Nina wasn’t often bored. If she wasn’t engaged in whatever activity she was doing, she almost always managed to find a way to entertain herself. Not today, though. If there was ever place more dull than this cocktail party, she’d never been there, and that included the endless, mind-numbing days of recovery in the hospital. At least there she’d had pudding to look forward to.

She scanned the room for a view of Ewan and found him deep in conversation with a tall woman Nina recognized. Katrinka what’s-her-bucket, she thought, forgetting the woman’s last name. She tried again, searching her memory, trying not to fret when nothing came up. There was no blank spot to probe around or worry the edges of. The knowledge simply was not there. Frowning, Nina thought harder, still coming up blank.

She turned quickly at the tap on her shoulder, though, very aware that while she wasn’t unarmed, without her harness and gear she was definitely not as prepared as she was used to being.

“Oops, sorry, I should know better than to come up on you unexpected-like.” Al gave Nina a wide grin. Tonight she wore a tux again, but her white-blond hair was pushed back off her forehead in a pattern of waves, and she’d added glittery eyeliner that highlighted her striking green eyes. “You looked lonely, that’s all. I figured you must be as bored as I am.”

“What are you doing here?” Nina looked around the room. “Working?”

Al held her first finger and thumb close together. “Oh, yeah, about this much. But mostly not. I mean, I’m always working at least a little, aren’t you? I’m here with a friend, though, not really on a job. Who knew I kept such hyper posh company, huh?”

“Yeah, same.” Nina smiled at Al’s clearly self-delighted giggle. “Both about the working and the company.”

“What’s up? You look bad.” Al tilted her head and gave Nina an obvious once-over.

Nina felt her mouth twist. Al had always been a flirt, and always appreciative of Nina’s physical attributes. She’d also never pulled any punches, literally or figuratively. They’d slept together once and the next morning, Al had made Nina breakfast and matter-of-factly critiqued the performance. If she was telling Nina she looked bad, she really did.

“Thanks?”

“Oh, sorry, my mouth did an autocorrect. You look gorgeous,” Al amended with a leering wink that had Nina laughing again. “But I mean, you look disturbed. Or bored. Or hungry, which I can understand. The buffet is swill. Synthshrimp? C’mon. Nobody’s going to eat the real stuff, but why put out something as excremental as the fake junk?”

The party might have been tedious, but the food had hardly been swill. Nina shook her head, still disturbed at being unable to remember Katrinka’s last name. “I’m having a glitch in my tech again.”

“Again? That’s no good. Same stuff?” Al lifted a tall glass of nuts and chocolates she didn’t seem to find so disgusting and plucked out a few bites to nibble at. Her eyebrows lifted in curiosity as she waited for Nina’s reply.

“Yeah. I can’t remember things I’m sure I knew before.”

Al shrugged. “That’s what it’s supposed to do. Are you sure it’s a glitch?”

“Random things,” Nina said. “I’m not being reset. I just try to think of something and I can’t remember it.”

“I’m sorry. You should tell someone about it,” Al replied, sounding sincere.

“I’m telling you.”

Al waved a hand around the room. “I mean someone who could do something about it. This party is full of lobbyists, and most of them were in support of the Enhancement Repeal Act. If you told them what was going on, maybe you’d be able to sway their opinions. Get some sympathy. That has to be worth putting up with the rest of this blah blah blah business.”

If Ewan had told her he was taking her to a party full of lobbyists, Nina couldn’t remember it. “I didn’t know. Anyway, what difference would it make? I’m . . .”

She’d started to say she was in a relationship with one of the most prominent lobbyists in the North American United States and possibly the world. The man who was arguably the entire face of the Enhancement Repeal Act in the first place. But was she? In a relationship with him? Not being sure of that had nothing to do with her forgetting anything. She simply wasn’t sure.

Al gave her a curious look. “He really didn’t tell you anything about the party tonight, huh?”

Ewan had said only that it was a fundraiser, and since he’d already taken her to several of those, Nina hadn’t thought much of it. She’d put on the clothes he’d bought her and did her hair and went along to stuff her face with hors d’oeuvres. “Maybe he did, and I forgot it.”

“That sounds hyper noxious. I’m sorry, gal pal.” Al put a consoling hand on Nina’s shoulder and peered up at her with a look of genuine concern. “And I’m sorry to have ask you this, Nina, but . . . are you sure it’s a glitch in the tech and not something personal?”

The fear that she was the only one experiencing this was very real, but Nina didn’t want to admit it out loud. “Leona asked me the same thing. But the tech degrades. We all know that.”

“I sometimes can’t run as fast as I could in the training sessions,” Al said. “Either it’s the tech degrading or I haven’t been keeping up with my fitness routine, who knows? But it’s so mild, it doesn’t bother me at all. And I haven’t had anything going wonky with my memories.”

“That you know of,” Nina said abruptly. “I mean, what if you’re forgetting things, but you don’t know it because you don’t remember you ever knew it in the first place?”

Al looked thoughtful. “Hells, I sure hope not. How would I be able to tell?”

“Never mind. You’d know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so negative about it. I’m sure you’re fine.” Nina shook her head and tried to put on a smile she didn’t feel.

Al didn’t look persuaded. She frowned. “Maybe.”

A slight woman with long black hair glided up behind Al and tucked a proprietary hand into the crook of Al’s elbow. She gave Nina an icy look. “Darling, I need a drink. I’m positively Sahara’d.”

Al pressed her lips together and shoved her hands into the pockets of her tuxedo trousers. Her tone showed her annoyance. “I’ll be right there.”

Her date was clearly unwilling to leave Al alone, but she nodded and walked away with a long, lingering glance over her shoulder. Al didn’t look after her. She rolled her eyes at Nina.

“That was my hyper posh date,” she said. “I guess I should go get her a drink, because clearly, her hands are broken and she can’t manage to hold the glass for herself. Anyway, she likes to trot me around and show me off, and even though I’m basically over being her puppet, if I leave now I’ll miss out on the main meal.”

Nina chuckled. One thing all the enhanced had in common—an undiminishable and constant appetite. “Good luck with that.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Al headed off with a wave, then paused. “Listen, keep in touch. Let me know what’s going on. I’ll keep asking around, see if I hear anything from any of the others. And I’ll pay better attention to anything going on with me. Shiny fine?”

“Thanks, Al.”

Nina nodded and waved farewell, then looked across the room in search of Ewan. He was still deep in conversation with Katrinka. She was nodding, looking serious. Behind her was a familiar face, easily recognized because Nina had seen him only a few days before at Ewan’s house. Jordie appeared uncomfortable and out of place. Even from across the room, Nina could see he was as twitchy as he’d been in Ewan’s office, and something about his demeanor left Nina uncomfortable enough to push through the crowd toward him.

By the time she got to him, he’d already spotted her. He stepped up to greet her, blocking her path to Ewan. “Ms. Bronson. Hello! I wondered if you’d be here, and when I saw Mr. Donahue without you, I was confused. I thought, he wouldn’t come to a party like this without her, would he?”

First, assess the situation. Second, protect the client. Third, eliminate the threat.

At least she could remember that much.

“Hi, Jordie. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Nina looked at him carefully. Assessing the situation.

He seemed to calm himself in her presence. “Oh, my mother makes me come to all these things. She thinks it’ll help me advance in life or something, which is stupid. I’m not interested in politics. I’d rather be in the lab, working on my projects. I just want to, you know. Create things.”

“Your . . . mother?”

Jordie shrugged and nodded. “Yeah. She’s over there, talking to Mr. Donahue.”

Katrinka, last name still unknown, looking so serious. She was Jordie’s mother? Nina wondered if Ewan knew that. Or if it mattered. After another second, she wondered if she’d known it before and had since forgotten. It felt like she had, but she had no way to be sure, and it nibbled at the edges of her patience.

“Who were you talking to?” Jordie asked with a gesture toward Al, who’d gallantly taken her date the drink.

Nina stared at Jordie. “A friend.”

“Looked pretty intense. What were you talking about?”

“It was a private conversation,” Nina said, not giving a damn if this kid belonged to someone important. She didn’t have to play nice with him.

Jordie gave her a slow, broad smile. “Yeah. Sure. Of course it was private, that’s the kind of conversation you have with a friend, Ms. Bronson. You should have friends, right? Everyone should have friends. I have friends, lots of them. Some of them my mother doesn’t even know, what do you think about that?”

“I’m sure she’d prefer to have some idea about the company you’re keeping. Mothers usually do,” Nina answered, still assessing him. She couldn’t quite get a handle on him. He might not be a physical threat to Ewan, but something about Jordie was certainly not quite . . . right.

“Do you have kids, Ms. Bronson? You don’t look old enough.” He shot her a grin he must have thought was charming.

Onegod, was Jordie flirting with her? “I don’t.”

“Oh, sure, yeah. Right on. I bet if you did, you’d be a hyper icy mom. You’d care who your kid was friends with. If my mother paid attention to me, I’m sure she would, too. Are you enjoying the party? Oh, wait, I know, I know, you’re only here to make sure that nobody tries to hurt Mr. Donahue, right? After all that business with those protest groups, it’s a good thing for him to be careful. You wouldn’t want him to get hurt.”

“Neither would you, Jordie. Would you?” Nina watched him carefully as he answered.

“Lots of people wanted to get to him. That Wanda Crosson, you know, she was bad news. Brilliant mind, but bad news.” Jordie ran his tongue along his teeth and looked beyond her. Nina noticed that he had not actually answered her question. “I need something to eat.”

“In a minute.” Nina’s voice was authoritarian enough to stop him, a fact that seemed to surprise him enough to actually keep him from moving away from her. “What do you know about Crosson?”

“She’s in prison,” Jordie said quickly. “Where she belongs, right? For trying to kill Mr. Donahue. She used to work with him. The way I do, I guess, right? Except that I’m not bad or anything, not like her. I mean, I’m not um, you know, I have ambition and stuff, I definitely want to make something of myself. But not like, enough to kill anyone over it. I wouldn’t do that.”

Nina studied him. “I guess that’s good to know.”

Jordie’s laugh rang false. “She’s in prison, anyway.”

“I know that,” Nina said. “Where she belongs.”

“She’s allowed to correspond via written methods, hyper antique. But not viddy comm,” Jordie said as he rocked on his heels, hands shoved deep into his pockets. He fixed Nina with a sudden fierce look far steadier than any of the others had been. “Did you know that?”

“I did not. How did you?” she asked.

Jordie shrugged, twitching again. “I’m a font of useless trivia, Ms. Bronson. I mean, I bet you didn’t know this whole party was planned by my mother so that Mr. Donahue could make his big announcement.”

“I was not aware of that. No. What’s the big announcement?”

Jordie sighed and did that odd thing with his tongue again. He pulled a small tin from his pocket and shook out several brightly colored tablets that he popped into his mouth to crunch between his teeth with a grimace. “Candy? It’s the sour kind. Really good. Terrific, as a matter of fact. Turns your tongue blue, that’s hyper icy.”

“No, thanks. Hey, Jordie.” Nina stepped forward to take both his shoulders in her firm grip. Not hurting him, but letting him know she could, if she wanted to. “Can you look at me, please?”

Candy took only a few minutes to hit. He’d be re-sugared soon. Right now, he blinked rapidly and honed his gaze on hers. It took an obvious effort.

“Yeah? Sure thing, Ms. Bronson.”

She let go of his shoulders. “Thank you. Can you please tell me what this big announcement is all about?”

“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.” Jordie’s smile turned sly. Calculating. Part of that was the candy kicking in—he’d be ultra-focused for a while. “Considering how important it would be to you.”

Nina had had about enough of this kid and his hints. A slow rage had started boiling around her edges, creeping closer and closer to completely consuming her. Each breath slipping in and out of her lungs was meant to calm her, but it wasn’t really working.

“How about you tell me, instead of making me beat it out of you?”

Delivered with a smile and hint of a laugh, her threat could have been passed off as a joke. Jordie didn’t take it that way. His eyes narrowed immediately, suspicious. His upper lip curled, baring his teeth for a second before he relaxed.

“I don’t like any of the people here. You have a friend here. I don’t. These are all my mother’s friends. They talk a lot, you know. About making the world a better place. About working together, but they really don’t care about anything but what benefits them. Whatever’s trendy, that’s what they worry about. It doesn’t really matter to them, deep down. What matters is what they can get out of things. I mean, people go to prison for things these people here wouldn’t think twice about doing, because they know they’ll get away with it no matter what.”

Jordie clearly had issues that went deeper than Nina cared to dig. She tried again, her voice a little harder this time. She wanted to reach out and yank him forward by the front of his jacket, but didn’t. “The announcement, Jordie.”

“You don’t need me to tell you,” Jordie said. “He’s about to tell everyone about it. See? Up there. Right next to my mother.”

Nina turned to look at the stage and podium at the back of the room. Sure enough, Ewan and Katrinka were up there. She was beaming, waving at the crowd. Ewan looked . . . uncertain. No, it wasn’t that. Not nervous, either. Nina couldn’t quite figure out his expression.

Ewan’s eyes searched the crowd and found her.

Katrinka was introducing him with lots of adjectives, mostly about his generosity. His dedication. His belief in trying to make the world a better place.

Dev, Nina thought with an internal gasp of relief. Her last name was Dev.

“I told you,” Jordie whispered from beside her. “They talk a lot, but really, they’re all excremental sphincters.”

Nina frowned and nudged him away from her. “Shut up.”

Ewan stepped up toward the microphone. He smiled out at the crowd, clearly an expert at working them. The applause was thunderous, never-ending. By the time he was able to speak over the sound of it, the room hushing, a chill, anticipatory sweat had broken out in Nina’s armpits.

“All of you here tonight have worked tirelessly to support campaigns designed to bring to light abuses and misuses of tech. Many of you were behind me in pushing for the Enhancement Repeal Act, because we truly believed that the tech implanted in those fifteen brave soldiers, while intended for noble purpose, nevertheless ended up causing more harm than good. Many of you, like me, worked to make sure that the soldiers who’d been enhanced were not going to be used to cause harm, but more importantly, that nobody else could ever be forced to accept tech that so specifically and detrimentally brought them the potential of harm.” Ewan paused to look out over the crowd, which had fallen silent. Once again, his gaze found Nina’s. She’d stepped into a small circle of light, so he had no trouble seeing her. He smiled. Looked back at the crowd. “We worked hard for our convictions, my friends, and I would never say that anything we did was wrong. But times have changed. We know more than we did then. We know that the tech implanted in the enhanced is degrading at a far more rapid rate than had been anticipated. We know that it’s causing the enhanced real, true distress and harm to them both physically and mentally. We know that in the past few years, there’ve been such refinements in the tech that we could offer upgrades that would improve and extend their lives. Keep them healthy and without pain. We know now that we could upgrade the tech with better, more secure methods against hacking or unethical usage. So it’s time to revisit the Enhancement Repeal Act, to make sure that we change the law to allow our enhanced friends the rights they should never have been denied. The right to full, long lives.”

Nina did not stagger. She didn’t cry out. She didn’t waver for even the briefest of seconds, not even when she felt her breath rush out of her. Her fists clenched hard enough to dent her palms with her fingernails, but only then for the time it took for her to blink, before she relaxed her grip.

“He should have told you first, huh?” Jordie said into her ear, and Nina, not thinking about anything except the fact that he’d gotten too close without her knowing, reacted at once.

She punched him in the throat and knocked him down. Jordie wheezed, unable to cry out. He hit a platter of empty champagne glasses on the way to the floor, knocking them to the ground with a crash of broken glass. Everyone in the room turned to look at her.

Everyone except Ewan.