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"If God exists, He created everything in the world just tohts to be such a close mirror of my own His hand closed around my upper arm in a friendly hold that I knew could quickly beco to clean up the world ever since they figured out soap and water I think that’s what their Devil really taught them There’s a lot of bollocks in the Bible about hu modesty and shame when they first sinned, but I don’t think they went ‘oh no, I’m naked’ I think they went ‘oh no, I’race You can’t be a part of nature if you’re trying to be clean all the time"

"You’ve read the Bible?" I asked, beration, ht weeks old" He continued to pull"You’re the only one of us to have that particular complication, actually, and I doubt you would have if you’d occurred under lab conditions You probably chewed through so that you shouldn’t have before you knew any better It’s really a pity we can’t , don’t you think?"

We were halfway down the u out in either direction My stoave a lurch as I suddenly realized what the tube-tunnel really reain It was like alking through the gut of a giant, passing froested or excreted at the whi

Sher "Tansy got herself a host of psychological issues, but the majority of theone before she got in there to start stitching things back together That’s iht the to try to placate us with their old and infired one way or another We can work around sos--we’re clever, in our way, even before we have a fatfor us--but we can’t rewire a busted engine Can you iine a world full of Tansys? All of the around with no one to restrain the Hence the breeding programs It will be so ," I said, my voice little more than a whisper

To ry at hting to the bitter end, because that’s whatto refuse to realize is that the bitter end passed soo They’ve already lost All that’s left from here is the messy process of birth"

I openedaround to press his raised index finger tome

"Shh, shh, my pet, it’s time to be quiet now" We had reached the door on the far end of the uainst all of that nauseating whiteness "I’ to open this and let us out You mustn’t shout or screaet away If you do that, I can’t protect you And I know you don’t believe h this alive Do you understand?"

I had trusted Sher his recent betrayals, the habit of trust was strong within athering enthusias force

Sher irl I pro sense soon Too soon, o of me and turned to key his access code into the panel next to the door, which beeped and swung inward, causing us both to have to take a step back Soain, and he pulled me with him as he stepped out of the umbilical and into the control roo to catch my attention was the blood There was soso much of the room, which was small and boxy and lined with monitors, each one tuned to a different bubble back in the roo, low desk, and three men in military uniforms were seated behind it, still in their chairs Two of the chunks of their skulls The third--the bleeder--had had his throat slashed open, resulting in arterial spray that must have bathed the roo less than peaceful, although death had coun and knock over a cup of coffee The brownish dregs were barely distinguishable from the bloodstains around them

Sherman’s eyes raked dispassionately over the three men before he nodded "Sloppy work, but so, Sal, we have places to be" He continued across the roo the dead bodies I couldn’t take my eyes off them They had been alive, and now they weren’t They had been people, and now they were gone, just like Sally, just like whoever used to live in Sherman’s body--and also not, because at least Sally and Sheran donors These one