Kira tried not to scowl. It wasn’t like Calix had hunted some monster, like that thing that had chased Kira back in New York.

The elevator let them off on the top floor, which Kira immediately recognized as an office block, though most of the cubicles had been cleared away. The remaining desks were set up along the walls, stacked with potted plants and piles of books and board games. A number of rubber balls sat idly in the corner. “This is our courtyard,” said Calix. “My place is back here: Conference Room Two.” Each office and conference room they passed had been remade as a small apartment, many of them occupied, and Calix waved familiarly at her neighbors as she passed each one. The neighbors gawked at the newcomers but didn’t approach them. Conference Room 2 was more sparsely decorated than most of the others, and Kira wondered if Calix was simply less of a decorator than the others, or less experienced, or if somehow she was poorer. Their society didn’t seem to use money, but she was beginning to realize that almost nothing here was what she expected it to be.

Like the fact that their doctor was a Partial.

There was a single bed, which Calix graciously offered to Kira, but Kira insisted on sleeping on the floor—on the other side of the room, where she and Samm could talk in private once their host finally fell asleep. After the first hour of excited questions about the world outside the Preserve, though, Kira realized that Calix was far more likely to outlast them than the other way around. After the second hour Kira was too sleepy to care, and felt her eyes closing as Samm continued to answer question after question.

She slowly drifted off to sleep in her tangle of blankets on the floor, only inches from where Samm sat. A few moments passed, her breathing becoming deep and even, and she felt something touch the back of her hand.

He’d placed his hand on top of hers.

She woke in the morning with a start, sitting up straight and reaching for something, though she couldn’t remember what it was. Sunlight peeked through the curtains in the window, and Calix’s bed was empty. Samm lay asleep, as straight as a corpse, on the floor next to Kira. Kira rolled to her feet, checked the hallway, then closed the door firmly and shook Samm awake.

“Samm!”

He woke up like a predator, whirling into a combat stance so swiftly Kira had to duck to avoid getting hit. He paused, scanning the room, then looked at Kira. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This place has me on edge.”

“Same here,” she said. “We need to figure out what’s going on; we’re alone for now, but I don’t know how long until Calix gets back.”

“The doctor’s not a Partial,” said Samm.

“You said he was.”