text: "Are you okay?" I asked Jane. She was standing, holding on to the island for support. She glared at Max with an expression of bewilderment and fear.
  
  "Jane, are you alright?"
  
  "Yes…" she said. She took a couple of tentative steps forward, her eyes never leaving Max.
  
  "It's alright," I reassured her. "Raphael's gone. It worked."
  
  She gave the robot a wide berth as it crossed the dining area and headed toward the laundry room in the other part of the house.
  
  "Did he hurt you?" I enquired again. She walked over to me.
  
  "No," she said, crouching over me. "He just kept threatening me with dire consequences. It was surreal… as if he was stuck in a loop."
  
  "What was all that noise?"
  
  "That was me throwing stuff at him—trying to keep his attention on me, so that you could do your thing."
  
  "So he just stood there, blocking your exit?"
  
  "Uh-huh. I am fine, Andy. Just shaken, that's all. Are you alright?"
  
  The tips of the fingers on my right hand were scalded from the flames, but nothing more. I nodded.
  
  "We have to shut that thing down," she said, nodding in the direction Max had disappeared.
  
  "First things first. Help me into the wheelchair." She walked over to where it was lying on the floor, straightened it, and brought it back. After she helped me on it, she went to the front door and tried to open it. It was still locked.
  
  "It doesn't work that way," I told her. "Imagine if you had a power failure at your home and all your doors and windows got unlocked."
  
  "Then we're still locked in. Can't you reset the password?"
  
  "Only the monitoring agency can do that."
  
  "And we can't call them," she said, shaking her head.
  
  I hesitated. "Uh… that's right," I said finally. Why are you doing this? Haven't you learnt anything? What kind of a moron does this?
  
  I could still sense the residual tingling from the shock; it had me feeling lightheaded and unfocused. My mind kept bringing up the image of the robot forcing open the door… Raphael going after Jane, after he'd pushed me to the floor… Him throwing that stool at her…
  
  He hadn't hurt her.
  
  That's because you stopped him. He came after you, didn't he?
  
  The organism doesn't always listen to reason. It has a soul of its own, primeval and fanciful and skittish, that dwells within the space of heartbeats, ready to emerge unbidden at any time and topple the house of cards you built out of logic and facts. The question that bothered me most was this: what would he have done if I hadn't been able to cut off the power?
  
  It's one thing to make something work in the lab. It's another to see it play out in real life. Too many variables. Too much unpredictability. What excuse do you have for—
  
  "Andy, you need to shake out of it. We must get the garage door open so that we can get out of here."
  
  "Do you think Raphael called off that man he hired?" she asked when I didn't reply.
  
  "I don't know, Jane. I'm not sure anymore. I…"
  
  "To hell with it. I'm going to break open a window. It's almost stopped snowing. I'm sure I can run over to the nearby house and call the cops before he gets here. I don't want to leave you alone though…"
  
  Tell her, you fool. Tell her about the—
  
  Shut up. Think. I can still salvage this.
  
  You are insane.
  
  Go away.
  
  Insane.
  
  "Andy, isn't your bedroom upstairs like a panic room?"
  
  It wasn't quite a panic room, but it was better protected than the other rooms. The previous owner had installed a metal door and a deadbolt—on account of the safe—and there was another hardwired control panel for the security system, but that was about it.
  
  "You can take shelter there while I get help. I'll help you up the stairs before I go. But first, the windows. Are they really as tough as Raphael said?" she asked. I weakly nodded. "Then I'll need something to break one. Do you have a crowbar or a hammer in your garage?"
  
  "He locked the door, remember?"
  
  "That he did…" She was trying to recollect something. "He went into the passage right after we came out of it, yes? A couple of minutes later, he was pointing the knife at us. Which means he must have hid the keys somewhere nearby…" She nodded to herself and said, "I'll go look for them." I barely registered her words, sunk as I was in my own deliberations.
  
  Think. That's the only way out. There is more than one way of looking at what happened just now.
  
  You sure about that?
  
  There must be. Otherwise everything I've assumed is—
  
  "Andy!"
  
  I almost jumped out of my skin.
  
  She was standing just outside the passage to the garage, holding up a bunch of keys. "These keys were behind the plant next to the key basket. That shmuck! He must think we are stupid or something. I'll go get the power back on. But I should disconnect the router first, right? Which one opens the study?"
  
  "The brass one with the pinholes," I said. She took off in the direction of the study.
  
  Control is an illusion.
  
  Shut up. There's no going back now. The die has been cast. All I can do is play it out. Think. What next?
  
  She seemed to be taking an inordinately long time completing her errand. Which was good, because it gave me time to sort things out in my head. When she reappeared, she went straight for the garage. A few seconds later, the house was bright again.
  
  She came back ready to brave the outside. She had put on a parka and a pair of gloves that she must have gotten from her car; in her hands, she held a power drill and a crowbar. She walked over to one of the windows in the living room and plugged in the drill to a nearby outlet. "Let's get to work."
  
  "The panic button," I blurted, before she could start up the drill. "We should see if it's working before you try anything."
  
  You fool.
  
  "What panic button?"
  
  "The security system has a panic button option. For emergencies."
  
  "But Raphael changed the password."
  
  "You don't need a password to summon help. That's why it's called a panic button."
  
  We went to the front door, to the control panel. She found the option easily enough. "Police. Fire. Medical emergency," she read out loud. "I guess the police first," she said and pressed on the touchscreen. She bit her lips as she waited for the acknowledgment. She then let out a clap of joy as she read it out loud—"An alert has been sent to the emergency number. Help will be arriving soon."
  
  The tension in her face melted away. "Yes! Yes! Oh thank you! Thank you so much," she said, clasping her hands in supplication at the heavens. She hugged me—"We are saved!"
  
  "How long do you think they'll take?"
  
  "Fifteen, twenty minutes? As long as the weather plays nice," I said.
  
  She beamed at me one more time before turning to the panel again. "Let me press medical for good measure. Here we go… An alert has been sent to the emergency number. Help will be arriving soon. Whew!" Then the worry lines crept back again as she glanced outside. "Let's hope the roads are not blocked. Andy, that man… If he arrives before the police do, can he force his way inside?"
  
  "He could if he has the proper tools. Or maybe a gun."
  
  "Then I should head out still the same."
  
  "Help will have arrived by the time you break open one of those windows. They are really tough, Jane."
  
  "So what do we do? Just wait here?"
  
  "We'll be safe in the upstairs bedroom."
  
  She had to consider my proposal only for a moment before rejecting it. "I don't want to be trapped again, metal door or not. I'd rather take a chance out there." When she saw my nervous expression, she added—"I'll help you into the room before I do anything, okay?"
  
  There was nothing more I could have said that would have dissuaded her. I tried to think of something, but my mind was a blank. I shrugged resignedly. "Do you have anything to defend yourself with?" she asked. "I didn't bring my gun. And I know you don't like them. Unless that's changed recently…? No?" She looked around before walking over to the empty room she had locked us in before. She came back with the knife Raphael had dropped there. She then picked up a hand towel from the dining table and wrapped the blade with the cloth before offering it to me.
  
  "I'm more likely to cut myself than cause any harm to the other guy," I scoffed. "You keep it."
  
  "Andy! I can't leave you defenseless!"
  
  In the end, I agreed to keep the can of pepper spray she always carried in her bag. She went back to the garage to get it. She put the knife in the inside pocket of her jacket. I felt an urge to tell her that it was pointless, but I held my tongue.
  
  She gestured toward the stairs. "Okay. Let's get you upstairs then. You can lean on me and we'll—"
  
  And right then, Hazel's voice rang through the house. "Proximity alert. Unidentified person, approaching the house."
  
  A cloud passed over her face. "He is here," she said darkly.