“Do you remember Doctor Marco?” I asked Benny.

He didn’t pause his examination of the wall. “Who?”

“On Kystrom. The veterinarian.”

Benny sighed. “I never met him, Sean.”

That’s right. Benny had lived on the other side of the town; Doctor Marco had mostly kept to himself. Certainly Benny had never gone with me and Brigid and Liza to the doctor’s doorstep, carrying a new alien species in need of aid.

It occurred to me that I didn’t know if Benny had ever had pets, on Kystrom. My memory was hazy—he’d had a dog, hadn’t he? Maybe a little yappy dog. Here I was, dying from nanomachines burrowing their way into my skull, and I didn’t even know if Benny had ever had a dog.

I opened my mouth to ask when a flare of blue light caught my attention. I jolted, turning back the way we had come, and saw Tamara and Indigo several rooms away, staring at us through the open doors.

Tamara said, “Sean!”

“Oh, shit,” I said, and to Benny, “Run!”

CHAPTER SIXTY NINE:

Last One There Loses

“What the—” I heard Tamara say, distinctly, and then, “Sean!” A moment later boots pounded on the ground in pursuit.

Benny’s flashlight bounced wildly over the walls and floor as he ran. “I’ve got the scalpel,” he reminded me, breathless, and I saw the flash of metal in his hand.

“No!” I said. “No, no, no. Look, they’re after me. Split up and I’ll lose them. Meet up further down the wall.”

He nodded briefly, short of breath already. I’d always been a better runner than Benny. The next room we entered, I went right and he went left.

“Hey, Lantern-Eyes!” I shouted, and waited until she’d burst through the door behind me, a stormy look on her face, to peel off running again.

Tamara was fast. I’d known that because I’d run alongside her just recently, but it was one thing to run with her and a whole other thing to have all that ferocious attention and dedicated speed chasing you down through the halls of an abandoned spaceship. I was almost scared. My only light was her flashlight beam, and my steps were obscured by my own shadow, a long-legged man-shape stretching out over floor and walls.

She was gonna catch up. I’d been the subject of one of her take-downs before, back in the farmlands, and I wasn’t keen to have that brutal efficiency smashing my face into the metal floor. I found what I was looking for and slowed to a stop, standing just inside a doorway.

Tamara jogged to a stop a few feet away. “What the fuck, Sean?”

“Where’s Indigo?” I asked.

“He’s following us at a walk, because he has a fucking hole in his stomach. What the hell are you doing? Why are you running? How did you find your friend?”

“Sorry, Tamara,” I said, and raised one hand beside the doorframe. I had a theory to test.

She took another step towards me. “I don’t like apologies. You’d better have a damn good explanation.”