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Now Lear wanted a kid, a girl Even Richards had to pause and think about that A bunch of ho, human recyclables as far as Richards was concerned-but a kid? Sykes had explained that it had to do with the thyer it was, he’d told Richards, the better it could fight off the virus, to bring it to a kind of stasis That hat Lear had been working toward-all the benefits without the unpleasant side effects Unpleasant side effects! Richards had to allow hih at that Never lowsticks had been men like Babcock, who’d cut theirto do with it, too: Lear wanted a clean slate, somebody whose brain hadn’t filled up with junk yet For all Richards knew, he’d cooods A feeeks of trolling until he’d found the right one: Caucasian Jane Doe, approxie six, dumped like a bad habit at a convent in Me out to care Zero footprint, Sykes had told hie-six, wouldn’t have parted a suh, she would be in the care of Social Services and you could just kiss her six-year-old backside goodbye That left a forty-eight-hourfor the grab, assu the mother didn’t return to claie As for the nuns, well, Wolgast would find a way to handle theuy could sell sunlah

Richards turned from his screen to eyeball thein their beds Babcock looked like he was jabbering away as usual, his throat bobbing like a toad’s; Richards flicked on the audio and listened for a , as he always did, if it added up to soo for so I’ for you, brother" Richards hies-the usual European ones, but also Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Russian, Tagalog, Hindi, even a little Swahili-and soot the distinct feeling that there ords in there somewhere, chopped up and scrambled, if only he could teach his ears to hear the now, all he heard was noise

"Couldn’t sleep?"

Richards turned to find Sykes standing in the doorway, holding a cup of coffee He earing his unifor open He brushed his hand through his thinning hair and spun a chair around to straddle it, facing Richards

"Right," Sykes said "Me neither"

Richards thought to ask hiainst it: the question was moot He could read the answer in Sykes’s face

"I don’t sleep," Richard said "Not ed "Of course you don’t" When Richards didn’t say anything, he tipped his head toward thequiet downstairs?"

Richards nodded

"Anyone else going out for a walk in the ht?"

He meant Jack and Sam, the sweeps It wasn’t Sykes’s style to be sarcastic, but he had a right to be steae bins, for Christsakes The sentries were supposed to inspect everything co in or out, but they were just kids, really, ordinary enlisted They acted like they were still in high school because that’s prettythes slide

"I’ve spoken to the OD It’s not a conversation he’s going to forget"

"You wouldn’t by any chance want to tellto say about that Sykes needed hi himself to like him or, for that matter, approve of him

Sykes stood and stepped past Richards to the ain and zoo Zero

"They used to be friends, you know," he said "Lear and Fanning"

Richards nodded "So I’ve heard"

"Yeah Well" Sykes took in a deep breath, his eyes still locked on Zero "Hell of a way to treat your friends"

Sykes turned to point his eyes at Richards, still sitting at his terminal Sykes looked like he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and his eyes, squinting in the fluorescent light, were cloudy He appeared, for a otten where he was

"What about us?" he asked Richards "Are we friends?"

Now, that was a new one on Richards Sykes’s dreaht Friends! Who cared?

"Sure," Richards said, and allowed hiarded hiht," he said, "maybe that’s not such a hot idea" He waved the idea away "Thanks anyway"

Richards kneas bothering Sykes: the girl Sykes had a couple kids of his oo grown boys, both West Point like the old ence, another with a desert tank unit stationed in Saud-and Richards thought randkids somewhere in the , but it wasn’t the sort of thing they usually talked about Either way, this thing with the girl wasn’t going to sit ith hiive a damn what Lear wanted, one way or the other