"Orion." Spiro says quietly. "We're almost there, right?"

> Affirmative, Orion says in the wireless earpiece Spiro is wearing.

"And there's no one else in the area?" He says.

> Not that I can detect with thermal imaging or local camera history.

Spiro purses his lips.

"Should I go in?" He asks.

> I would advise against it, Orion replies. Rushing into a potentially dangerous situation that was presented by a mysterious third party who committed a crime to anonymously speak to you generally implies bad decision making.

--

"I'm going in," Spiro says, and Orion makes a monotone beeping noise that sounds almost like a sigh. "I just have to get this package for the guy. It shouldn't be hard."

The bike's pedals click as Spiro dismounts. He swings his leg back over the side of the dusty frame and pulls his lock out from where it's wound around the utility belt under his jacket, chaining the bike quickly to the metal wire of a collapsing fence.

"This is the place," he murmurs, low enough so the vibrations of his voice are picked up by the bootleg mic glued to the side of his neck. The flat black wire snakes up and around the back of his ear to rest just barely inside his ear canal, looking like a tattoo to anyone else. "Seeing anything?"

Orion's voice sounds in his ear. Spiro pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees the computer program scanning the area with the built-in camera and sensors.

> Not currently, it says. No heat signatures or indicators of movement.

Spiro frowns.

"Maybe it really is safe," he says, putting his phone back in his pocket and advancing closer to the warehouse on the abandoned sidewalk, keeping his movements small. "You're sure that guy didn't do anything to your program or my stuff, Orion?"

> Relatively, it replies. Of course, it is always possible that his attack modified my system to not recognize any changes that he made, so I believe you may still want to do a manual check, but my diagnostics cannot find anything out of the ordinary, besides the file that was left in my temporary repository.

"Right." He mutters. "I'll do that tonight." He reaches the door of the warehouse.

> Statistics, Orion says, almost warningly, if machines could have emotion in their voices, suggest that entering an unsecured building to which you were led by a stranger who bypassed your home system's firewall protocol is generally unsafe.

"I don't know if I can help it, Orion," Spiro says, leaning against the steel doorframe. "That guy got me pretty good. I can't say I'm currently flush with cash right now, either."

> Are you sure this is about the financial gain?

"What do you mean by that?" Spiro says, frowning.

> Studies show that individuals who face chronic boredom are more prone to risk-taking behavior.

Spiro scoffs.

"I'm not going to get myself killed because I'm bored, Orion." He says.

> The intruder did not provide a location to deliver the package. You do not know if the package is dangerous. You do not know when, or even if, they will contact you again.

> The circumstances allow me to conclude that this is an irrational decision.

Spiro smiles.

"I'm only human," he says. "I thought you were reading up on that."

He reaches out and turns the handle on the door.