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“So now you understand why we value aberrations so much,” said Desmond. “Apart from just being so incredibly fun to work with, I mean.”

Geoffrey laughed.

“What do you want to do now? We have a mission to attend to, but if you come with us, we can introduce you to some fun people. They’ll help you grow your powers more quickly and safely than you can on your own. And they’ll definitely keep you entertained.”

“That sounds amazing!” Geoffrey’s grin lessened, however. “But there is something else I want to take care of first.”

“Oh?”

“Perhaps you can help me. How good is Abolish’s information network?”

“You won’t find better. Why?”

“I would very much like to find someone. A man named Colt.”

“Tell me more.”


Chapter Twenty-One: ‘Alliance of calamity, capitulate not...’
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Roman had been pleasantly surprised to discover a first aid kit in Gerald’s truck. Dressing wounds wasn’t his forte, but Voreese and Mehlsanz were able to provide apt instruction. And when he finished, he thought Lynnette’s cotton-white bandage looked quite skillfully applied.

For the first hour or so of driving, Lynnette’s questions were unrelenting, but given all she’d been through, he wasn’t about to spare her any explanations. And after she seemed to have wrapped her head around imaginary beings and undying people, she started asking why Hector was not regenerating like before.

“Because his reaper is severely wounded,” Roman explained. “He won’t start regenerating again until Garovel recovers.”

Lynnette eyed the half-destroyed helm containing what remained of Hector’s head. She couldn’t see Garovel’s unconscious, shriveled form clinging to the back of it, but Roman could.

To his eyes, reapers looked like ethereal birds. Crows, precisely--but at the moment, Garovel was no more than a dark smudge. He would have to take Voreese’s word for it that reapers could still recover from such a state.