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fighting was happening farther away with every footstep, despite the fact that Kari didn’t know where she was going.
    Ten minutes later and without further incident, she stumbled out onto the broken asphalt road.An auto-auto with red accents, which matched the escort of stylized cheetahs that surrounded it, waited for her. The door slid open, and the cheetahs parted, allowing Kari a clear path to get inside. She paused. This could be a trap . Kari stooped over and picked up Lars, who was panting beside her sweaty feet. But then again, this could be anything. Kari stepped forward and climbed into the waiting vehicle.

Chapter Seven
    It has to be some sort of electromagnetic pulse. But, somehow, localized and controlled from the little megaphone-gun-looking thing. No other explanation made sense. EMP bombs were common on the battlefield; they were bombs that would explode and knock out all of the electrical devices within a radius of a mile or so. But she had never seen anything like the guns she saw tonight.
    Where the Middle States had obtained such technology without her knowing it even existed was baffling. She hadn’t seen any news or reports about tech like that being used on the battlefields, and she didn’t think there were any freelance hackers left for hire. The formerly vibrant community had gone disturbingly silent in the past few weeks. It was one of the many things that Kari had been hoping to have more time to look into.
    Maybe the government people actually developed something on their own. No, that seems like too much of a stretch. Probably one of the big defense companies had a breakthrough. But if they had, it would have been publicized and marketed to get a big stock market reaction. It didn’t add up.Lars stood on her lap and turned around a few times before settling back down in the same exact position. Kari opened her eyes and looked down at him with an internal chuckle. Strange little dog.
    Kari looked around the interior of the mysterious auto-auto that had rescued her. The dim red light still pulsated along the thin tracks on the wall, making it look like the car had a heart somewhere that was pumping LED blood through its veins.The accommodations inside the vehicle were impressive; the seats were all padded with new synthetic leather, and a minibar was well stocked with treats and beverages. It felt kind of old school to offer a bar rather than a printer that could just make something for you, but the traditional approach to service was fitting.
    There hadn’t been any more clues in the car about whom the vehicle belonged to or where they were heading, except for another message printed into an impossibly thin sheet of graphium.
    “Make yourself comfortable. It’ll be a while. —The Unseen”
    The message didn’t sound like Henderson or anyone of his type, but that hadn’t kept her from spending the start of the ride staring out the tinted windows, trying her hardest to make sure they weren’t headed east toward the border. From what she could tell, they were headed northwest, which was a direction that she had no specific qualms about.
    Overall, the drive was physically comfortable despite being mentally unsettling. The blue EMP blasts had knocked out the processing unit behind her ear, which meant that her mental commands from her mind chip had no computer to answer them. That meant no Internet, no networks, no hacking the vehicle she was in, and it meant feeling defenseless.
    It was a feeling that would have bothered her more if she hadn’t dealt with the lack of a functioning mind chip when she was in prison. Lars was tired, but she didn’t think she’d be able to ever sleep again. She was left with nothing else to do besides to try to relax and process the dramatic events of the evening.
    Localized EMP blasts made sense to Kari. She knew there were a few puzzle pieces missing, but it was a plausible explanation. The evaporating weapon was a whole other story. Did I see that