Rex was not thinking about work. Rex was in shock.

  He had already accepted death. Not calmly and not bravely, but completely. There was a certain clarity that came with it. When the bus arrived, when the guards moved him without explanation, when the word recycler hung in the air without being spoken, Rex understood that the argument was over. Whatever he had been before no longer mattered.

  Then Punny burst onto the bus.

  At first Rex could not process it. His mind refused to keep pace with events. He looked at Ed, who looked back at him with the same stunned expression. For several seconds neither of them moved. Then understanding arrived all at once, sharp and disorienting. Someone was trying to rescue someone. It just was not them.

  They stood and moved toward the exit. Punny and Melody stared at them as if reality had slipped a cog. Rex passed them without a word, his legs carrying him forward before his thoughts could catch up.

  Outside, the air felt wrong. Too open. Too real. Rex stopped on the sidewalk and turned, scanning the street. Ed stood beside him, breathing hard. Punny and Melody emerged behind them, shouting.

  “Get in the car. The car.” Melody waved frantically toward a vehicle idling ahead of the bus.

  Rex did not argue. Neither did Ed. When people with guns and urgency told you to move, you moved. They broke into a run, vaulted into the back seat, and the car lurched forward before the doors were even closed. Rex slammed the door shut as Punny twisted around in the front seat.

  “Where is Vengeful?”

  Rex and Ed looked at each other.

  “Vengeful,” Punny repeated. “Where is she? She was supposed to be on that bus.”

  “I don’t know,” Ed said. His voice sounded thin even to himself. “I woke up this morning, and they put me on the bus. I’ve never heard of anyone named Vengeful.”

  “It was just the two of us,” Rex added. “No third passenger. No explanation.”

  Punny swore and struck the door with his fist. “What the hell happened?”

  “Not now,” Melody said sharply, weaving the car through traffic. “Make sure they know what to do in the tunnel.”

  Punny inhaled and forced himself to focus. He turned back, calmer now.

  “We’re going through a tunnel soon. Another car will be waiting. When we stop, get in it fast.”

  Rex nodded. Ed nodded. The tunnel rose ahead of them like a dark mouth. Melody drove hard, breaking suddenly inside. Rex threw the door open and ran. He dove into the second car, twisted around, and saw Ed tumble in after him. The doors closed and the car shot forward.

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  Punny made a call.

  “Rocky. She wasn’t there. It was just a Rex and an Ed. No sign of her. They swore she wasn’t on the bus. We’ll be back in thirty minutes. See what you can find.”

  He ended the call and turned again.

  “I guess I should explain. I’m Punny. This is Melody.” She waved briefly. “We thought our friend Vengeful was being sent to the recycler today. We were wrong. Now we have you two. We’re heading back to our settlement to figure this out.”

  “Settlement?” Rex asked. The word felt foreign.

  “Yes,” Punny said. “A group outside the city. Outside its systems. We survive how we can. We stole food recently. That’s when Vengeful was captured.”

  “You stole the truck?” Ed said. The realization hit him with force. “That was you. That’s why I’m here. That hijacking ruined my life. I was about to be recycled because of it.”

  “You were the Ed on the truck,” Punny said quietly.

  “Yes,” Rex answered for him. “And I was the doctor who treated him. I was going to be recycled too.”

  “Why you?” Punny asked.

  “Because I discovered the control chips,” Rex said. “Your attack triggered a sequence of failures. His chip was removed. That led me to examine my own. The Chief Inspector realized I knew. That knowledge could not be allowed to spread.”

  Silence filled the car.

  “So all the workers,” Punny said slowly. “They’re controlled.”

  “Yes,” Rex said. “Their behavior. Their sense of belonging. Their happiness. It’s regulated.”

  “That explains Erik,” Melody said. “Anything that threatens those chips threatens the entire system.”

  “But I still don’t see how just you two could bring it down,” she added. “There has to be more.”

  “It would help to see a chip,” Punny said. “Understand how it works.”

  “You can take mine,” Rex said.

  Punny turned sharply. “What.”

  “It’s damaged but it’s still there. If you have a doctor, it shouldn’t be difficult to remove.”

  “That would help,” Punny said. “But it doesn’t get us Vengeful. Neither of you saw her.”

  “No,” Ed said. “I was isolated.”

  “They kept me moving,” Rex added. “But I never saw her. If she was there, they hid her well.”

  “Back to nothing,” Punny muttered.

  “We’ll find her,” Melody said. “One way or another.”

  The rest of the drive passed in silence. Rex watched the road slide by and felt something unfamiliar settle in his chest. Relief mixed with guilt. He was alive because someone else was not.

  They arrived at what looked like a school. People moved through the parking lot with purpose. A tall red-haired man ran up and opened the door.

  “I found nothing,” he said to Punny. “No trace. We never actually knew where she was.”

  Punny followed him away. Melody went to speak with others near the building. Rex and Ed were left by the car.

  “We don’t seem important,” Ed said.

  “No,” Rex replied.

  “This place feels empty,” Ed said. “Sparse.”

  “Yes. And strange. The city just ignores them.”

  “I don’t understand anything anymore,” Ed said. “Life made sense before. Now it doesn’t. But somehow this feels better.”

  “Better”

  “At least the choices are mine.”

  “Is it right?” Rex asked, “to take beliefs from people if those beliefs make them happy.”

  “If we know they’re controlled and do nothing,” Ed said, “then we’re part of it.”

  A voice joined them.

  “I’m Pearl Jammer. Council member.”

  He had overheard everything.

  “I didn’t know about the chips,” Pearl said. “But I always suspected something.”

  “So what do we do?” Ed asked.

  Pearl sighed. “We move forward. Whatever that may be.”

  Punny returned with Rocky.

  “Would you undergo a procedure,” Punny asked Rex.

  “Yes.”

  Rocky nodded. “It might help us find her.”

  Before anything more could be said, a car approached.

  “We don’t get visitors,” Punny said as time seemed to slow.

  The driver stepped out. Thin. Pale. Familiar in a way Rex could not place.

  “Well,” the man said, leaning on the hood. “Everything is proceeding as expected.”

  “Who are you?” Punny demanded.

  “You may call me Brain 1,” the man said. “And I am here to tell you where Vengeful is.”