Page 53 (1/1)

I stuuide o next on ht sparked so He was clean There were little sernails, and his skin had the healthy scent of a hu of fresh soap, but he was clean, and his hair was dry That third man had sprayed blood everywhere There was no way Sher drenched in the process

"Who’s here with you?" I asked

"What, you didn’t think I orking alone, did you?" Sherht-lipped sood to know that you care Now coht"

The little security roo plastic sheets and industrial gray lockers There was no one there, and I was glad I had no doubt that Sheret in our way, and I didn’t want to be responsible for any ht Three was too many

Then we left the airlock for what looked like a loading zone, and I realized that three was nowhere near the final number

The floor was unpainted concrete, and the walls were bare ht, uncovered bulbs every ten feet or so They cast an unflinching light over the eight bodies strewn around the rooues, none older than their early twenties One woman had fallen so that her eyes were aimed directly at the doorhere Sheraze and clapped a hand over e to vo loudly in my ears In that moment, I welcoery Better a clean death than whatever aiting for ot me alone

A shadow detached itself fro into a sliirl in a bodysuit ray She had deep brown skin and softly rounded features that would probably have been beautiful, if they hadn’t been set in a forbidding expression Her eyes flicked to aze returned to Sherman "You’re late," she said coolly

"You’re messy," he responded

My eyes widened in horror as I realized what he meant Her bodysuit wasn’t darker than his: there were still places, along the sides and at the top of her left shoulder, where it was exactly the same color The blood that had soaked into the fabric had darkened it, turning it virtually black

"I was bored," she said Her eyes flicked back to hty ‘natural chimera’? She looks like she’s about to puke all over rew a little colder "Be polite Sal’s our guest Are we clear for extraction?"

"Do you mean, ‘have I killed everyone’? Yes I have killed everyone as supposed to be watching this part of the building, and Kristoph has disabled the security ca else on this little shopping trip? A few soccer moms who skipped their implants because they decided that tapewor to tighten security after this, and she"--her eyes raked me up and down one more time--"just doesn’t seem like she’s worth this much trouble"

Sherht Ronnie across the face, sending her rocking back several feet I gasped She spoke like an adult, but she looked like a child, and seeing hi in ways I didn’t have the words to express Ronnie recovered quickly, training her venomous stare on Sherman She didn’t rub the spot where he’d hit her She left her hands down by her sides

"Sal is more valuable than you are, and I will have no co you if you continue to causeSherain "Do you?"

"Yes," she spat "I understand that you’ve gone native Enjoy your disgusting , but don’t expect me to clean up thetoward the far end of the loading dock

Sherain It occurred to ht as quickly as it caht noanted it, but I didn’t knohat kind of weapons Ronnie had, and she was clearly fast enough to have killed all these people--people who presu--before they could react I already knew that Sherman was faster thanmyself hurt

Better to wait Better to watch Better to run when I could actually get away, to act with purpose, and not out of panic Andmyself of that, I’d remember how to breathe

"You’ll have to excuse Ronnie," he said, guiding me between the bodies as he followed her across the room "She’s on her fourth body, and she doesn’t appreciate the fact that we ih the elasticity of the child’s brain has proven to be thefactor Her first three hosts were adult males, and while she preferred those bodies, they rejected her Now she takes her aggressions out on whatever happens to be around"