Jade's apartment smelled like liniment, cold coffee, and sweat. My hands were still half-wrapped. My ribs had opinions. My shirt was stuck to my back in a pattern I would describe as defeat.We'd done pads at ten. We'd done pads hard because Jade had read the words I need to tell you something last night and decided the correct response was to remove my will to lie through cardio.It worked, mostly. I was too tired to be clever, which for me is basically being naked.Clara was already there when we finished, cross-legged on the pullout couch, laptop balanced on one knee, holding a mug of Jade's terrible coffee she had no intention of drinking. She'd come straight from the hospital. She had the look she got after good news, as if the universe were setting up a punchline."Danny did four push-ups today," she said, not glancing up. "Four.""One more than yesterday," Jade said, dropping onto the arm of the couch, and for half a second pride crossed her face before she stamped it flat."Fo

The coffee mug lay on its side by the leg of the couch, a slow brown tongue of Jade's terrible coffee crawling toward the rug.Nobody moved to clean it up. We were all still standing inside the word Leona."Okay," Clara said.Her voice had gone flat and far away.She opened a new spreadsheet."Clara," Jade said. "He just told us Leona Hart is in his head. The woman who cornered him at the gala. The one you said gives you a bad feeling.""I know.""So we're going to talk about that.""We are." Clara's fingers didn't stop typing. "Just not now. If I start with Leona right now, I'm going to say something I can't take back, and then the system will probably dock him for my feelings, knowing his luck." She finally looked up. "Let me do the part I can do. Then we do the part I can't."Jade held her stare for a second. Then she dropped onto the couch arm, jaw tight, and let her have it."Title," she said, typing. "Nexus Testing Sheet, version one.""You're versioning it," I said."There will