Kvitøya was getting erased. Nel felt a perverse sense of relief. The horrific first era in her life was at an end, and she was heading into the unknown. Luna. Violet had known almost nothing about it. Nel knew as much. But on Luna there was hope. On Earth there was nothing. She scanned the surface one last time before she’d leave the atmosphere. Through the firefight in the sky, she only had one ongoing signal she knew how to look for, the control link from Mishka to the now defunct wetware she’d hastily installed. Low power and short range, the Blackwing could barely spot it through the traffic above. But it gave her a location, so she looked, and narrowed in on the Blackwing’s scanners. She saw the shredded remains of Mishka, the link dwindling as her brain activity ceased. And less than a meter away she saw Vibeke. Torn apart, broken in a hundred places, her chest empty of her heart. Nel didn’t register any conscious feeling.
