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your help on launch windows for a timebomb. ’
    ‘ Pipe or sphere? ’
    ‘ Sphere. ’
    ‘ Transparent kinda like a powerball? ’
    ‘ More metallic colours like a Christmas decoration, but faceted. ’
    ‘ It ’ s probably a Vanzetti LPR - localised progress reset device. There are three default settings: ten minutes, ten hours, 24 hours. You look like hell. ’
    I peered in a wing-mirror - my face was bruised purple black across the middle, like there was a vulture flying out of my eyeline. My hair was spiky with dried blood. ‘ Colour me damaged, babe. Back soon. ’
    ‘ See that you are. ’
    I popped the beak of the car to free the swan unit. Folded down to the size of a toy harp, it was like an obstetric sculpture in white plastic. ‘ Wake up, ’ I whispered, and the swan unfolded itself wing by wing, tilting to stand, and raising its head last. Its eyes blinked on. It looked cute. I grabbed its face by some jowls which extended automatically for just such occasions. ‘ You crazy swan, ’ I cried, tugging the jowls. ‘ You crazy swan! I love ya! ’
    ‘ Don ’ t do that, ’ said the swan.
    ‘ You crazy swan! Anyways, I need you to look out for new arrivals at the Stina Gate. ’
    The swan hopped away from me, waddled on the ground a little, and took off, flapping into an iron sky.
     
     

6 DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WHOOP
     
    At the hotel Murphy fixed herself an October Surprise and sat on a smashed TV whose innards looked like a city with kidney-coloured streets. I sat on the edge of the bed and opened a can of water. My left hand felt like a wedge of poison sticks. I ’ d wrapped it in a strip of rotten curtain patterned with brown roses. The beating was enough to prompt me to put everything else aside and deal with the pain. ‘ I think my eye ’ s blown. ’
    ‘ Lose much blood? ’
    ‘ I ’ ve got DNA base pairs I haven ’ t even used yet. That was nice of you to haul my chestnuts out of the blaze back there. Kind of a miracle. ’
    ‘ So ’ s bleeding upwards. ’
    ‘ Was I doing that again? They seemed determined to find me mistaken. Their ancient form of wonder-working depends on it. Pretending you ’ re not helpless is just a coping strategy. I would have died for nothing. ’
    ‘ All do. ’
    I lit a shock absorber. My alertness was for her sake - as was the fact that I was awake atall.
    ‘ As for the broken nose, I ’ ve decided to take it as a distinction - one of many bad decisions in my life. How ’ d you find me? ’
    ‘ Hole in the gap. You reversed into the story like a Florida gran, Atom. What ’ s the connective tissue? ’
    ‘ No mystery there. A slabhead warned me off the kid so I got serious. Then I found the Mexicans fiending for him at the Gate. They screwed up with a chronobomb. I ’ ve seen better timing from a stuffed olive. But the banditos caught me off-balance - I ’ ve been out of town a long time. There seems to be way less torque under the hood these days, but maybe I haven ’ t engaged enough to feel it yet. ’
    ‘ Fed training says the most dangerous town is one where the advent of crime is very recent and its novelty keeps everyone wasteful and imprecise, thinking they ’ re proving something. I don ’ t think there are any towns like that anymore. Why ’ d you leave? ’
    ‘ I figured out what the cops were doing right. But when I incorporated the lesson, they didn ’ t care for it. Now I get back and find Cortez is growing human in the ground. ’
    She smiled. ‘ Yup. Neon headstone, flashing arrow pointing jauntily down. Casket with a half-lid, the works. Inscription says “ This Tombstone is Not a Toy ” . I guess there ’ s justice if you dig deep enough in a graveyard. ’
    ‘ No, that ’ s just forgetting. ’ I dragged on the shocker. ‘ Well, you ’ ve given me no cause to doubt you ’ re human, at least. How long you been here? ’
    ‘ When bad things happen to good people. ’
    ‘ Always? Thought you were from out