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Caine nodded. He bit at his thumbnail, an old habit. “How about freaks?”
“They have Dekka and Brianna and Taylor. They have Jack. They may have some other useful freaks, Bug isn’t sure. They have Lana to heal people. And Bug thinks they have a kid who can fire some kind of heat wave.”
“Like Sam?”
“No. Sam’s like a blowtorch. This kid is like a microwave. You don’t see any flames or anything. It’s just that suddenly your head is cooking like a breakfast burrito in a Kitchen-Aid.”
“People are still developing powers,” Caine said. “Any here?”
Diana shrugged. “Who knows for sure? Who’s going to be crazy enough to tell Drake? Down in town a new mutant gets some respect. Up here? Maybe they get killed.”
“Yeah,” Caine said. “That was a mistake. Coming down on the freaks, that was a mistake. We need them.”
“Plus, in addition to some possible new moofs, Sam’s people still have machine guns. And they still have Sam,” Diana said. “So how about if we don’t do something stupid like try and fight them again?”
“Moofs?”
“Short for mutant. Mutant freaks. Moofs.” Diana shrugged. “Moofs, muties, freaks. We’re out of food, but we’ve got plenty of nicknames.”
Caine’s shirt was laid over the back of a chair. He reached for it, wobbled, and seemed about to fall over. Diana steadied him. He glared at her hand on his arm. “I can walk.”
He glanced up and caught sight of his reflection in a mirror over the dresser. He almost didn’t recognize himself. Diana was right: He was pale, his cheeks were concave. His eyes seemed too large for his face.
“I guess you are getting better: you’re becoming a prickly jerk again.”
“Get Bug in here. Get Bug and Drake. I want to see them both.”
Diana made no move. “Are you going to tell me what happened to you out there in the desert with Pack Leader?”
Caine snorted. “You don’t want to know.”
“Yes,” Diana insisted, “I do.”
“All that matters is I’m back,” Caine said with all the bravado he could manage.
Diana nodded. The movement caused her hair to fall forward, to caress her perfect cheek. Her eyes glittered moistly. But her lush lips still curled into an expression of distaste.
“What’s it mean, Caine? What does ‘gaiaphage’ mean?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard the word before.”
Why was he lying to her? Why did it seem so dangerous that she should know that word?
“Go get them,” Caine said, dismissing her. “Get Drake and Bug.”
“Why don’t you take it easy? Make sure you’re really…I was going to say ‘sane,’ but that might be setting the bar kind of high.”
“I’m back,” Caine reiterated. “And I have a plan.”
She stared at him, head tilted sideways, skeptical. “A plan.”
“I have things I have to do,” Caine said, and looked down, incapable, for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp, of meeting her gaze.
“Caine, don’t do this,” Diana said. “Sam let you walk away alive. He won’t do that a second time.”
“You want me to bargain with him? Work something out?”
“Yes.”
