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There were only two things insidethe cortical folds of the tissue around it I couldn’t i for a piece of brain tissue, since there was nothing special about it that he couldn’t also learn fro since he locked ery: he’d been looking for e, and not the one I wore

That was the greatest violation I could iine I was small and soft and vulnerable without my human skin to defend one into my sanctuary I didn’t know that he’d taken tissue saine that he wouldn’t have, not after he’d gone to the considerable trouble of opening ht of a piece of ence cut off and lost forever,to ih epigenetic memory for that little slice of Sal to res and learning neords, or would it be someone completely new?

Worst of all, if it worked--if he was able to successfully splice "me" into another body and learn whatever it was he wanted to know about how I’d been able to bond with Sally Mitchell--was he going to take the rest of inal Not when he could make a hundred knockoffs, one little sliver at a ti any better, but ti out If Sherman had really removed a piece of my primary body, he’d learn what he wanted to know sooner rather than later I had to get out of here

I sat up slowly, fighting the spinning in my head every inch of the way, and reached for the bottle of water Drinking it made me feel a little bit better: I was still in a lot of pain, but at least mywith the utmost caution, I slid my feet to the floor and stood The motion was acco back down onto the bed I gritted et out of here

Maybe deciding it was finally time to make my escape when I was still dizzy and weak froery was a bad idea, but it was the only way to avoid o with it Besides, Sherht now I had trouble re that he was the enemy when he wasn’t directly in front of me with a scalpel in his hand and a sether as allies, and deep down, I wanted him to still be the man that he’d been then Maybe that was true in both directions He wouldn’t have hennaedit all off if he didn’t harbor at least a little genuine affection for me

The Sal he’d known for years was pliable and obedient, and had no idea that she could ever be allowed to becoht of et irl, and started thinking like a chi, even when neither of us had any intention of buying anything She’d haul hout sales and co snarkily on fashions she didn’t think anyone should ever, under any circumstances, wear outside the house Thanks to her, I knew quite a lot about how stores like the one that had become my prison were constructed

I started for the escalators, pausing only long enough to grab fresh jeans and a clean, cable-knit sweater froet underwear and a tank top to go with it once I was upstairs in the lingerie section I tried to keep my movements as natural as possible, and allowed myself to wince every ti through me, which was often If Sherh the security cah show that they wouldn’t send anyone in to check on me

The escalator was slow enough that I was able to peel my shirt off and throw it back down to the first floor before I reached the second There were bloodstains on the back of the collar, ainsthts on the second floor were off, saving power, since I was the only one in here and usually stayed on the first floor I didn’t bother looking for the switches as Iroo else That salow allowed me to find a bra, tank top, and panties that would actually fit h-heel shoes left downstairs--all the good running and hiking shoes had been looted by Sherman’s people before they lockedif what I was planning actually succeeded

This had been a nice department store, and like all nice department stores, they had been more worried about the privacy of their custo I entered the dressing roo the row of open, slatted doors until I reached the very end and slipped into the private cubicle It was located closest to what I guessed would be the store’s outside wall, rather than feeding back into theroorate, used to pu the su no opportunities to either warood I didn’t want to freeze to death in my effort to escape