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“Okay,” Prax said, pulling out his ter notes

“Amos?”

“Yeah, Cap?”

“That leaves violence to us Let’s tool up”

The san and ended at the corners of Amos’ eyes

“Fuck yeah”

Chapter Fourteen: Prax

Prax didn’t understand how near he was to collapse until he ate Canned chicken with some kind of spicy chutney, soft no-cru environlass of beer He wolfed it down, his body suddenly ravenous and unstoppable

After he finished vo, the woman who seemed to take care of all the small practical matters on the ship—he knew her na to call her Cassandra, because she looked like an intern by that name he’d worked with three years earlier—switched hiut could actually handle Over the course of hours, hisup over and over without falling asleep in between; sitting in the hold of Holden’s ship, he’d find hinition, how ood it felt to come back to hiar-deprived ganglia would struggle back to function, and it would all happen again

And with every step back toward real consciousness, he felt the drive growing, pushing hih

“Doctor, huh?” the big one—Aood Lots of grant money Or … now I suppose there used to be”

“I was never much for formal education myself”

The relief ship’s e The woven carbon fila, and the tabletop was pitted fro was a thin spectru under it in about three days Amos had a canvas sack filled with formed plastic boxes of different sizes, each of which seemed to have a firearm of some kind inside He had unrolled a square of red felt and disassee matte-black pistol on it The delicate metal parts looked like sculpture A solution and rubbed it gently on a silverht as atoward the disasseether To be already cleaned and polished and remade Amos pretended not to notice in a way that meant he was very much aware

“I don’t knohy they would have taken her,” Prax said “Dr Strickland has always been great with her He never … I mean, he’d never hurt her I don’t think he’d hurt her”

“Yeah, probably not,” Aain and started on awrapped around it

“I really need to get there,” Prax said He didn’t say, EveryMei That she could be dying or getting shipped offworld He tried to keep his words fro like a whine or a de ready’s the shitty part,” Aht out into it right the fk now Get it over with”

“Well, yes,” Prax said

“I get that,” Ah it Going in without your gear ready, you one for how long now?”

“Since the fighting Since theht?”