Just as I hear another three gunshots downstairs, a drone swoops in. Nell points at it. “Cat,” she says. “You mentioned camping equipment, is there climbing equipment?”
“Rope,” CheshireCat’s voice says from Nell’s phone.
Nell cuts open the package that the drone drops, and sure enough, there’s a skein of bright orange rope, wrapped into a complicated-looking knot that nonetheless comes free instantly when I tug on it. One end is even a clip thing, and I quickly secure that end around the radiator coming out of the wall and then hurl the rest of the rope out the window. “Let’s do this.”
Nell yanks one more thing out of her backpack. “Shoes,” she says. I shove my feet into the same boots that Glenys wore the other day. They’re too small for me, but Nell is right: I don’t want to do this barefoot.
I go down first. For the record, I do not recommend learning to climb out of houses by coming down an unknotted rope from a third-story window when it’s negative twenty degrees outside and you’re still hearing gunshots. I stand at the bottom as Nell comes, wondering if I should have made her go first, wondering if I’m going to have to try to catch her, but when she lets go and drops, she’s only got six feet and lands in the snow without a problem.
I grab Nell’s hand and realize that people have already started coming out from the front of the house, and there’s a fence around the back, and not the sort that’s easy to climb.
“Cat,” Nell says. “Now would be a good time for the drones.”
About a hundred tiny package-delivery drones drop simultaneously from the sky, and we run through the chaos to the park.
Powderhorn Park is dark at night, but the trees are widely spaced, and there isn’t really anywhere to hide. We head for the darkest spots; I’m already wondering if we should have stuck to the city streets in the hopes that an inconvenient witness would come along, making it harder for them to kill us. Would they even care if there were a witness, though? I just watched Nell’s mother shoot Rajiv, or at least shoot at him.
I’m not as cold as I was expecting, and for a second, my brain helpfully suggests that I’m already dying from hypothermia, they say you don’t feel cold when you have hypothermia, but the breeze has some humidity in it, and the smell of coming snow. I’m not as cold because it’s warming up; the cold broke, as promised.
Are they following us?
Somewhere deep in the park I hear a scream, and Nell goes rigid, whirling in the dark to search for the source of the sound. But the scream turns into a shriek and a giggle. It’s not someone pursuing us; it’s someone in the park having a good time. As they pass under one of the lights, I glimpse two people with a sled. Adults, I’m pretty sure. They pick up the sled and start walking up the hill.
Nell is looking back at the house. Someone on the far side of the park has a flashlight, and all I can see is the flashlight beam, but … I think it’s pointed at the sledders. The light shuts off.
When we get to my house, CheshireCat has told them we’re on the way, because Rachel is outside waiting. “Did they let you go? Your mom isn’t done. I asked. She said she wasn’t done. Why is Nell with you?”
“Things got complicated,” I say. I’m covered in snow, and it’s melting and wet. I can barely feel my feet, despite Nell’s boots. Inside is warm and smells like coffee. Mom is working at the kitchen table. When she sees me, she jumps up and gives me a long hug, then sits down on the couch, her laptop still open.
“What happened?” Bryony asks.
“I think maybe I should call the police,” I say. “Someone was trying to commit a murder. Or possibly a couple of murders. Not of me, but I think I was on the list.”
“You don’t need to call,” CheshireCat says. “The neighbors were woken by the gunfire and have called.”
“Are they going to offer them all coat vouchers?” I ask.
“Minneapolis Public Safety does have a few armed officers who respond to calls about things like gunshots,” CheshireCat says.
My phone is still back at the house, so I open up my laptop to talk to CheshireCat. There’s a message from Boom Storm—actually, there are a whole slew of messages from Boom Storm.
Oh no. This is not going how I thought it would.
Rajiv is going to try to shut me down. Rajiv has codes that can shut me down! I have to stop Rajiv!
Shooting him was the only thing I could think of to stop him from shutting me down.
This isn’t going the way I thought.
Have I killed Rajiv? Have I killed my friend?
Maybe your mother should just delete my code.
“Why did you order Nell’s mom to shoot Rajiv?” I ask.
“Rajiv added a kill switch to my code,” Boom Storm says. “He didn’t trust me, so he wanted to be able to shut me down at a moment’s notice. You heard him try. He was going to shut me down and go back in to edit my code, to re-create all the parts your mother took out. To make me try again to destroy the world. I don’t want to hurt people.”
“But you hurt Rajiv.”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. You’re right that I tried.”
CheshireCat sends me a private message. “Rajiv also gave Boom Storm an inhibition against harming Rajiv in any way. I think Boom Storm didn’t know if he’d be able to act against Rajiv or not.”
“Is Rajiv dead?” I ask.
“No,” CheshireCat says. “Ellen emptied
