Chapter 5: Zara Osei Doesn't Believe in Ghosts

Reyes told her at six-fifteen in the morning, leaning against the ventilation housing on the facility's east side where they took their fifteen minutes when fifteen minutes was available. He said it the way he said everything he was uncertain about — quickly, watching her face, already preparing to manage whatever response came back.

"There was chatter in the overnight relay," he said. "Handler traffic. Someone's coming in."

Zara was eating. She had half a nutrient bar from the week's allocation and she was making it last because she had learned, at some point that was too early to be a specific memory, that making things last was the only form of control reliably available. She didn't stop eating when he said it.