“He has not changed at all, except…” Garabedian squinted at Mirsky again, and said in Russian, “When you were shot, sir, you changed. You became more resolved.”

“I’ve been on a very long journey since.”

“The people who brought me here…we seldom see them in Armenia. They come to break up our little wars, to stop our plagues, to repair our equipment. We were like children. We hated them so much. We wished to be let alone.”

“I understand,” Mirsky said.

“This time, they did not ask me…Pavel.” Using Mirsky’s first name seemed to strain the old man. “They came and said I was needed. They said I was a witness. They were like police in the old times.” His voice rose. “How can they treat us so like children? We have suffered! So many died.”

“How have you suffered, Viktor? Tell me.”

Lanier saw Mirsky’s face become bland and accepting again, and a chill made him clench his jaw muscles. Mirsky put his arms on Garabedian’s shoulders. “Tell me.”

“Nothing is like it was,” Garabedian said. “Nothing will ever be. There is good and bad in that. It seems all my life I have been confused, having seen this, and then gone back to the villages where my forefathers lived. Having fought against the Hexamon, having lost…”

“Yes?”

Garabedian held up his hands. “We went into poisoned lands. The soil had become a serpent. It bit us. We were taken out by Hexamon angels. They apologized for not giving us new bodies. I could not go home. There was nothing there. I moved into Armenia…they call it North Anatolia now. No nations, they say. No factions. Only citizens. I farmed and raised a family. They were killed in an earthquake.”

Lanier felt the familiar sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. Couldn’t save them all.

“I raised horses. I joined an Armenian cooperative for protection against the Turks. Then the Turks made peace, and together we fought against immigrant Iranian farmers raising opium. The Hexamon came in there, too, and pulled us out…Then they gave people something that made the opium useless.”

Mirsky looked at Lanier.

“Some sort of immune response, blockers…” Lanier said. He knew very little about this aspect of the Recovery. Mirsky nodded.

“Go on.”

“It has been a long life, Pavel. I have suffered and seen many die, but until now I have forgotten much of the pain. I see you, so young. It is indeed you?”

“No,” Mirsky said. “Not the same one for you know. I’ve lived a much longer time than you, Viktor. I’ve seen much myself, triumph and failure.”