“Uh-huh. If I was an old Donovan pro, I’d say that might be a real honest-to-God nightmare up in those big leaves.” He didn’t need her assent. He could feel it through quetzal sense. It still surprised him, that weird way of knowing without knowing how he knew it.

“You’d be right.”

“What are we going to do? The damn thing’s right across the trail.”

Talina glanced to each side, staring thoughtfully at the rock walls where they rose in angular blocks. “Thank God it’s basalt. Dek, time to show that gnarly old nightmare what primates are all about.”

Dek chewed his lips, nodded. “Still, it’s a hell of a good location. That nightmare tags anything climbing up or down the chute.”

This time she gave him the intimate look again. “I think you’ll do, Dek. That is, assuming that the right band of quetzal molecules comes out the winner. I’m starting to think I’d really hate it if Demon won. I like you a lot better when you’re you.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

So, come on Flute, Rocket, and clan. I’ll get us past this shit-sucking nightmare if you can keep a lid on Demon. And maybe we can all convince Talina to fall in love with us.

61

The psychic trauma just got worse. Michaela cradled her aching arm and sat at the front table in the cafeteria. Bill’s body had been wrapped in plastic and carried out to the dock where the seatrucks and launch were parked. As she looked out at her people, the horror of it kept crashing down on her.

Did she really believe that a child murdered Bill Martin? Then cut him up like he was a frog in a science lab? That dissection could not have been a child’s work. Kids didn’t think like that, have that kind of motor control. The cuts had been so precise. A child wasn’t capable of that kind of lab-perfect efficiency.

People were shouting at each other, some crying, others pacing between the tables, expressions dark and brooding. Like them, Michaela had no idea what to do.

“My son didn’t do it!” Kevina thundered as she faced Yosh. “He was asleep in bed when I left the room. If you think he’s the murderer, where’s the blood? I just got him out of bed. Looked at his hands. They’re clean! He didn’t do it.”

“Then who did?” Yosh roared back, his face red, fists knotted. “You saw that knife, the tracks in the floor. It was a child’s, and you’re telling me it was Felicity or Sheena? They were in bed, too. And they have no clue about any of this. The tracks on the floor are too big for Breez, even if she hadn’t been in the same room as Mikoru and me.”