The sound of glass shattering and the whomp of flame engulfing fuel is a shot of adrenaline. Zef jumps out of bed so fast the blood doesn't have time to get to his head. He feels faint, vision spotting. Gray watches the blaze, awash in amber light. He turns and sees Zef standing there. Frozen. Afraid.

"Good. You're up."

His voice is frigid, detached. Where did the soft, sweet Gray of ten minutes prior go? He marches over. A distant part of Zef screams to run, but his body doesn't obey.

"What the hell are you doing?" he says.

Gray bundles up the bedding in his arms. "Haven't figured it out yet?" He takes the sheets and uses them for kindling, throwing them into the fiery room. The glow extends far past the bathroom, casting the portraits in grim chiaroscuro.

Zef hadn't recognized the subject of the portrait before. He's not sure he would have even sober. She's younger here, less gilded, with long hair and a baby in her arms, but—

The familiar clothes, the fact Gray knew for certain she wouldn't be around.

"Th-this is Rylan Archer's house," Zef says.

"Ding ding ding." Gray grabs more booze from the bar fridge, takes a long swig and wipes his mouth on the back of his arm. He saunters back to throw that bottle into the flames, too. An explosive roar follows. He shields his face from the heat.

"That first night," Zef says. "You stole her car. You knew it was hers?"

"Right again." Gray follows Zef's gaze to the portraits. "Good idea." He takes the largest off the wall and heaves it into the fire. Dusts off his hands and watches it burn with eyes like embers.

"And that —" Zef stares at the inferno, the data fort inside toasted to oblivion. One computer in a world chock full of them. "That's the server that controlled you? You never worked for CyberSuite, you worked for her."

Gray doesn't pause in his mayhem. He throws the remaining photos into the fire. "Now you're catching on. Told you as much, didn't I? Not my fault you were so committed to the job you couldn't see what was right in front of you."

Zef's throat is flu-virus-sore when he swallows. "You know I work for her."

Gray meets Zef's eyes. "Always have."

It feels like someone clove Zef's chest open with an axe. There are many things he should be worried about. The job he just lost and his project in their hands. What he's going to do when Rylan finds out he played accomplice in yet another crime against her—auto theft and now arson. Getting his family on a train somewhere. Just getting the hell out of here. It shouldn't matter how Gray found out, or why he never said anything, but...

"Then— You," Zef stammers. "Why did you—?"

Gray spits into the fire onto the burning portrait. "Keep seeing you? Saving you?"

Kiss me. Zef's throat burns with more than smoke.

Behind them, metallic footsteps pound up the stairs. The security bots, responding to the fire, stampede down the hall towards them. They have safety protocols for fires, but not for Gray. The first makes it through the door as Gray's implants blaze bright. Bathed in the light of the inferno, he looks devilish. Sparks flare, and the charging bot clangs to the ground, leaving scratches where it slid on the marble. The others follow suit, felled like dominos by Gray's superior tech.

"We'll have to take this heart-to-heart elsewhere." Gray collects his clothes, unhurried despite the fire licking its way out of the shower using bed sheets as a bridge. "Get dressed before Queen Bitch arrives."

Zef's blood runs cold. She'll be on her way back from Tokyo. Probably on a plane right now, unaware of what's become of her mansion.

It puts Zef back in pilot mode. He doesn't understand even half of what is going on, but when he first met Gray, they stole Rylan's car. Now they're in Rylan's house, wearing Rylan's clothes, drunk on Rylan's booze, burning Rylan's data fort—the thing controlling Gray. Whatever Gray plans to do next, Zef doesn't want to stick around for it. He rushes into the closet to retrieve his clothes and jumps into them. Emerging, he can't see Gray. He runs out of the bedroom, coughing on smoke. Downstairs, the front doors are still open. Zef doesn't have time to wonder where Gray went. He needs to get out of here and catch a cab to the bayou as fast as possible. Ping his dad.

But when he tries, his HUD turns back an error.

>>No Net connection available.

Fuck. He remembers the itchy sense of something tickling his brain while he lay in bed panicking. Gray must have cut his net access. Cut him off.

He has no idea where he put his shoes. Probably still on the beach. Outside, the sky is an infected yellow with the hint of rain, casting the world in eerie hues. The concrete scrapes his bare feet as he runs down the driveway. If he can't call his dad or even hail a cab, he'll just have to hoof it or hitchhike. Get as far from here as possible.

Halfway down the driveway, headlights flare behind him, stretching his shadow into haunting proportions. He looks over his shoulder. The Vitali's mother of pearl hood glows in the dark, headlights staring him down. Zef nearly hurls himself into a hedge as it drives around him and stops at the gate, blocking his path.

The window rolls down. Gray leans out. "Get in."

For an odd moment, Zef wonders where the Vitali had been hidden. Zef mapped the whole mansion while searching for a secret room. Finding a Vitali would have been a dead giveaway that he was in Rylan's mansion.

The more sensible part of him says, 'Who cares!? Not a priority! Get the hell out of here!'

He can't run. The mansion is practically a fortress. He can't swim across the sea to safety, and he can't get past Gray and his gild, but—

He reaches into the pocket of his jacket, groping for the EMP grenade. His fingers touch nothing but lumps of dryer lint.

Gray's smile flares like a struck match. He opens the driver's door and gets out, further blocking Zef's route to escape. "Looking for these?" He pulls the two grenades out of his pocket, waving them. Zef pales. Gray must have rooted through Zef's jacket on one of the many occasions he shucked his clothes this evening.

His options for escape dwindle fast. Zef takes a few steps back, turns to run.

"Oh, no you don't." Gray seizes him by the hood of his shirt, shoving him towards the Vitali. "Not done with you, yet."

It sounds so sinister, Zef forgets who he's dealing with and tries to wrestle free. With practised ease, Gray takes his wrist and twists it behind his back, pulling upward, making his shoulder scream with strain. He knew Gray's implants made him strong, but it is one thing to know it in theory and another to feel that strength bearing down on him, twisting his body in ways it's not meant to.

Gray strongarms him into the passenger side and slams the door. It locks, responding to Gray's silent commands. Zef can't force the unlock, hard as he tries. In the neon lit interior, Gray's face is ice cold as he gets in the driver's seat.

His proximity, which Zef cherished only an hour ago, now makes him shiver. He plasters himself to the door, which won't open, and now the car is moving, it would be very painful if it did.

"Seatbelt," Gray instructs.

"What are you going to do to me?"

Gray's scarred lip curls. "Should be me asking you that."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"Are you gonna kill me?"

"Ain't gonna lay a finger on ya. Put your damn seatbelt on."

It fails to reassure Zef at all. Not because he thinks Gray's lying, but because a growing hurt is already aching in Zef's heart.

There are other, more important factors, but he can't wrap his head around it. If Gray knew all along, then why continue seeing Zef? Why send him sweet letters, take him to swim in the sea, lean across piano keys for a kiss?

Why trust him enough to let him touch?

Unless it had all been a ruse?

It casts the night and every intimate moment in a mirrored light. All this time spent hunting Gray, playing cat and mouse— had Zef been the cat after all? Or were Gray and Rylan both predators higher up the food chain?

"You planned all this," Zef says. "The whole night was just part of some play against Rylan."

"You got EMP's, a net blocker, and a cage with my name on it, but got the guts to tell me I'm the one who's faking?" Gray says viciously.

It'd hurt less if he'd hit Zef. He's right. "I was gonna tell you everything."

"Gave you plenty o' opportunities for that."

What can Zef say? He didn't want to ruin the night? He planned on telling Gray and was only waiting for the right time? Seemed reasonable in the moment. Now all Zef's got is his word, which—given what Gray knows—is worthless.

"Not gonna repeat myself again. Put on your fuckin' seatbelt."

After abducting him on a chaotic mission against Rylan Archer, what safety can a seatbelt offer? Zef puts it on anyway, fingers shaking with the clasp. "So you knew all along."

"Yep."

"In the industrial quarter, I thought I heard someone following me. That was you?"

"Told you. I can be dead quiet when I wanna be."

As if to demonstrate, the air in the Vitali goes awful silent. Outside, the gross colour of the sky turns a grayer yellow and a few drops hit the Vitali's windscreen.

Zef, when he can brave another question, finds his voice only comes out in a whisper. "Why didn't you just...tell me? About Archer. That she was your handler."

Gray's humourless laugh is so dead it requires a tombstone and epithet. "I'm meant to trust the guy hired to hunt me down? The guy accumulating all these tools to lock me up for good? The guy who can't drink, dance or fuck me 'cause more 'n he wants any of that he wants to keep his job? That guy?"

Zef's next breath catches in his lungs. He pictures all of it from Gray's perspective. Zef trying to get that data from him the first night they're out for sushi. Getting ambushed on the subway, and then outside the strip club, by goons it's becoming clear Rylan sent. Finding the tracker on Zef, which he proceeded to lie about. Finding the Faraday cage Zef planned to lock him up in. Zef pulling away every time things got too intimate. Out of guilt, but from Gray's perspective?

Everything Zef had done, he did it because it felt keenly tied to his survival, because he'd struggled to trust Gray, but it looked damning as hell from the other side.

"I really was going to tell you," Zef murmurs.

"Yeah, well," Gray says coolly. "Guess we'll never know if that's true."

Zef swallows the hurt down, uncertain he's allowed to feel it. He tries to switch focus. Zef's stuck in this car, going god knows where, so he might as well get answers to his other questions.

"Where did you hide the Vitali? I looked all over the mansion for that hidden room. Found it, but not the car. It would have blown that secret wide open."

"More 'n one hidden room. There's a garage underground next to the swimming pool. Already knew about that one. Might never have found the data fort without your help."

"You didn't worry I'd find the car instead?"

He shrugs. "Wasn't making no effort to hide it. Knew one way or another, you'd find out tonight."

"Why now?" The second Zef asks, he sees the answer. "Because she's in Tokyo. Coming back tonight."

A solemn nod. "Best shot I've got to catch her off guard."

"So Project Jewel Wasp, your tech, and all those goons outside my apartment, Rylan's behind all of it. Why did she ever need me?"

"You were her troubleshooter."

"Her..."

"You weren't meant to catch me. You were meant to find ways around my tech. Troubleshooting it for her. Finding the weaknesses so she can lock me up and make a better model. She's a fucking bitch, but she's not a dumb bitch. You were the perfect tool for the job." Gray holds up his hands, raising one finger for each reason. "First, you're not a cap. You grew up needing to find ways 'round repairing gild no one's meant to be able to without a subscription. You're used to finding the weaknesses in Bionic Capital tech. She probably had you pegged for that from the first interview." He holds up the next finger. "Second, you're easy to manipulate. You got people at home dependent on you. You need transition care. All she had to do was dangle that carrot."

He holds up a third finger. "Last thing, you're trans. Makes you a great tool for coming at me 'cause I'm less likely to kill you like all the other assholes she sent after me."

Zef says, "It worked."

"Yep."

"Why? You knew all this. Why not get rid of me?" His stomach twists with the hope for a specific answer.

"Because you were as useful to me as you were to her," Gray says. "You found out about the control server. Helped me find it. All the other stuff you were planning, easier for me to get 'round it if I know what's coming. Just had to follow you."

It isn't what Zef wanted to hear. He licks his lips and can still taste the memory of Gray on them. His first gay kiss, and it had been fake. He folds his arms over his chest like he can hold his heart together, but he can feel it breaking.

"Oh."

The rain goes from a drizzle to a downpour, streaking the windows. Sunday commuter traffic is lighter, giving Gray full rein on the road. He must have disabled all the Vitali's security that got them chased by cops last time. Everything's quiet except for the percussion of rain.

Finally, Zef asks, "So what's next? What are you using me for, now?"

Gray keeps looking dead ahead as he answers, "Now you're going to help me kill Rylan Archer."