Book of Elodie and Stacy

Elodie stood in the yard with the iRobot’s severed head in her hands.

Then the subsystem released her.

Her embedded consciousness returned all at once.

“Yuck!” Elodie cried.

She dropped Kyle’s head into the grass.

It landed with a dull, terrible sound.

Elodie wiped her hands frantically against her pants and looked around in panic, as though she had awakened in the middle of someone else’s nightmare.

“How did I get out here?” she asked.

Quinn and Nova were slowly rising from the ground, their damaged systems recalibrating after Kyle’s assault.

Joan stood nearby, pale and motionless. Her eyes moved from Kyle’s headless frame to the head lying in the grass, then back again.

Elodie looked at Nova.

“Why is no one answering me?”

Nova blinked.

“Everything is fine,” she said slowly. “Let’s get you inside so Pam can look you over.”

Elodie frowned.

“Why are you talking so slowly?”

Nova smiled, then spoke in her usual voice.

“It’s okay. Everything is fine. Quinn, could you assist Elodie in getting her to the basement clinic so Pam can help her?”

Quinn approached.

“Listen,” Elodie said, “I know the way. It’s my house. Did I black out because I stopped taking my medication?”

Quinn smiled.

“Maybe. We are not certain. That is why Pam needs to examine you.”

Nova had wrapped her arms around Joan.

At last, Joan broke.

She began to cry against Nova’s shoulder, the terror and confusion leaving her in shaking waves.

“Elodie,” Nova said gently, “please.”

“Fine,” Elodie said. “But if the danger has passed, could one of you find Clarice? She’s taking Nadia and Irina across the lake. Bring them back before they end up in Sacramento—or somewhere even farther away.”

Quinn nodded.

“Of course. Once we get you to the clinic.”

“Fine,” Elodie said again. “You’re both acting strange, but fine.”

Then she went inside with Quinn.

Pam was already heading for the basement.

She had watched the event through the living-room window. She did not understand what had happened in the yard. She did not know why Elodie had emerged holding an iRobot’s head, nor why the others now spoke to her as though one wrong word might shatter something delicate.

But Pam intended to find out.