ten thousand dollars on it.

Yuri shook his head as Vik spoke, and gently replied, “Why, Vik, I would never do such a thing.”

Even his voice sounded different, somehow. Tom would swear it! His accent wasn’t as strong.

“. . . as a matter of fact, I am deeply hurt by the accusation.”

Tom found his feet, his heart banging against his rib cage. “Yuri,” he said, his voice sounding strange. “We’re good friends, right?”

“Of course, Tom.”

“Then I need to ask you a big favor, man. A huge one.” Desperation frayed his voice. “I can’t explain, but you have to trust me here. You can save my life.”

“What favor?”

Tom held his palms out. “Just let us rescramble you. Only for a little while.”

The mildness on Yuri’s face slipped. “Why would you wish to do that? I am your friend. I didn’t tell anyone what you told me. I promise. This is totally unnecessary.”

“You are my friend,” Tom agreed. “That’s why you’ll get it when I tell you we are all in serious danger right now if we can’t temporarily scramble you again. I can’t give you details. You have to believe me. You have to trust me. Come on, man, help us out.”

There wasn’t any immediate danger, but Tom knew this was an appeal Yuri would never, ever refuse. If there was the slightest hint of a threat, even if Tom couldn’t explain, even if it was a suggestion of danger to them, Yuri would bend over backward to help, any way he could.

But today, he said, “You presume too much upon our friendship.”

“Oh no, Yuri,” Wyatt cried. “They’re right, aren’t they? Something’s wrong with you.”

Yuri’s gaze riveted to her, his eyes as distant and empty as some lizard’s. Then his gaze roved to Vik’s implacable face and to Tom’s.

After a moment, Yuri smiled. “This is unfortunate.”

And then he raised his forearm keyboard. Words flared across Tom’s vision center: Datastream received: program Incapacitation initiated. And Tom heard Vik yell out as he did, because his head felt like it was cracking in half, and his legs collapsed beneath him. He plunged to his hands and knees, his brain on the wrong end of some terrible, electric drill, and he couldn’t, he couldn’t get his balance, couldn’t move.

“What are you doing to them? Stop it!” Wyatt shouted at Yuri.

Tom peered up through blurring vision to see Wyatt dash across the room and grab at Yuri’s arm. He seized her easily, swept her around, and trapped her back against the computer console controlling the census device. Tom tried to heave himself up, but he dropped again, unable to manage it.

Yuri pinned her wrists to her sides, his body crushed against her, head tilted to the side as he contemplated her almost clinically. “That program didn’t take down your firewall, I see. We shall have to rectify that.”

“Let me go!” She twisted and tried to escape him. He tore her forearm keyboard from her arm, flung it aside with a clatter, then grabbed her again. Her arms bunched up against his chest as she tried to press back out of his grip. “What are you doing? I don’t understand.”

“Drop your firewall,” Yuri urged her, drawing his face down to stare right into hers. When she gazed stubbornly up at him, he seized her neck so swiftly, she gasped. “Do it right now!”

Wyatt drove her heel down into the instep of his foot, and his grip slackened enough for her to smash her fist into his face. But Yuri was like a wall, absorbing the blow easily, snaring her in his massive arms again and twisting her around to face Tom and Vik.

From where Tom crouched, struggling on the floor to keep his mind working, he could make out the panic and confusion blaring on Wyatt’s face, her dark eyes taking in their state.

“I will put you one by one in the census device,” Yuri said, “and we will search for every reference to your suspicions about this asset. Then I’ll excise those recollections and you will all be released unharmed. If you don’t cooperate, I will continue to hurt your friends until you do. Tell me the password to drop your firewall and this will be painless.”