Well, maybe she couldn’t. Used to be that he couldn’t either, and they had him locked in the containment room on the second floor. This was supposed to be for lab specimens, and now he was in here. There was nothing to do but look at the walls, hear the music, and he was hungry.

“Felix? Do you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you kill Bill Martin?”

“I didn’t. I wasn’t there until the last.”

“What do you mean, you weren’t there until the last?”

“It was already done. Someone had done a study on Bill. You know, dissected. Like we did with the tube in science club. But that wasn’t me. I wasn’t there until after it was all over.”

Michaela’s expression pinched, her eyes going hard. “Listen to me, Felix. Your fingerprints are on the vibraknife. In Bill’s blood. You know what fingerprints are? Those are the little lines on the pads of your fingers and palms. Yours are distinct. No one anywhere has the same little ridges. That was your hand on the vibraknife.”

“Okay. But it wasn’t me.”

“Then who was it?”

“I guess it must have been the Voice.”

“Whose voice? Someone on the Pod? Your mother’s, maybe Yee’s?”

“No, it’s a different Voice.”

“Do you hear it now?”

“No. It’s just listening. Wondering.”

“The Voice listens and wonders?”

“Yes. It’s learning.”

At the word, Michaela seemed to start, her forehead lining. She studied him for a moment, then asked, “Do you feel bad about what happened to Bill?”

“I liked him a lot. All of us kids did. He was always nice.”

“Then why did you cut open the back of his leg?”

“I didn’t.”

“Who did, Felix?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was the Voice.”

He saw the flash of fear behind Michaela’s dark eyes. She seemed to swell as she drew a deep breath. Took a moment, like Mother did when she was finding the right words. “What made you go to the kitchen in the first place?”

“I didn’t. I was asleep in bed. And then I was there. And there was all this blood. But the Voice said it was okay. And it was. I could feel it.”

“You don’t remember going to the kitchen?”

“No!” Felix cried. “Don’t you get it? I didn’t cut Bill up. I was asleep. And then I was there. The Voice was learning. Like we did with the tube. It’s how science is done.”

“And you don’t feel bad about Bill? My God, Felix, you were covered with his blood.”

He could see that Michaela was getting upset. “I didn’t get bloody. I was already that way. And I knew it would make Mother mad, so I went to the shower and washed it all off. Then I went to bed.”

“You went to bed?”