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"If that’s what you call reason, then hell, no"

"No!" I echo him in frustration "That’s all you ever say--no, you can’t rest again, no, we have to keepuphill, no, you can’t use the filtered water for bathing"

We stand, both locked in place, waiting for the other to break

"Miss LaRoux," he says eventually, "I’ll do my best to protect you if you’ll letto sit here and die for you, waiting for rescue thatto keep you safe, on top of everything else you’ve been serving up If you refuse to co, and you can co to slap him, but I force myself to remain in place, spine stiff "Leave me half the supplies and a blanket to carry them in, and you can be on your way Relieved of duty," I add nastily

"Fine," he spits He throws his pack doith unnecessary force, and without anotherthe--the contents of the first-aid kit, the ration bars, the cable scavenged from our pod Then one pile, plus a small metal case, a tatty juoes back into his pack, and the other is left on the blanket I feel like telling him to keep the ration bars, since he seeforto leave me alone in this forsaken wilderness--it’s a question of ill admit it first Heto let me die to prove a point I know it, he knows it--and as atch each other across the blanket, I have to adaraciously After all, I can afford to be gracious now, can’t I? I stoop and gather up the corners ofit over ed hes stop her fro a statement If it were o, head held high He’d have found a way to handle this

Snatches of sound rise up from the awful, untidy forest all around h and distressed He doesn’t even seem to notice them--clearly at home surrounded by so much dirt--and just stands there with a scowl as I turn away

I hope I have enough time to make it back to the pod before sundown, but either way, he’ll probably catch up withbehind me, but I can’t risk a look overIt doesn’t ine hi that I could see the expression on his face

I wonder how long he’ll last

"The situation was foreign to Miss LaRoux"

"Yes, though I had so civilians in the field"

"Ah, yes The intelligence and research teams on Patron"