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Tom was so wired up with adrenaline, he was sure he could sprint ten ear back into the ar to put off sleep He couldn’t sleep anytiround in the unlit Calisthenics Arena when a shadowfor him Ice water flooded To of Heather Thinking of what he’d seen

"Well?" Blackburn said tiredly He looked years older in the diot some preposterous lie ready for me Give it a shot"

"I borrowed these For a prank" Toe suits

Blackburn shook his head "No, you didn’t I was up working late tonight"

To? So Blackburn hadn’t dropped off to sleep after what happened with Heather

"and I got to hear in real ti up with chatter about an accident at Obsidian Corp An entire wing of the Antarctica facility was obliterated Shockingly enough, hts i to your GPS signal, you’d been in the bathroom for the last three hours Coincidentally, so had Vikra we ate," Tom tried "You know Chris Majal’s Indian Hall"

"Raines, have I ever, and I mean ever, fallen for any of these ridiculous stories of yours?"

Toot us We did it And you know it The transone We destroyed it We freed Yuri And I knew I had to dothe transmitter, or it would be too conspicuous so we hit sos, too"

"Do you knohat’s conspicuous? Burning down the heart of the security state"

"We were careful," Tom assured him "We took care of the surveillance cae suits securely enough that we didn’t leave any DNA, and the one place we removed them, we burned down afterward Even the Interstice didn’t record our trip That transone Stick me in the census device, and I’ll show you, then you can approve him for a neural processor while there’s still ti over his scarred face "And let’s say I do what you want I inforiving you a pat on the back for what you did I’round "I realize you could probably let Vengerov kill Yuri I also get that you are probably even capable of, I dunno"--he shrugged, never taking his eyes fro someone who posed a threat to you somehow"

Blackburn’s shoulders tensed, and To if there was onna let Yuri die when there’s no reason for it" Tohts flickered back to Blackburn’s empty apartment, to that dumb candle "You may not care what I think about you, or what anyone else thinks about you, but I don’t think you’re so monster If you turn around and let Yuri die, you know Wyatt will never get over it She won’t forgive you She won’t forgive herself You’re not going to let that happen"

Blackburn looked like some sort of statue He didn’t move

"And, hey, if you really need reement about Yuri’s new processor," To else Inforonna want this"

"What?" Blackburn said quietly

"Joseph Vengerov has a neural processor"

Blackburn’s face froze