Don’t ever forget that.”
As if anyone could, thought Keilin. But the girl was adroit at talking her way out of the difficult situations her too-quick temper got her into. “Yes, I did speak without thinking. I’m sorry. I wasn’t referring to you of course, Cap. Could you explain, please?”
Cap snorted. However, she had gauged his ego correctly. “We use the core sections to track other core sections. There is a resonance between them. They are partially self-aware complex computing systems, and they retain contact with central computing. Unfortunately only psis can communicate with them, so I’ve had to rely on the Morkth-man. Even S’kith can’t communicate directly, but he can tell how far, and in what direction the sections lie. He also ‘sees’ a core section’s eye view of the place. That’s how we know this section is in Amphir. The red walls and white minarets are very characteristic.” He looked at them with sudden intensity. “Come to think of it, you two brats should be able to do the same. Maybe we can get more clues.”
He produced a thin-bladed knife. “Wet contact is best. Saliva works to an extent, but blood seems more effective.” Next to Keilin, Kim shrank back. Stupid girl. Yes, for a minute he’d thought Cap would bend him over a handy rock and cut his throat. But they were too valuable for that. And S’kith was still alive, wasn’t he?
The same thoughts had obviously occurred to Cap. He laughed, not quite without humor. “I’m not going to gut you, and read your bloody entrails, girl. I’m just going to prick your finger, that’s all.”
“I’m scared of the sight of blood. Especially my own,” she said in a small voice.
Cap raised his eyebrows. “And you, boy? Also chicken?”
Keilin fancied that knife’s needlelike point not at all, but he couldn’t see any way of backing out either. Not without appearing a coward and a fool in front of all of them. Gingerly he held out his hand.
Cap clicked his tongue as he took the boy’s hand. “Look at the city.” Keilin didn’t even feel a prick. But there was bright blood welling from the ball of his thumb. Cap pressed the thumb to the core section he took from his pocket.
For a brief instant he was back in the desert, almost as if it was establishing context. Then the feeling of vastness again, and a feeling of recognition, questioning, drawing information, a feeling of the rightness of shaved scalp, of fear, of loneliness . . . of an erect penis? Suddenly it dawned on him. This was S’kith as he saw himself: The