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and forth.
    We stop our second pass when Maigo reaches up and puts her hand on the invisible hull of Future Betty. Not sure how she knew it was there, but it’s just another item in a long list of unexplainable abilities. Beyond the physical strength and speed, like a little Kaiju trapped in a human body, her mind is capable of fantastic things. She’s got a knack for tech and is kind of a hacker savant—a humble genius mind in a powerful body—but it doesn’t stop there. Her psychic connection to me, for lack of a better phrase, hints at abilities that boggle the mind. As far as I know, the only mind she can currently peek inside of is mine, a side effect of sharing a mind back when she was 300 feet tall and stomping on Washington, D.C. But she kept her physical abilities hidden for a long time. I can’t rule out the possibility that she’s hiding more.
    I glance at the girl, twenty feet away, looking for a reaction to my thoughts. But her face is turned down to the ground, eyes flicking back and forth. She’s on task. Focused. Doing a better job than I am.
    “Let’s keep it going,” I say, rotating an index finger above my head. But the prodding isn’t necessary. Collins and Maigo have a bit of a lead on me now. Maigo just sweeps her gaze back and forth, like she can see through the stones, but it’s more likely that her mind can perfectly recall the photo we were sent. Collins moves a bit faster, shifting side to side, crouching and inspecting one rock after another. They’re a good team, but they’re even better for me.
    Despite the fact that I’m in the middle of nowhere, looking through a frigid wasteland for a rock that might not be here, I feel like a very lucky man. I’ve survived the worst this world has to offer and come out the other side blessed. The problem with that is that I’m more vulnerable than ever, and with an otherworldly threat now looming, I’m not sure how well I can do my job while worrying about them. Hell, I can’t even do a simple grid search without falling behind because I’m thinking about them!
    But it’s because I’ve fallen behind that I see Maigo stumble. Her hands go to her head like she’s just been struck. Her boots scuff through the grit. A new kind of panic springs me into action, “Ashley!”
    When she turns, the concern on Collins’s face mirrors how I feel. It’s a bitter-sweet moment. We really are a family.
    Neither of us reach Maigo in time to keep her from falling, but she doesn’t go far. She lands on both knees and leans forward onto her elbows, fists clenched, eyes squeezed shut. Something has shut down the strongest person on the planet. For a moment, I worry that she’s undergoing some kind of transformation. She frets about it more than I do, that she’ll become a monster like General Lance Gordon, the man who created her. He stole her heart, which regrew as she transformed into Nemesis. But she looks like the same girl now, only vulnerable, like when I found her encased in a fleshy pod, washed up on an island in the middle of the Potomac River.
    I crouch by her side. “Maigo.” I reach out for her, a father’s support.
    “Don’t,” she says, but it’s too late.
    My hand rests on the back of her head, and a jolt fuses me in place. Burning energy flows up my arm, through my torso and into my head. The island disappears. I hear Collins shout my name, but it fades like I’ve passed her in a train. An auditory glimmer. I can feel it. A force. Beneath me. I look down and see two eyes staring back.
    Watching.
    Waiting.
    But for what?
    A voice. The words aren’t spoken, but I recognize the voice as Maigo’s.
    I turn and find myself back in my childhood home. Christmas morning. This is our meeting place. Where our inner selves—both still children—tend to meet when our minds are connected.
    “What do you mean, ‘a voice?’” I ask.
    “It’s like a pilot,” she says.
    I sit down by the Christmas tree, the scent of pine washing over