Sunlight seeped in around the boarded up windows, doing little to dispel the gloom. The four survivors were gathered around the dining table, though food was notably absent. Alice's stomach grumbled audibly.

Weizza addressed the group. "The next leg of our journey requires caution. America is covered in cameras and data is available to the highest bidder. Which right now is Lynch.

"Obviously Alice and Robert must stay hidden. Ko Ba Kuang and I may be a target as well after the mess in Hungary.

"I ordered a self-driving van under an alias. It will arrive momentarily to take us to Portland, where we will procure fab time for replacing the damaged part in the Petbe communications module. Any questions?"

"What about food?" Robert asked.

Weizza tilted her head, as if surprised by the question. "Oh right. I will have a delivery drone rendezvous with us on the road. Ko Ba Kuang will take your orders." Her eyes unfocused and she stared ahead. "The van is arriving now. Let's go."

The group bundled out of the shack into the crisp morning air. The smell of pine sap and wet dirt transported Alice back to a childhood family camping trip. She had protested every minute at the time. But now she would trade anything for the chance to go back.

The sky was clear. A stately purple-grey mountain towered over the landscape. Alice imagined a different world where she was in town only to climb, to stand at the peak and survey miles of pristine wilderness. A world without Lynch and his senseless slaughter.

A lump formed in her throat. She pushed the emotion down, bottled it. She would deal with Lynch first.

A plain white van rumbled up the hill, struggling in the loose gravel. It rolled to a stop and the unlikely companions piled in.

"How do I contact the fab operator?" Weizza spoke to Robert directly for once.

"The man is Seamus Carlisle. You can't approach him directly for this, but he maintains a portal on the Tor network. I'll send over the address now."

Weizza nodded. "This will do. How long does he take to reply?"

"Usually within hours. I'd expect to have our answer by the time we reach Portland. But I've never heard of him turning down a job, not if the price is right."

"Very good. I have put in our request. You may get food now."

Weizza did her strange inward turning thing, leaving the others to figure out their meal. They settled on synthetic hamburgers. A drone delivered them through a port in the roof a short time later. They ate in silence.

Alice watched the country slip by out the darkened windows. The forest gave way to rolling brown fields, then the road tipped up and took them through a rocky pass along a cliff. America was so much wilder than her native England. And so much less flat.

Alice tapped Robert on his shoulder. He was engrossed in his laptop and didn't seem to notice. She punched harder and he looked up.

"Ow. What was that for?"

"We need a game plan. What are we doing when we get reconnected? We could have the part in our hands tomorrow."

"I thought you told me to focus on the communication system, try to lock Lynch out."

"That's right. Do you have any ideas?"

"That's what I've been working on Alice. I've been poring over the source from the communications module. I turned up a couple vulnerabilities I can combine that I think will do the trick. I've got a proof of concept running locally. I'm finishing up the package for deployment now."

Alice grinned. "Great work Robert."

He shrugged. "Is it? I'm exploiting bugs that I myself wrote. It's still not a slam dunk though. Lynch's security team may have found the same thing I did and fixed it. And even still, it's risky."

"Risky how?"

"Well, if the exploit works but there's a mistake in the update, we could lock everyone out of Petbe, not just Lynch."

"So what, we still win."

"Well, you were the one worried about a dead man's switch. And even if there isn't one, we don't know how many strikes are already programmed in. Just because no one can talk to Petbe doesn't mean it'll stop shooting."

Alice's smile slipped. "Well, just don't make any mistakes."

Robert rolled his eyes. "Right. I'll have the code done and tested soon. You should review it, see if you can shake out any bugs. Until then, leave me alone."

Alice sat in silence. The landscape outside turned from rocky crags to parched hellscape; mile after mile of sticks and soot, all that was left after the mega-fires. The ash fields were punctuated by small pockets of sickly brown trees, proof that 'surviving' isn't always enough.

She wondered how Julian was doing. Marcos had sent a stereotypically cryptic message reading only 'package acquired.' At least her boy was safe.

* * *

Portland was a verdant oasis after the miles of burned out forest. The city had been spared the water riots that had taken most of the other major metros; they were one of the few places in the west that wasn't in a state of permanent drought. That did mean a steady influx of climate refugees, evidenced by the tent cities covering every empty inch of pavement.

Weizza had reached a deal with Robert's corrupt fab operator. At great expense he had agreed to produce their chip in tonight's run. They could pick it up tomorrow morning. Until then they were just sitting on their hands.

Robert turned his code over to Alice to review in the downtime. She looked it over and caught a few style nits, but no flaws in the logic. Robert had obsessed over the testing; there was no doubt in Alice's mind that the code was correct. All that remained was to reconnect to Petbe and run it.

Robert turned his attention to unraveling Dimitri's betrayal. Why had he tried to hijack the plane? Was he working for someone, or did he think he could outwit Weizza? He didn't seem like the suicidal type.

His efforts required heavy use of the expanded menu of drone delivery options. 'Hacker fuel,' he called it. The latest delivery was chai and tiny donuts from a local outfit named Pips. They were tiny perfections. Alice hadn't imagined there could be such an important thing missing from her life. She and Robert made involuntary sounds of delight as they snacked through the box.

Weizza came over to interrupt Alice and Robert's fried morsel revery.

"I understand you have figured out how to lock out Lynch," Weizza began. "I applaud the effort. The question is, what happens next?"

"We decommission Petbe," Robert replied. "I've been working on the logic to de-orbit the asteroid. I think we can have it safely away from Earth in a little under a month."

"Wait a second," Alice replied. "All that ore up there, it's still useful for the original plan Robert. Lynch may be a maniac, but the ostensible goal is a noble one - we can use Petbe to build a colony ship to Mars, or beyond."

Weizza cleared her throat. "We will follow neither plan. Petbe is a weapon, and a weapon it shall remain. My weapon.

"When we reconnect, you will lock out Lynch, then transfer control to me. If either of you deviates from this plan, I will make you envy Herman's fate. Do you understand?"