Artemis

He stood quietly for a moment. “Care to tell me who was in on this with you?”

“Nope.”

“I know Dale Shapiro was involved.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “Dale just happened to be out on a drive at the time.”

“In Bob Lewis’s rover?”

“They’re buddies. They lend each other stuff.”

“With Loretta Sanchez?”

“Maybe they’re dating,” I said.

“Shapiro’s gay.”

“Maybe he’s not very good at it.”

“I see,” Rudy said. “Can you explain why Lene Landvik transferred a million slugs to your account this morning?”

Good to know! But I kept a poker face. “Small business loan. She’s investing in my EVA tour company.”

“You failed the EVA exam.”

“Long-term investment.”

“That’s definitely a lie.”

“Whatever. I’m tired.”

“I’ll let you rest.” He walked back to the door. “The administrator wants to see you as soon as you’re up and about. You might want to pack some light clothes—it’s summer in Saudi Arabia right now.”

Svoboda slipped in through the door as Rudy left.

“Hey, Jazz!” Svoboda pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. “Doc says you’re doing great!”

“Hey, Svobo. Sorry about the chloroform.”

“Eh, no big.” He shrugged.

“I’m guessing the rest of town isn’t as forgiving?”

“People don’t seem that mad. Well, some are. But most aren’t.”

“Seriously?” I said. “I knocked the whole town out.”

He wiggled his hand. “That wasn’t just you. There were a lot of engineering failures. Like: Why aren’t there detectors in the air pipeline for complex toxins? Why did Sanchez store methane, oxygen, and chlorine in a room with an oven? Why doesn’t Life Support have its own separate air partition to make sure they’ll stay awake if the rest of the city has a problem? Why is Life Support centralized instead of having a separate zone for each bubble? These are the questions people are asking.”

He put his hand on my arm. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I put my hand on his. The effect was kind of lost with all the bandaging.

“Anyway,” he said. “The whole thing gave me a chance to bond with your dad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” he said. “After we woke up we formed a two-man team to check on my neighbors. It was cool. He bought me a beer afterward.”