“They fight like manikins, teeth and nail. They’re not as strong, or as fast, or as smart, and they don’t have any… weapons, like the manikins do.” Tamara flexed her hand like she could feel the makeshift brass knuckles on her own skin. “I don’t know if they’re smart enough to use tools at all. But they have a bite like you wouldn’t believe. They’re too skittish to attack on their own, so they’ll only attack in crowds, but when they do they mob their victims. Like rats. Because they’re skittish they’ll back off if you scare them enough, but in groups, they’re bold. Trust me… if they attack, don’t hesitate. No matter what they look like.”

A little face looked up at me from the lower platform of the spiraling mesh steps, full baby cheeks and pouting mouth. Doll-like, with empty doll’s eyes.

“The best way to get rid of them is to scare them off,” Tamara said. “Bright light, or a sudden loud noise. The sound might attract species 019 but if you find yourself unexpectedly in the middle of a crowd of 048s, that’s the best way to get out.”

Or if you unexpectedly find yourself in the middle of a group of scavengers on a ship that should be abandoned. I remembered Tamara shrieking suddenly after she’d found me, Benny, Leah, and Quint. The sad thing was, her ploy had worked on us, too.

“Should we scream now?” I wondered. “Scare them off?”

“The strut is too long and narrow. There’s nowhere for them to run to. If we scare them off, they’ll come right back. Better to save it for if they actually decide to attack. We should rest for a bit,” Tamara said.

She’d stopped on the next platform, dropping her bag heavily enough to loudly rattle the ancient metal stairs. I saw a childish head flinch back deeper into the wall.

“What, here?” Did she expect me to sleep with ghost children staring at me like they were wondering what my fingers tasted like?

Tamara sat down, back to the wall—as far from the edge of the platform, and the precipitous four-story drop down to where we’d entered, as she could get. “We’ve been travelling for hours,” she told me. “We’ve been running and fighting for a good portion of that time. If you sit down, you’ll realize you’re exhausted.”

“I don’t know if there’s room for anything but crippling terror,” I said, looking back down the way we’d come to find a tiny figure standing at the base of the steps, wavering back and forth on its feet, eyes like pits directly into the skull.

Indigo stepped past me, turning his shoulders to avoid knocking mine, and set his pack down too. The ancient stairs rattled, wobbling beneath my feet.

Fine, if it was gonna be two against one. I set my bag down beside theirs and sat down too, gingerly, craning my neck around as I did. The wavering Child at the base of the steps had vanished, like he’d never been there.