“Oh, yes, the Centrifuge is closed for the next week at least. There’s a two-mile section between South Zero and One that’s completely caved in. Nobody knows how long it will take to repair. Ariana Bayless is already trying to figure out how to route commuter traffic into the city. They’re offering incentives to workers to stay in the city at special hotel rates, and they’re planning to overhaul all these old buses that haven’t run for years. It’s going to be a mess.”

It was Jex. Surely not. Surely, not even Jex would blow up hundreds of people during the commuting hour, just to make a point, just to infuriate Ariana Bayless? It was Jex. He was not so cruel, so reckless, so prodigal with others’ lives. It was Jex. But she had just left his arms, and he knew she would be taking the Centrifuge home. He loved her; he would not have sent her into such danger without a warning, would not have allowed her to leave him blithely to steer straight into certain carnage. It was Jex. It was Jex. It was Jex.

Sereva was still talking, nervously, as if she couldn’t stop herself. “I can’t imagine why they brought you here, but that arrogant doctor—or whatever he is, I’m sure he doesn’t have an actual degree—he wouldn’t let me move you to a real hospital. So I said, then I’ll have to stay, I’m not leaving her there alone all night with people who can’t be trusted to care for her—”

“The gulden have superb medical training facilities on Gold Mountain,” Kit said faintly. Her brain squeezed against her skull with an insistent pressure; surely her head was about to shatter. “They produce marvelous doctors.”

“Well—maybe for their own kind—everybody knows that their blood is just a little different from ours—”

“It is,” Kit agreed. She closed her eyes, hoping to ease the pain a little. “It’s weaker. More vulnerable to disease. But their bones are stronger. Other than that—not much difference.”

“You may say that,” Sereva said, “but I don’t believe it.” She may have added more, but Kit did not hear it. She curled in upon herself, trying to ease both the pressure in her head and the pressure on her heart, and fell asleep once more.

*   *   *

In the morning, except for a nagging headache and a leaden pain throughout the left half of her body, Kit felt relatively normal. Clear-headed, at least. She was hungry, though when they brought her food, it suddenly did not seem like a good idea to eat it. However, when a nurse told her she couldn’t go home till she’d kept food down for at least six hours, she ate about half the meal, and she actually felt better for it. Late in the afternoon, a gulden doctor came in to examine her—not the one from the night before—and pronounced her well enough to leave.