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Lana ca fro, but Caine wasn’t seeingtend the wounded Dahra looked a little weird to Caine’s eye, like so, or a mental patient zoned onto be the norm And Dahra had better reason thanattack here in town

Lana stepped beside Dahra, put her hand on Dahra’s head, and for a second hugged it against her shoulder Dahra closed her eyes briefly and looked as if she was about to cry Then she scrubbed her face with her hands and shook her head almost violently

Lucas struck a second blow and a three-inch chunk of concrete fell away

"Caine," Lana said

"Yeah, Lana Want to ged "Nah Too easy" She knelt down beside Caine and then, feeling weary, sat all the way down, cross-legged "Listen, Caine I sent Sanjit to warn Saees on their way? He’ll figure that out soon enough, won’t he? He canlike it was a personal eneht will be all anyone cares about"

"That’s not why I sent Sanjit I was going to go myself before this latest fiasco I sent hier"

Caine’s heart missed a beat The reaction surprised him As did the catch in his throat when he said, as coldly as he could, "Danger? You mean more than the rest of us?"

CLANG!

All the while Paul and Lucas were chipping away at the concrete With each ha He wondered how they would get off the last of the cement--the part attached to his flesh In between the sudden sharp pain there was a constant dull pain and an infuriating itch

"I can feel its mind sometimes," Lana said

He looked sharply at her "It?"

CLANG!

"Don’t play dumb, Caine" She touched her hand to his head, where the punctures of the staples still oozed blood Al helped when the next blow of the ha broken

CLANG!

"Ahhh!" he cried

"You ith it," Lana said "I know you still feel it sometimes"

Caine scowled "No I don’t"

Lana snorted "Uh-huh"

He wasn’t going to argue about it They both knew the truth That was so he shared with the Healer: too e And yes, it left scars, and yes, it was soe of Caine’s consciousness

He closed his eyes and the nighter then The gaiaphage needed the uraniue, so frantic, Caine could still feel it as a stifling, heart-throttling, choking feeling