From the scissoring of limbs he could tell she had continued undressing. 'Your best friend here has a severe case of Franken-brain,' she said to Thomas. 'He's been tweaking and trimming for some time now, haven't you? No more fear. No more love. Of course you must still feel pain—too important a survival mechanism, that. But I'd be surprised if you cared about pain anymore. Mackenzie warned me that standard procedures would likely prove ineffective, that I'd have to be creative. "Try the eyes or the balls," he said. "Some reflexes must be intact."'

Thomas jerked and twisted against the restraints, which seemed to tighten.

Think-think-think-THINK!

It was all adaptive wiring, he told himself, some circuits fixed by millions of years of evolution, others molded by a lifetime of coping with environmental and social circumstances. He was out of his depth, caught up in circumstances his brain could not process. For his entire life, everyone had always done what they should, more or less.

But Sam. All her social circuitry had been amputated. Like Neil, she worked in the netherworld between trajectories, in a place neither described nor governed by the rules binding everyday human intercourse. And now she was deliberately acting against the grain, as a way to induce stress, confusion—as a way to punish.

None of this means anything! It doesn't matter.

'Sam?' he coughed as much as cried. Please don't…

'I almost forgot,' the pale blur said. 'You love me, don't you? Awwwww… Isn't that what you said? "I love you, Sam?"'

Thomas swallowed, screwed shut his eyes. It doesn't matter! 'Don't… Please…'

Her voice seemed to wind up. 'All those times you imagined Nora getting fucked—like a knife in the heart, wasn't it? Now you'll see what it's like. You'll actually get to see your best friend fucking someone you love…

'Think of it as therapy.'

Heaving breaths. Spit flying from his lips. He opened his eyes, but could see only rose and sting, a bundle of shadows throbbing to the sound of spit.

'Isn't this fucking wild?' she said. 'I mean all the energies flying around, all the boundaries being broken! How fucking wild is that? I can remember what I was like. I mean, the thought of doing something like this was just… just… I'd have a heart attack!'

Neil gasped in her sudden silence.

'But now! What a fucking trip! I'm 5000 fucking wet!'

Her form detached itself from Neil's shadow. She was standing. 'Anything goes,' the white-and-rose smear said. 'You can see that, can't you, professor? Here, now… any-fucking-thing.'

Thomas began shaking.

'This is silliness, Jess,' Neil said. 'What do you think—'

The black blot swung toward Neil's bound outline. A gunshot, loud enough to crack plaster.

Oh-my-God-oh-my-God-oh-my…

'Neil?' Thomas heard himself croak.