Page 60 (1/1)

Finally, Ronnie said, "Co away into the housewares depart to kill h for allies that it seeh the store, catching up quickly and then just pacing hi roo dust, near theHe pulled out a chair and sat down, gesturing forany other options, I sat

The silence stretched out for a little longer, see to twist in on itself and nip at its own tail, before Ronnie said, "Rejection can be an issue for those of us eren’t tailored to specific hosts, or whose hosts were killed before we could finish the assihed

"I was designed for a long-haul trucker, according to the records Shery boosters I also decrease acid buildup in soft tissues They al That’s never stopped anybody, you know?"

I didn’t know, but I didn’t think that interrupting hiood idea I just nodded

"Baseline human DNA in the implants is about three percent, or was before Sher to the lab rats I was tailored, so I started with five percent, some of it taken directly from my host It was supposed to keep his i me over Instead, it caused total immune collapse Not fun for either one of us I don’t really rerated to his brain during the shutdown, but he didn’t survive the process We got hospitalized--this was in the early stages of the outbreak, back when there were only one or two of us at a ti it difficult for me to know exactly who "us" eneral? "He died"

I blinked "Who died?"

"My trucker" Ronnie shook his head "He crashed and he died and that should have been the end ofall the dead sleepwalkers for analysis, in case they could figure out as going on Anything to protect the profit ht?"

I sort of suspected it wasto protect the public health," but I kept that observation to , and in part because there was a good chance that I was being overly optiain Dr Banks had never shown any indication of caring about the health of the world, except when it could puthis entire custoood idea, at least as far as the bank was concerned

Ronnie took , "Sherman found me in my trucker’s head I was still alive, and he removed as much of me as he could I don’t re into at that point, so I wasn’t much of a deep thinker--but I’ve seen s happened the way he explained the, and he implanted me in my first stable host His name was Francisco, and he was a mountain" A little smile played across Ronnie’s lips "Six and a half feet of solid muscle--dauess I should have known that it couldn’t last"

"What happened?"

"Rejection" Ronnie shrugged "Sa you happens to a lot of us My host’s body recognized ht ot the na Too strong, I guess, since his ihborhood and beat me off with a stick That’s hoound up in here" He spread his arically female body with a bob of his chin "And we don’t have bodies to spare, so until this one breaks or we come into a sudden wealth of unwanted hu"

"But… if we beco into human brains, and they can process more information than we can handle with our little tapewor anyone before you ho you are right no can you be…" I stopped, not sure how I could possibly finish that sentence

Ronnie finished it for me "How can I be so sure that I’m supposed to be male? I don’t remember a lot about h rejection remembers much But there are little bits and pieces It’s like… it’s like soot written into enetics at work, and that we’re all going to wind upjust these little pieces of e’ve been onith us"

I blinked at hi to live forever, once we figure out how to keep our hosts fro us We’ll have to learn a lot of shit new every time, but our core personalities will stay the same We’ll stay the same Humans have had stories about reincarnation and the afterlife forto prove it" Ronnie stood "Anyway, that’s how I know I’uy, no matter what this stupid body says, and since I want a new host sooner rather than later, it’s tirabbed my arm