Rain struck the windshield in long diagonal strokes. The world outside blurred into smeared light and shadow. Maya pressed her palm to the cold glass as if the night would answer her.
"You keep checking the mirror," she said.
"Habit," Rowan replied.
"Fear."
"Fine. Fear wearing a habit."
She turned her head toward him. "What if we're driving in circles?"
"We are," he said quietly. "That's how you lose a tail."
The wipers squealed across the glass. The sound made her flinch. He noticed.
"You're cold," he said.
"I'm alive."
"Barely counts if you're trembling."
She wrapped her arms around herself. "What are you not telling me, Rowan?"
He hesitated, eyes on the road. "That the experiment wasn't meant to end where it did."
"You mean it didn't fail."
"It changed hands." He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "Someone kept feeding it data. Someone decided to teach memory how to want."
"Want what?"
"Connection."
Her voice was barely a whisper. "That's what she said. You came back for her."
Rowan's jaw flexed. "They built the echo from emotional frequencies, patterns of attachment. If it latched on to you, it thinks you're its origin. You're the signal now."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning she will follow you anywhere."
The car fell into silence except for the hum of the tires. Maya leaned her head back, eyes half closed.
"She wants me," she said softly.
"No," Rowan murmured. "She wants what you remind her of."
He pulled the car to a stop beside an abandoned service station. Neon flickered over puddles. The storm hissed against the roof.
"We will rest here for an hour," he said. "Then move again."
"You think she sleeps?"
"No. But people do."
He turned off the engine. The silence swelled between them. She looked at his hands scarred, steady, capable.
"You're shaking," she said.
He smiled faintly. "Habit."
She didn't laugh. Her voice lowered. "Did you love her?"
Rowan didn't move. "I thought I did. Then I realized I loved the part of her that believed I could save her."
Maya exhaled. "And me?"
He looked at her then really looked. "You scare me more."
The wind outside pressed its fingers along the car doors. A faint hum rose from the radio, a voice beneath static.
"You left me behind."
Rowan switched it off. "We need to go."
The radio turned itself back on.
"Find her."
Maya's hand found his arm. "She already did."
The light above the station door flickered and died.