Dusk descended over Santa’s Village.
I searched the darkening sky for signs of the full moon without success; it wasn’t yet ready to make an appearance. It was just as well, I hadn’t figured out what I was going to do. Zoe was dead. I’d thought she’d been dead for a while, but for some reason the idea that she had actually been alive all this time and only now was she actually dead made her situation far more urgent. Like since it was a fresh death, it was suddenly really important.
Cecil seemed to be hinting that I had the power to bring her back; all I needed to do was figure out how to turn on The Osiris Machine. But that brought up two issues.
One, I had no freaking idea how to turn on The Osiris Machine. And two, if I turned it on, did that mean Cecil or Sally would win and enslave the word? Was the end of civilization as we knew it worth returning Zoe Francis to life?