Miss Night frowns at me as I end the call and offer her my phone.

"Tarak will send a picture of the building. You three are going to the sewer entrance."

"What about you?"

"I'm not leaving that kid on a leash."

Diana grabs my arm when I stand. "You can't run headlong into this place by yourself. You can't defeat all these guards."

"I don't plan to defeat them."

"Mason Crane," she snarls. "I can't let you-."

"Don't be Diana."

"Excuse me?"

"Diana is the one clouded with love for my mother. Don't be her right now. Miss Night is the dissenter. The one willing to risk everything for what's right. You're not here for me. You're here for the people in that building."

"You have no idea why I'm here."

"I know you're not going to let Sasha and Amari get experimented on. Or Tomas. You're their teacher. You're responsible for them."

"I'm responsible for you too."

I grab her shoulders and look her in the eye. "You are going to lead them into that building, Miss Night. You are going to find our friends and you are going to get them away from Singh. You have to do this."

"I don't take orders from you, Mason Crane."

"Forget orders. I'm asking you to do this. Please." There's more I could say to persuade her, but I have to trust her to make the right choice.

Miss Night pulls me into her arms and squeezes me. "Maria would hate me for this."

It's a good thing she's dead then. I squeeze her back. "I think she'd be proud. Of both of us."

Neither of us believe me.

We return to Tae and Bast.

"Well?" Tae asks, chewing on her fingernails. "What's the plan?"

"You'll have to figure that out on your own," I tell her.

"You're leaving?"

"We're splitting up. You three are going East. I'm going in the front door."

"Mason, you'll never survive that."

"Yes, I will. I'm the only one who will. Singh won't kill me."

"She could infect you, though," Tae snarls. "The only thing protecting you from Singh killing you is the public's love for you. If you become infected, they'll rally behind her when she kills you."

I lick my lips. I'd hoped she hadn't gotten that far in her thinking yet. "That still means she has to keep me alive long enough to bring me inside and infect me. Which means once you all are inside, I'm just another person to rescue. But you have to focus on stealth. I'll focus on causing enough problems the guards don't notice you."

"That's insane."

"Yet, you're going to let me do it."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Tomas."

She bites her lip and shakes her head. "He'd want me to think of a better plan than sacrificing you."

"It's not a sacrifice if you get me back, right?"

She opens her mouth to speak, but Miss Night grabs her shoulder. "We've wasted too much time to think of another plan. How long has he been here?"

Tae glances towards the sky, like she's trying to figure out the time. She gives a rough sigh and turns away from me without another word.

I nod to Miss Night, then turn to Bast. "I'm going to free Mori."

Her face twitches. "They're going to kill you."

I kneel in front of her and grab her shoulders. "Don't doubt me that quickly."

"They're farther gone than me. They're rabid."

"Don't doubt them that quickly either. We brought Daisy back from the edge."

"She was infected. They're changed."

"So are you. We haven't given up on you."

"You haven't. Others have."

I squeeze her shoulders, studying the green flecks around her slitted pupils. "Don't be one of the ones that've given up on them."

Bast glances behind her again, staring in Mori's direction even though we're in the copse of trees and we can't see them anymore. She takes a short breath and punches my shoulder when she breathes out, putting enough force to knock it back. "I'll see you again?"

"If I got out of that facility, I can get out of this."

We both know Singh wanted me to get out of that facility, but Bast seems to understand that I'm not going to change my mind. She steps forward and wraps her stick arms around my neck. Her hair smells smokey, but rain water clean. She buries her face in my neck and sighs, "Thank you for saving me. I never said that."

"You didn't have to," I murmur, knocking my head into the side of hers. Something about this is familiar. Something from that weird gray area of Augustus's memories that I'm not supposed to have access to. I release her and Tae offers her hand. "I'll wait a few minutes for you all to get closer to the sewage drain. Try to stay out of sight as long as possible."

"We're not the ones you have to worry about."

I wait for them to disappear from my line of sight before I turn to the horde of guards I'm facing and sigh, "I know."