She adjusted the trim, checked the monitor again, and banked to send them back north on another transect a couple of kilometers to the west. “You’re probably getting sick of hearing it, but I really appreciate you taking the time. I know it’s been three years. A lot of people would have said, ‘Give it a break, kid. The thing’s gone.’”

Dek made a dismissive gesture with his head. “I was there that day. Down in that black forest. Could have just as easily been me. Or any of us. And I figure that whatever that thing was, it deserves a payback. Your mother was one of the most outstanding women on the planet.”

He paused, grunted. “And a Taglioni doesn’t forget his obligations. You could have treated me like shit on your shoe. Didn’t matter that I was soft meat, Kylee. You took the time to train me. Taught me things that have kept me alive.”

“So did Tal. And your quetzals. And Flute.” She couldn’t stop the smile as she shifted her grip on the wheel. “And you were fun. It was all so important to you. Like every day was an adventure, and you were doing stuff for the first time. Reminded me of being a kid. One I could teach.”

“So, maybe you’ll have your own one day.” Dek had his eyes fixed on the forest ahead of them. “You’re sixteen now. I keep wondering what happened to that cool girl I met at Briggs. Not that you ever acted your age.”

“Too much of Talina in my head,” she said. “We shared too much TriNA. Every time the adolescent girl in my brain wants to do something stupid, there’s the Talina memory lurking right beside it. Wants me to respond like a mature woman would. What a fucked-up way to grow up.” She paused. “Not to mention that there’s a bunch of quetzals in my head. The part of me that’s Rocket views the world with a sense of inevitability. I don’t think like a human, Dek.”

“But you’re still hunting the creature that killed your folks.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “That’s intimately human.”

“It’s fundamentally quetzal, too.” She eased the wheel back as they approached a low hill. “Both species are alike that way. The human part of me wants to find and kill the terror like a sort of payback. It’s primate emotional rage: You hurt me. I’m hurting you back. The quetzal part of me? It’s like a drive. We’re enemies, and I will destroy you because I have to. It’s preordained. Not like the primate emotion, but a gnawing need.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Dek frowned. “I’ve got too much of Whitey’s lineage in me. And too much of Talina, too.”