World's End

Page 153

memory of cages and pain. "HK said he trusts you.

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He trusts you enough to let you work on a weapon like that?"

SB laughs harshly. "As long as I wear this." He tugs at his collar again.

"A block?" I ask, looking at it with sudden recognition.

He nods. "If we try to use anything with a power charge while we're wearing this--" He makes an abrupt, brutal motion. "Anubah's got the control."

I shake my head. "Where the hell do they get something like that, here?"

"They trade for it, trade whatever they can find out there--trade for everything they can't steal off of poor

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bastards like us."

"With whom?"

"The Company." He shrugs. I raise my eyebrows.

"Thousands of people work for the Company," he says, "and most of them barely get a living out of it. There are plenty who've willing to deal with real criminals, since they work for thieves already. At least this way they get their share."

I remember Ang, and I nod.

"You're not wearing a collar." He stares at me. "Are you free? How? Why?"

I show him the trefoil. "I wear this."

"A sibyl sign?"

I explain again, as briefly as possible.

He gapes at me, like HK did. "By all our ancestors, you're the last one I'd ever expect. . . . But you sound sane enough. Are you sure you're infected?"

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