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He reached in his coat pocket and pulled out the syringe container; it looked exactly like a silver cigar tube, and he unscrewed it and removed the contents Great Another stick Bryn didn’t look at him as he walked over, took her bared arm, and punched the sharp chisel point into her skin It was over in seconds, and it didn’t hurt tooafterburn of the injection was annoying

The two reat interest She frowned at the to see if there’s any kind of unplanned reaction," Manny explained "There’s an outside possibility that the nanites could try to resist the secondary agent That would be … bad"

"How bad?"

"Oh, you know Decoed "Probably won’t happen"

Bryn decided she was going to hate Manny Glick to be alert for any sensations that didn’t belong and trying not to overreact and invent them at the same time Her two not very compassionate observers sat and waited as the ot permission for a bathroom break at the two-hourout of the kitchen carrying a tray loaded doith sandwiches, tea, coffee, and a stack of azines "Here," she said, and handed it to Bryn "No sense in your being stuck in there without anything to do There’s a sudoku uzzle book in there, too And a pen"

"Not a pencil?"

Pansy winked "Around here, we do them in ink"

"Of course you do U about it"

"That’s why I’m here To reot your work cut out with Pat, though I’m not sure soo"

"I don’t care what’s running through his veins He’s not my boyfriend"

"I know that," Pansy said calue Of course"

She so very didn‘t, but Bryn let it go She headed for the observation room, where McCallister silently rose froht the tray in "Pansy made us lunch," she said

"Of course," McCallister said "She’s always the practical one"

"Ooh, peanut butter," Manny said

"I rest rabbed a sandwich frouessed; he’d probably had enough of that at her apartht?"

"You don’t think I’d tell you if I had any doubts? I’m scared to death!"

"Point taken Coffee?"

"God, yes" She grabbed a cup and held it while he poured, doctored it with sugar and crea caffeine It almost felt … friendly "I feel fine, just to lad"

"Yeah, I can tell you’re overwhel hih half-closed eyes as he took a bite of sandwich "You don’t really work for Pharmadene, do you?"

"Of course I do Want to seepickup line I’ve heard this week, but no, I don’t think so You et paid by Pharenda And maybe another boss"

"No, no other boss," he said "But another agendatone, but McCallister raised a hand to stop hi people, you get a kick in the ribs every time No matter how pretty they are"

"Do you say that to Pansy?" McCallister asked

"Oh, no I’ot so to tell me, say it," Bryn broke in "Honestly, I’er bullshit!"

McCallister, of course, took a moment to think about it Just when she was about to throw her coffee at hio to hell, he said, "I have a reason for being careful There have been two other prospects I’ve worked with froraer bullshit; I ca exposed by the last one I trusted I thought that reviving you and being involved start to finish would give us the ability to guarantee you wouldn’t be used and discarded by the company As you noticed, that wasn’t quite the case The protocols were still in force, even though I specifically turned them off in your prere-vival profile"