"The building's secure enough, you know that, but I dun' know if we should just let them run in-and-out like this," passionately leaped around Chaosmare's lips, his hands making any gesture they could to emphasize his despair.  "Wha'd'ya' think they're even doing over there?" beckoned a response from Fara.

    "I'll...I'll take care of it," adequately substituted a goodbye, as she left the room, clawing at her cell-phone.  Pyraci had either been arrogant or clever enough not to change his phone number since she had last called him.  "We need to talk, right now," interrupted his curious hello.  They exchanged questions, neither one listening to the other's.

    "I like it when you're forceful," he chuckled, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were flirting with me."  Pyraci checked his watch, checked a clock, checked his phone, then checked his watch as Fara tried her best to sound authoritative.  "I thought you didn't keep track of those things Ele."

    She felt something drip past her navel, and squeaked as she ripped a bandage from her abdomen.  "You're downtown, I'll see y'soon," ended the phone call.  Fara knocked twice on a sealed door, bruising her knuckles, and turned the knob.  The man inside was bathed in white-green light, code seeping out of his eyes.  "Get your car, I need t'find someone."

    "Oh, hi," he barked corrosively, snatching a key ring off of a table and following her through the door.  "So where do we need to go?" he asked the disheveled orange hair in front of him.

    "You'll decide that, I need t'find Pyraci," she replied in a juvenile rasp, "Try not t'remember that you're doing this, yeah?"

    "Doing what?" he grinned, "I'm just stepping out for a smoke."

    "Yeah," she hesitated, "This needs to be cleared by the twenty-third or..."

    Hampton Green's steel redwoods glistened in the setting sun.  The car sat stationary outside a fluorescent casino for a moment, then died to a muted purr between an armored van and a frozen food truck.  Fara stepped out of the vehicle, glancing towards the already open driver's door. 

    "I'll be fine," she smiled.

    "Not if I'm all the way over here," he returned, already sensing her complacence.  Aiding her over a puddle, he led the way to her target's signal: a phone booth just outside a bookstore.

    "Great, I'm-"

    "Can we help you," interjected a woman nearly pushing off of the man's hand.

    Fara glanced back at her guide, who cracked his neck and looked the other way, feigning disinterest.  "What d'you want with SMEE?"

    "SMEE?" accompanied confused gazes from the couple.

    "Don't even try it, you're stepping on some big toes doing this," caused neural inhibitors to leak into her real-world body.

    "The exile is the eventuality of your machine friends."

    "She brought you there?"

    "Leave her out of this, Ele.  Just let her go peacefully."

    "They don't know the meaning of peace!"

    Fara scratched brittle skin off of her hairline, "Leave her out of this?  Hell, I practically handed her t'you.  This isn't a matter of one exiled routine.  This isn't happening in a vacuum."

    "Then what is this a matter of?" he inquired, glancing at the code leaking out of her guardian's eyes.

    "How ‘bout we just kill ‘em?" giggled his fiancée, her hands already tickling the handles of her guns.  "What's the matter?  Mechanical brain hurting your mechanical head?" she grinned at Fara.

    "So do it Miss Johnson; fill us with holes, and we'll come back and fill you with holes, and then you'll do the same and it'll last forever," Fara snapped, stomping her foot.

    "See, now that sounds like fun," the woman giggled callously.

    All four made uncomfortable movements, glancing at the others' hands.  "We're looking at a mildly cataclysmic situation if something negative happens to our SMEE programming."

    "I haven't done anything to your programming," grumbled Pyraci, angry sweat appearing on his brow.

    "What the'll were you doing in that building for that long?"

    "That's none of your business," he glared, trying to explain himself, "Look.  We didn't do anything."