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We are always fighting against going quiet, going gentle

"Yes," I say to Rebecca

"And?" she asks "How long before they start letting people go?"

"They will have already begun," I say

CHAPTER 29

KY

Someone co the floor

Could it be Cassia?

Not this time Whoever this is doesn’t smell like Cassia’s flowers-and-paper scent This person smells like sweat and smoke And they breathe differently than she does Lower Louder, like they’ve been running and they’re trying to hold it in

I hear the person reach for the bag

But I don’t need new fluid Soed it Where are they now? Do they knohat’s happening?

I feel a tug onfrom my line and started to drain it The liquid drips into some kind of bucket instead of into me

I’ the panes is even louder now

Is this happening to everyone? Or only toto make sure I don’t co down

I’ deeper

The pain is less

It’s harder to re with the beats

New Rose Old Rose Queen Anne’s Lace

In Out In Out In Out In

Out

CHAPTER 30

XANDER

I must have fallen asleep, because I jump when the prison door opens "Get hiuard, and then Oker appears in front of uard unlock the door "You," Oker says "Tilance at the cell across froht watching over Ky? Or have they made her work all this time? All the other prisoners are quiet I can hear the, but no one else seeet outside, I see that it’s dark: not even earlyfor me," Oker says, "so you keep the same hours I do" He points to the research lab across the way "That’s mine," he says "Do what I say, and you can spend most of your day in there instead of locked up"

If Leyna’s the physic of this village, then I think Oker is the pilot

"Follow my instructions exactly," he tells ht"

"Oker isn’t much for introductions," one of the assistants says after Oker’s left "I’m Noah I’ve worked with Oker since he came here" Noah looks to be somewhere in his mid-thirties "This is Tess"

Tess nods to er than Noah and has a kind smile

"I’m Xander," I say "What’s all this?" One of the walls of the lab is covered with pictures of people I don’t know Soes torn froht have been drawn by hand Did Oker do that before his hands stopped working right? I’m impressed, and it makes me think of that nurse back in the s--pictures, poe

"Oker calls them the heroes of the past," Noah says "He believes we should know the work of those who came before us"

"He trained in the Society, didn’t he," I say

"Yes," Tess says "He caht before his Final Banquet"

"He’s ninety?" I ask I’ve never known anyone so old

"Yes," Noah says "The oldest person in the world, as far as we know"

The office door slaet back to work

A few hours later, Oker tells the assistants to take a break "Not you," he says toand you can stay and help me with it"