A short, disheveled man about forty entered the room. His rumpled lab coat and cracked glasses gave him the appearance of a mad scientist.

  Aiko sat cross-legged in a chair, her arms folded tight across her chest. Dynamo stood nearby, leaning against a wall, her mallet-hands flexing in and out of shape as if daring someone to test her patience. Chester prowled the floor in nervous circles.

  “Hello, Ms. Takahashi, I’m Kyle. And I knew your mother.”

  As he entered the room, Aiko got a better look at him. His shirt was torn, his face streaked with soot and blood, but his eyes burned with urgency.

  Dynamo raised her mallet-like hands, ready for any trouble.

  “Don’t,” he rasped, raising his hands. “I’m not here to fight.”

  Dynamo stepped forward, mallets hardening. Aiko thought she could hear cracks of bone. “You’ve got five seconds to tell me why Malcolm’s lapdog just walked into Hiroto’s room.”

  “I’m not his lapdog,” Kyle snapped, then softened his voice. “Not anymore. I escaped. He tried to kill me. He killed Paige!”

  Kyle raised a hand to his face and wiped away tears.

  Aiko’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of her guardian’s name. She had hated Paige, but she didn’t want her dead.

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  “How do we know you’re not lying?” Dynamo asked.

  Kyle’s gaze flicked to Dynamo, then Aiko. For a moment, he looked different. Then it hit her… he was a part of Mindjevity, she could see it in him.

  He swallowed hard. “Because… I know things I shouldn’t. About you, Ms. Takahashi.”

  Her stomach tightened. “Like what?”

  Kyle hesitated.

  “You dream about Liam. About the night Jack killed him. Malcolm wants to twist those memories into control. But you fight it.”

  Aiko’s breath caught. Nobody outside their circle knew about Liam… not in that detail.

  Hiroto removed a gun from the side of his bed and pointed it at Kyle. “You could have dug that out of Malcolm’s files.”

  Kyle shook his head. “No. I saw it. The Mindjevity interface—when he forced me into it, I… It’s like I touched the edges of your mind. Like I was standing where he stands. But I pulled free before he could use me.”

  Dynamo snarled. “You expect us to believe you just walked away from Malcolm?”

  “He didn’t let me walk,” Kyle shot back. “I fought him. I barely made it out alive.” He lifted his arm, showing raw burns where the rig had seared him. “And now I’ve got just enough of Mindjevity in my head to help stop him.”

  Silence pressed on the room. Aiko’s hands trembled in her lap. She glanced at Hiroto.

  Her uncle’s jaw was tight. He studied Kyle with a soldier’s eyes, weighing every word. Finally, Hiroto lowered his gun. “We’ll hear him out. That’s all. No promises.”

  Dynamo scowled, her mallets dissolving back into her hands. “One wrong move, and you’re paste.”

  Kyle nodded, relief flooding his features. His eyes lingered on Aiko. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to help you fight him. Because if Malcolm gets what he wants… none of us walk away.”

  Aiko held his gaze. Doubt churned in her gut, but something else flickered beneath it… hope. Fragile. Dangerous.

  She looked at Hiroto, then Dynamo, then back to Kyle. “Alright,” she said quietly. “But if you betray us…”

  Dynamo cracked her knuckles, finishing for her. “You won’t live long enough to regret it.”

  Kyle nodded. “Fair.”