The next morning, the rain had stopped.

The power Dot's rig had gathered by day trickled into Volt all night through a storage battery. Battery: 19%.

"A whole night for just 7%?"

"It's slow on purpose. Gulp it all at once, and the ration grid notices."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…That's how we got caught yesterday. The first connection came in too hard."

"So today's target is 25%. Slowly."

"Why 25%?"

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "A motor that slept ten years devours power the moment it wakes. The door motor takes 5%. The drive motor, 15%. …The memory module — even I don't know."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "At 25%, I can wake the door motor — and still keep enough to hide."

"…So it's like saving your skill points at the start of a game."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…Something like that."

"What about the radio?"

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "The radio works right now."

"Don't turn it on."

Then, Spark's light suddenly dimmed.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…Quiet."

"I didn't even say—"

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "Something's coming. From the sky."

Outside the window, a single red dot hung in the gray sky. It was descending, slowly, along the alley.

Dot yanked the cable out. Her voice was low.

"A Grid Lord scout drone. It comes when it smells electricity outside the ration grid."

"How do you know that?"

"…Because one of those took my dad. Three years ago."

Before Bit could say anything, Dot was already dragging the tarp.

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "I'll hide. Like the old days."

Spark's light went out — whoosh.

Red light seeped through the door gap and swept slowly across the wall. Where the light passed, the dust flared red for an instant.

In a game, this would be the moment a detection gauge starts filling in the corner of the screen. Just one difference — there is no restart button here.

The drone stopped in front of the garage. Three seconds. Four. Five.

Bit held his breath. About three seconds in, the held breath became the problem. Dot, not trusting even that, clamped a hand over his mouth.

(Bit would insist, strongly, later: he was absolutely not about to sneeze.)

Whirr — the sound faded away.

The same moment, at the tower. The darkness that received the report rumbled low.

"Find it. That car must be — hiding, somewhere."

The Grid Lord knows about Volt — and the children don't know that yet.

"Is it gone?"

"It's gone."

✢✳✻✽✻✳✢ "…For now."

That night, in the darkened garage, under the tarp —

the headlights blinked twice, all on their own.

As if — in answer.