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else.”
    Eliana frowned. “Give me a minute.” Eliana shoved her shoulders through the window and looked down. The grass grew right up to the base of the house, but it was trampled there, the stalks bent and broken. She remembered the path she’d cut through the grass herself, the sound of the grass crunching under her feet, and her heartbeat quickened.
    No path led to the window, but someone had certainly stood here.
    “I’ll be right back,” she said, and then she pushed herself through the window completely, landing in the grass. Lady Luna cried out in surprise. Eliana readjusted her skirt and looked to find the andie standing in the window, watching her. Creepy.
    She pushed the feeling aside and felt around in the grass, her heart hammering. Every nerve in her body jangled with anticipation, and she forgot about Lady Luna and the andie. The only thing she cared about was finding the answer.
    She crawled parallel to the house, plunging into the grass. It brushed rough and dry against her face and pricked her through her clothes. Whatever had made the impression in the grass had dropped out of the sky, she was certain. Definitely a robot. Not like the andie, but the sort she was used to, the drones they kept up at the top of the dome for repairs. The ones that buzzed around like insects.
    It would have dropped out of the sky, pulled open the window, and slid inside. The dome robots were designed to stay silent, because you didn’t want people knowing they existed.
    But it wouldn’t have done this on its own. Robots couldn’t steal, not even the more modern ones. Only humans could. Eliana had learned that quickly enough on this job. And if she wanted to find the human who’d programmed the robot before Lady Luna’s documents leaked to all of Hope City, she didn’t have time to ambush every power plant and maintenance center in the domes clustered over the desert. Hell, she didn’t have the ability to do that even if there weren’t a deadline.
    “C’mon, c’mon,” she muttered, turning back to the flattened patch of grass by the window. There had to be something .
    But there wasn’t. Only grass, wind, the andie’s watchful stare.
    Eliana stood up, brushing bits of broken grass off her stockings. Lady Luna had joined the andie in the window and was watching her with alarm.
    “Have you gone mad?” she asked.
    “It was a robot,” Eliana said. “Not like—” She gestured at her robot. “One of the newer maintenance ones, most likely. The flying ones. But I don’t have the evidence to track it to its source. It could’ve come from anywhere.”
    “No,” the andie said.
    “What?” Eliana narrowed her eyes. “How else could someone get in? The grass is flattened. That’s where it landed—”
    “Pardon me,” the andie said. “I wasn’t criticizing your theory. I was trying to say that it could not have come from anywhere.”
    Eliana’s cheeks burned, but she stood up straight. “What do you mean?”
    “The sort you’re talking about—the flying sort. There aren’t many in the city. Most crawl.” The andie made a spidery motion with his fingers. “The flying ones all operate out of the city offices. As you mentioned, they’re quite a new model. They’ve only been around the last few months.”
    “Yeah,” Eliana said.
    “Forgive me if I seemed brusque. I only wished to rectify your mistake. You said we should not let any information go unmentioned.”
    Eliana nodded, although she still felt sore about him correcting her. Lady Luna smiled up at the andie, moved her lips with something Eliana couldn’t hear. Maybe “Thank you.” The andie was right, though. Eliana wouldn’t have to beat down every power plant in Hope City. She wouldn’t have to beat down anything. Maria worked for the city, as a secretary in the budget office. She’d gotten information for Eliana before.
    Warm wind blew through the grass, tossing Eliana’s hair into her face. She was giddy again, the andie be