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"Wait, what?" Lawrence glanced at Charles. "Is this for real?"

"He is for real," Dr. Landau said with a firm nod. "I know enough about his... situation to vouch for him."

Lawrence turned back to the figure before him. It -- okay, he, apparently -- took the form of some sort of computer-generated hybrid of canine and feline with burnt orange fur, dressed in an old-fashioned smoking jacket and pants that looked like silk. He had a slightly cartoonish look to him as he stood there and waited for the fox to process what he was seeing.

"You're an artificial intelligence," Lawrence said, almost as much of a question as a statement. He was dimly aware of Melody asking him something back in the hospital room where he physically sat, but he tuned her out as he focused on Chimera.

"I prefer 'artificial consciousness,' personally. Or 'digital consciousness,' 'digital life form,' 'infolife,' whatever. Your typical software assistant has 'artificial intelligence,'" he said, sounding annoyed. "'AI' is for v_ideo games_. I'm a sapient consciousness capable of thought, philosophizing, and free will to the extent that any of us are."

"Where did you come from? What are you doing here?" Lawrence asked, somewhat exasperated.

"Lawrence, we don't have a lot of time, I'd love to talk to you about this in-depth--"

"Just answer me, please. Just that much. I need to know what I'm dealing with so I can process the rest of this."

Chimera sighed. "I'm the unintentional result of an experiment in integrating brain tissue and more complicated neuro-digital implants. Turns out if you grow brains in jars around an implant, on one of those attempts you'll get enough active brain to produce a mind. Which is then augmented by the computer, even if not in a way you intended."

"So more Scalzi than Gibson."

Chimera just looked at Lawrence for almost a full second, blinking once.

"Yes," he said.

"You just read the works of John Scalzi, didn't you?"

"Not all of them," he said, somewhat defensively. "I just started with his most popular and went out from there. Didn't take long to get to Ghost Brigades. It's close enough for this conversation. Moving on, I've been trying to find a way to get in touch with you for a while, but the way you got on NUBio's radar has made it tough to reach you without accidentally revealing myself to them."

"Even texting would be too much?"

"Potentially trackable. Also, I thought it would make it easier to convince you if we met in person, as it were, and there was someone willing and able to vouch for me." He gestured to Charles.

"Are you 'Reginald' as well?"

"'Reginald' is a name that we came up with as an alias for certain business purposes," Charles chimed in. "It's an empty persona we could 'plug' agents into if need be. I felt that if you 'found' Reginald, that could give you openings to exploit if need be."

"Though that said, I do use the 'Reginald' alias for most of my stuff," Chimera explained. "When I realized you'd eventually think of that, I attached the data to Charles' phone and that led you here."

"Which reminds me," Lawrence began. "How the hell are you here? These systems are supposed to be air-gapped to keep them from being hackable. Is this some 'artificial consciousness' thing? Is your 'brain' in here?"

"This would actually be a really tight fit for my mind," Chimera said, looking around as if the space of the room mattered. "I had someone plug a dongle into a server and that gave me access to the system. I'm jacked in, just like you are, but from a greater distance."

"Wait, so where is your mind?"

"Short version, it's in the cloud."

"Great. So what is it you're after? Because I've already got concerns."

"Which are?" Chimera asked.

"I mean, I know how this works. There's a good AI, and an evil AI, and then they fuse together into a third AI and go crazy and become some cyber-loa thing."

"The Bridge Trilogy was better," the digital life form said without missing a beat.

"That just means you have taste. It doesn't mean you're not evil."

Chimera turned to Dr. Landau. "Was he this bad with you?"

The old man shrugged. "Less clever, more angry, and rightfully so."

Chimera turned back, looking exasperated. Lawrence realized the expression was deliberate -- it had to be, given that Chimera had to have conscious control of his digital avatar here. There were no subconscious microexpressions to carry over. The fox realized this was serious and forced himself to focus and take it seriously.

"Lawrence, what I want isn't evil. I'm trying to build myself a body. An actual meat-body with a nervous system and senses and all of that. I need a lot of technical help to do that without drawing the attention of the people who made me in the first place."

"Which, I'm guessing, is NuBIO." Lawrence figured that they were the only ones with the resources that would be so close Chimera would have to go to this much effort to hide.

"Correct. And I think you can help me."

Lawrence figured something out.

"Wait... you're Shaw, aren't you? Like, maybe you're not literally Shaw, but..."

"I'm as close to literally being Shaw as you can get. Yes, I started the company. Most of its existence is entirely digital. I've used it to get access to the tech resources I need, and I'd been trying to get ahold of the designs you traded for your dad's drug trial, which is why I noticed when you stole a copy."

Back in the hospital, Lawrence's blunt claws dug into the arms of the chair at the mention of the drug trial that started this whole mess.

"Okay, answer me straight or else I'm unplugging and walking away from all of this," the fox growled. "Did you send that kill team after me?"

"No. That was NuBIO. I swear. They got worried about you going after Dr. Landau, and they thought you had more hard data than you did about the Reversion. I covered your tracks a bit, there, because I think you can help me."

"What about the Reversion? How does that tie into all this?"

"Directly? It doesn't. But you looking into it got you on NuBIO's radar and mine. For the record, I would like to get a cure or at least an effective treatment for that sorted out, for basic decency's sake."

Lawrence crossed his arms over his chest. "And of course to make sure your new 'meat-body' lasts a while."

"Not at all denying that."

"I figure time's really running low right now, so I just need to know one more thing," Lawrence asked. "Why me?"

"There are very few morphs in biotech, and I don't trust a normal human to have the right perspective. No offense, Charles. Fewer still who understand neuro-digital integration and have the technical skills to work in mechanical stuff. You may not know enough about genetic molding to program or even run a bodyswap tank without help, but I bet you could take one apart and put it back together. Fewer still are clever enough to have figured out as much as you did about the Reversion on your own, let alone being willing to do something about it. And a certain level of decency and compassion are definitely a factor."

"Are you trying to stroke my ego?" the fox asked.

"Ugh, look," Chimera groaned, his avatar's ears laying back. "There's a very short list of people I think are capable of helping me at all. And there's a naturally-shorter list of people I'm willing to trust with it. And of those, you're here, aren't you?"

"You've thought about this a while," Lawrence said after a moment's consideration.

"Lawrence, I'm a digital life form whose consciousness is smeared across the world's computer networks, borrowing vast amounts of processing power just to exist. From my perspective, I've got an hour to respond to your quips before you even notice I'm stopping to think. 'A while' is relative. But yes, yes I have."

"Fair enough. I'm in."

"Good, because as much as I'd like to start planning things, it's time to go. NuBIO has figured out you're here and interacting with Charles in some way. I've got measures in place to buy you time, but you need to get Charles' phone out of the nightstand drawer and get going RTFN."

"What?"

"Run, Lawrence. Grab Charles' phone, and run!"

* * *

Other than to let her know someone was on their way, Lawrence held off on an explanation until he and Melody stepped off the elevator into the parking garage. He didn't know how well-monitored the hospital was, and he'd just lost a lot of faith in their digital security.

"Short version of what's going on," Lawrence whispered to her. "My investigation tripped a bunch of red flags. But there's someone wants to help us beat the Reversion but he also wants my help with some stuff, and he was in there with Dr. Landau."

"Who?" she asked, one hand in her purse. He knew her fingers were wrapped around the pistol she'd started carrying.

"His name's Chimera."

"Another hacker?"

"Sort of."

"C'mon, don't give me this vague non-answer shit," she hissed.

"I'd rather wait till we're in the car so I don't have to worry about... fuck."

They'd rounded a corner to find a half-dozen people in identity-concealing body-armor -- humans, judging from the shape of the helmets. They all carried silenced sub-machine guns of some sort that Lawrence couldn't identify, as the only guns he knew were ones from video games. But the squad was here and their intentions were obvious.

A dark shape dropped from the ceiling in front of them, a large feline form whose fur was tinted dark gray to partially blend in with the concrete of the parking garage. He only wore a pair of black shorts, like he'd been out jogging. The panther landed in a three-point crouch, like something out of a bad movie, and he looked up at Lawrence. Their gazes locked.

The fox only saw grim determination in those eyes, and behind him he saw the squad lower their guns slightly -- not out of surprise, their body language suggested, but because someone they recognized was here to apparently take care of the mess. He and Melody were both frozen for a few moments, unsure whether they were about to be shot or subdued or what. The panther, still in his crouch, visibly tensed as if readying a pounce.

"Run!" he hissed to Lawrence and Melody, before he sprung backwards with a flip.

The two of them almost tripped, torn between watching and processing what was happening and wanting to get the hell away from all this. But before they turned and ran, they saw enough -- the color-shifting panther mercenary, the same one that had used their friends as bait to lure Lawrence out, the same one that Melody had shot more than a few times, dove at the squad claws first and began tearing them apart. Silenced gunshots like firecrackers echoed behind them, slowly replaced with helmet-muffled screams and the sounds of flesh and plastic hitting concrete.

"Why did he do that?" Melody yelled as she handed Lawrence the gun and dug for her keys.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," the fox gasped in a panic, even as his brain put it together.

I've got measures in place to buy you time.

Lawrence let out a string of incoherent, rapid-fire curses under his breath as they reached the car. They clambered into the vehicle and as Melody started the car the fox dug out Charles' phone. It began ringing.

"Who's that?" she asked.

It didn't say, but Lawrence could guess.

He punched in a code on the phone to sync it in with Melody's vehicle and accepted the call.

In the upper-right hand corner of her windshield, the HUD indicated that the call was connected.

"You're on speaker, Chimera," Lawrence said. "I figured it'd be faster if you explained what just happened to Melody."

"You're the hacker?" she asked as she drove. "Can you hack us out of the cameras so the guys whose goons are dying messily can't track us?"

"Already covered," the digital being said. "How much has Lawrence told you?"

"You're a hacker named Chimera and you need his help. We didn't have much more time than that."

"I'm a digital life-form. Something like an AI, but better."

"And I'm guessing Lar is helping you put together a body?"

"He mentioned that?"

"I was paying attention to just enough of Lawrence's half of your conversation back there."

"So," the fox said, chiming in. "How long has the panther been working for you?"

"Since almost the beginning. He's been an operative of mine within NUBio."

"That asshole kidnapped one of our friends," Melody growled.

"Yes, I'm aware." Chimera's tone could only be described as 'careful.' "Mr. Hale crossed a line, and he and I have discussed that. But a certain degree of force is required to maintain his cover."

"So he's not just some cold-hearted mercenary?"

"Oh, he's a cold-hearted mercenary, just a well-paid one," Chimera admitted. "If NUBio weren't breathing down our collective necks, we could use a lighter touch."

Melody drove out onto the street, the sun having set while they were in the hospital. She frantically looked around for any sort of law enforcement or pursuit vehicle, and seeing none she just picked a direction and began driving.

"So where are we going? We have to assume our homes are being watched," Melody asked their infolife benefactor.

"Lawrence's is, but your's and Tom's place should be fine," he said. "I've covered Lawrence's tracks in the past, which is why he was ever able to go home, but that's going to be a little trickier now. I don't think NUBio has definitively made the connection between him and Tom or any of his allies, but they're reaching out more and I'm trying to get an angle on that. Either way, I don't think it's safe for him to go home or possibly draw any more attention to the store."

"Shouldn't you already have this taken care of? Aren't you some sort of digital god?"

"No, I'm not. I might be one of the best hackers currently in existence, and I can think at a speed that would make your head spin if you could grasp it. But I still have finite processing power and bandwidth, and I can make mistakes if I have bad information. I'm not actually smarter than the people who made me, I just think faster. I'm a guy with eight arms sitting in the middle of eight computers. Speaking of which..."

The windshield HUD lit up as Chimera fed Melody's car's navigator with a route. It was a little convoluted, likely to avoid surveillance of some sort, but it led to a student district about twenty minutes away, give or take a few for traffic. After a few moments, the map vanished and the display began just showing an overlay indicating the bit of the route ahead of them and distance to the waypoint. Out of the corner of his eye, Lawrence saw law enforcement drones flying back towards the hospital.

"Where's this going?" Lawrence asked.

"A place I've got stashed away for emergencies like this," Chimera explained. "I'd just take you there, but Melody's car is a manual."

"I can't afford a car I trust not to sacrifice me to save a rich guy," she muttered through gritted teeth.

"It's your pelt," Chimera said in a tone that could only be described a verbal shrug.

Melody shot Lawrence a glance that had clear overtones of we are going to have a long talk once we're out of this car, with enough anger behind it to make him flinch. He just nodded back. After a few moments of silence, perhaps correctly reading the situation, Chimera quietly disconnected the call and let them drive on in silence.

* * *

An app on Charles' phone unlocked the apartment door. The fox and raccoon stepped inside. It was sparsely furnished and the decorations were spartan at best. Coffee table, couches, kitchenette, computer terminal in the corner, hallway leading to what was likely a pair of bedrooms and a bathroom. A mostly empty bookcase stood against one wall, and another wall held a screen that was set to a weather display. The air was humid and warm and smelled like some sort of wet fur, like someone had just gotten out of the shower.

As if on cue, the large mercenary panther stepped out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel tied around of his waist, droplets of water caught on his black fur but it seemed mostly dry.

"Hey," he said, all too casually, as if he were a roommate welcoming them back.

"You piece of crap," Melody growled.

The panther shrugged. "I've been called things that were both worse and true."

"You kidnapped one of my friends to lure us out!"

"It's the best I could do to try and track down Larry here--"

"Lawrence," the fox interjected.

"--without tipping off NUBio that I knew where he was," he continued without stopping. "And, y'know, you've shot me half a dozen times and hit me with a car."

"You've got implanted armor or whatever!"

"Caught that, huh?" He shot a look at Lawrence before continuing. "But you didn't know that the first time you shot. Also, it still hurts, and that shit is not cheap to manage when it gets used."

"Okay, will you two stop?" Lawrence said, his ears laid back, rubbing his head. "I'm getting a headache. Is it safe to assume there's some decent painkillers in here?"

"Medicine cabinet," the panther said.

Without saying anything else, Lawrence headed back that way. Charles' phone started ringing, and as the fox pulled it from his pocket, the phone accepted the call without his input and linked up to the video screen in the wall. Chimera's face appeared. Lawrence just tossed the phone onto the couch and went into the bathroom.

"Did everyone make it alright?" the digital life-form asked.

"Yes," Melody said without enthusiasm.

"Yes, sir," the mercenary responded.

"Head's killing me, but I'm good," Lawrence said as he opened up the medicine cabinet. After everything, between the money Chimera had access to and the mercenary's likely needs, he wasn't at all shocked at the top of the line pain medication available. He stared at himself in the foggy mirror as he popped a pair of tablets and washed them down with water scooped out of the faucet.

He caught the muddled scents of gunpowder and blood in the bathroom, and resisted the urge to look in the shower stall.

"Great. Melody Briscoe, Lawrence Murphy, meet Neal Hale. He's been my most consistent and useful pair of hands on your side of the screen."

"I am sorry about what happened with your friends, Melody," the panther said after a moment's pause, glancing at the screen. "I completely mishandled that, but I assure you that they were not supposed to come to harm. I only hit the mouse girl because she stabbed me."

"You sound like you almost mean that," the raccoon said as she all but flung herself down onto the couch, watching him.

"Mel, please, none of that was part of the plan," Chimera sighed.

"You don't get to call me that," she snarled. "So why is he here now?"

"Laying low after killing a NUBio strike team, and I'm here to protect you while you work out the next part of your plan," Neal explained.

Melody opened her mouth for a moment and paused. "They're all dead?" she asked quietly.

"Better them than you."

Melody looked at his hands. Her thoughts were clearly trapped in the mental image of him tearing apart half a dozen trained soldiers.

"Nobody was expecting them to go full lethal so quickly," Chimera said.

"And why not?" Lawrence asked. "I mean, poking around the Reversion, something that will make them yet another fortune as long as nobody figures out where it came from or that they have a possible cure they've been withholding. And that's assuming they don't realize I'm tangled up in an escaped project."

On the screen, Chimera frowned, his ears tilted thoughtfully. "Okay, I'll give you that. I don't think they know I'm involved, I've got..."

"Let me guess, measures have been taken?" Lawrence asked as he went to the kitchenette and opened the fridge.

"Sometimes I repurpose AI assistants to serve as spies for me. It's tough to explain how, but it's simultaneously easier and more complex than you'd think."

"I'm surprised you don't try to uplift them into beings like yourself."

"Who's to say I haven't tried?"

"Wait a minute..." Lawrence said as he pulled out some bottled water. "Moriarty."

"Goddamn it, I should've known better than to get funny," Chimera muttered.

Both Neal and Melody gave Lawrence a confused look.

"The Moriarty virus," the fox explained. "Infects AIs, makes them act weird for a little while. Been popping around on the net for a few months. I saw on the news that our escape from the parking garage the other day was blamed on it. Which is funny, considering." Lawrence pointed at the screen. "But that's you. How many plates are you spinning?"

"It's a side-project," Chimera sighed. "Can we move on?"

"Did you know about this?" Lawrence asked Neal.

"Dude, this is so far from my problem," the panther said, getting a frustrated groan out of the fox.

"Lawrence, please. Are you actually going to get on my ass about this?" Chimera asked.

"You don't even have an ass."

"I don't have to justify or explain to you every little thing I do," the digital figure said with a frown. "I'm not trying to hurt anyone, and nobody has been harmed because of the AIs I've altered. I just want out of these computers. I need help to do that, and you're one of the few people with the connections and the skills to make that happen. And I want to help you help your dad and countless other morphs. I'm going to give you some time to decide for yourself if that's going to be a problem. Feel free to stay here in the meantime."

Without further fanfare, the screen shut off and the call disconnected.

"Asshole," Lawrence muttered as he drank some water.

Without a word, Neal got up and moved around Lawrence to grab a beer from the fridge. He gripped the cap in his teeth, opened up with a twist of his head, and spat the cap into the trash can.

"Would they have killed us?" Melody asked.

"Who?" Lawrence asked.

"I'm asking him." She pointed to Neal. "Would those guys from NUBio have killed us, if you hadn't intervened?"

"Yes. If you'd surrendered, they'd have driven you out to the middle of nowhere and you'd have vanished. But they'd have easily killed you and covered their tracks if you'd been difficult or tried to run."

"How would they cover up our murders?" she asked, listening to Neal but unable to look directly at him.

"It'd be easy, since there's no official record of your presence. Sure, you're on the security cameras, but you and Lawrence were there under false pretenses so that's easy to build a narrative around that. He didn't mention specifics to me, but Chimera thought how you got in was pretty clever. As for your bodies, well... you were in a hospital parking garage. It would be all too easy to bring you in, fake some paperwork, and toss you in a recycler."

Melody shuddered. Neal took a swig of his beer.

"Don't sugarcoat it or anything," Lawrence huffed.

"I asked," Melody said before addressing Neal. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry I shot you earlier."

"But not in the parking garage that first time?"

"No. That was me protecting my friends, and I will never apologize for that. The lobby cafe was a misunderstanding."

Lawrence blinked at that and turned to Melody, but it's clear she wasn't kidding.

"That's fair," the panther said, taking another drink of his beer.

"How can you be so calm about this?" the fox asked him. "I mean, seriously. She shot you. You're working for some sort of inhuman digital monster. You just killed a bunch of people with your bare claws!"

"Nothing personal, Larry, but I'm not sure I know you well enough to have that conversation with you." Neal's deadpan sincerity would be laughable in another context.

Lawrence groaned with frustration and looked for something to throw, but nothing was handy. "Okay, then just tell me one thing -- the fur. The color-changing."

"From one connoisseur of genetic and cybernetic modifications to another," the panther said as he took another drink and held his arm out. It changed to the cheetah pattern. Then a tiger pattern. Then a color pattern like the fox's, before going back to its default black. "It's some weird experimental prototype, had it put in at the same time as the dermal armor. The individual hairs are made out of some sort of special fiber, I can affect how it reflects light or something like that. I don't know the science. My skin's all wired up into it and it's tied into an interface implant. I can do solid colors or certain pre-programmed patterns."

"So you can't just change it willy-nilly?"

"Anything more complicated than, say, orange arm with a black hand, takes some time or it has to be programmed in ahead of time."

"That's weird."

"Take your edges where you can get them," the panther said as he finished his beer and tossed the bottle in the trash. "In a few years, it'll be more widespread and won't be as much of a surprise any more."

"Another question," Lawrence asked.

"Shoot."

"I know NUBio would rather I were dead by some means. But if you'd captured me in the parking garage yesterday, what would you have done?"

"I'd have taken you someplace, probably here, where you and Chimera could have the same awkward conversation and inevitable argument that just happened."

Lawrence grimaced.

"I've got a question," Melody said.

"Yes?" Neal asked, in an 'oh god what now' tone of voice.

"Can you get dressed or something? Like, almost every time we've seen you you've been half-naked."

Neal looked down at himself and the towel he was wearing. He shrugged, finished his beer, and headed back to one of the bedrooms. The door closed with a click.

"We should go," Melody said. "Just get out of here, hide out somewhere else."

"I thought you and the brutal mercenary were bonding there, for a second."

"Don't get cute, 'Larry.'"

"Okay, then let me come at this from another angle. Where? Where would we go? There are people actively trying to kill me. If I stand next to you in public slightly too often, they might try to kill you or Tom. Like, actually literally try to kill you."

Melody rubbed her face with her hands and groaned into them.

"Lar, I just don't want you to get hurt," she said. "These people have been helpful, but I don't trust them."

"But I don't know where I'd go if I left here. You can go back to Tom's, Chimera thinks it's safe enough. But me..."

"I'm not sure I trust what Chimera thinks is safe."

"Between our own efforts and his, we're still basically intact," Lawrence said, sounding unsure. "Look, somebody's gotta at least fill Tom in, and it's not safe for me to be out there or probably even call him."

"What about your dad? And your job?"

Lawrence groaned and rubbed his face. "We'll figure that out. Just... you should go. Get back to your brother's. Get in touch with Dana, maybe she can help you get a message to my dad..."

"I don't like this."

"Yeah, well, I hate it," the fox said. "But I'm in it deep, and we don't have a lot of options right now. We both want each other to be safe, and I'm not sure there's a better way to do that right now. This is what I'm stuck with."

Someone, presumably, Neal, knocked at the door to the bedroom where he'd been getting dressed. "Are you two done having your private talk?"

The fox and raccoon shot each other a look.

"Yeah, come on out," Lawrence said as he rummaged around and found a notepad and a pen.

Neal came out, wearing a pair of cargo pants and a button-up shirt. He went into the kitchenette, dug out another beer, and again opened it with his teeth. Lawrence wrote something down on the pad, tore off the piece of paper, folded it, and handed it to Melody.

"Just get that to Dana, okay? Tell her to get it to my dad," Lawrence said.

"Sure thing," Melody said, watching the mercenary. When he looked back at her, she looked him right in the eye. "You keep him safe. Or I will find you."

"Will do," Neal said with a respectful nod. He then grabbed the notepad, scribbled something down, and handed the page to her. "Contact info for me is on here, and there's a number for Landau's phone. Can't guarantee we'll have that on us at all times, but it should be the safest way to reach us."

She blinked and took the piece of paper and pocketed it with a nod before she turned and left the apartment before she could talk herself out of it.

Lawrence stared at the door for a few moments and went to the fridge to get one of those beers for himself, popping it open with a tool on his keychain. He took a swig and moved to sit back down on the couch.

"What is this place, anyways?" the fox asked. I'm not going to assume it's yours," he said to the panther.

"Actually, I do practically live here. But really it's a safe house, under another fake identity that Chimera set up." He looked thoughtful and took another swig of the beer. "On paper, it's a college student's apartment. I think Chimera takes online classes for him."

"This doesn't concern you?"

"What?"

"The whole thing where Chimera is an artificial intelligence pulling strings from the shadows, casually building fake ID's, hacking other AIs into doing whatever?"

Neal laughed at that, a deep hearty laugh that actually got Lawrence to lay his ears back.

"Larry--" he started.

"'Lawrence.'"

"--Chimera is probably the most 'human' employer I've had. I'm not even kidding. I've worked for people who would have had me put your friends in the hospital and physically drag you in yesterday. You don't think the vast majority of people I've worked for haven't been shadowy string-pullers? You know how many people I've met calling themselves 'Mr. Johnson?'" Neal snorted and sipped his beer. "Please. From what I've seen, I have no reason to assume that Chimera wants anything more or less than what he's told you. He's refreshingly straightforward."

"But, like, you can't 'read' him. All of the body language on that screen is fake. It's a performance."

"You're adorable. I think you're just worried that he'll outthink you. That because he's some spooky computer god, he'll come up with plans to manipulate you and so on and so forth."

"That's... that's not it." Lawrence awkwardly took a swig of the beer. "But, y'know, he's admitted that from his perspective he has basically forever to respond to anything I say."

"Yeah, and he still lets stuff slip and make mistakes."

"But that could be part of the--"

"Oh for pity's sake, Lawrence," Neal groaned. "This is why people hate geniuses. 'But he knows that I know that he knows that I know,' 'I clearly cannot choose the wine in front of you,' so on and so forth." He shook his head. "Either trust him, or don't. Consider your options, then call him up on that phone, I'm sure he'll be ready to talk either way."

Neal finished his beer and tossed it in the trash.

"But ask yourself this," the panther continued. "If he were a normal person but just a really smart one, would you be this freaked?" He held up a hand to cut off Lawrence's response. "That's rhetorical. I'm going to go lay down for a bit. If you need me or want to go anywhere, get me up."

Without waiting for a response, he returned to the bedroom and closed the door behind him, leaving Lawrence alone with his thoughts. He stared at Charles' phone over on that couch, pondering his options, for what could have been a few minutes or an hour.

Lawrence picked up the phone and held down the button to trigger the AI phone assistant.

"Chimera, are you there?" he asked.

"Connecting," the assistant's neutral voice chirped.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier, Lawrence," Chimera said moments later. He left the monitor on the wall off and just spoke through the phone.

"No, it's not your..." Lawrence began, shaking his head. "Y'know, let's not get into that. Just... what would you need me to do?"