This was somewhat counterintuitive. Cora had told him that Enola was “not well,” which seemed like an understatement, as he was apparently “not well” enough for others of his kind to want to end his suffering like he was a horse with a broken leg. Terrifying as Enola was, Kaveh didn’t want to see that happen. Yes, he was a grotesque cyborg space monster, but he was also simply incredible, an alien being that had made it across the unfathomable empty gulf of space by ripping a hole in it. What a terrible thing it would be to lose a life like that, even if there was a nonzero chance he had come to take control of Earth and enslave all of humanity.

But the real issue was that Ampersand seemed, to put it mildly, extremely guarded if not a skosh homicidal, plus he had that inexplicably protective gatekeeper. Enola, conversely, was a mystery, but given his eagerness to talk to Cora, going even so far as to demand his freedom, Kaveh deduced that he was the less guarded of the two, and given that he was welded to the floor of a cave, also the less dangerous.

He looked down at the one borrowed earbud, to which he had tied a string of dental floss juuuust in case Enola started screeching ear-torture, and placed it in his ear. It felt alive, and he shuddered as the thing conformed to his inner ear. Then he grabbed his electric camping lantern, got out of the Land Rover, and hiked down to the cave.

By the time he found the entrance, much easier now that he’d wandered in and out of it a few times, about fourteen minutes had passed. He didn’t know what to listen for besides screeching hell noises, and wondered if the earbud would work for him at all. Taking the mightiest, bravest breath his body was capable of, he turned on his lantern and stepped inside.

Enola was still there, the black substance he had been leaking now congealed around him, a high-tech mummy doused with black paint. Kaveh stayed next to the wall of the cave, running his hands along the side as he moved around Enola in a circle. “Hey. Hello. I’m not going to free you, I’m not going to touch you. I just want to see if you’d be willing to communicate with me.”

Enola didn’t budge, and the earbud stayed quiet.

Kaveh wasn’t as afraid of Enola as of the possibility of the other one returning. Cora had been so eager to impress upon him how many humans Ampersand had not killed. Never killed a single one, no, sir, no dead humans here, nosiree. He got the impression that the only thing keeping Ampersand from killing him out of annoyance was the presence of his interpreter, and his interpreter was not here, but he didn’t get paid the big bucks to play it safe.