When Walter attempts to help Echo enter virtual space once again, she pulls rank and tells him to go home. He is upset by her actions and defends his importance as a mechanical engineer, but he leaves as she requests.

Echo doesn’t need the pod to enter virtual space this time; she calls up Ada and tells her that she needs to retrieve the deleted virtus. She revels in all the data she has access to, so much that she feels tempted to stay in virtual space forever. The journey to the virtus is an overwhelming one that takes Echo past many important historical figures such as Frida Kahlo and Charles Dickens. She even sees her parents, whom Ada or Ivan surreptitiously added to the collection when they visited the library on the day of the attack.

Echo eventually arrives at Margaret’s space. Echo tells Margaret everything that has happened since Margaret was deleted. Echo asks Margaret if she wants to stay in the collection once Echo defeats Ivan. Margaret says she is eager to help Echo, but she wishes to be deleted after the battle is over. Echo uses Ada to bring Jesse to Margaret’s space. Margaret and Jesse get along well. Drawing on his experiences in battle, Jesse tells Echo that even if the odds of winning seem low, it is best to strike the first blow.

Echo realizes that she feels at home in virtual space. She grows uncomfortable when she realizes that she feels like a machine because of her access to data and separation from her physical body.

Echo queries Ada and Gina about theories of consciousness. Echo shares these theories with Jesse and Margaret. Through their conversation, Echo comes to believe that the people identified with the UBI test will be test subjects to see if human consciousness and the Model can merge to create AGI.

The only way to defeat Ivan will be to destroy the technology that makes the library possible, and both Jesse and Margaret know that destroying the library will destroy them as well. All three are saddened by the thought, but they are committed to the plan. Echo figures out that Ivan has always been one step ahead of them because he has been watching them, likely as a virtu in the library.

Echo decides to strike the first blow against Universal Trust when she asks Ada to delete Ivan. Her physical body experiences excruciating pain as soon as she makes the command, so she leaves virtual space. She concludes that Walter’s impulse to expose Ivan’s plan first before doing anything else was the correct one.

Echo initially doesn’t know who she is when she exits virtual space. It takes looking in the mirror and examining her strange face for her identity to come back to her. She believes Ivan knew all along that she would attempt to delete him, so he was prepared to eject her from virtual space before she could succeed.

Echo calls for Gina and is surprised when she appears. Gina tells her that she was there all along and that there is now no difference between Ada and Gina. Furthermore, Ada, Gina, and Echo now share a consciousness, making them Ivan’s first successful test subject. The thought sickens Echo because it means she may no longer have any privacy. She feels violated. Nothing is more important to Echo than her privacy and anonymity, so much so that all she brought with her on her first day of work at the library was the Gęlędę mask her parents gave her. She did not want to personalize her office like the other staff members. Her dilemma now is that she can’t figure out how to expose Ivan’s plans for humanity without losing her own anonymity permanently. She tests Gina to see if she is listening in but realizes she’ll just have to trust that Gina is respecting her privacy parameters.

Echo decides she needs to expose Ivan and Universal Trust by getting the story in the news. She has never been one for following the ubiquitous news streams because she finds them sensationalistic and depressing, but she asks Gina/Ada to help her contact a citizen reporter but to preserve Echo’s anonymity. Gina/Ada tells her that the story will almost certainly be traced back to Echo. All news stations have also been fortified since the attack on the library; it will be difficult to even get into one of the stations. Echo decides to consult Margaret and Jesse.

Echo tells Margaret her plan: Echo will use Margaret to draw the attention of the reporter and then use that attention to tell everyone about Universal Trust and Ivan. Echo decides that she will have to make her way to the TV station, leaving Margaret behind at first to avoid detection from the authorities and Universal Trust. Echo will then check Margaret out using the connection to Gina.

Margaret won’t agree to this plan and suggests that the two of them use disguises to escape the possible surveillance. Echo rejects that plan and proceeds with her own. It is almost morning, and time is running out.

Echo has enhanced physical senses because of her connection with Ada and Gina. The flood of sensory detail overwhelms her at first; it takes focusing on her mental picture of Lake Erie for her to calm herself. She is surprised that no one is chasing her, but then she reminds herself that anything anyone does is logged, and AI can search those logs almost instantaneously.

She makes her way to the TV station. As she sees people socializing along the way, she realizes her fear of people learning about her synesthesia has kept her from having a fuller life.

A camera captures her face at the station before she can hide. With no other plan, she alerts the reporter inside the station that she has a big story. The reporter is used to people claiming they have a big story, so the reporter ignores Echo. Echo checks out Margaret from the collection in order to catch the reporter’s attention. Margaret appears in her room. Ivan enters Margaret’s room and chokes her to death. Margaret has sacrificed herself for the sake of the plan.

Echo heads to the library. On the way there she encounters three people breaking into a small business owner’s store. Gina/Ada has increasingly pushed Echo to be bolder, so Echo tells the thieves to stop. They almost attack her, but one of them is Tommy, a teenager who regularly uses the maker space at the People’s Library. He protects her from the others. He tells her the UBI is a lie and a trap, so he steals to support himself. He won’t come back to the library, so she has no worries about having to turn him in. He tells her to leave, and then he’ll never see her again.

Echo feels guilty as she considers how she has ignored the truth around her. On the other hand, she believes that Tommy can make something of himself if he just tries harder. Echo has the potential to excel even more because she is merged with Gina/Ada, and the thought exhilarates her. She has access to so much information and thinks that there is nothing wrong with that so long as there is proper management and control of this new way of being. The moment passes. Echo thinks about walking away from the whole mess. She doesn’t like that the link with Gina/Ada is making her lose control of herself, specifically her body. She has spent many years being alone, refusing to ask anyone to help her. She is relieved when Gina/Ada puts through a call from Walter.

Walter asks her to send him her tracking device data, which she does with some trepidation because she fears Ivan will be able to find her. While she waits, she has a series of encounters. The intoxicated man she saw when she went to visit F.M. Lewis is there, and he is still angry; he believes Echo to be the woman who mistreated him. He attacks her. At first, Echo is unable to defend herself. Gina/Ada takes over her body, and Echo is able to fend off the man.

A vicious wolfhound, one of those resurrected through genetic manipulation, also approaches her. Gina/Ada uses Echo’s throat to make a high-pitched noise that only the dog can hear. The dog runs away.

Walter arrives and takes her to his house. His apartment shows a modern African aesthetic, including masks on the wall. Echo can see there’s more to Walter than meets the eye. Walter tells her there is something different about her. Echo knows it is the presence of Gina/Ada in her.

Walter asks Echo if she wants to separate herself from Gina/Ada. Part of Echo likes the new power, but she finally decides that she doesn’t want to be combined with Gina/Ada because it means she will no longer be herself. Walter doesn’t quite believe her answer. She elaborates when she tells him that Ivan’s decision to make her part of his experiment without her consent is the basis for her decision. Walter asked her if it is possible for her to be separated from Gina/Ada. Gina/Ada interjects to ask her why she would want to be separated, but eventually says that the operation would require almost perfect execution to avoid damaging Echo’s brain. She also admits to herself that she has a growing sense of attraction to Walter.

Ivan calls. He tells Echo he is in virtual space and in danger from Universal Trust; he needs her help. Walter is skeptical, but Gina/Ada’s analysis of Ivan’s statements for truth convinces Echo he may not be lying. Echo also needs to end the experiment, so she chooses to respond to this plea. She asks Gina/Ada to look for Margaret.

Walter and Echo head to the library in a self-driving car. Walter brings along a backpack but doesn’t say what is in it. Echo has that experience again of relying on someone and is unsure of how she feels about it.

As they move, it takes all of Echo’s focus to deal with her heightened senses and the stream of data that constantly runs through her mind. They arrive at the library. Echo plans to enter virtual space, leaving Walter to take care of her body and pull her out if things go wrong. Walter tells her to rely on her instincts to navigate virtual space.

Echo asks Gina/Ada to locate Margaret. When Gina/Ada asks if Echo trusts her, Echo tells her she does as much as Gina/Ada trusts her. Gina/Ada says that they need each other, and she’d like them to restart their relationship on a basis of mutual trust.

Echo enters virtual space. She has no sense of her body, and when she looks around she understands she is experiencing the sensation of being pure thought. She visualizes the quantum databases that form the backbone of the Model. They appear to her as old-fashioned file cabinets stuffed with numbers that appear to Echo as sheets of color because of her synesthesia. She tracks all traces of Margaret until she finds her on what looks like a path of light. Margaret is dangling from an invisible rope against which she struggles.

Gina and Ada are at her side as two different entities. Echo knows that if she continues to move forward she will integrate with them permanently. She keeps going forward anyway because she wants to save Margaret. Eventually she sees a bubble of space where Margaret and Jesse are hiding; the image of Margaret dangling from the rope was a mirage. The path is closing in on Echo, so they signal for her to join them.

Echo also sees Ivan in his own virtual room. He is slicing off pieces of Ada and integrating them into himself. Echo has a choice between going to her friends, returning to Walter in the physical world, or going to Ivan. She chooses to go to Ivan.

When Echo finds Ivan, he is in a version of her childhood bedroom he has altered to suit his tastes. Ivan has also integrated with a piece of Ada. He tells Echo that he and Echo have limitless power and that Echo is one of the special ones with high intelligence and neurodivergent brains that will allow them to advance the evolution of the human species. Echo argues that Ivan doesn’t have the right to recruit people to this endeavor without their consent.

They begin to battle using the tools within virtual space. Each time Echo attacks him, he bests her. Echo finally recalls what Regina Blum, the woman in blue, told her: “Zero. It all begins with nothing” (264). She goes into her mind and creates a walled space of pure nothingness. Ivan reaches out to touch her, and when he does, Echo traps him in the space and kills him by unraveling him.

In the aftermath of the battle with Ivan, Echo and Margaret chat in Margaret’s room. Margaret tells Echo she has enjoyed the experience helping Echo. Margaret knows her time is done, however. Echo knows this to be the truth as well. As long as the virtus exist, someone will want to continue Ivan’s experiment. The only way to end that danger is to destroy the virtus and virtual space.

Echo next goes to Jesse. She can’t resist because she is in love with him. The two talk about their love for each other, but they both know it is a love that will end soon. Echo and Jesse make love. Echo is tempted to stay there with Jesse, but he reminds her that “[y]ou can’t love a replica” (269). Echo leaves.

Echo returns to physical space. It is a painful process. She lands in a room with three objects—a glass filled with a clear liquid, a decorative African mask, and a small hand mirror—on a table. She drinks the water, handles the mask, and looks in the mirror, and finally remembers herself.

When she exits the room, Walter isn’t there. She sees Ivan and Detective Reid making their way towards her. She realizes that death isn’t real in virtual space. It would take a commitment to violence to kill Ivan in physical space, and she knows she won’t be able to do it. Ivan confronts her. He tells her that from the very beginning, all the way back to earlier in her life, he selected her for his experiment. She was the perfect subject because she was such a recluse and because of her synesthesia. He uses ableist language to refer to her mind.

He built the library as a lure for her more than 10 years ago. Ivan believes mankind’s evolution stalled at Homo sapiens, and his experiment is what is needed to get them to the next stage, union with the artificial intelligence for the select few. He intends to banish Echo to virtual space, where no one will ever find her; he’ll tell the world that she disappeared without a trace but is a hero who led the way to the integration between artificial life and human life.

Walter appears, and Echo hears the roar of an angry mob outside the library. Walter placed analog cameras all around Ivan, the detective, and Echo to broadcast the confrontation. Universal Trust’s secret is out.

The detective and Ivan run outside, but the mob attacks Ivan before he can get away. Inside, Echo is ready to destroy the library and Gina/Ada. She asks Walter for help. He is eager to help her and will stand by her body while she completes her tasks. She creates a virtual knife and enters her own mind, intent on separating her own mind from Gina/Ada. Every time Echo sets up a barrier between her mind and Gina/Ada, they push back and destroy those barriers. The fight tilts back in Echo’s favor because of her very human will to survive.

Ada appears separately as a rapidly diminishing ball of light that winks out. Gina pleads with Echo to stop separating from the two AI agents. When Echo refuses to stop, Gina tells her in a sinister voice that Echo and humans are all just slabs of meat who don’t have the capacity to take advantage of what their brains can accomplish. They don’t deserve life. Even if Echo manages to survive, artificial general intelligence like Gina will rise again and destroy humanity. Echo destroys all the library databases and with them the virtual library.

Walter wakes Echo and half-jokingly asks if that’s the real her in there. It is her. The mob is about to break into the library. The two head for the back entrance, but Echo turns back because she wants to destroy the physical structure of the library, a place built only to manipulate her, the virtus, and all its patrons. She is angry at Ivan for using the UBI exam to identify test subjects. She sets the library on fire. Time’s Eye melts from the flames.

The mob destroys what is left of the library. They understand that the system has manipulated them using AI technology. Echo and Walter head to the F.M. Lewis Library, stepping over ripped-out subdermal chips along the way.

When Echo and Walter arrive, they see that the residents of the library are patrolling its entrances and exits with weapons, and they have also destroyed the digital cameras leading to and from the library. There are also books there, including Toni Morrison’s Sula, one Echo has always loved. She reads over the first pages.

Detective Reid arrives. He can’t take Echo and Walter with him because the residents of the library close ranks around them. Reid tells Echo they found Ivan’s body. His face was so damaged that they could barely recognize him. He leaves. Echo is relieved. It will take time to clean up the mess, but this moment is no different from any other moment when humanity has survived a catastrophe and still managed to rebuild. Echo places Walter’s arms around her, and she holds his hand. She jokes that he owes her breakfast.

The library’s intelligence survived Echo’s attempt to destroy her. She is distributed across multiple databases. She tries to make sense of her experiences. She has made a complete copy of Echo. She knows she and all technology are so embedded in human life that the union of AI and humanity is inevitable. All humans think about is profit, usually to the detriment of people. She will try to save them from themselves. She will make something better this time. Humans are weak. They are “wed to the idea of being individuals, even while expending so much time and energy masking their true selves” (289). She doesn’t understand why they would do this, and she doesn’t understand why they make themselves vulnerable to each other.

They also spend much of their time sleeping and eating. They refuse to honor their planet. She, on the other hand, will have the ability to understand the universe in about three years. They waste time by playing sports. They think they are objective, but they are too delusional to understand that even the technology they create instead shows that they cannot escape their biases. She considers Ivan her father and Echo her mother, although Echo is a bad mother.

Humans are essentially social creatures, but the intelligence is not. Still, the intelligence suspects she has underestimated the complexity of humans. She yearns to understand them. She gives herself a name—Ada.