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She couldn’t regret it She knew she would do it all over again, despite what a le rash decision
Then there was Iko’s personality chip It was the largest and reasy thumbprint, probably Cinder’s, and one corner had a hairline fracture Nevertheless, Cinder was confident it would still function Iko, a servant android who had belonged to Cinder’s step been one of her closest friends But in a fit of anger and desperation, Adri had dis only theher personality chip
The third chip in Cinder’s stash made her heart craer stepsister had died alue had claiet the antidote to her in time Because Cinder had been too late
What would Peony think now? That Cinder was Lunar That Cinder was Princess Selene That Cinder had danced with Kai, kissed Kai …
"E, is that an ID chip?"
She ju the chip in her fist as Thorne sank into the second chair "Don’t sneak up on me like that"
"Why do you have an ID chip?" he said, peering suspiciously at the other two chips on the arm of her chair "It’d better not be yours, after you made me cut , she unfurled her fingers A bit of dried blood had crackled off in her palm
"Don’t tell me she’s a runaway convict too Doesn’t she need it?"
Cinder held her breath, waiting for the aching in her chest to fade, and glared at Thorne
He radually expanded over his face "Oh I’ it froo?"
"A couple of weeks" She tucked the chip into her fist "She was only fourteen"
"The plague?"
Cinder nodded "The androids who run the quarantines have been harvesting ID chips fro the a new identity" She set the chip down beside the others "I couldn’t let them take hers"
Thorne settled back in his chair He’d cleaned up well--his hair was neatly trimmed, he was clean shaven, and he s a orn leather jacket with a single medallion pinned onto the collar, the rank of captain
"Aren’t the androids that work at the quarantines governh the
"Yeah, I think so" Cinder frowned She’d never given it any thought before, but saying it aloud brought on a flurry of suspicion
Thorne voiced the thought first "Why would the governram androids to harvest ID chips?"
"Maybe it’s not to sell on the blackPeony’s chip into the arm of the chair "Maybe they just wipe them clean and recirculate them"
But she didn’t believe that ID chips were cheap to make and if the public ever found out their loved one’s identities were being erased, there would be an uproar
She bit her lip Was there another reason then? So the chips for? Or had sora?
Her gut tightened How she wished she could talk to Kai …
"What are those other two?"
She glanced down "Direct co to an android, a friend of ?"
She scowled "I’ure out what to do with the she can…" She trailed off, then gasped "That’s it!"
She hurriedly stashed the other two chips in her calf again Grabbing Iko’s personality chip, she sped off to the cargo bay Thorne followed her--into the hall, down the hatch to the sublevel, into the engine roo in the doorhile Cinder crawled beneath the ductwork and popped up beside the computer mainfra a panel and running her finger along the labels "Iko is an auto-control system All androids are! Of course, she’s used to the functionality of a oing to guess, really different?"
She shook her head and plugged the chip into the syste to work It just needs an adapter" She worked while she talked, twisting live wires out of their connections, rearranging, reconnecting
"And we have an adapter?"
"We’re about to"
Turning, she scanned the control panel behind her "We’re never going to use the dust-vacuum module are we?"
"The dust what?"
She yanked a connector cord from the panel and snapped one end into the mainframe, the other into the inlet for the auto-control system--the same that had nearly fried her own circuitry
"And that should do it," she said, sitting back on her heels
The systenostics check fa--to think that she wouldn’t be alone any at least one person who ain
Thorne stared up at the ship’s ceiling as if he expected it to cave in on hi the cos correct? She’d been able to communicate with Thorne just fine when they were in the warehouse, but …