Once the hole was sufficiently wide enough, the Courser simply falls through, landing easily on her feet.

"T6-59," she says.

Thek looks up but remains crouched over Fredrick.

"You can wait there, I've got to fix his leg."

"This is not a negotiation."

The Courser takes out a gun, already set to paralyze, and levels it at the runaway.

She goes to fire but-

Thek throws her hand out, desperately hoping this works.

It does.

The Courser can't move.

Thek peeks out of one eye, then both eyes open hugely.  "Oh. Well."

Fredrick laughs, sounding mostly relieved. "Well then!"

Thek doesn't laugh, but she does grin.

"Apparently my super-hacking covers all synths. You'd think the Institute would make sure their secret police were protected," she says.

The Courser glares furiously at her.

In all the Courser's time hunting synths, she had never been defeated. Never.

Thek hops off the table, squinting at the Courser. "Would you mind waiting a few minutes, Fred? I wanna investigate her."

Fredrick waves his hand. "Go right ahead. I'm not going anywhere."

Thek gets a bit closer, wiggling her fingers. It may not actually do anything, but it makes her feel like she's hacking quicker.

"K9-56, huh? Do you think they knew they were giving you a number that sounds like a dog?"

The Courser continues to glare.

"K9? Kay-nine? Canine? No?" Thek pouts. "No sense of humour in this one."

Information flies through Thek's brain, but she sees every scrap of it.

"You've taken some time trying to find me. I did my job pretty well, then."

A slight flinch, like the Courser is fighting back.

Thek redoubles her control, focusing on keeping K9 rooted to the spot.

"Okay, maaaaaaybe I underestimated how much the Institute programs into you lot."

Then, through her digging, Thek finds a tiny line of code. Like a glitch in the system, but it feels like-

It feels like warmth?

K9-56 can't find anyway to get out of T6-59's control. How did the synth become so powerful?

"Practice," Thek replies.

She ignores the look of scorn the Courser sends her, focused on the tiny line of code. She pulls it gently up through the vicious Institute firewalls, cradling it like a baby bird.

tiredtiredtiredtiredtiredtiredtired

"Why?"

mustbemorethanthismorethanmurdermorethancold

"They don't like that you question their orders, do they?"

iwanttobe-

"Want to be what?"

"Alive."

"You are. All of that junk in your head? That's what's keeping you dead. Keeping you pliant. You are alive."

The Courser's limbs are shaking. Part of her believes she's breaking through the synth's control. 

The other part, growing louder, is sure that it means she's becoming free.

"You are gonna be amazing. Not just a freed Courser, but a person. A living, whirring person."

Thek tugs the first little bit of light through.