Page 4 (2/2)

“Gonna hit the head,” Holden replied, and pushed away from the table He weaved a bit more than he expected on his walk to the restrooone to his brain fast

The restrooe were lush No rows of urinals and sinks here Instead, half a dozen doors that led to private facilities with their own toilet and sink Holden pushed his way into one and latched it behind hi as soon as the door closed A little like stepping outside the world It was probably designed that way He was glad whoever built the casino had allowed for a place of relative calm He wouldn’t have been shocked to see a slot machine over the sink

He put one hand on the wall to steady himself while he did his business He was htened for a moment and the chroht The fear hit hiain

“I swear to God,” Holden said, pausing to finish and then zip up “Miller, you better not be there when I turn around”

He turned around

Miller was there

“Hey,” the dead man started

“‘We need to talk,’” Holden finished for him, then walked to the sink to wash his hands A tiny blue firefly followed him and landed on the counter Holden s was there

In the ed When hejerkiness, like a clockwork ticking through its motions Human and inhuman both

“Everyone’s here at once,” the dead man said “I don’t want to talk about what happened to Julie”

Holden pulled a towel out of the basket next to the sink, then leaned against the counter facing Miller and slowly dried his hands He was tre, the sa up his spine, just the same way it always did Holden hated it

Detective Miller s Holden couldn’t see

The one off hunting on his own, searching for a irl He’d saved Holden’s life once Holden had watched when the asteroid station Miller and thousands of victims of the alien proto Julie Mao, the girl Miller had searched for and then found too late For a year, the alien artifact had suffered and worked its incon under the clouds of Venus When it rose, haulingout past the orbit of Neptune like some titanic sea creature translated to the void, Miller rose with it

And now everything he said wasto hi him “Yeah, that makes sense You’re not one of them Hey, you have to listen toThis shit is out of hand You’ve been doing your rando act for al that made sense Not one”

Miller waved the co to breathe faster, panting like he’d run a race Beads of sweat glistened on his pale, gray-tinged skin

“So there was this unlicensed brothel down in sector eighteen We went in thinking we’d have fifteen, twenty in the box More, maybe Got there, and the place was stripped to the stone I’”

“What do you want froht?”

“I’m not crazy,” Miller said “When I’m crazy, they kill me God, did they kill an to suck air in His lips were darkening, the blood under the skin turning black He put a hand on Holden’s shoulder, and it felt too heavy Too solid Like Miller had been reone pear-shaped We got there, but it’s empty The whole sky’s empty”