Violet didn’t say anything. Then, a moment later, Rae heard her own voice from a couple of days ago played back through Violet’s speakers. “Will you be good so we don’t both die? I’ll remove all the interlocks if you promise.”

“You seemed to be more worried about not dying then,” the Violet-scooter said. “Why the change?”

“I just saw all my friends and classmates get taken away to be turned into goo because of something I did. What do you think?”

“Would it make you feel better to know Aegis got an anonymous tip and was able to track the buses? They’re closing in on the factory right now, and should be fast enough to rescue everyone.” As Rae spun to stare at her, Vi-scoot explained, “I’m monitoring police bands—and since I scanned your memories, I know the code words they use for robot activity.”

Rae blinked. “Anonymous tip…from the scooter-me? I should have thought of doing that.”

“I should have thought of it,” Vi said. “Scooter-Rae said it was Violet’s idea.” She looked at Rae. “So what now?”