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“Just like Winnie. Big. Beautiful. And terrible at singing.”

Khalani’s lips pulled into a faint smile.

“Winnie misses Takeshi, too. He had such a big heart that very few understood. Winnie saw it, though.” Winnie’s voice lowered, her shoulders slumping.

Khalani breathed faster.

He did have a big heart.Doeshave a big heart.

The gnawing ache in her chest expanded, threatening to swallow her whole. And as more time passed, the worse it became.

She needed to go back.

Khalani sat up straighter, urgency coursing through her. “You said there was something else you needed to tell me, Winnie?”

“Winnie has been waiting for you to gather your strength before she told you the news.” She paused for dramatic effect, taking a deep breath. “Winnie found it!”

“Found what?” Khalani frowned.

“Prometheus!”

“What do you mean?”

“In the past couple of days, Winnie has been talking to that one girl who escaped with you. Sad but beautiful. A little cold too, but some warming up from Winnie was all it took to thaw her walls.”

“Are you talking about Elise?” Her eyes widened, forgetting that Elise made it back with the other survivors.

“That’s the one!” Winnie snapped her fingers. “Elise. A terrible thing that happened to her father. But after speaking with her the past couple days, she showed Winnie the heirloom her father left behind. His ring.”

“Prometheus Inc.,” Khalani whispered, another fragment of her memory resurfacing.

“Yes!” Winnie threw up her hands. “Winnie immediately knew this must be a clue leading us to Project Helix. While you were at the camp, Adan helped the Aces fix one of their old computers from the Great Collapse. In Hermes, they don’t keep all their knowledge locked away like Apollo did. But after some digging through their Collapse files, he discovered a clue about Prometheus.”

Khalani leaned in. “What did he find?”

“When the residents first settled here during the Great Collapse, they took a census and recorded each person’s former occupation. A few individuals had the words Prometheus Inc. listed.”

“They worked there?” That didn’t make much sense.

“Exactly!” Winnie exclaimed, her eyes glimmering with fierce determination. “Adan located their headquarters. It’s in the remnants of the old California state. After we get Derek back, that’s where we must go next.”

“California,” Khalani repeated. She’d learned about the old states in school but knew very little about that one.

“Yes.” Winnie grasped her hands. “You can’t give up now, Khalani. Takeshi wouldn’t ever let you give up. And the path to Project Helix starts at Prometheus, just like Timothy Talbot said! Once you finish resting up, we can gather supplies and go. We’re in this together, right?”

Khalani could barely breathe through the hole in her chest.

They weren’t all together. A crucial piece was missing, and that meant she couldn’t leave.

Not yet.

But if she revealed her plan to rescue Takeshi, Winnie would either talk her out of it or, worse, insist on accompanying her.

She refused to risk anyone else.

“Of course we’re in this together, Winnie. Maybe we should take a few days to regain our strength, and then we can plan the trip,” she offered.

It might take far longer than a few days to save Takeshi, but Khalani kept that part to herself.