Page 233 (1/1)

"How alone she must have felt at the end, how afraid No words of comfort Not the touch of a hand for company"

Still he did not look at her All around her, the virals trilled and stroked, flexed and snapped She had the sense that they were kept at bay only by the thinnest of invisible barriers

" ‘I have known the evenings, s, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons’ That’s T S Eliot, in case you ondering An oldie but a goodie When it came to existential exhaustion, the man was one smart cookie"

Where was Peter? Had the virals killed hiht: Time How much had passed? But the answer to this question was like an e just her eyes, she scanned for so, only the virals and the inverted heavens and her heart beating in her throat

"Oh, I had s only take apaused, then said, with ine it as it once was Everyone hurrying, rushing here, rushing there The appointloriously alive it was All our lives, the one thing we never seeh of is time Time to work Time to eat Time to sleep Tied "But I digress You caht hand, now revealed, held the sword

"Just to clear the decks, let ainst you in the least Au contraire, mon amie That’s French, by the way Liz always said it was the mark of a truly cultured person I never had es, but with a century to kill, you get around to trying new things Any preference? Italian, Russian, German, Dutch, Greek? How about Latin? We could do this whole thing in Norwegian if you’d like"

Close your mouth, Amy’s brain commanded her Use the silence, because it’s all you have

Fanning’s face soured "Well, your choice I was only trying to ave a backhanded wave "Let’s have a look at you"

More hands upon her: a large, shtly smaller female, with a wispy diadem of white hair on her otherwise featureless skull They seized her by the upper ar the tile, and duently, for fucksake!"

Loo stood above her, his aura of e

"You" He pointed the sword at the large male "Get over here"

A spark of hesitation in the creature’s eyes--or did she iine this? The viral scuttled forward It dropped to its knees at Fanning’s feet and bowed its head sub raised his voice to the roooddae for you to toss around as you please! I expect you to treat her with respect!"

As he raised the sword, A sound and then the thu the floor A wet stickiness splashed the side of her face and, with it, a rotten smell, as if a door had blown open onto a room of corpses

"Oh, for the love of God"

The viral was still on its knees, its headless torso folded forward to the floor Dark, rhythlossy pool on the floor Fanning was staring at the front of his pants with revulsion His suit, A on his body with the unstructured looseness of rags

"Look at this," heto come out They’re like pets, the od-awful"

It was absurd, all of it What had she expected? Not this Not this ind of instantly changeablealmost pathetic about hiet you to your feet, shall we?"

She was hauled upright Fanning stepped forward; from his pocket he produced a handkerchief, flapped it open with a flourish, and dabbed the blood from her face His eyes seenified, as if she were observing the of whitish beard; his teeth were gray, dead-looking He hummed tunelessly as he went about this chore, then took a step back, lips pursed, brow furrowed, exa his handiith a slow nod