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“Are you okay?” I asked, placing a hand on her arm.

“Pull it together, doctor,” Nicole said, wrinkling her nose.

“This is my fault.” Alyssa’s voice was small as she pulled back her hands to reveal bright red eyes. “I killed Marcy.”

“What?” I asked, leaping off the desk and backing toward Nicole.

“Well, I might as well have. I programmed the AI myself. If it really was the computer and staff…” She wiped at her face with the sleeve of her lab coat.

“We don’t know for sure it was the computer,” Nicole said. “I still think espionage is far more likely. Someone blocked Mason’s override code during the tube incident.”

“It could have been the AI,” Alyssa countered.

“We have to interview the computer,” I said. “If it wasn’t the AI, then it should be a huge help in figuring this out.”

“And if it is,” Alyssa said, replacing her glasses. “Then we need to know so we can turn it off and cut this trip short. We need to let Nicole’s mother know what we’ve found out.”

Nicole bristled, straightening her small frame, which seemed to fill out the entire chair. “I’m here. We can’t waste a second. Interview the computer now, and I will fill in my mother when we know something.”

“Computer,” Alyssa said, still sniffling. “It is imperative we know what happened to Marcy Lakewood last night.”

“Marcy Lakewood’s last known whereabouts was the Paradise Spa yesterday evening at 11:54 p.m.,” the computer responded.

“What happened at 11:54?” I asked, fear shooting through my body like an arrow.

“Mrs. Lakewood’s last staff interaction was at 11:54 p.m. She was given access to the mud bath at that time. I have not spoken to her since.”

Nicole frowned, and I shuddered.

“Which staff member last interacted with her?” Alyssa asked.

“Terry.”

That was the same bot that threatened Travis at the aquarium. I shivered with the memory.

Nicole crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. “Computer, send Terry down here immediately.”

“Right away, Miss Bennet.”

“Ugh,” I said, unable to hold it in anymore. “I can’t stand that voice.” Maybe it was stupid to say it to Nicole, who probably adored Candice, but it had to be said.

To my astonishment, Nicole deteriorated into a fit of snorts and giggles. “It is obnoxious, isn’t it? Computer change voice please.”

“Do you prefer this?” Nicole’s own voice answered her.

I glanced over to see her response, but she only smiled. “Much.”

Figured.

I busied myself with picking through Alyssa’s code while we waited for Terry. The code was elegant and simple, which I hated and admired at the same time. Try as I might, I couldn’t see any fault in the logic. Nothing that stuck out and said “feel free to kill a human.”

“What are you doing here?” The venom in Nicole’s voice could’ve murdered on the spot.

“I spoke to Mother.” Mason’s response pulled my nose out of the computer screen. He was looking at me, not even trying to acknowledge his sister. What did he want me to say? I thought I’d made myself clear, and I didn’t trust myself to be strong enough to resist him if he pushed it.

“There’s more,” I said and filled him in on everything else, trying to ignore the look of death Nicole shot me, and the way her face flushed red. Better to have her mad at me than say anything personal to Mason. Because the thing was, seeing him there made my heart leap, and I started to second-guess myself without him saying a word.

“Why haven’t you told my mother?” he asked, speaking directly to me.