I'm having an anxiety attack.

A quite serious one that's just seconds away from a full-fledged meltdown. There are too many unexpected things happening simultaneously, and I can't handle unexpected things.

I had no way to calculate the sudden appearance of Mint and Duke. To see their faces again is like a glitch in the Matrix. An unmistakable sign of something terrible to come.

I didn't see this coming. Of course, I don't need to blame myself because, in fact, it was impossible to foresee something impossible. Numbers never lie, and the chance of a random convergence like this was exactly 0.00%. And yet it happened.

That's a good enough reason to celebrate the unprecedented occurrence with a meltdown.

I shouldn't have wished my old team members to be by my side. Because now they are. Fucking Universe took it literally. It was so unwary of me to forget about the Universe, which is always watching us, like a huge surveillance camera with a disturbing sense of humor. Duke and Mint, serving as a punchline at the end of a random, incomprehensible, incalculable joke. Very funny.

So maybe there is some truth to the law of attraction, which I've deemed 87% bullshit by now.

Okay, I still do. I may have a meltdown, but not severe enough to swallow that. It's serious enough, though, to make me want to join my kids behind the statue, on the ground, covering my ears, and screaming until the Matrix turns back into a fully operational mode.

But I can't, because these assholes are about to kill each other. And, no matter what, they are still lambs committed to my care. I foolishly hoped that they weren't that anymore because I've changed, and they've changed, but the very moment I laid eyes on them, I recognized them as mine.

I wish someone told me about this earlier. Your brain is like a computer, they said. You could save so many lives, they said. And now I'm stuck with eternal duty. That's not what I bargained for. That's not what I left the Agency for.

But, on the other hand, it's good to see my guys again. They are still very handsome. And they have very nice guns, too. The effect they have on me is also interesting scientifically, I'm 35% surprised, 30% mad, 20% scared, and 15% happy to meet them.

All in all, in a strange way, it's nice to have all my lambs around, big and small ones. Knowing that I'll never have a family, it's the closest I'll ever feel to being surrounded by my dear ones. Okay, the older lambs are the most dangerous killers in the world, so the kids had to hide, but never mind. It's still the best I can hope for.

I'm so proud of them, honestly. They are so obedient. The small ones can't resist the codeword, and the older ones can't resist my voice. I tell them things, and they do it, while they could simply shoot me and then turn on each other.

They aren't in a coherent enough state to come up with a plan. Yet, but their blessed passivity won't last long, I'm afraid.

I know them. Mint is stronger, but Duke is faster. I have to neutralize him first.

"Hey, Duke," I tell him, "I hope you're only joking. You can't shoot Mint."

"What the fuck?" he asks, with an indignant expression on his face. "Why are you telling this to me? Can he shoot me? Just so you know, I'm the good guy here. He went rogue!"

"Tell me something I don't know," I answer, with a graceful little shrug.

"How do you know that?" It's Mint's turn to flash his best indignant look at me. "You can't know that! Were you spying on me?"

"Just look at yourself," I snort. "You look like you're about to sing fucking Despacito. You don't even wear a tactical vest. There's a 69% chance that you don't work for the Agency anymore, and a 31% that the entire team is filled with bumbling idiots, who let you run around like this."

"Despacito, huh?" He grins. "So you think I'm sexy."

Mint's analytical skills haven't improved much since the last time we met, or, more precisely, since the last time I saw him on a camera. He still can't identify the essence of a statement without help.

"No, she doesn't," protests Duke.

"Yes, I do," I clarify. "And you look good too, Duke. But the armed forces will arrive in three minutes, so why don't you just run?"

"I can't do that," Duke says. "There is a virus thing going on in the world, and—"

"—and that's not why you're here," I cut in. "You're not on an official mission either, are you, Duke?"

"How do you know that?" he asks, gasping for air. "You can't know that!"

"You're boring, guys," I sigh. "And too repetitive, even for my taste, while, believe me, I'm all for repetition. Now, it wasn't that hard to guess this one either, because there's an 87% chance that you—"

"She's so annoying," Mint says, interrupting my perfect deduction.

"You're damn right, Mint," Duke agrees. "Was she this annoying back in the days?"

"She probably was. We've just never met her personally."

While it's nice to see them reaching a consensus about something, I wish it wasn't my condition. I know very well how annoying I am, and it's definitely something I've never had the intention to share with them. They weren't supposed to see the way I am.

Just when I almost convince myself that I should let them kill each other in peace, Zoe wanders forth from behind the statue.