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“VERA,” Taina repeated, “I’d really like for you to turn yourself off.”
“Awaiting verification from Nadia.”
Nadia stared at Taina. She should be able to command VERA to turn herself off. Her eyes flicked to the device. It wasn’t a big deal; she could get back to work on her quantum connection after this issue with her eyes was handled. It probably wouldn’t even take that long.
But why deactivate VERA when she could likely help with the issue? If only Nadia’s project had already been online; VERA could connect with local neuroscientists or doctors to answer Nadia’s query instantaneously. Maybe the real answer was just connecting VERA to the quantum realm first and then using her new connections to solve this current problem instead of the other way around—
“Okay, that’s what I thought.” Taina’s no-nonsense voice interrupted Nadia’s reverie. “Ying?”
“Yeah,” said Ying, stepping forward. Before Nadia knew what was happening, Ying swiped VERA off the desk and lobbed it straight out of the room. She aimed a fist at it. It was only then that Nadia noticed Ying was wearing a glove from one of Nadia’s Wasp suits.
A glove with the Wasp’s Sting reservoir built in.
“Wait—” Nadia leapt off the bed and toward Ying, but she was too late; Ying was always faster than her anyway, even in the Krasnaya Komnata. Nadia was a better shot, but Ying was stealthier. It was part of what made them such a strong pair.
In this moment, though, Nadia found that a lot more difficult to appreciate.
Ying closed her fist and squeezed. The Sting erupted from her knuckles, the blast shooting through the air and landing square in the middle of the gold block Nadia had come to depend on. With a sound like a gunshot, VERA exploded, the proximity and power of the Sting overloading VERA’s core and shattering the device into oblivion. The broken remains were flung across the lab.
“We’ll be finding pieces of that thing for weeks,” groaned Priya.
Nadia’s brain screamed. Nails raked through her cranium. A headache bloomed behind her eyes.
“Style points, though,” said Shay appreciatively. “I liked it.”
“What did you do?!” demanded Nadia, clutching her temples. Taina stepped out of her way as Nadia ran out into the lab. There was nothing of VERA left for her to salvage. Her personal assistant was gone, disintegrated by her own Sting. She had to get another one. She could call Maragret; Margaret would understand. It hadn’t been long since she’d left the lab; she might still be awake. Nadia patted her pockets; where was her phone?
“Phone’s hidden,” said Ying. “VERA’s gone. Your water boiled; I’m going to make you a chamomile.” And with that, Ying walked back to the lab’s kitchen.
Nadia stood outside her bedroom door in shock. She was utterly frozen. Her whole head was on fire. There was something wrong with her; VERA was supposed to help her figure it out. VERA was the only person who had been there for her in weeks, the only person who understood her project, the only person who…
The only person who…
Person?
Hologram.
Computer.
Machine.
Something hot pressed into Nadia’s hands. Her tea.
“Here,” said Ying. “Let’s sit.”
Nadia felt the weight of the mug, the heat radiating through the porcelain and almost burning her palms. She let it. It felt real; it kept her here and out of her head.
That was probably a good thing.
“Could someone please talk to me for a minute,” said Nadia, sitting down next to the scratched formica table in the kitchen. The rest of the G.I.R.L.s took chairs around the table. “About anything. At all.”
“Alexis is trying to get a hold of the olds,” Taina updated the group.
“I am trying to get my biceps to look like Linda Hamilton’s in Terminator Two: Judgment Day,” Ying said very seriously. “She can do so many pull-ups.”
“Just wait till you see Mackenzie Davis’s arms in Terminator: Dark Fate,” Shay teased. “Seriously, though, we’ve watched so many nineties movies that all I can think about are high-waisted jeans and how to build an actual Stargate,” she went on, groaning. “For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure if we account for the stellar drift it’s not, like, entirely impossible—”
“I think I’ve been talking to plants more than humans and it’s starting to make me feel weird,” blurted Priya. “Is it totally weird if I also start to see your therapist? She knows about powered people, right?”
