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She pulled another battery, checked it, put it back, grabbed the next one Cyn cleared his throat

“Mé falta,” he said “Shouldn’t have said it”

“No, it’s fine,” Naoet away fro back”

“Bad times”

“Those or these?”

Cyn coughed out a laugh and looked over at her, a question in his eyes “These? Esá the pro up You knoas before You reen Breaking bones because the ot taxed too much”

“I do,” she said, but Cyn was on a roll now, and he wasn’t ready to stop He put down his array and stared at her The sye in his eyes Not with her With soer

“I got three cousins died because Earth corporations wouldn’t sell the good cancer meds to Belters Gave us the crap left over from the farms on Ganymede Only vat meats aren’t like people, yeah? Don’t work the saot his ship taken away because he was behind on his per He wasn’t even in a pinché Earther dock, but he didn’t pay, so they boarded hi And for what? They protect us from pirates? They protect us fro off old suits as new? They care if we got shot? If we got killed?”

“I know they don’t”

“Didn’t, Knuckles They didn’t Because past is the past now Today,” Cyn said, poking the air with his thu on their side for a lot of years, andFilipito away,to think you been sharing a couch with an Earth coyo so long you forgot what you are Started thinking maybe you’re like them”

No, she wanted to say No, I never forgot But even as she formed the words, she wasn’t sure if they were true Once, there had been a girl with her nae she saw in Cyn and in Filip There had been a time when she could have cheered the deaths on Earth But Jim was from Earth And Amos Alex from Mars, which fro And as she? Their pet Belter? The one that didn’t belong? She didn’t think so So then, she was so else

And still, hoell had they known her, really? There was so ed if she had

Cyn was scowling at her, his eyes hard, his jaw set She tried to retreat back behind the curtain of her hair, but it wasn’t enough Not here Not now She had to say so; she had to react or it would be the sa responsibility for things she hadn’t chosen She tried to think what Ji an open wound Guilt at keeping her past fro away fro bad had happened to hiht nohile she could do nothing about it She didn’t knohat Jiine him

All right Amos, then What would Amos do?

She took a deep breath, let it out When she looked up, she brushed her hair away Grinned “Well, Cyn That’s one way of looking at things,” she said, leaning into the words “Ain’t it?”