Page 73 (1/2)

“What happened?” Keiko’s soft voice brought him back to the present

“The bomb fell We were knocked out But we didn’t die—obviously Best we can guess, the chemicals in the bomb and the unique co else to happen Instead of killing us, it put us to sleep for a century, and oke, we found ere alone in the caves All the anione

“At first, we thought they’d died, but then we realized we’d absorbed them Our DNA had sucked in the DNA of whatever ani else”

Her eyes flickered as though she was chasing her thoughts around the air in front of her “That’s why your hearing is enhanced It isn’t an implant—you hear like a bat, don’t you?”

“Yeah”

“And the broken glass?”

“I sent out sound waves to muffle the noise”

There was a long silence as Mace watched Keiko think “Do you sleep hanging upside down?”

“No!” Just when he thought they were on the saain And then he saw the sparkle in her eye “You’rewith me”

/>

“It’s either that or have ain your body You’re over a hundred years old And I had sex with you I don’t knohether to laugh or cry”

“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so good”

She cocked an eyebrow at him “What other way can you put it?”

“I’m still in my thirties I was in stasis for a century before I was lifted out of my time and dropped in this one And the bat doesn’t live in my body It rests on my skin” Yeah, no matter ay you put it, it still sounded bad

“If you put aside all the freaky aspects of this conversation—”