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Hector caught one of their legs and flung the man into his partner. They both bounced off the wall and toppled onto one another. He waited for them to get back up, but when he saw them reaching for their guns, he pulled their weapons straight out of their hands and pistol-whipped them both over the head. They stayed down.

Hector eyed the medic crouching in the corner and donned his helm once more. “Please remain quiet...”

The woman nodded furiously.

More guards filed into the room, however. Hector used the first thug who entered to push through the others and create a path for himself. He made sure that they all went down before they could start shooting or call for help. A couple of them ended up caught in the rafters. He initially thought that the corridor had a typically bare ceiling, so he was confused when the first guy he kicked up there didn’t come back down.

‘Well, this descended quickly,’ said Garovel.

Hector ripped the clamps out of his chest, tearing flesh and bleeding all over the marble floor. Broken ribs stuck out at jagged angles, and he touched his own beatless heart. He tried not to think about how painful this would be later. ‘So where do I go now?’

Bohwanox appeared through the wall. ‘I apologize for my imposition,’ he said.

‘Uh, it-it’s fine...’

‘Bohwanox can’t hear you,’ Garovel said as he initiated the regeneration, causing Hector’s bones to bend and snap back into place. ‘He isn’t linked to your brain like I am, so you have to talk aloud to him.’

“Oh. Uh... Garovel said that, um... you saw the aura of death go away on its own?”