"This is my fault," said Max. "I should have made him, I should have sat and watched him-"
"It's not your fault," said Mia. "Leo is stubborn. He always has been. None of us could have stopped him."
They were in Leo's van, Max driving, Mia beside him directing. Mattie was in the back, crouched on the slatted wooden floor with an unconscious Leo, monitoring power. She had to keep him on charge, but if he woke up he'd freak again.
"Now he's gone," said Max.
"No," said Mattie. The power was sufficient for what she needed. She hoped. No, she was sure. "He's not gone," she said, raising her voice over the rattle of the engine. "I'm restoring him now."
Mia's head swivelled to look at her.
"I backed him up," Mattie said. "Last week."
"How," said Max.
Mia said, "How did you get him to agree to that?"
"I didn't," said Mattie. "I hacked him."
Max said, "That's why you were asking me if he had downloaded his own code when he did ours."
Mattie nodded. "When you told me he hadn't, I knew it was a safe bet he also hadn't applied the patch we made to stop you all being accessed remotely. And sure enough I was right."
"You did a hot backup," Max said. "Of Leo."
"Yup," said Mattie. "I used his own code."
Leo gasped, and opened his eyes.
"Ssh," Mattie said, and stroked his head. She turned down the power a little. "I'm fixing it, I'm fixing it now..." His hand groped on the floor. She took it in her own, and with her other hand began the upload of code to his brain. His backup occupied almost the whole of her laptop.
She watched the upload. All his memories, everything which made him who he was, flowing down a cable into his mind. He took a big breath, his eyes still shut, and then began breathing normally, lightly, like a man asleep.
The van was dark. Only the computers gave any light. Mattie was more than used to that. She checked through her work again. Every log indicated that the backup had been restored and now resided correctly in Leo's mind.
They were now parked in a south London surburb, near one of the synths' original rendezvous points. Max and Mia had gone to look for Fred. Leo had said Fred had been taken, or chased Hobb's men. If it was the second thing there was a chance Fred was free, and looking for them too.
Mattie rubbed her eyes. In theory her plan had worked. It was time to test that theory.
She did a minor power cycle and right on cue, Leo woke up.
This time he did not move straight away. He opened his eyes sleepily and looked at her. Then he sat up, slowly, and bent to see the cable leading into his torso. He swallowed. "Can I take it out-? What is it, what it is for? Do I need power to live?"
Mattie said, "You need power and food. I've tried to bring your memories back. Do you know who you are?"
He blinked. "I'm Leo Elster," he said.
"Yes! Thank fuck for that."
He screwed up his face. "But... I'm Leo Elster." He clutched at Mattie's hand. "That's all I know. I don't - know. Anything." His breathing began to come in gasps.
On the screen Mattie s feedback logs quaked. She wrapped her fingers around his. "It's all right," she said. "Just give it time."
Leo juddered, closed his eyes. His fingers gripped hers hard. "Right." He looked again at the wire. "Take it out "he said. "It's vile."
"Ok, ok. Stay still." She tried not to think what his words meant. She unclipped the power and data from Leo's port, and gently pulled his clothes back down. "Gone," she said, and closed her laptop to prove it, like showing a dog your empty hand when the treats have run out.
His grip on her shook. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you." His eyes sought hers. "What's your name?"
"Mattie," she said.
"Is this some kind of experiment? You were talking about synths, before. Conscious synths. But that's not possible, not for another ten, twenty years. Please." He added his other hand over hers. "Tell me what's going on."