Hello! Welcome back! Happy to have you along! Now, on with the show!

"Ah, your necklace, Your Majesty," Gehru said, bowing with over-the-top panache. At the same time, he held out Mimi's cross pendant, presenting it with two hands. He had finished analyzing it as requested, and as he returned it, he imagined himself a servant to his queen.

Squawk! Squawk! Phoenix extended and flapped his wings a couple of times as he watched nearby.

"Thank you, Sir Gehru," Mimi replied in a fake, deep-voiced accent.

She turned her head toward Phoenix and gave him a brief, wide-eyed stare, followed by a smile.

Squawk! Squawk!

The cross pendant looked like a completely different piece of jewelry. Instead of a dingy grey bit with black crevices, the cross was now a bright silver and white creation. Even the chain link was brightened.

"Wow!" Mimi declared. "It's so shiny and pretty now."

"Yes, Ma'am! Now it match-it the Queen," Gehru said, his face smiling broadly, exposing his prominent crooked teeth.

"Aww!" Mimi raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders. "Thank you, Gehru." She gave her good friend a hug.

"Me take-it the necklace to Jhomi, and he clean-it-up all the tarnish, real good."

Gehru knew all the right people at Anderson Science Center. Jhomi was a chemical engineering resident and Gehru's friend.

"What's it made of?" Mimi asked.

"Alloy composition, Ma'am. Not unusual. Good strength. Good 'lectric and thermie con-duc, err... "

Gehru paused at his pronunciation and swallowed.

"Con-duc-tivity. Good re-flec-tivity."

"Any magnetic properties?" Mimi asked.

"No."

"Radiation levels?"

"No."

"No? So why would Alessandro be so interested in this then?" Mimi asked herself aloud. "Gehru, what did you say it was made of, again?"

"Combination silver alloy."

"Silver, huh?"

"Yes, 92.5%, to be exact-ly. It called 'starling' silver."

Squaaa... ? Phoenix' head perked up.

"Starling?" Mimi asked, "like the bird?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Gehru responded.

Squawk! Squawwk!

"I thought it was made of steel."

"No, not iron alloy."

"Hmm... " Mimi said, "that's why it's so much prettier than iron."

"Ah, more than a pretty face!" Gehru replied. "We use silver in a lot of our 'lectronics."

"Yes, it has a lot of uses."

"It can kill things."

Mimi's frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Silver is anti-mi-crobal," Gehru said. "It kills bacteria, germs. Bad things."

"Oh," Mimi replied, "I see."

She stared at the necklace, glinting in her hand.

"Thank you, Gehru, for all of your research."

"You're welcome, Ma'am!"

"Please, stop with all that royal address, okay?"

Gehru smiled from ear to ear.

Mimi gazed downward at the silver pendant again.

"It's a good trade piece, too," Gehru commented.

"Oh, no, it's not for trade... " she said driftingly.

Trade? Was Alessandro interested in the intrinsic value of the necklace? What it was worth?
Was he thinking about stealing it?

Mimi looked up and held the pendant tightly in her fist. No one had ever offered trade for it before, but regardless, the pendant meant more to her now than any amount of trade. It made her think about her late father Georges and how much she loved him. She thought about his work and how he must have died a horrible death, transporting encapsulated humans on a dark, cold fateful night.

What were you thinking, Dad? Was it worth it? To leave me here in the process? All alone?

Mimi thought of Elliot next, his mentor Dr. Berman and their experiments on the human capsules. Was Elliot's new friend Alessandro really from one of the capsules? Why was Elliot so attached to him? Aless was so odd and creepy at times. She recalled a conversation she'd had with Elliot concerning Alessandro. Alessandro had called her 'a child of God.'

God?

"It's the cross," Mimi exclaimed quietly.

Squawk! Phoenix reacted. Squawk!

"The cross, Ma'am?" Gehru had overheard Mimi's deduction.

"Of course! Alessandro was interested in the fact that I was wearing this necklace. It was the cross itself! That part makes sense."

After all, Mimi thought, Aless was a religious fanatic.

"I thought it was because of something else," she said, shifting her shoulders, "but now I'm sure the necklace must have meant something more to him."

Alessandro assumes something of me because I'm wearing it. What does it mean to be a 'child of God?' What does that mean to Aless?

Mimi closed her eyes and thought hard. She could recall the exact moment Alessandro first noticed her pendant. She imagined his face, his facial expression, his eyes.

He was ... surprised. No, wait... he was... repulsed? Why?

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

Suddenly, a building-wide alarm went off.

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

"Already, we evacuate?" Gehru asked.

"No, it's low level," Mimi answered. "Usually reserved for medical response."

She stopped and looked at Gehru. "What do you mean, 'evacuate?' "

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

"You don't know?" Gehru said. "Uh-oh, Me spill a bean? Me mistake. But I thought everyone know. I thought Human Protection involved?"

"Maybe, but I haven't been informed," Mimi said. "Why is the Center evacuating?"

"Because Dr. Berman die."

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

"What!"

"You don't know?" Gehru's single robotic eye swung back and forth like a pendulum.

Mimi shook her head. She had been off in her own world in recent days. The last time she had seen Dr. Berman she learned her father had died in support of the doctor's work. Now Dr. Berman himself was dead?

"Gehru, are you sure? I just saw Dr. Berman the other day! How could he be dead? What happened?"

"The other students, they say a canine killed Dr. Berman."

"A canine? How?"

"I don't know."

"What about Elliot? Is he okay?"

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

"I think so... " Gehru said, fading out of the conversation. He craned his head and neck up and away, glancing at the room's intercom speaker.

The alarm continued.

Mimi stood shell-shocked at the news.

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

The siren seemed to be louder now in all of the silence, and Mimi could not think.

What is going on? Why is that alarm still sounding? Mimi finally wondered, annoyed, her attention shifting.

Beeyooop! ... Beeyooop!

"Something's not right," Mimi declared. "Those alarms usually stop by now."

Beeyoo! Beeyoo! Beeyoo! Beeyoo!

Without warning, the alarm changed to a higher, more urgent alert level.

"I'm sorry, Gehru, I've got to go!" Mimi said. "Something's happening!"

Hello! You'll never guess what's going to happen in the next chapter... It's a big one. And I don't mean in terms of words and length! Definitely a high point! Come on! Time for a shocker...