Penny tore a strip of tape in two and affixed it over the gauze and to his flesh. “I don’t get what you’re asking.”

Cole leaned back against his pillow. “So some of it was a dream, then.”

Penny laughed. “Probably. You were rambling a lot.”

“What was I saying?”

“Nonsense. Gibberish. It was all in Spanish.”

It was Cole’s turn to laugh. “Portuguese,” he said.

“Whatever.” Penny finished her work and stood back. She looked him over, the sad expression still on her face. “Get some sleep,” she told him. She turned to go.

“Hey, wait.”

Penny stopped. She turned her head to the side.

“What?” she asked.

“Maybe it’s a good thing, the Seer telling us to all go. Maybe it can be interpreted a different way.”

“The way you want to hear it, right?”

“I’m just saying, the fact that the next fight might be our last . . .”

“Yeah?”

“Well,” Cole said, “it still leaves open the question of whether or not we’ll win.”

Penny stood still for a moment. She reached up and pulled an elastic band off her bunned-up hair, allowing it to spill down and across her shoulders. Turning, she locked Cole’s gaze with her own, and he saw the barest of smiles flirt with the corners of her mouth.

“Yeah,” she said, “I like that.” Penny nodded. “I like that a lot.”

49

“Well, I’m sure glad that’s over,” the prisoner said. He watched as the sheriff opened the cell door for Molly and waved her out. “I’ll be gods-awful glad to get free of this joint.”

Sheriff Browne turned to him. “What in hyperspace does a lick of this have to do with you robbing a buggy dealership?”

The prisoner scratched his beard. “I was hoping you could tell me!”

“Not a damn thing, that’s what. Now sit down and shut up. Next time I shoot you, it won’t be with my fingers.”

The prisoner shot a finger of his own up at the ceiling, but backed away as he did so. The sheriff turned and regarded his dead deputy. “Looks like your pet done finished what you started last night.”

“How did you do that?” Molly asked. She looked from the deputy to the Wadi on her shoulder, suddenly fearful to be reminded of what her pet could do. She flashed back to the fight on the Drenard shuttle when she’d last seen its ferocious side and tried to tease out what the two events had in common.

“I’ve always had a way with animals,” Sheriff Browne said. “A way that tends toward trouble.”

“So, am I free to go?” Molly glanced at the office door and thought about dashing out of there, just to get away from the residual tension she could feel coursing through her body. It was hard to believe she’d wanted to come there.

“Way I see it, this is now animal control’s jurisdiction.” The sheriff smiled at her. That smile faded as he looked back to the mess on the office floor. “But who’s gonna clean this up if the Callites keep going missing?”