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"You don’t know," I said "We could have clai with the test It’s happened before"

"How often?"

I didn’t answer her

George sighed "Three times, Shaun With a top-of-the-line test, three times In all three cases, there was proof of mechanical failure--and in two of the cases, the people were killed anyway Their fa units We both knohat a secondary test would have shown inthat we don’t"

That was too much The blood flickered back into visibility a second before I spun around, feelinginto ia, there was a chance!" The eo back to being a voice in my head, just a voice in my head, because she was dead, I killed her I just had to see the e in her customary place at the counter, her chair turned to face me The coical halo, and the position, the lighting, all of it was so fah, screaone all the way insane She earing her usual fashion-impaired ensemble: black jacket, white dress shirt, black slacks Only her face rong--no, not even her entire face; just her eyes Her sunglasses were , and her eyes were the clear, undistorted coppery-brown that I reression of her retinal Kellis-Amberlee turned her irises into outlines

I stared at her She ignored it, the way she always did when she wasn’t willing to wait for reed "Not is There was a chance But we’re past that now, aren’t we? We’re ay past that"

My mouth went dry, and the rooe…?"

"Glad to see you haven’t suffered any major head injuries lately," she said, wistfully, and shed and said, "It’s not like we have all day, you know They’re going to co for you sooner or later--probably sooner--and you really don’t want the to myself," I said quietly

"To yourself, yes; to , we both know that I’hosts But if you’re actually looking atyou seriously, and you have a lot of work to do We have a lot of work to do"

I decided against asking hoe" could do anything, if we both knew that she wasn’t really here If I did that, she ether, and then I really would go crazy The kind of crazy that puts you in a rubber roo a news site I forced a s how believable it would be, and said, "It’s good to see you"

"I’d say it’s good to be seen, but it’s not," said George, looking at me steadily "Just how crazy are you?"

"On a scale of one to ten?" I bit back a laugh "Crazy enough that we’re having this conversation How’s that for a starter?"

"Can you function?" She leaned forward, bracing her elbows against her knees It was such a fa it hard to breathe "The way I see it, this is either where youyourself freak out, or where you ads over to somebody else It’s your call You’re the one who isn’t actually dead"

I winced a little at the word "dead" "Can you not--?"

"Can I not what? Callto me because I represent the part of you that still has a fking clue how bad things are going to get You’ve been fking around since Tate decided to play martyr, and I’m tired of it The team needs you I need you You can either step up, or you can step down, but you can’t keep treading water like this"

She would have gotten better, whispered Kelly

"Be quiet," I ht," said George implacably Apparently, the voices in my head couldn’t hear each other That was just another slice of crazy pie "God, you never could take an honest critique You would never haveI never tried to" My knees were shaking I sagged back against the counter on ht on rab hold ofover "How do you expectlike this? This wasn’t the plan"

"No, the plan was to make rave in that fa to be finishing things alone Maybe we didn’t knohy, exactly, but ays knew this would happen ect how" Her solemnity broke, replaced by the half smile that meant she didn’t want to be as a self-iht they’d put ‘assassinated to conceal a ured it’d be so less your department"