Page 71 of Scion

“ ‘We,’ ” mutters Atti. “Yes, ‘we’ are. DeGov is going to take the footage as soon as they get here.”

I push aside a corpse, and search through a promising-looking cupboard. Nothing. “Good. What about from when I arrived?”

“Fixed too. No ties, Azure, just like normal. The volo’s log already said it was a cargo shuttle, and it will be the same when we take off.” Atti’s voice has switched to a small speaker in the kitchen, which comes out tinnier. “Though… we should go soon. DeGov are starting to get alerts.”

“Just have to… ah!” I find what I’m looking for in the next cupboard. Cram Smug Exec’s head into the cooler, which is almost big enough. “Onward, then.”

I hurry back toward the hangar. Broken electrical equipment still sparks and hisses from inside smashed walls, half of it foam-covered from where the fire suppression systems have done their best. “So what do you think I should do?” I’ve already told her about the choice Jasa gave me.

“I think you should use your head.”

“Ha. Ha.” I’ve reached the hangar. The volo, thankfully, is still intact. I climb in. “Seriously. What would you choose?”

“You’re really asking?” Atti’s surprised.

“Yeah. I mean, this is it. Fork in the road. Point of no return, and all that.” I stow the cooler, settle into a seat, and stare at the control screen that blinks AWAITING DESTINATION. From here, I can have the volo take me back to Jasa’s house, leave the head with her damned lion, get Atti to anonymously buy a secure property a thousand kilometres away, and vanish. Easy. Simple. Probably very pleasant. Or, I know a quiet terminal down in the Core where I can transfer a token to Jasa’s account, and wait for my very annoying creator to send me further instructions. Find out, definitively, what happened at Oceanus. Actually try and finish… whatever the hell this is. “Kind of feels like an important decision.”

“Formal analysis?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then… I don’t really know, Azure.” She sounds a little lost, which is very unlike her. “You finally get to rest, or you get answers. I remember you told me once, not long after we first met, that you thought having a peaceful life sounded pretty good. But… I know what getting closure about Oceanus would mean to you, too. Kind of seems like the question here is whether you want to try and live in peace, or be at peace. One of them’s probably going to be a hell of a lot harder than the other, though.”

I watch the fiery, still-sparking wreckage of Floor 104 outside the volo. Live in peace, or be at peace. She’s not wrong.

“A peaceful life,” I repeat, mostly to myself. “Yeah. That’s the dream.”

I punch in the coordinates, and we take off.