"She was too little to take with me," Jin went on, a bit defensively, "and she didn't understand anything that was going on anyway."

"And what was, er, going on?"

The shrug again.  Jin jumped up.  "Oh, the eggs are done!"

So was Jin an orphan?  A runaway?  Both?  Miles dimly thought Kibou-daini maintained the sort of children's social services usual to technologically advanced planets, if perhaps not up to the relentless standards of, say, Beta Colony.  Jin was a mystery, but not, alas, the most pressing one on his hands this morning.

Jin rolled hot eggs onto their plates, making sure Miles got the special brown one, and Miles kept the wits not to argue about his guestly double portion.  Jin handed over a restaurant packet of salt from someplace called Ayako's Cafe, and they divided the bread and shared the water.  "Excellent," said Miles around a mouthful.  "Couldn't be fresher."  Jin smiled.

Miles swallowed a bite of bread, and said, "So, you said someone around here had a comconsole?  Would they let me use it?"

"Suze-san."  Jin nodded.  "She might.  If you get to her early in the day, when she's not so grouchy."  He added more reluctantly, "I could take you."

Was he regretting untying that ankle rope?  "I'd like that very much, thanks.  It's rather important to me."

The I'm-pretending-I-don't-care shrug again.  As if the only way Jin could imagine keeping any living thing was by tying it up and feeding it, lest it run away and never be seen again.

Jin bustled about after breakfast to feed meat shreds to the falcon, bread bits to the chickens, and other carefully-sorted scraps to the rats and the residents of the glass boxes.  He cleaned cages and swished out and refilled water pans with fresh drinks all round.  Miles was quietly impressed with his thoroughness, though the boy might have also been dragging his feet, reluctant to end this visit.  In due course, and feeling much stronger and less dizzy, Miles followed his guide cautiously down the ladder once more.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Miles trailed Jin through another unlocked metal door, down some stairs into a disturbingly darkened corridor, through a utility tunnel, and into yet another building.  Subliminal sounds and smells, as well as better lighting, suggested this one was occupied, and indeed, around another turn they came to what had obviously once been an employee kitchen and cafeteria.  About a dozen people lingered there, some cooking, some eating.  All watched in wary silence as the pair passed, except for a young woman working at an industrial-sized mixer who spotted Jin, waved a large spoon in the air, and called him to breakfast.

Jin faltered, sniffing at the aroma of baked goods wafting from her vicinity, but then smiled and shook his head.  "Later, Ako!  I got a guest!"  Miles stared back over his shoulder as Jin drew him onward.