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"I heard the news I guess, congratulations?"

She wiped her eyes with her fingertips Her nose was running, but he didn’t have a rag to offer her "Thanks"

"Does Galen know you’re out here?"

She gave a dish "No, Galen does not"

Whichher wasn’t just a mood at all She had come to visit the Stone because of Theo; her tears were for him

"I just" But he couldn’t find the words "I don’t know" He shrugged "I’ that surprised hi their fingers together where they rested at the top of his knee "Thank you, Michael People don’t give you enough credit, I don’t think That was exactly the right thing to say"

For a while they sat without speaking Mausami didn’t withdraw her hand but left it where it was It was strange-not until this moment had Michael truly felt Theo’s absence He felt sad, but so, to put this feeling into words But before he could, two ures appeared at the far end of the plaza The pair ca toward them Galen and, behind him, Sanjay

"Listen," Mausaet to you That’s just how she does things She’ll co about Lish? But there was no ti over the hard, as if he’d been running laps around the walls As for Sanjay: the befuddled sleepwalker of two nights ago was nowhere to be seen Standing in his place was a scowling figure of pure paternal self-righteousness

"What do you think you’re doing?" Galen’s eyes were pulled into an angry squint, as if trying to bring the ie of her into focus "You’re not supposed to be out of the Sanctuary, Maus You’re not"

"I’m fine, Gale" She banished him with a wave "Go ho above the two of thehts His skin seelanced down at Michael once, casting his presence aside with a quick clenching of his generous eyebrows-dashing, with this single gesture, any hope Michael ht’s events

"Mausami I’ve been patient with you, but that is at its end I don’t understand why you have to be so difficult about this You knohere you’re supposed to be"

"I’ht here with Michael Anybody who thinks different will have to take it up with him"

Michael felt his stomach drop "Listen-"

"You stay out of this, Circuit," Galen snapped "And while we’re at it, what do you think you’re doing out here with ?"

"Yeah Was this your idea?"

"For godsakes, Galen," Mausahed "Do you kno you sound? No, it wasn’t Michael’s idea"

Michael beca at him now That he’d come to find himself in the middle of this scene, when all he’d wanted was a little company and fresh air, seemed like the cruelest trick of fate The expression on Galen’s face was pure burning humiliation; Michael considered whether thehiuely ineffectual about the way he carried hioings-on around hiood thirty pounds on him On top of which, and more to the point, Galen viewed hi like his honor Michael’s knowledge of male combat was limited to a few childhood skirmishes in the Sanctuary over not very h punches to know that it helped if your heart was in it Which Michael’s certainly wasn’t If Galen could actually e to aian again, "I was just taking a walk-"

But Mausaht, Michael He knows you were"

She rolled her face to look at hi "We’ve all got our jobs to do, right?" She took his hand again and squeezed it, as if to seal a bargain between them "Mine apparently is to do as I’m told and not be difficult So for now, that’s what I’ to do"

Galen reached down to help her to her feet, but Mausa, Sanjay had stepped back, his hands on his hips

"I don’t see why this has to be so hard, Maus," Galen said

But Mausa away from the two ainst the Stone In the glance that passed between them, Michael could feel the di to her orders

"Thanks for keeping ave him a sad smile "That was nice, what you said"

Sara, in the Infir for Gabe Curtis to die

She had just returned fro, Mar said Gabe wasfor breath Sandy didn’t knohat to do Could she come? For Gabe?

Sara retrieved her med kit and followed Mar to the Infirh the curtain into the ward, the first thing she saas Jacob, aardly leaning over the cot on which his father lay, pressing a cup of tea to his lips Gabe was choking, coughing up blood Sara ently took the tea from Jacob’s hand; she rolled Gabe onto his side-the poor , just skin and bones-and with her free hand reached to the cart to retrieve agasps: the blood, Sara saas a rich red, and spotted with small black clumps of dead tissue

Other Sandy stepped from the shadowed recess behind the door "I’ nervously "He just started coughing like that and I thought maybe the tea-"

"You let Jacob do this by hi with you?"

"What’s theby the cot, his face stricken with confused helplessness

"Your dad is very sick, Jacob," Sara said "No one’shiernails of his right hand into the scraped flesh of his forear to do my best to take care of hi internally, Sara knew The tu She ran her hand over his belly and felt the war blood She reached into her kit for a stethoscope, clamped it to her ears, pulled Gabe’s jersey aside, and listened to his lungs A wet rattle, like water sloshed in a can He was close, and yet it ht take hours She lifted her eyes to Mar, who nodded Sara understood what Mar had meant when she’d said that Sara was Gabe’s favorite, what she was asking her to do now