“No,” Seri said, grabbing it away.

“You know what? You’re fucked up,” Purdue said and left.

Seri and Mary listened to the slam of her door. Eve had stopped singing. The silence rolled in to them.

Seri put the release on Mary’s pillow.

“Lies,” Seri said.

Mary was putting socks on her feet.

“Are they the interesting ones?” Mary asked. “Or the easy ones?” “There’s a whopper. The rest is the usual.”

She reached over Seri and read. When she got to the end, she said, “So they’re saying it was a Reaper.”

“That’s right. Someone in Nevada,” Seri said. “Someone on a joystick at Nellis.” All the unmanned air vehicles, the drones, were controlled—much like any video game—at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

“Not a Viper,” Mary said.

“There are no Vipers at Bagram—you should know that,” Seri said. It was okay if a drone went into Pakistan and dropped a bomb. That Vipers were doing it—that was like Laos, or Cambodia.

“Killed someone named al-Libi,” Mary said, continuing to read.

There was nothing about civilians. She felt strangled by that, remembering Jeff’s talk about it, but it was more than this, some congruity, a mixing of her own hospital hours and those of the victims she’d made, as if someone had arranged this day to get her to see, to realize, for good. But she wasn’t feeling it, not even close.

“Sleep,” Seri said. “That’s what you need.”

Mary looked at her blankly. “I can’t imagine sleeping right now.”

“You want to raid Eve’s stash? I’ll bet she’s got Valium, and stronger.”

“Horse tranquilizer wouldn’t touch me.”

“Just lie down.”

“I can’t.”

“All right, then. Well,” Seri said, standing up, “maybe you need some alone time.”

“Seri, do you have pictures of your kids I could look at?”

“Now?”

“Yeah.”

Seri sat back down. “You don’t like kids.”

“I know.”

Seri lifted her eyebrows, let out a stream of air. She was about to say something. “Please,” Mary said. “I don’t know why.”

She watched Seri get up and leave. She rested her head against the plywood divider. Soon Seri was back, with a maroon photo album and a Tupperware box.

Mary woke with Halloween snapshots on her arms and chest. Seri was asleep on the floor, dirty laundry her blanket. Mary could smell coffee. She shifted her legs and heard what might be a crumple. She felt around her knee and pulled away some photos.

Eve looked in, her face bleared with the too much moisturizer she used in cold weather. Seri lifted her head up.

“This is good,” Eve said.

Seri smiled. She put her head back down.