She said, “Nothing,” and came at me again. As if the brief separation had been such a bad idea that we had to make up for it in spades. We were really getting into it when she pulled her head back and said, “Wait, listen.”

I had already heard it and ignored it. There was some kind of mechanical hiss on the other side of the room.

I could tell that the room was big. Just in the way sound moved around between the walls. Now that we’d been there a while, my eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness. I could make out a bed, and a shape on it. Heavy drapes were drawn across windows on the other side of it. There had been a medicinal smell in the room. Like a balm made from roots and herbs. It was mixed with the odor of hygiene products, like anti-bacterial soap and rubbing alcohol.

I took Nazari’s hand and went to the window, drew the drapes back a touch. Moonlight got through. Gilles Vaugeois was a lump in the bed. He looked asleep. At least unconscious. He had a nasal cannula pushing oxygen into each nostril. Like a drip irrigation system for the brain. The tank was right next to Vaugeois’ bed, emitting a hiss as the gas was released to his nose.

Nazari cursed and stood tight against me from behind. She pushed her fingers into my front pocket and held me like that. We looked at Gilles for a while. I could see the scar on the right side of his forehead. There’s almost no part of the human body more difficult to penetrate than the forehead.

I thought of putting a screwdriver in there. Doable, but tough. It’s the last place any trained operator would choose. Even if you weren’t going for a precise target, artery or organ, you’d want to go somewhere soft. Which meant that the attacker was both careless and extremely strong. We stood there looking at him for a minute or two. It made sense that he was on the ground floor. Nazari said, “Do you think he can hear?”

“I don’t know.” I stood over him. His eyes were closed. The eyelids quivered. Ragged breathing made his chest rise and fall. I said, “Probably not.”

Nazari said, “I have to go.”

I turned and we kissed more. After a while we disentangled. She stood close to the door and tucked herself back together again. I put back the drapes and walked through darkness to her. Found her. She was soft and firm and smelled good.