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He’s got a weapon aimed at me; he must have had it hidden underneath the console I should have been watching, I should have tied him up I should have had Flynn…I choke, unable to focus on the ainst the console, trying to fight the whispers

"Fine!" I snap at Car my hands "Arrest me, shoot me, I don’t care Just let me help him--" I take a step toward Flynn, but Carun Its whine as it charges rings in ain

"You can’t help hilance for Flynn before pinning his gaze back onto find words to deny what he’s said But before I can, Flynn’sHe’s quick, so quick rabbing his arun fires; not a Gleidel, this one leaves a s down onto the floor Before I can take a step to help him, Flynn’s other hand wraps around the back of Carmody’s neck and sla crack He doesn’t pause, but slaain, until blood coats the controls and I cry out, still rooted to the spot

Flynn, only his profile visible to me, releases the dead man and lets the body slump to the floor

It’s all happened in the space of a few heartbeats, so quickly I haven’t drawn breath Spots swiasp for air "F-Flynn?"

It takes an eternity for hiine him a thousand tireen eyes He’ll be standing there as though nothing has changed; he’ll tell me he learned self-defense from me; he’ll turn around and look at me and he’ll be whole

But instead he stands a few feet away, his face eone In their place is nothingmy own face back at me

"No," he says in a calm, collected voice There are flecks of Carmody’s blood on his neck and chin "Not anymore"

I stand there, unable to un fro to keep an eye onin his face but blank serenity

"It was supposed to bein Flynn’s s treer, with fear, with exhaustion--and I reach out for the wall for support "What does LaRoux ithof the one who binds us?" His head tilts slowly to one side, in a htful interest, until it stops at an odd, unnatural angle "We are not acting under his orders anyles with a brief, insane flicker of hope at those words--but then s over to point atunder anyone’s orders anye" There’s no violence, no hatred in his voice; the cal and spewing threats He gestures with the gun toward the door, nudging Carmody’s body aside with one foot to clear his path "And you will be the one to set us free"

My hand closes on eun that isn’t there any my eyes off of Flynn Off of what used to be Flynn

Don’t think, don’t cru

"You don’t understand," I say as his eyes follow me "We want to stop LaRoux too We’re not like hirasp for the handle behind me, but don’t turn it yet The creature keeps his distance, too sun from him Flynn, I could probably disar what he did to Carmody…No human can move that fast

"Lilac said you helped theh thein the door It’s empty, as it was before

Flynn’s blank expression doesn’t shift "We know this one you speak of She ith us in the darkness for a ti quickly, trying to moderate my voice the way Flynn would If only he were here, with his passion and his diplo "Then you know her You know she’s not like her father Neither am I--neither is Flynn" My voice chokes on his name

"All patterns of data contain anoun doesn’t nore his order "Why lead us here?" I think of the light in the swahost in my dimmest memories "Why not just force the scientists, force LaRoux, to let you go?"

"Our keeper never coh for us to take him These others, he has operated upon and made it difficult for us to inhabit their ain, this time to roll him over onto his stomach Beneath the mess of blood and hair, just below his ear, is a tiny scar, too straight and precise to have been from an accident