The Hot Zone made TamLin’s balls itch.

Maybe it was psychosomatic. Maybe it was residual sensations from all the johns around him. Maybe it was his fucking sensate abilities fucking with his groin like he knew they did his brain.

Regardless what caused the discomfort, red-light districts made TamLin grumpy and tense, and the fact that he was waltzing after a class-five breach with the probable target in tow didn’t help his mood.

Some kid was whining about the woman his father was trying to rent for him, replete with the nasal “But Dad…” characteristic of brats far more pampered than he’d ever been. The crowd as a whole was more consistent with that type of clientele than anything TamLin could be comfortable with, so maybe that contributed to his distaste for red-light districts.

Two older women were pawing over a young man, and the resignation on the whore’s face made TamLin have to stomp hard on memories of his own before he hurt them.

Something in TamLin’s peripheral vision caught his attention. He glanced back, but Second had hidden her flinch before he processed that he’d seen it.

Psy-positive, fresh off the governor chip that had previously limited what she picked up and apparently still suffering some aftereffects from the jolt tab she took last night. And in a red-light district.

Poor bitch.

Second glanced up at him and faltered midstep, What the fuck?! flashing over her face before she schooled it and recovered her stride.

He shortened his stride enough to drop back beside her, and he ignored that Raleigh adjusted her own pace accordingly, obviously not wanting to leave Second unattended with him.

TamLin suppressed the urge to break the cyborg’s nose, just to fuck with her categories. That would be cruel. It would probably also spike any assassination override built into her root directory, and she was having enough programming issues already.

The fight would comfort him, though.

One side of Second’s lips quirked with a smirk, and she gave a slow but slight headshake. In case he didn’t already know he was off in the head.

Second ducked and rubbed her nose to hide a snort that probably wanted to be a chuckle.

He remembered kissing her that morning, remembered the humor that had sparkled in her eyes, and felt an entirely different sort of discomfort that he never got from whores.

Second closed her eyes for a moment, then looked up at him, discomfort and even irritation pulling at the muscles in her face. She opened her mouth to say something, then slid a glance toward Kasy and apparently thought better of voicing whatever she was thinking.

“What?” Misha asked, and he actually sounded interested in the answer.

Second, Raleigh, and TamLin all looked at him.

“What?” Misha asked again, and the edge of confusion seemed genuine. “She was obviously about to say something.”

“Something,” Second murmured, showing the dry humor that was one of the few things he liked about Janni. Without looking, she sidestepped a group of drunk if not high youth who were about her age—and dodged one’s attempt to cop a feel.

TamLin clocked that one in the nose before he could get angry.

Second sighed.

“What the fuck?” the boy asked, sounding outright confused, and he blinked blearily while he fumbled to catch the blood pouring from his own face.

“Hey, friend,” one of the boy’s less-intoxicated buddies told TamLin. “How was he supposed to know she was yours?”

As if a Nameless could belong to anyone—and as if the accusation couldn’t risk Second’s life if the wrong person overheard it.

Second stepped between them and shunted the knee TamLin aimed at the guy’s groin with well-aimed use of her own leg. “Breach,” she snapped at him while he recovered his footing.

She certainly would be killed if any of her people had reason to think her a Breach.

Second pinched the bridge of her nose. “Would it help if I broke your arm? Because I could— Shit.”

Her psy abilities had doubtless picked up that injuring him wouldn’t damage his interest, though he wasn’t sure if that was something he’d inherited or if it was a conditioned side effect of what had been done to him when young.

“What if I—” She cut herself short and shook her head, then strode away from him. “Raleigh?”

TamLin yanked his attention from the young idiots and from the example of one way he unfortunately resembled his mother, to the cyborg woman who was why they were all in the Hot Zone to begin with.

Raleigh was standing stock-still, her eyes flickering at nothing as other pedestrians passed them all by.

TamLin glanced forward, where his coworkers had been, and ice ran through his gut. Where were they?

He’d thought Misha one of the nice guys, one of the ones who wouldn’t hurt Kasy. Had he misread him that badly?

“Raleigh!” Second snapped. “Delete the packet!”

The cyborg woman blinked a few times. “I thought I deleted my network connection.”

“The driver’s probably built into your root directory and hardcoded to reinstall at regular intervals.” Second looked after where he’d last seen his coworkers, and she frowned, herself. “That would be a basic preventative— Shit.” She scowled at him. “Janni hates you.”

Resonance would explain her loquaciousness and knowledge of programming, but…

TamLin stared at Second. “What the fuck is Janni doing here?!”

Because for resonance to be that strong between them, the two versions of the same psy-positive woman had to be in physical proximity. The newly missing governor chip would’ve increased the range, but that strong of a connection meant Janni was no more than a few buildings distant.

Janni didn’t go for whores or whorehouses. But she had gone hunting for the Nev from Second’s universe, yesterday, so it would be entirely consistent for her to seek to hunt down the class-five breach, today. Stupid of her, but consistent.

He was going to have to have a long talk with her about that.

“She’s going after Raleigh’s owner.”

“Commander,” Second said briskly. “She’s come across…”

And just as abruptly, she broke into a long sigh.

“She got caught, didn’t she?” Which had also happened yesterday with Nev.

Second didn’t nod or respond aloud, but her tired expression said plenty.