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“I prefer the real thing”

“I know That’s another odd piece of you You like old stuff You’d rather read a book than scan a disc, rather go to the trouble to corammed a simulation in your holoroom” Her lips curved a little, dreamily “I like that about you”

“That’s handy”

“When you were a kid, and things were bad for you, is this what you dreamed about?”

“I drea control Didn’t you?”

“I guess I did” Too many of her dreams were jumbled and dark “After I was in the systeood cop A smart cop What did you want?”

“To be rich Not to be hungry”

“We both got anted, more or less”

“You had nightone”

She didn’t have to open her eyes to see the concern in his She could hear it in his voice “They aren’t too bad They’re just ular”

“Eve, if you’d ith Doctor Mira—”

“I’m not ready to remember it Not all of it Do you ever feel the scars, from what your father did to you?”

Restless with the memories, he shifted and sank deeper in the hot, frothy water “A few beatings, careless cruelty Why should it matter now?”

“You shrug it off” Now she opened her eyes, looked at hi “But it made you, didn’t it? What happened then made you”

“I suppose it did, roughly”