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“No. This is too important,” Nicole said, pacing. “Take the AI offline and get it fixed. You have twenty-four hours. We will manage until then. Tell people Mrs. Lakewood had a terrible accident and we are revamping the system to monitor everyone’s vitals so that if something else happens, we will hopefully be able to prevent it. So you’ll have to add the vitals thing too.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mason let go of me and stepped up, stopping his sister in mid pace. He towered over her, but one wouldn’t have known it from the way she jutted her chin out in a how-dare-you-challenge-me pose. “You cannot do that. These people are in danger.”

“There is no danger if we take the computer offline. Just a daylong inconvenience. It’s an acceptable risk.” Nicole raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“You can’t lie to that woman’s family,” I said. “And there’s no way to fix this in twenty-four hours. It just isn’t happening.”

“Oh? I don’t recall hiring you as head engineer for the AI department. You are an intern,” Nicole barked, brushing past Mason to get in my face. Her attempt to intimidate me fell short.

I slid off the desk to meet her head on. “This isn’t your decision either. It’s your mother’s.” And I hoped to God she would be more reasonable. Surely she would see how ludicrous Nicole’s plan was.

“Both of you settle down,” Alyssa said. “We’ve had a huge shock. We need to take a deep breath and think logically. Nicole, Sam is right. Even if I can fix this in a single day— which is highly unlikely—it will have to be tested thoroughly before we bring it back online. And everything is designed to run through the AI.”

“And we will tell Mrs. Lakewood’s family the truth,” Mason added, eyes on me.

I breathed a small sigh of relief, and part of the ice around my heart where he was concerned melted. He won points in the good-guy department for that.

“I’m calling Mother,” Nicole said, like the spoiled child she was.

“You do that,” Mason said, taking my arm and leading me toward the door. “In the meantime, Sam and I are going to go break the news to the Lakewood twins.”

“And Carl. Her boyfriend will want to know too,” I said.

Mason paused to smile at me. “And Carl.”