Finding Janni relaxed, seated, and typing away on a console was not unusual.

What made Raleigh trip a half-step and tempted her to double-check via her software was that she had never before seen that murderous expression on the woman’s face. Not even when Kitten’s sister had kidnapped her and held her captive in a cage.

Misha had led them to the particular barroom where Janni had set up, one that seemed designed to resemble a café, but he stumbled, too. And other patrons of the bar were giving the woman space and wandering off to other rooms, to the bartender’s obvious annoyance.

TamLin’s stride didn’t falter as he passed through the energy barrier entrance that let the room be independent of the music in the main area, and he pointed a thumb at Raleigh as he passed her. “Why the fuck is her beacon still active?”

“It’s rerouted,” Janni answered, unconcerned.

TamLin didn’t stop moving until he was well into Janni’s personal space, and he slammed his hands on the counter to either side of her. The bartender discreetly sauntered towards an emergency call button.

Janni didn’t so much as twitch, and her gaze didn’t flicker from her console.

The bartender relaxed enough to see to a triad of customers on the other side of the bar, rather than immediately summon security, though he kept a wary eye on the two of them. TamLin’s StretSec uniform doubtless helped with that acquiescence.

Raleigh had the uncomfortable feeling that she’d never known her roommate at all.

“Ten months,” he said through grit teeth. “You’ve known Raleigh for ten months.”

“Nine months, three weeks, four days,” Janni corrected absently.

“And you could only be bothered to hack her beacon now? Her people nearly grabbed her for processing, Janis!”

Raleigh shuddered. She’d never been treated well, back home, but retrieving her for the sole purpose of disassembling her went beyond the pale.

Janni glanced up, then—at her, and something that looked disconcertingly like disappointment flickered in the woman’s eyes before she looked at TamLin. “That apex isn’t going to stop breaching until it’s stopped.”

TamLin recoiled and jerked himself away from her, tense as if forcing himself to keep from lashing out with a fist. “You bastard.”

Janni watched TamLin for a few seconds without concern, then turned her attention back to her console. “Seeding their tech would’ve been easier by planting a sleeper in processing, but I might be able to bounce enough through their bridge to quiet them awhile. That’ll only last a few years, though.”

TamLin glanced at Raleigh. “In other words, dear Janni planted a fucking virus in your code, to destroy your people’s knowledge of how to cross universes, which would be released when they processed you.”

“It would’ve worked,” Janni said.

“I remember!” TamLin snapped, a sneer twisting his face.

Misha was taut like wire, and Raleigh remembered Kitten’s earlier comments, about his cyban girlfriend who had gone missing.

“You’ve done that before,” Misha said hoarsely. “Let someone get taken so you could use them as a Trojan horse.”

Janni tilted her head and studied him, a distance in her gaze that said she was reading the bio-identity. Puzzlement creased her forehead. “StretSec doesn’t have the capability to withstand somewhen invasion. Apex universes wipe units, punch them into other universes, and then ditch them as a form of recon. They’re meant to be sacrifices anyway. All I do is change which universe gets the benefit.”

Raleigh’s stomach churned. How was this woman an alternate version of Kitten?

“And what if they don’t want to go back?” Misha demanded. “What if they want to stay? Want to live? You could save them!”

Janni shrugged again, and tapping the edges of the console she held. “At what expense? Dismantle one beacon, and you get multiple cybans tossed in the universe and willing to hunt nons. Leave the beacon and use it, and you can keep anyone from that universe from being able to cross and hurt any nons for decades.”

It was the logic of a general, arranging things for the fewest overall casualties, with the ‘right’ side and its civilians being given precedent over anyone and anything else.

Recognizing that didn’t make Raleigh feel any less betrayed.