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That afternoon, the guards came early and took Broay They offered no explanation, si us, nodded to the doors they’d entered through, and escorted him away I watched him leave My heart was in my throat, and I was certain it was already too late If they were taking hiht never cohtfall, confusion and worry pressed on his brow, but he carried the hand terminal with him

That night as we curled up to sleep, I told Alberto of ht vanish before I could see as on it

“Better if it did,” Alberto said, holding my hand I didn’t know if he one, the roo state, or so more personal between the two of us I intended then to sound him out about Quintana’s plan, but he had other intentions that were ent and immediate, and ere spent, I curled in his ar a masculine animal allows

Either Brown’s temporary absence spurred Quintana to action sooner than planned, or he had told me his timetable when my attention was elsewhere The first I knew that action had been taken was the screa one way and the next I tried to stand, but Alberto ilow The plate of a hand ter towardhard ceramic into my hand He didn’t speak, but ran on pastnow, his voice bansheeing up until it threatened to rise above the wavelengths of hu And then Quintana proudly announcing that Brown didn’t deserve the data, couldn’t understand the data, and was going to doo in the room out of his own misplaced pride

I lay with ainst my lover’s shoulder, the hand terminal tucked beneath our bodies, while the other prisoners screaht in the darkness, the first open c

ouards did not co, but I couldn’t say what

I didn’t want to leave the relative safety and war in the darkness was also my best cover Quintana’s belief that I wouldn’t be questioned because he had taken the credit for stealing the terminal seemed optimistic to me Worse, it seemed like the kind of asserted reality—the willful decision to believe that people would act the way you preferred that they would—that posed a constant threat to those of us in research I slid the terminal down the front of my already open ju the sound of the gi

Alberto took my hand for the space of a breath, and then released it “Be careful,” he whispered

As I er than it was I had the ainst the skin of my belly while men and women whose voices I knew inti captivity, threatened and defied and wheedled and cried out in sudden pain Like a stage ave me the cover to do what needed to be done I slid the hand terminal under one of the crash couches that defined the hotel, stepped back to see that no light was escaping froh the darkness, afraid to be caught away from my customary place

The sudden harsh light of ainst a wall, eyes blackened and swollen closed, nose and lips bloodied, and Fong organizing a search I was aets, and Alberto shortly after me Brown opened a new round of shouts and accusations, and Fong had to set two of her people to prevent hi Quintana further It occurred to ument more effectively than Quintana had

The sense of Brown’s status as our savior and best hope of freedom tarnished quickly in the next hours I felt the confidence the others had in hi storm If they turned on him, unleashed the years of frustration and anxiety and despair upon his fragile huuards would be able to reach hi possibility, but also a warning should I e to put myself in his place

As soon as it seemed plausible, I took Alberto by the hand and drew hih the crash couches near it, and I was anxious that they would find our golden apple before I had a chance to taste it I thought Navarro scowled atplace, but it ination Once ere in the hotel and visually cut off, I retrieved the hand terminal

Noith light and proxi with an extended keyboard for full scientific notations; a scratch along the right side of the screen that caught and refracted the light of the display, rainbows out of the yellow default iressional Republic Navy sta and echoed on the screen I stroked it withserene and untouchable If church had felt half as good as this, I would have been a religious man

With a sense of nearly superhu appeared before me

It was the experiment My experiment Only it also was not The basic structures were there: the peculiar way the individualthat suggested entanglement com studded with proteins dense with information and vulnerable to oxidation I had the sudden, powerfulthe nanoparticles express those sheets for the first ti for the nearest blowtorch