I wipe my eyes with one hand. “Thank you,” I reply as I place the box carefully beside me.
Roshan leans close. “Based on what little we know, Ren’s being questioned by the police right now. I don’t buy the gas leak story.”
“But you know more about this than we do, don’t you, Emi?” Hammie adds, searching my gaze. “You have to tell us what’s going on. We deserve to know.”
Your lives were threatened, too. But still, I hesitate. If I tell them everything, it might only endanger them more. They might fall on Zero’s radar. They never asked to be involved in any of this, never entered the championships to hunt down a criminal, were never getting paid to put themselves at risk.
Hammie studies me like I’m a chessboard. “You remind me of myself from several years ago,” she says. “I always offered help—but I refused to accept any. My mother scolded me about that. Do you know what she told me? When you refuse to ask for help, it tells others that they also shouldn’t ask for help from you. That you look down on them for needing your help. That you like feeling superior to them. It’s an insult, Emi, to your friends and peers. So don’t be like that. Let us in.”
Hammie’s words strike me clean in the chest. Even though I’ve lied with the best before, I know that both of them can see the truth on my face—that I’m involved in something beyond my capabilities.
Something that could have killed them.
I’m used to working alone. Even if I told them everything, what good would that really do? Am I really going to drag them into this hunt with me?
But this is no ordinary hunt, and Hideo is no ordinary client. If our lives are all in danger, then we have bigger problems to deal with than whether or not I put my faith in my teammates.
The mention of my name on the TV makes us turn toward the screen in unison. The news anchor is talking beside a photo of me, taken when I was celebrating our first win with the other Riders.
“—that this morning, Hideo Tanaka announced that he is officially pulling two players from the Phoenix Riders, currently one of the top-ranked Warcross teams: their Fighter, Renoir Thomas, and Architect, Emika Chen. No word yet on the reasons behind either decision, although speculation—”
Pulled from the team. All the air rushes out of my lungs.
Roshan and Hammie whirl to face me. “Pulled?” Hammie whispers sharply.
Roshan is quieter, searching my gaze. He seems ready to say something, then decides against it.
I only hesitate one more time. Then I pull Roshan and Hammie in for another hug. “Tonight,” I whisper in their ears. “I promise. I can’t talk about it out loud right now.” Then I break away and say, “The fact that you’ve brought me this box is help enough.”
Roshan frowns, but Hammie gives me an imperceptible nod. She tries to smile. “Will do,” she replies. It sounds like the right answer to what I said, but I know it also means she understood what I meant.
“Miss Chen,” the nurse says as she steps back in. “You have another visitor.”
Roshan and Hammie exchange another pointed look with me. Then they get up and head out of the room. A moment later, the nurse opens the door wider to usher in my new visitor.
Hideo comes striding in, his face a mask of anger and worry. His eyes lock on mine, and some of his expression dissolves into relief.
“You’re awake,” he says as he sits down on the side of my bed.
“You can’t,” I reply, pointing at the TV. My mind is still spinning. “Pulled? Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would you have me keep you both in and risk everyone’s lives?” Hideo replies. “We didn’t know how long it would take for you to wake up. I had to make a decision.” His eyes are dark with fury, although it seems to be directed inward; his expression reminds me of how he looked as he spoke about his brother.
“What about not caving to intimidation?”
“That was before Zero threatened you and other players.”
“How will taking me out of the tournaments stop whatever Zero’s planning to do during the final game?”
“It won’t.” Hideo’s jaw tightens. “But I’d rather not see you involved in it. The whole reason for entering you in the games was for you to have better access to information, but I think you may have collected everything you possibly can from being an official team member.” He sighs. “It’s my fault. I should have taken you off the team a long time ago.”
The thought of abandoning my team and sabotaging their chances at a win . . . I close my eyes and lower my head. Breathe. “I heard Ren’s talking to the police.”
“He’s in custody, yes, and being interrogated.”
I start shaking my head. “You’re not going to get anything out of him that way. His arrest will only alert Zero that you’re on to him, and he’ll move his operations further underground. Hideo, come on. The next time I go to a game sponsored in the Dark World, I’ll have no—”
“You won’t be,” Hideo interrupts. His eyes search mine, dark and resolute. “I’m letting you off the job.”
I blink. “You’re firing me?”
“I’m still paying you the bounty,” he replies. Why does he sound so distant? His tension makes him cold, even hostile.
My head is spinning. But—every locked door has a key. I haven’t found the key yet—I can’t leave now. “It’s not about the bounty,” I say.
“You’ve earned it. The money is sitting in your account now.”
The ten million. I start shaking my head in disgust. “You have to stop doing that. Why do you always think you can just throw money at people and get them to do what you want?”
“Because it was the whole reason why you came here in the first place,” Hideo says, his tone clipped. “I’m giving you what you wanted.”
“What the hell do you know about what I wanted?” My voice rises. I can feel the burn of my cheeks. Flashes of my father appear in my thoughts—then, myself curled in a ball on my foster-home bed, struggling to find a reason to live. All of my Memory Worlds are now gone, deleted, taken by Zero. I can’t look back on my memories of my father if I wanted to. “You think I’m just here for the money? You think you can fix everything by writing a check?”
Hideo’s eyes seem to shutter. “Then we understand each other less than I thought.”
“Or maybe you’re not understanding me.” I narrow my eyes at him. “I saw Zero standing in our dorms before the bomb went off. Listen—he didn’t show up there to threaten me just on a whim, or just because he now knows who I am. We tracked down Ren and have proof that he’s connected to Zero’s mission. You even have him in custody now. That means Zero feels threatened. He thinks we’re closing in, and that’s why he’s lashing out. Planting a bomb means that he’s risking alerting the authorities in an attempt to keep me off his trail. We’ve backed him into a corner. All of the momentum is on our side.”