A waiter ghosted across to serve them breakfast. The meal tasted superb, ingredients cooked to perfection, and Alice let herself sink into her new body. The icy disassociation she’d experienced after the printer melted away. Emotions came online, buffered by the equipment in her head, but still full of organic life. Love for Julia and Conner warmed her, a kinship forged by endless lethal nights together. Sure, she had been there undercover, but couldn’t ignore reality; they had been as much a family to her as she’d ever known. Emotions expressed themselves as a tightness in her chest when she looked at them, a love strong and binding. She would die for these people; she knew they would do the same.