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“Guess you did,” Aood Healthy in a way he’d never looked as a kid He even had a ut He still had the s, he looked like he’d still ith a limp But now, surrounded by his success and his well-fed chubbiness, they looked like trophies of a past life instead of disabilities in the current one

“So,” Erich said, “kind of wondering what you’re doing in town”

“He beat up Troy,” one of the guards said “And Laci says he man

handled her some too”

“Did he kill anyone?” Erich asked When neither guard answered, he said, “Then he’s still being polite”

“That’s right,” Areed with an amiable nod “Not here to mess up your shit, just here to chat”

“So,” Erich said, sitting back down on his rubber ball chair, “let’s chat”

Chapter Eleven: Alex

Three days after he’d seen Talissa – for what he had to think noas the last tione afterward to eat with Bobbie Draper, Alex kneas tio home He’d had dinners with family and a couple old friends; he’d seen the ways his old hoed and the ways it hadn’t And he’d deter couldn’t be fixed That was the closest he was going to get to having it be okay

But before he left, there was oneto disappoint

The express tube to Londres Nova hu to make the lives of the riders better in a hundred different ways: technical certifications, inition software didn’t seem to knohat to make of him None of the ads spoke to hireen suit offering to help people find passages to the new syste Start a new life in the off-world colonies! We can help!

Across fro quietly into space, his eyes half-open at the edge of boredoe, he’d been deciding whether to go into the Navy or apply for upper university He’d been dating Kerry Trautwine even though Mr Trautas a religious zealot who hated hihts playing battle simulations with Amal Shah and Korol Nadkarni

This boy across fro at so about sex in likely more or less the same terms, but he also lived in a different universe Alex tried to iine what it would have been like to include travel to an alien planet in a his options at seventeen Would he have still enlisted? Would he have met Talissa?

A gentle, mechanical voice announced their arrival at the Aterpol terminal The boy’s eyes opened, roused back to full consciousness, and he shot a distrustful look at Alex The deceleration pushed Alex’s back, feeling al attitude burn Almost but not quite

Aterpol was the don of Londres Nova, the only station with connections to all of the neighborhoods that s curved over the co the walls double-sealed to keep air fro into the evacuated tubes The terminal itself opened into a wide public park with real trees rising froht Benchesthe winding paths, and a pond filled the air with the s breeze- like a constant and eternal prayer Windows rose up along the walls, light strea out of them or not The rooms that looked out over Alex as he walked were businesses and apartments, restaurants and maintenance halls