“Dammit,” Sarah hissed.

“It’s OK,” Mike said. “We’ll just turn around on the other side and come back. Fries might get a little cold, but we’d have to reheat them for the kids anyway. It’ll be worth it.”

Someone in Sarah’s system growled low and quiet, but she pushed through it and said, “Sorry. Washington has become kind of triggery for me. It’s a good state, but I’ve got bad memories there.”

Mike glanced at her, and said, “Are you sure they’re your memories?”

“No, I –” she stopped herself and frowned at him. His demeanor had suddenly cooled. He’d gone from laughing and reminiscing with her, to easy going and apologetic, then to this. Serious. Curious. More still. And that was a weird question. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, you know,” he said. “Maybe it’s your headmates.”

She studied him, alarm slowly rising in her chest and gut. She’d had some nagging thoughts and feelings about this whole thing when he’d first stopped his SUV and shouted at her. But she’d pushed them aside for the sake of old times and possibly a better future. Old friends and networking.

But now she realized she was in the car with a man she hadn’t really known for the past ten years, who maybe she hadn’t really known in high school, despite how much time they’d spent together. He’d thought she was a fellow boy back then, and really it had been Goreth fronting most of the time. She’d been one of the secrets they’d been keeping from him.

And now it was coming back to her that his parents had been Tea Partiers.

And the statistics all said that most assaults, abductions, and murders were committed by people the victims knew.

She felt something cold where her uterus would have been. A deep, heavy, frigid weight of dread.

Do you consent to enter Washington? Phage asked internally.

Sarah shook her head emphatically, no.

Then we shall not, her old id monster declared. Remain quiet and let him pull over safely, or this won’t work.

“You know, when I saw your video at the z -” Mike was saying when the Honda CRV’s engine cut out and the battery went dead. “Aw, shit!”

Sarah took a huge breath and pulled herself against the passenger side door, preparing for the worst, imagining that they’d go over the edge of the bridge and into the water.

That’s going to make things harder, Phage thought.

But she couldn’t make herself move.

Mike was preoccupied with managing his car without power steering or power brakes. He flipped on the emergency lights, and said to himself, “This will have to do.”

That was not at all reassuring to hear.

He turned and grinned at her in a way that was not friendly, and said, “We’re just going to have to pull over here to deal with this. The shoulder’s too narrow, but I don’t see any other way.”

Sarah let herself nod a little, but couldn’t maintain eye contact and looked out the windshield at where they were going.

“You know, at first I thought, you need help,” Mike said. “So I subscribed and kept you in some spending cash. And I felt good about it. But, you’re what? Spending it on mochas and trips to the zoo? Fine. That’s fine. Whatever. Once I give it to you, it’s your money, and it’s making an old friend happy. I’m still doing good. An example for the kids, even. But, then…” he shook his head and laughed at himself.

Sarah remained silent, thinking more about how she was going to get off of Government Island if they were stranded there. Flag down a car, maybe? There were no exits there, and if she did manage to get over the curb and embankment, the island was just forest and beach. If she could hide from him or something, she could call Peter and wait for him, maybe.

But, first, she’d probably have to fight her way free of Mike.

She wished that Goreth would take over and use their reasoning to get them out of this, but she and Phage had always been their crisis team. And, while Phage could react to anything with a disturbing calm, her own reactions were unpredictable. Sometimes she knew just what to do. And sometimes she just watched herself do the most foolish things. Or just freeze up. Or run away.

“I work with some people at Providence Mental Health, and I thought maybe they could help you better than me. Maybe I’d have a nice lunch with you, and then take you over there. It’s really close to Doom Burger, after all,” Mike said as he waited for the car to stop rolling in the half a shoulder of the bridge. As it came to a halt, he started to unbuckle his seatbelt. “But then you went and did that reaction video and started talking about your aliens. And really, you’re just like all the other troons in the end. Fuckin’ delulu.”

Desperate, numb, and nearly thoughtless, Sarah reached into her purse with her left hand and pulled out her phone.

“Nope!” Mike said, grabbing the phone right out of her hand and smashing it repeatedly against the gearshift. “Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope!” Then he threw the broken, fragile government issued piece of shit behind him where it bounced off the driver side window. He narrowed his eyes and lunged.

“Fuck! No!” Sarah heard herself shout as she tried to kick and push at him, but she was too big to bring her feet up properly, and for how much smaller he was, he was so much stronger. He felt heavier, even. And faster, more coordinated.

And before she could do anything about it, he’d grabbed her purse strap in both hands and hauled it up, roughly, over her head, and thrown the accessory with all her cards and ID in it into the very back of the CRV.

She snarled and shouted wordlessly and flailed at him, forgetting that one month of free Kung Fu she’d had back in college. Nothing she’d learned in those four lessons was worth a damn here, anyway.

He roared, pulled his fist back and plowed it right into her chest. Right above her left boob and heart.

Pain shot through her ribs and back, and her head hit the window behind her, as she scrambled to try to push him away.

And with the ringing in our ears that the impact on the window had caused, I found myself face to face with this wiry, angry, stubbly, fragrant human being. The soap he used and his aftershave stung our nose deep in our nasal passages, now that he was looming over us.

Maybe he noticed the switch, because he pulled back and blinked. Then, with a noise I feel like I’ve heard from deep in the forests of the Sunspot, he lunged again.

I have, believe it or not, seen some violence.

It’s hard to live nearly 500 of your years and not encounter it a few times, even on a worldship like the Sunspot. Maybe especially on a worldship like the Sunspot, considering who and what we discovered lurking in the deepest parts of our Network.

Also, sometimes you get bored of everything else. And if you’re looking for your Art, you try everything.

It’s only half a millennia of exploration and self examination. I’ve lived amongst and learned from much, much older.

But also, while I am very unfamiliar with the human body and how its physiology ultimately works, its bones and joints are basically a bunch of levers. And with Phage’s gift, judging their stress tolerances was something I could do at a glance.

Instead of thinking of this body as me and trying to exert my will against this man, I instead simply arranged its skeletal structure into the most efficient configuration for the space to withstand what Mike was doing.

Somehow, I even managed to get a knee between us.

I had his wrists in the relatively weak grip of Sarah and Goreth’s hands, elbows braced against our ribs and the door behind us. And he couldn’t push us further into the door, and we had just enough strength to keep him from bending our arms. Our elbows remained at ninety degree angles. And his solar plexus was against our left knee.

Part of the problem was that the vehicle wasn’t really spacious enough to do any of this with our bulk in it, but that restricted him in a lot of ways, too.

He could pull back, yanking his wrists out of our hands, and lunge again. But he could only slightly change his angle of attack. And he tried this.

But he just ended up in the same position as before. But because he’d given me a couple seconds of time, I’d adjusted our seating so we were braced even better.

This happened two more times.

On the third try, he went as wide as he could toward the windshield to try to wallop us sideways with double fists, but I was able to twist and meet his wrists with our palms and guide him right back to the same result.

Face a decimeter and a half from ours, teeth bared in a true grimace of fury, he shouted, “You fucking tranny!” His spittle hit us in the eye.

“You may try again, small child,” I said calmly. “I will continue to educate you.”

He pulled back, lashing out at us as soon as his arms were free.

Blocking him was easy. A small move to get our forearm in the way of his blows. It hurt, but it did no damage.

Our chest hurt where he’d punched us first thing. But I could tell it was simply a bruise. He hadn’t yet worked up the anger to really hurt us yet, then.

I watched him try to pivot in his seat and get better leverage for another lunge, but he waited and watched us, panting and seething.

Cars kept driving by at alarming speeds. None slowed down to stop and assist us. Only some swerved to be sure that they wouldn’t hit us. The other drivers apparently felt brash enough to careen by without altering course.

If we got hit by one of them going at full speed, it would take a lot of work on my part to keep us alive in the tumbling, tearing metal mess we’d find ourselves in. Phage would probably help, but I had no trust that the two of us could do it.

And we were stuck, because if I tried to turn to unlock and open the door, Mike would lunge and I’d have to stop him.

We had to get help somehow.

Maybe if I found a way to use Phage’s gift to alert another driver soon enough that they could safely pull over.

Mike was also aware of the situation, clearly, his eyes darting back and forth at various aspects of the scene. But he refused to give us ground. He had us cornered, and all he had to do was find an angle of attack that would work.

We just couldn’t run.

Both Sarah and Goreth were gone, hiding deep, at this point. No help. But absolutely not hindering us with inexperience, either.

I found myself uselessly wishing I had my nanite exobody. With it, I could tear this vehicle apart safely and thoroughly, and maybe even disable Mike without actually hurting him.

Go, Phage thought, loud and clear. ʔashwin, go. I’ll take over.

Go where, I thought back.

Get to the Murmuration and wake them, it replied.

Can I make it that distance? I shot back.

I can’t, it said. If I try that distance, on this planet, I will remerge with my greater self and never remember you again.

I suddenly felt like I was floating in space, darkness all around me, as I contemplated the meaning of that, and worried it might happen to me, too.

It was just an emotional reaction. Dissociation created by this body as a result of fear. I was still there keeping an eye on Mike.

I can fight like you, Phage said. Whereas you have shown you can travel distances that I cannot.

You really can’t?

No.

I took a quick, half deep breath that Mike could see, and steeled myself for the plunge I was about to take.

OK, Phage, I thought. Launch me. When you take over, push me out as hard and as fast as you can. Let’s make this quick.

Done, it agreed, and suddenly I was fully outside of the CRV and drifting southward.

I had no idea it could even do something like that. I hadn’t known what I was talking about, and just wanted our switch to be as fluid and unpredictable as possible, so Mike wouldn’t have an opening.

I perceived the CRV rocking again under the struggle of two heavy human bodies wailing at each other, but I turned my attention toward the Murmuration’s house.

Once free of the human nervous system, I couldn’t really think or worry about much, or even consider whether my memories were true or even there. I merely followed my directive and motives. And those led me to be where I needed to be.

It wasn’t until I was in a human body again that I began to worry about the safety and health of Sarah and Goreth.

They were now in Phage’s care. But what would it do?