âGod help me, but I think youâre the ones to takecharge of it. Jansonâs machine is your baby now. So go fix the world.â
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Connor immediately takes the secret artifact to the back room. Heâs always had an uncanny skill with mechanics, but this time, he doesnât even dare to open the casing for fear of doing something irreparable.
âWe have to get this device into the right hands,â says Connor. âSomeone who knows what to do with it.â
âAnd,â points out Risa, âsomeone who isnât so tied to the current system that theyâd rather destroy it than put it to use.â
âSome trick thatâll be,â says Grace.
Sonia hobbles into the back room and catches the three of them still staring at the printer. âItâs not a religious relic,â she announces. âGet over it.â
âWell, it is sacred in its own way,â says Risa.
Sonia waves her hand dismissively. âTools are neither demonic nor divine. Itâs all about who wields them.â Then she points her cane to the old trunk, indicating itâs time to descend into the shadows of her basement.
Grace pushes the trunk aside. She grunts as she does it. âWhatâs in this thing anyway? Lead?â
Risa looks to Connor, and Connor looks away. They both know whatâs in there. He doubts even Risa knows how heavily it weighs on his heart. Much more heavily than the weight of the letters in the trunk. He wonders how many letters from how many kids are in there to make it weigh so much.
When the trunk is out of the way, Sonia rolls away the rug beneath it, revealing the trapdoor. Connor reaches down and lifts it up.
âIâm opening my store now,â Sonia tells them. âLike it or not, I gotta make a living, so down you go. You know the drill. Mind the noise, and donât for once think youâre too smart to be caught.â Then she points to the printer. âAnd take that with you. I donât want some nosy-Nellie poking around back here and seeing it on display.â
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Connor has not been in Soniaâs basement for almost two years. He came here on his second day AWOL. He had taken a tithe hostage, tranqâd a Juvey-cop with his own gun, and gotten caught up with an orphan girl whoâd escaped from a bus headed to a harvest camp. What a mismatched band of fools they had been! Connor still feels the fool from time to time, but so much has changed, he can barely even remember the troubled kid he used to be. Now Levâonce an innocent kid brainwashed to want his own unwindingâwas an old soul in a body that had stopped growing. Risa, who at first just scrambled to survive, had taken on Proactive Citizenry onnational TVâbut not before having her spine shattered, and then replaced against her will. And as for Connorâhe had taken charge of the worldâs largest secret sanctuary for AWOL Unwinds . . . only to discover