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Rage boiled up in Toed"

Vengerov had to knohat he was really saying--Toerov would reward hiarch s like anticipation on his face

Blackburn see "Don’t take those off here" he began, but Toe

Now he sahat it had been hiding Shock triggered in his gut as he saw the blackened fingers he couldn’t feel He latched on to the other bandage with his teeth and tore it frout twisted No No, no, noWait This couldn’t be right He tried to curl them, tried to flex theether No sensation Nothing

Ahi in his ears No He needed these He needed theers What if he didn’t becoet by so the bandages "You’re going to get cybernetic fingers They’ll ith the neural processor, and they’ll be al Think of the exosuits It’s like having one full-ti that was supposed to be there They’d been soer, faster They’d been so he could take off and decide not to use To out his brain This couldn’t be real

Joseph Vengerov must have been satisfied that To him, because he at last turned around and strode away, disappearing off into the empty hallways of his mechanized fortress, as pitiless as any of his machines

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"AT LEAST YOUR nose didn’t fall off," Wyatt told hie of his bed in the Pentagonal Spire’s infirers It was strange They didn’t have any true touch receptors, not like real fingers, but whenever they ca--whether screwed into the stu sensation He hadn’t yet learned to sort out different electronic signals, even though Dr Gonzales had assured him his brain would learn to identify them, associate them with heat, cold, soft, sharp, and so on

Vik turned the finger over and To prickle in his hand He felt like his head was going to burst

"I looked up pictures of people with frostbite online," Wyatt went on, froe of his h ponytail today, "and a lot of people’s noses fell off So it’s really great that yours didn’t"

Vik laughed "Enslow, co To cheerful," Yuri said, froainst the doorframe

"I’m fine," Tom muttered

Now Vik’s chair scraped closer to his bedside "So what’s the deal? I heard the official story: you went looking for a bathroom and accidentally walked outside, but I don’t buy it How’d you really get stuck out there?"