The equipment roared; the two men disintegrated completely—and were vacuumed through the compound gratings like dust. All gone. Peering through the local orphidnet, Jayjay saw only that same machinery back there—no ground-up bodies, no drops of blood. Sonic and Topping had been atomized by bizarre physical forces and transported to who knew where. As for Thuy: her head had gone there and come back.

“Are you okay?” Jayjay asked her.

Thuy winced and made a complex gesture with her hand. “Jeff Luty was leaning over me. Talking really fast about the Hibrane. I—” She broke off, unable to say more.

“Let’s bail,” said Kittie.

Some kind of signal escaped the office when they opened the door back to the computer room. Alarms sounded, rapid footsteps rang on the metal stairs from the ground floor. But the spindly clients behind the monitors seemed sympathetic to the three Posse members.

“Up thar!” urged Prescription John, pointing to the ladder and trapdoor where the computer cable went. “It ain’t locked.”

Kittie led the way, and Jayjay took the rear, with Thuy in the middle. They made it to the roof.

It felt good to breathe the open air, and to connect with the global orphidnet. Hoping against hope, Jayjay set his beezies to searching the area for Sonic—to no avail.

“Jayjay killed Sonic,” said Kittie. “And nearly you too, Thuy. He’s a clumsy oaf.”

“Sonic’s not dead,” said Thuy. “That grill—it leads to an ExaExa lab. Luty is—” She put her hands on the sides of her head. “Oh oh oh. Can’t talk now.”

“We’ll free Sonic,” said Jayjay. “Wherever he is.”

A police siren was approaching. The three hurried to the other side of the Armory roof and began working their way down the outside fire escape.

“We’re going back to Nektar’s,” said Kittie. “But I don’t know about you, Jayjay. You might flurb that scene, too.”

“I’m going to Jil’s boat,” said Jayjay quickly. “You can come with me, if you want, Thuy.”

“And watch you slobber over a middle-aged mom?” said Thuy, her eyes searching his face. “No thanks.”

“We’ll fix up my SUV, Thuy,” said Kittie. “It’ll be nice. I’ll paint and you’ll work on your metanovel.”

“And you’ll be crawling into Nektar’s bed every chance you get,” said Thuy miserably. “Nobody really loves me.”

“I love you,” said Jayjay, meaning it. “You know I do. If you come with me, we don’t have to go to Jil’s. We can go anywhere you want.”

“I’m so tired,” said Thuy, her voice shaking. “My head hurts. I just want to go to that nice clean room over Nektar’s garage and lie down.”

“Leave us the hell alone now, Jayjay,” said Kittie. “The Big Pig Posse is over.”