He reached a middle height, and at the stars,
Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank.
Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank,
The army of unalterable law.”
She let out a sigh of satisfaction then gave me a smile. “Look at you, standing upright and all.”
The last time she’d seen me, I was clinging to a walker for dear life as I staggered down the hallway. “Haven’t fallen on my ass yet today. Knock wood.” I rapped my knuckles on the doorframe, producing a dull metal thud. “What on earth are you reading to him?”
“‘Lucifer in Starlight.’ It’s one of his favorites.” She turned her gaze to the silent figure in the bed. “I think I saw an eyelid twitch, but that might have been wishful thinking.”
“Wishful and maybe a teensy bit impatient.” I moved to the bed and peered at Kang’s face.
Her brows drew together in a frown. “I’m not impatient. I’m worried. You woke up the day after you came out of the tank.”
“I wasn’t regrown from just a head. Plus, Dr. Nikas had the new and improved regrowth formula, thanks to Allen’s information. I got dunked in the good stuff from the very beginning. Not to mention, I was nice and fresh when I went into the tank. Kang and the others had been sitting in a freezer for a couple of months. And, by the time I fell apart, Dr. Nikas had over a year of experience from working with the heads.”
Naomi made a face. “All right, that makes sense. Damn it.”
I couldn’t blame her for worrying. She and Kang had been friends long before I ever met him. In fact, their friendship had been the seed for her “divorce” from Saberton. Because of Kang, Naomi had understood that zombies were people, not monsters.
“He’s going to be fine,” I said with all the reassurance I could muster. “At least Dr. Nikas laid down the law to stop Pierce from trying to make Kang wake up.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Pierce was in here earlier. Checking if there’d been any change.”
The original Pierce Gentry had been a Saberton security bada
ss—until Tribe leader Pietro Ivanov killed him to escape Saberton’s prison-lab in New York. But he hadn’t just killed him. Pietro had eaten Pierce’s brain and used a mature zombie ability to mimic his DNA, and thus physically became Pierce. For the sake of security, as well as to keep Saberton from learning about mature zombies and their abilities, it was decided Pietro Ivanov would “die” in a plane crash, and everyone would be told that Pierce Gentry had simply been a Tribe operative the whole time and would rejoin the Tribe now. Only a handful of people knew the truth: the Pierce Gentry who’d returned with us from New York was in fact Pietro Ivanov.
“Did Pierce do anything?”
“Nothing other than sniff Kang and scowl a lot.”
I snickered. “Yeah, because Dr. Nikas would have his head otherwise.” Ever since Kang started regrowing, Pierce had pressured Dr. Nikas to hurry the process and pestered him with questions. How quickly will Kang recover? and Will he have all of his memories? and others along the same line. It was obvious Pierce desperately wanted to know something only Kang could tell him, but Dr. Nikas had put his foot down. He didn’t care what Pierce wanted from Kang. His first priority was to his patient. Period. Finally, during a particularly heated exchange, Dr. Nikas pointed out that if Pierce insisted on rushing the regrowth and recovery, Kang might not be in a condition to answer any questions. Ever. That stark truth backed Pierce off.
Naomi blew out her breath. “Yeah. Dr. N is the best. I should have more faith in him.” She summoned a smile. “Have you heard from Andrew?”
For a fraction of an instant I considered telling her about the game console, but immediately discarded that idea. I didn’t know if it was from Andrew, and Naomi could get pretty emotional when it came to her brother. It would be way worse for her if I told her about the package and then it turned out it really was from some long-lost cousin named Arnold Stein.
I shook my head. “He was on CNN last night, talking about some trade agreement and its impact on something or other. My eyes glazed over after about thirty seconds, but he sure looked alive to me.”
“I saw that one, too. Alive and in India.” A slight crease formed between her eyebrows.
“You don’t believe he’s really there.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. “Do you?”
“Not for a second,” I said. “I think he’s been doing interviews and stuff like this to make it look like he’s there.”
“Exactly!” Naomi cried, relief washing over her face. “And he’s probably video-conferencing for board meetings and other matters. Heck, over half the board attends remotely. And if Andrew has a tech person on tap, he could appear to be connecting from anywhere he wants.”
“He has Thea Braddock,” I said, referring to his bodyguard and the former head of security for Saberton New York. “She’s super competent, and I bet she found someone to do that for him.”
“But he’s so new to being a zombie. What if he’s not getting enough brains?”
“He didn’t look at all brain-hungry on CNN,” I reassured her. “Plus, I trust Thea to get whatever he needs.”