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I pulled Mina toward me, tucking her against my chest, wanting to sweep her away from here, but her eyes were fixed on something up ahead.

“There’s a kid over there, Raymond!”

At the sound of her screaming my name, a few of the rushing bystanders slowed down. As their eyes locked onto us, Mina still hadn’t noticed what was happening around us; her gaze was pinned strictly forward.

“The Kern trash is right here! Call the police!”

Being hated even in a godforsaken dump like the Buzz was an achievement very few Martians could claim. But there was no time for pride. I grabbed Mina by the waist, threw her over my shoulder, and broke into a sprint. I was carrying her as recklessly as I had carried her clone that day, and right on cue, Mina began pounding against my back.

“Put me down! I’m telling you there’s a kid left behind, aren’t you hearing?!”

“Someone else can save them.”

You can’t save everyone.

“Nobody will save him, and you know it! Raymond, please!”

Her voice trembled, her fists growing weak against me. I stopped, and set her back down on her feet. Without so much as looking at my face, she ran downhill. Not just toward the wounded kid pressed against the wall, but toward the crowd closing in on us, too.

I followed her, putting myself between her and the mob. My metal arm detached and shot toward the snapping electrical wires, weaving itself through them and sending the current surging toward the crowd.

They screamed, but didn’t move.

“Even if you hand me over, there won’t be anyone left on this planet to pay you!” I roared at them. “All the rich are heading to Crysa. You lot had better find somewhere to hide yourselves, too!”

I didn’t expect them to reason with me, but I certainly didn’t expect them to hurl iron scraps and “Fibola”—the black, chewable drug that felt no different from stone—at me either. However, when another fireball soared over the street, they stopped caring about me. The panic escalated, and everyone scrambled for their lives.

Mina, meanwhile, had already pulled the child against her chest and was dripping something into his mouth.

When I tentatively stepped closer, she raised her head.

“Are they really leaving the planet?”

The desperate tone in her voice made me swallow hard.

“That’s what the exploding plants and smoke mean. Krivan must have broken out of prison.” I offered a faint smile before adding, “Your watchmaker lady will be heartbroken over that.”

She let out a soft, faint smile of her own, one hand stroking the child’s filthy hair while the other carefully emptied a syringe into his mouth.

“Krivan is really not going anywhere. It’ll probably take until his grandchildren’s generation for that day to come.”

I adjusted my mask and bent down. As Mina gently opened the child’s eyes, his tiny arms wrapped even tighter around her. At the sight, her lips pressed into a tight line, her brow furrowing. Just as she was about to scoop the boy up in a single movement, I reached out.

“Is he in critical condition?”

“He hit his head.” She stroked the boy’s forehead, but he remained unresponsive. “I need to get to the capital, immediately.”

“You can’t. You need to be evacuated, too.”

Mina stared at me as if I had just uttered the most absurd thing in the world.

“They won’t let me into Crysa. My customer satisfaction rating isn’t even above eighty.”

“That doesn’t matter. With the planet in this state, you are not staying here.”

She stood up, hoisting the child into her arms. Her face was tight with anger, her jaw clenched.

“Suddenly you care about me? Why?”