“Honestly, Eva, the extinguishers here were not designed for such a siege,” Muthr said, watching her old headless body move and jerk back to life. “I needed to douse the flames before I could come in here, and before any of my inner workings were damaged.”

“And?” Eva pulled a handful of nutriment pellets out of her satchel and began eating.

“The computer is running diagnostics on me right now,” Muthr said. She was surrounded by a dazzling array of holo-charts and menus that were projected at a dizzying rate. The entire display flickered, and Eva realized that the Sanctuary’s main computer had been somehow affected by Besteel’s raid.

“So tell me about this stranger you have brought back with you,” Muthr said, reading the statistical data.

“Oh, Rovee?” Eva said. “His full name is Rovender Kitt, and he’s great. He helped me escape from—”

“Eva Nine?” Rovender’s head popped in through the doorway. “Are these what you need?” On his backward-bending legs he brought a new pair of sneakboots and socks to her.

“Yes! Thanks so much for doing that for me,” she said. Eva took the shoes and set them next to her discarded soiled socks. “I didn’t want to go in there and see how destroyed my bedroom was.”

“There is not much left to see,” Rovender said, pointing at the shoes. “I could only find one in gray and one in white.”

“That’s okay,” Eva said. “They’ll both get so dirty up there that they’ll match. As long as I’m not barefoot again.”

“Good,” Rovender said. After glancing up at Muthr’s hanging body, he returned to the doorway. “I am going to check for Besteel. If the area is clear, we best get moving.”

“We?” Eva asked, smiling.

“Yes,” Rovender replied flatly. “I need to get on my way and so do you. Do you understand?”

Eva nodded in agreement. She saw Muthr watch Rovender slip out of the room and go up the stairs in the main entryway. Eva also noticed that the Sanctuary was running Identicapture, in an attempt to identify her lanky companion. Muthr turned her gaze back to Eva and asked, “How is it that you understand the language of this stranger, Eva?”

“I told you, he’s not a stranger. He’s a friend,” Eva said as she fished around in her satchel. “And I can understand what he is saying because he gave me this.” She held up the vocal transcoder.

“Interesting.” Muthr extended one of her many arms. “May I?”

“Um, sure,” Eva said, handing the transcoder over. “Just be careful. We are going to need it.”

“Of course. Oh, and Eva?” Muthr spoke in that old-timey movie voice. “Can you please wash your hands? They are filthy.”