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I hadn’t knoas a chione by the time I’d adly swiftly, hadn’t I? She’d terrified me, and I’d trusted her anyway, because part of me knew that she was my kind Deep down and under all the little complexities of my human mind, I’d known she was h for us to know each other

I’d seen a lot of sleepwalkers and a surprising number of chimera since then, and I hadn’t connected to any of theical ansas that I wasn’t connecting to Anna at all: I was reconnecting to Tansy Nothing elsehis efforts to get Anna to respond to hi her hand He turned to look at the rest of us, tears pouring down his cheeks "Mom, please You have to fix this You have to s Please"

"I doubt Steven left Tansy’s original host intact," said Dr Cale She was trying to be gentle, but there was a broken-hearted bleakness in her voice that telegraphed her distress as clearly as her tears "Even if he did, the a her core out of the host’s brain… I can’t, Adaht, hitching her chest She pressed a hand against her sternu her composure completely Eyes on Anna now, she repeated softly, "I’ that Dr Banks extracted Tansy’s iinal host and placed it in a new body?" asked Nathan All three of us turned to look at hi to bet that my own expression was very si to think of ot I wasn’t one The corollary to this was that soot that eren’t the sas I knew He didn’t understand the things I understood

I could love him until the day I died, and ould never be the same species No matter how hard I tried to pretend

"It’s possible to reinal host body and move it into a new host," said Dr Cale "You know that The implant has to be stable for the process to work, of course, but that’s not the primary issue"

"That’s not…" Nathan’s voice tapered off, replaced by a brief, disbelieving burst of laughter "That’s not the pri open a chi them out of their own heads, and that’s not the primary issue? I knew it could happen, but come on, Mom! This is… I don’t even knohat this is"

"The tapeworm’s neural structures are not as advanced as a human’s," said Dr Cale She sounded cal That was sory, or even upset, her tears would have suited her better "We discussed this when Sal was having her ht processes are ed by the hue for what her tapewore"

"Uh, could we not talk about me in the context of a tapeworm mind and a human mind?" I asked "It makes me really uncomfortable when you talk aboutin htly irregular rhythns of physical distress as hard as I could, ed to me, to Sal Mitchell and not to anyone else in the world I wasn’t a hue of the two

"I’m sorry, dear," said Dr Cale She even sounded like she meant it Her attention remained primarily fixed on Nathan as she continued: "When a chimera has to be split, for whatever reason--when the i that makes them the people that we know them to be All the memories remain behind They can’t carry them into their next incarnation"

I stiffened, suddenly thinking of Ronnie Tiny, violent Ronnie, who knew that he was enderless and his host was feenetic data?" I asked, and was a out of my own mouth

Apparently, so was Dr Cale She twisted in her chair to shoot me a look that was midway between ae enough for us to enetic data We don’t even know for sure that it’s a factor"

"Ronnie--the chimera who let me out of Sherman’s mall--I told you about him, remember?" When the others nodded, I continued: "What I didn’t tell you was that he’s currently in a female host body, but had been in several previous hosts, all male And he knows he’s supposed to be male He hates his current host"

"Maybe someone else told him about the previous hosts," said Nathan hesitantly

I shookreferred to as male, and said it would attract inappropriate levels of attention I don’t think Ronnie would have known about those hosts if he hadn’t known soone looking for more information Sherman and Ronnie both said Ronnie’s insistence that he was supposed to be a boy caender identity when he was just a tapeworender identity, and took it with him when he was transplanted"