Chase considered his audience. Thirty men in ragged coats snarled like wolves judging bait in a trap. The alpha wolf — a guy they called Ep — paced at the far end of the narrow room. Long, bony legs. Impatient puffs of frigid air raging from his flared nostrils. A polished wooden nightstick dangling off his belt.

Alpha Wolf had decided it would be beneficial for Chase to tell the pack what he could do for them. Outlaws seeking revolution couldn't be trusted with too much information, even if revolt was the solution. But Chase had to gain the wolf's trust. Or at least secure the respect of the pack.

He smiled — he always smiled for the crowd. Millions of fans once adored him. But his last audience was a hundred believers stowed deep in the Underground Church. The fans had likely forgotten him. The believers ...

The smile left him.

Now this — renegade dissenters holed up in an old campground two hundred miles from Chase's destination. He'd been here three weeks, captured on his way from Quebec to Detroit. Nothing good remained in Quebec since the destruction of the underground's base. He wasn't sure what he'd find in the rundown city of Detroit, but God told him to go there.

"What do you know about God?" Switchblade grumbled behind him.

Chase angled his vision to the left. "Did I say that out loud?"

"All those superpowers and you don't even know when your stupid thinking is coming out your mouth. These people don't care what you think God told you."

Murmurs filled the room as Chase swung around. "You know as well as I do God is sending us to Detroit."

Switchblade folded his thick black arms. A vein bulged up the middle of his forehead. "Then how'd we end up in this Godforsaken place? Huh? Why ain't we in Detroit?"

"Why don't you just rub it in? I thought I could get us there and I failed. You think I don't want more than anything to wake up to my wife's beautiful face instead of your ugly mug? You think I don't wonder how we're going to find her if we even make it to Detroit? All I can do is to follow what little instruction I get from God."

The muscles in Chase's throat tightened and his tone rose an octave. "I can't depend on intel from the underground, because it shut down. Remember? But God will get me there. That is what I know about God."

Switchblade's furrowed brows relaxed. "Now you're ready." He placed his big hands on Chase's shoulders and forced him around to the stunned audience.

Alpha Wolf snarled.

Switchblade smacked Chase across the back. "Go on and tell them what you know about God."

"I don't think that's what the boss man wants."

"You scared of that old dog? We got stuck here for a reason, robot."

Laughter rose among the men's agitated whispers. Alpha Wolf slapped the nightstick against his leg.

Tell them what he knew about God? These men weren't waiting for a Sunday school lesson. During his time here, Chase had read the irises of most of the outlaws. Files kept by the Western Republic listed them as thieves. Murderers. Swindlers. Hackers. People like that served a purpose in the Dissenters of the Republic. The leader had no felon's record, but he was an outlaw just for going rogue. Anybody bowing out on the government's agenda was a criminal. Including Chase, who'd long since found his own name among the WR's Most Wanted.

But he wasn't a felon — not like this bunch of none-too-smart, freezing, half-starved men. Most of their weapons were stored away by the wolf in charge. Chase could outthink them. Overpower them. So why was he still here?

Patience.

The message didn't come from the exoself. Chase had learned to tell the difference between the constant stream of information flowing through his processors and the whisper in his soul. God would get him and Switchblade out of here. In time. Right now, they were just a couple more freezing, half-starved men in need of shelter during the worst winter in recorded history. Soon the snow would melt. The men's hearts would soften. Chase had to be patient.

He allowed the signature smile to return. With an out-of-control beard and hair nearly to his jawline, he barely resembled the man he used to be. But he still had the smile. And the voice.

"Gentlemen, your leader" — Chase eyed Alpha Wolf — "has asked me to explain how I came to have, as he puts it, a supercomputer inside my head. It's actually not confined to my head. Sensors and processors run throughout my body. They not only give me access to government intel, they also regulate my lab-grown organs. They work with my muscles to increase upperbody strength. My hearing is enhanced. I can see in the dark. But most of you already know all that. I guess what I'm supposed to tell you is how my ability to worm into WR programs might prove useful."

Switchblade cleared his throat.

Chase's shoulders tightened. He sucked in a breath. "But I'd like to tell you my story. My real name is Charles Redding. I became Chase Sterling when the WR made me a game show host. A star. Then they turned me into a transhuman. I want to tell you how it happened. How I became a believer. Where I was headed when your leader detained me."

"Never mind," Alpha Wolf bellowed. He leaned against the plywood wall and crossed his arms. "I don't want to hear about your life as a pretty-boy celebrity or as an outlaw convert. Just tell us what you can do for us. You can plant information in WR systems, so you could have turned us in. Of course, a raid would mean your capture. You'd never get out of here before the Feds showed up. But come springtime, you might make it work. So now, while I've got you trapped, work that transhuman magic and make us all upstanding citizens."

Chase lowered his eyes to the floor. "It's true — I've entered false data in government programs before. To protect my people." He lifted his gaze. "When I got rebuilt, a change took place in me. I'm not talking about the technical transformation. I didn't like what they did to me, so I ran. But I wasn't running away from something as much as toward something else. And I found what I was looking for. The Underground Church. My mother and my closest friend were there." He motioned to Switchblade. "And this guy — he got assigned to guard me. And there were others I came to love. I used my abilities to keep them safe."

He ran his hand through his hair. "I thought I could save them, but the friend I'd searched for told me what I needed to hear — that I couldn't save anybody. She told me I needed the One who calms the seas and shuts the mouths of lions." He glanced at the leader, who waited with unexpected silence. "And wolves."

Chase pulled his arms tight around his chest and raised his eyes to the decaying ceiling. "So I found what I was running to. And I married the girl who'd told me the truth." His gaze met the stillness of the meager crowd.

"And then the transhuman failed. I lost them. My friends. My family. My wife. All I've got left is this ill-tempered bodyguard and the whisper of God telling me where I need to go. What He is not telling me to do is plant some bogus story in WR intel about you. I'm sorry. When I'm ready to go, I'm going. I won't turn you in. But I can't help you."

Alpha Wolf laughed. "You will help us. And you're not leaving — not in one piece." He skulked to the door and pulled it open. A cold gust carried flurries into the room before the...