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Something small and hard crystallized in Benti’s mind. “Nothing good ever comes from ONI,” she said low, with vehemence that surprised even her.

Clarence was paying attention, she noticed, but trying hard to act like he wasn’t. What the heck is that about?

“There was a guard, fat asshole called Murray; he found out about the Flood. Some new biological weapon, I dunno, something. He said, he said,” a tremor entered his voice, “he said they were studying it. Here. With us.” He stopped moving, hand not quite on Henry’s arm.

Henry’s head drooped, and Rimmer patted him again. Henry flinched.

Rimmer took his hand away, embarrassed. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“——,” Henry said, with poor grace, and looked at Benti expectantly.

That brought Benti up short. She stared at the four jaws of his mouth, curled meek against his face now, little teeth fitting into the grooves of his gums. She’d never had the opportunity to watch a Covenant Elite speak before. It was one of the grossest things she had ever seen, and she’d seen plenty of gross. She could still see down his throat. It wasn’t pretty, either.

Clarence shifted slightly, bemused, and raised an eyebrow at her. She raised both eyebrows helplessly, looked at Rimmer.

“Um. What did he just say?”

Rimmer stared back at them like they were asking the impossible. “How should I know? But maybe he’s trying to tell his side of the story. All that black stuff on the walls of the room you found us in? That was him writing down words. I couldn’t read any of it.”

Henry slumped, clearly fed up, the tip of his cricket bat thumping into the floor, and muttered something that didn’t require translation.

Rimmer gave Henry a pointed look that said don’t interrupt again, and continued: “Something happened, I don’t know, I think the Covies made a break for it or something. And in all the chaos, I guess . . . the Flood got out. Covies let some of us out, too, which might surprise you but by then we’d all been through the same stuff. All got the same fate on this ship. ’Course, it didn’t help at first, because the guards didn’t like it, and they started on us, all of us prisoners, and some of the Covies didn’t like that and started on anything human. But me and Henry, we’re cool. We knew. Bigger problems on board.”

“And you’ve been hiding ever since.”

“A day, I think. Maybe two. You lose track of time real fast around here.”

“So fast?”

Rimmer nodded. “We gotta get off this ship. Soon, you know?”

Benti couldn’t disagree. She also couldn’t tell him Henry would be shot on sight once they reached the hangar, that she’d do it herself if she had to. Because the sarge wasn’t going to like this, not at all. But Henry would be useful getting back to the Pelican, even if only to provide another target for the Flood. Besides, Clarence, hanging back, always had his rifle pointed vaguely in Henry’s direction.

“Do you know where this leads?” She pointed out the door. Henry shivered faintly.

“Yeah,” Rimmer said. “D cell block. I think the engines are behind them. We should . . . we should find a different way.”

“Why?”

“That’s where they took all the dead. That’d be like going into an angry beehive right about now.”

>Lopez 1537 hours

Lopez wasn’t sure, but she thought Mahmoud might’ve mumbled “. . . and then comes ice cream” as he’d bled out onto the floor in her arms, his blood mingling with all the rest. His hand had been warm, just like John Doe’s had been, and she’d been just about as much help.

Another bead down. It wore on her, and never stopped wearing. But at least she could take his dog tags. Tell everyone back on the ship how well he’d served. They were in her pocket along with Smith’s security pass.

“That’s on me, not you guys,” she’d said as Singh and MacCraw had wordlessly bandaged her up, with a kind of care she guessed meant respect. Even standoffish Percy helped.

Now she hardly even felt it, except as a sting if she bent or turned suddenly. Just the four of them now, heading toward the bridge down the longest corridor in the world. The only point of interest, an