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"It’s not a table, it’s a cot, but apart from that, I anize that you were strapped down," said Dr Huff, sounding pleased "You’re strapped down for your own safety We had to move you while you were unconscious, and we didn’t want you waking up with any injuries, now, did we? It took a lot of work for us to find you We don’t want you getting hurt"

I stared at her Finally, when I was sure that I wouldn’t yell, I tried again "Why am I strapped to this cot? I’ et up"

Dr Huff’s artificial smile dropped away "Sally, I’m sorry, but you don’t seem to fully understand the situation Now h when you first woke up--but we didn’t expect you to regain consciousness quite this quickly Everyone reacts differently to the sedatives we’re using You should have been out for at least another thirty minutes So I’m very sorry that I was not prepared for you to start questioning uess, because you’re not," I said, giving another experiainst the straps "Can you let et up" It was a funny twist of the infection: a sleepwalker would show parasitic "tendrils" throughout their bodies, lines drawn and held by the toxoplasrate with the human body A chimera--like Adam, like me--wouldn’t show any of those traces Our i the parts of themselves that would normally have been used to latch on to the body A recent chiht have shown up on an infection sweep, but not one that had been given the tiration

They could test and test, and they’d find the violent ones, the ones ere incapable of concealing themselves, and the ones ere too deep in comas to pose a threat But they’d never find the ones likeMRIs and lumbar punctures They’d never find the ones who’d learned how to make themselves look hu relocated to a secure facility, and I’m afraid that patients can’t be allowed to move freely around the transport"

I blinked at her I hadn’t realized ere , and no matter how much I tried to focus, I couldn’t detect any motion

Shefor the trucks to arrive It will be easier to keep the afflicted and the unafflicted separate if everyone rened place"

"What?" I didn’t knohich part of that upset ainst the straps that held ain "No, no, you can’t putsleepwalker I don’t even want to be in a carrier with them You don’t understand how easy it is for them to escape You don’t understand--"

"We have taken every precaution," she said crisply "Now if you’ll excuse htened up, her expression going blank and cold, and stalked out of my field of vision

Sleepwalkers had cold, dead eyes, but they weren’t thinking creatures: they hurt you because they didn’t kno to do anything else, not because they harbored any malice or desire to harm the people around the, and when she hurt me--and I had every confidence that it was a "when," not an "if," given the circumstances that I had foundof what she was doing Dr Banks had eyes like that Dr Banks never hurtto

I relaxed as ns of slack in the straps There didn’t seeht as they could possibly have been without hurtingto let me move I could squirm down a few inches, and that was all I was trapped

The drun that I was panicking I couldn’t tell whether they were louder than they should have been, and that just made them pound faster Was it safe for ery? Was I going to have an aneuris what had happened to my friends?

No No, I was not I forcedNathan and the others had reached the car: I knew that fro lot They wouldn’t have been vulnerable the saotten away They would go back to Dr Cale and tell her that USAMRIID had me, and she…

She would say she was very sorry, and that it sucked to lose such a valuable research subject And then she would tell the, because if USAMRIID was in the area, she could no longer stay there None of us was more important than the entire hureed Dr Cale wouldwith her She was the one with the paid security, after all All Nathan had was a pair of dogs He didn’t even have the Prius any at the distant ceiling, waiting for the moment when someone would come and load me onto a transport Maybe they’d put oing on, and I’d be able to escape Or maybe they’d put me in with the sleepwalkers, and I’d wind up ripped to pieces before I had a chance to defend myself