“I heard you were dead,” I said slowly. I remembered the stupid, fat-sounding voice on the radio: He, too. He not here, the old man. Wa was growing a majestic silvery beard and mustache, but his eyes were as hard and flat as ever. “Hello to you, too, Avery. Did you shed a tear for me? Lower your weapons, please.” Wa Belling was possibly the best Gunner in the System—certainly the best in the room—and if I was going to be killed by maybe the last Dúnmharú left alive, I was going to go down with my gun in hand, giving what I got. I ticked my eyes over to Hense quickly and then back to Belling. The colonel just looked irritated. “Wallace Belling, sometimes styling himself Cainnic Orel,” she said. “I have to admit one piece-of-shit Gunner looks like another.” I opened my mouth to give Wa a smart response, but from behind us Ty started shouting. “You absolute cunt,”
