“Please, I don’t know how he got it,” Wyatt insisted. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“I’ve told you, Enslow, trust is everything. The day you start lying to me is the day I wash my hands of you.”

“I am not lying! Please, sir, I’m not.”

Blackburn stared at her for a long moment. The rage disappeared from his face, replaced with a strange, resigned look like he was closing some door on her. He left them without another word.

Wyatt stared after him, shell-shocked. Her arms were hugged around her body, and Tom could see from across the room that she was shaking. A wave of crazed relief flooded him. He’d come so close to disaster, thanks to her.

He turned to his mirror and smoothed his uniform back down, absolutely certain he’d averted something terrible, even if he didn’t understand what it was.

“Why did he react like that, Tom?” Wyatt asked shakily. “What’s Roanoke?”

Tom didn’t have an answer for that. It didn’t really matter, either. “I’d say it’s the reason you never should have messed with me,” he said coldly, looking at her in the mirror. “Now get out of my room.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

AT 0532 THE next morning, Tom was warming up for his morning workout when Yuri tapped on the door.

Tom stepped out, careful not to wake Vik, mostly because the very sight of the Vik filled him with a strange loathing right now. He didn’t like Yuri any better.

He eyed the larger boy warily. Between the incident last night and his newest download, he was having trouble this morning remembering why he’d ever been able to stand any of these people.

“Ah, excellent, you are awake, Tim,” Yuri said genially, as though he didn’t even notice the loathing on Tom’s face. “I’ve noticed you are now very concerned with physical fitness.”

“Responsible people take care of their bodies,” Tom informed him.

“Exactly. Just as I have always believed. So I am here to suggest we go running together.”

Tom felt a sudden burst of suspicion. He didn’t trust Yuri at all. “I prefer to run on my own, thanks.”

Yuri nodded. “Ah, I understand. You worry you will not be able to keep up with me.” He turned and started jogging.

Indignation exploded through Tom. Not keep up? He hurled himself forward after Yuri, matching him pace for pace.

Yuri was in better shape. He’d been running every morning for years, and Tom had only gotten into this in the last few weeks. But he gritted his teeth every time he began to lag behind, and charged after Yuri through the corridors and staircases of the Spire. Yuri dashed through the Calisthenics arena and then slid open the door to the weight room beyond. He headed straight for the weight bench. Tom vowed to match him pound for pound.

“I’ll spot you first,” Yuri said.

“No, I’ll spot you,” Tom growled.

“Fine. If you are too tired to go first, I’ll be glad to.”

“I am not too tired.” Tom flopped down onto the bench.

Yuri slid weights onto the bar. Tom watched him add more and more.

“Er …”

“What, Tim? I was setting it at my usual, but perhaps this is too heavy for you?”

Tom gritted his teeth. “No. Maybe put on more.” He regretted it when Yuri nodded.

“I’ll do that.” And he slid on more weights.

Tom bit the inside of his cheek, nervous. But he’d lift it. If he had to bust a few joints, he’d lift that bar.

But after Yuri helped him lift the bar from the bench, then released it to Tom’s grasp, Tom’s arms buckled and it took all his strength to stop the weight from crushing his chest. His arms shook as the bar sank down, then settled against his ribs.

“Okay, maybe not.” Tom could barely talk, straining against the bar, fighting for breath. “Yuri, a little help?”

“You will have to wait for that, Tom.”

Yuri ducked out of his sight, and that’s when Tom realized he’d been tricked. “Yuri … Yuri!” He began struggling to dislodge the bar, to get out from under it, but he was stuck there, trapped in place on the bench.

A new set of footsteps marched in. “Is he stuck?”

Wyatt.

“What—what—” Tom sputtered.

“He is stuck.” Yuri’s face appeared above his, scheming.

“See, I told you he’d be dumb enough to try to lift it,” Wyatt said.

“What are you guys doing?” Tom snarled at them. “I told you—”

“Not to mess with you, right?” Wyatt bent down toward him. “You didn’t really think I’d leave it alone after what you pulled last night, did you?”

“Let me go!”

“No. See, we’re dealing with New Tom,” she said. “We hate him.”

He tried to thrash his head away from her, but Yuri clamped his hands on his cheeks to hold him still.

Tom spotted a neural wire in her hands. “What is that for?”

“I hoped Lieutenant Blackburn would debug you himself, but you stopped that, so I had to finish my program early. It’s a firewall of sorts.”

“The mother of all firewalls,” Yuri said, admiration in his voice. “She programmed it.”

“It’s all coded in Klondike,” Wyatt said. “It has some antivirus functions. It searches out rootkits, removes malware. Mostly my coding. It might have some problems I haven’t found yet. If so, sorry, Tom, but you’re still getting this.”

“No!” Tom wasn’t allowed unauthorized software. A warning beacon flashed in his head over and over again, electric jolts telling him not to allow this. “Stop!”

“Quickly, Wyatt,” Yuri urged.

“You’ll thank us for this,” she promised, and clicked the wire into his brain stem.

TOM WAS HALF aware of Yuri lifting the bar back off his chest. His brain buzzed with the stream of codes searching for every last trace of Dominion Agra’s software and behavioral modification. All the data implanted over the course of thirty-one days was neutralized, removed, and replaced with security subroutines. The procedure lasted forty-seven minutes. It took that much time for Tom to wrap his head around what was happening, what had happened.

Debug complete, flashed in his visual cortex and Tom opened his eyes. Yuri and Wyatt both straightened, their murmured conversation fading. They were both frozen stock-still, waiting for his reaction.

“Tom?” Wyatt ventured meekly.

“It’s me.” He sat up. “Actually me.”

“I knew there was some software problem in your head,” Wyatt cried. “What happened?”

“Dominion.” His voice shook with fury. “I am going to murder Dalton Prestwick.”

Comprehension flooded Wyatt’s face. “That’s the guy you saw parents’ weekend, right? Your stepfather?”

“He’s not married to my mom.” Tom rubbed at the bruised skin over his chest. “He works for Dominion Agra. They did something to me.” He felt like there was a furnace igniting inside him, his anger burning hotter and hotter. The nightmare of the past month flashed in front of his eyes.

Barking for Karl … trying on suits for Dalton … smiling and being polite to those Dominion Agra execs … agreeing that his dad was asleep in his own vomit somewhere …