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"She wasn’t working," Doc says He sits beside Lil on the bed, peeling the patches off one by one They cling to her skin, lifting it up a little anda schlick sound as they pop off her "Anyone not working, anyone not fulfilling the needs of the shipthey’re not following you"

Doc waits until I tear my eyes away from Lil’s body "She was murdered for you," he says clearly, slowly, as if to ht of her death rests on my shoulders

34

AMY

I CAN’T KEEP STILL I MAY HAVE GIVEN UP RUNNING, BUT I can’t think cra h, I’ry nurses, and a crowd that seerow by the minute

"It’s safe!" Doc’s apprentice, Kit, tells a woman loudly "Just one is fine!"

"How do I know that?" the wo

"Well, look at yourself," Kit says, exasperated "You’re fine, aren’t you?"

"I think sobut"

Kit growls in frustration andinto me

"Sorry," she says

"No prob What’s going on?"

"Those frexing , but if they’d had the overdose, they’d already be dead Try to convince theh"

"What med patches?"

Kit reaches into her lab coat and shows reen patch "Doc developed them for the depressed patients Works, too If you have only one Probleotten out that three or more will kill you"

"What’s in them?"

"Phydus" She says it matter-of-factly, but she waits for ht ere through with that

Part of reed I thought he had proet the crowd that turned into ato die!" the worabs Kit by the lapels of her coat, her knuckles turning white

Kit wraps one hand around the woly, the woman easily releases her Her arms drop to her sides, and her whole body relaxes

"There, isn’t that better?" Kit asks gently

The woreen patch on the back of her hand

Kit leads the woainst the wall and deposits her there She turns back to me with a satisfied look on her face And--I can’t help but smile back at her That worked Maybe if Elder had had sootten so out of hand And maybe if I had had one in the fiction room when Luthor burst in

"Can I have some of those patches?" I ask Kit

She narrows her eyes at et all the ones that were stolen back Only Doc, the nurses, and I are supposed to use the The patches were stolen

"Can I just have one, then?" I ask

So in Kitthe only freak on the ship--she’s always been nice tosort of way to people who are handicapped

"Don’t tell Doc," she whispers, slipping me a patch I hide it in my pocket, next to the floppy I found in the armory

I pull my jacket hood up before I leave the Hospital, but, armed as I am with a Phydus patch, I don’t bother with the scarf aroundshot, but Orion left the clues--the real clues--for me Even if the last clue was tampered with, Orion’s had a pretty solid plan to o So far, the clues have cos or the Recorder Hall Maybe the next one will too

Yeah Right It’s going to be so easy to find one clue out of all the book rooalleries, and artifact rooms in the Recorder Hall--if the clue is even there For the first tiot a snowball’s chance in hell to find this thing

I can’t help but smirk After all, Dante’s hell was made of ice

As I approach the Recorder Hall, I see a group of people standing in a tight cluster on the porch I pullthe Phydus uidance," a o up the steps Instead, I turn around so, if the group looked at me, they’d only see the back of my jacket