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He didn’t meet her eyes He juststood there
"You should be starting to feel it by now--tingles in your arnored her So did Patrick, but he seemed to be walled off from the world now, as well as Jane
Jane had expected so, she knew--some reaction from Patrick, or from her When the silence stretched on, Jane frowned and said, "Well, I’ll leave you two to get reacquainted, shall I? See you in a few days We’ll come and remove any bits that fall off Oh, and Patrick’s body, since you’ll definitely end up eating uards out first, clearly sure there was no threat now
Patrick looked up and met Bryn’s eyes, and in that moment, she saw that he’d never been broken at all
She launched herself out of the corner Jane was right, she felt cluers unsure around the sharpened brass weapon But that didn’tthe door shut
Patrick got there first and shot his arm out She slammed it in the door, and Bryn heard bone crack, but he shoved it open, grabbed Jane, and dragged her inside He flung her toward Bryn, and as Jane skidded to a stop and pulled her sidearht handshe had ever done in her life
And she cut Jane’s throat, laying it open through the trachea Blood sprayed, and Jane jerked back, but Patrick had her arun away, turned, and fired at the two guards, who had only just now realized so He dropped the her fountaining throat Bryn crouched down, too, not caring about the blood hitting her, only aboutJane’s surprised, furious eyes
"Yeah, that won’t kill you," she said "I know You were looking for the cure, though"
Jane bared her teeth, a cornered animal ready to bite
"Well," Bryn said, and stripped the seal off the vial she held "Congratulations You found it"
She had time to savor Jane’s look of incomprehension, and horror, just for a second before she forced Jane’s head back with a grip on her hair and poured the seruht down Jane’s severed throat
Then she kicked her into the corner, bleeding out, and turned to Patrick
He atching Jane with the coldest eyes she’d ever seen Colder even than Jane’s But when he looked at her, the ice broke, just a little
He held his hand out to her, and she took it They watched for long enough to see Jane start to convulse as the cure took hold, shutting down her nanites
Ending her
And then they walked out The door shut fast behind the sound, and it took Bryn ato screauilty about it but in truth, she just felt relieved
Patrick paused to strip weapons frouards and tossed her one; she checked the clip, nodded, and fell in behind hi, so she kicked them off in favor of bare feet as they went down a narrow concrete hall lined with cinder-block walls More doors, all shut Patrick rapidly entered a code into one of the locks and opened it, and Bryn saw, over his shoulder, that Riley was lying on the floor with her arm over her eyes She sat up quickly to stare at them The paper juht, and despite what Riley had done, what she’d cost the her was undeniable
Riley threw herself to her feet and stu that lasted only a few seconds, then gave her a sidearo?" she asked
"God, yes," Riley said, and double-checked the gun "Where’s that evil bitch?"
"Dying," Bryn said
Riley looked up and smiled, with teeth "Good"
Patrick had already moved off to the next cell It was empty So was the third
The fourth held Joe
"Oh Jesus," Bryn whispered, appalled The bigon his back, like Riley, but that was the only real similarity He was black and blue, and very bloody; he was still breathing, but the sound was labored and disturbingly wet Patrick knelt down next to hilance, watched the hall, ready to shoot "Patrick"
Patrick was unsnapping Joe’s paper juut wound A wide pool of red soaked the concrete beneath Joe’s body, and a wide stream ran toward the drain in the center of the roo for a while--steadily, fatally bleeding Hours Maybe days
His skin, beneath the bruising, was a shocking blue-white The fact that he was still alive, still breathing was nothing short of a miracle, butbut it was a battle he couldn’t win
That was obvious to all of them
"Joe," Patrick said, and put his hand on the man’s forehead "Joe, can you hear me?"