EMIL HALDEN held at the top of the queue.
Rina's tracker stayed flat.
The flatness had a weight now. Caleb remembered the doctor's office above the dead coast, the broken window, the graven statue standing at the sea as if watching the lie outlast him.
The screen printed:
NO ACTIVE VOICE DETECTED.
PRIOR EMPTY COST PRESENT.
VESSEL MAY SETTLE ABSENCE.
The empty place under Caleb's ribs opened like a cold hand.
Halden had cost eight points and given him only the hollow where a person had been. That hollow recognized the offer. It wanted to make the old payment useful.
Caleb put his left hand flat against his own chest.
"No intake."
The hollow stayed hollow.
Sam turned the Record to Halden's page.
"Emil Halden," he read. "Doctor. Quarantine coast. Family line recorded from surviving spouse."
The woman's eyes moved to the book.
"The subject cannot consent."
"Correct," Tali said.
