The Lambert House, Planet Denver

[Manticore]

"Now that I've taken up residence on Bethlehem, I won't see him again for a while."

He nodded, but inevitably his mind too had drifted back to the events of earlier that night. The horror of the Nomad's power and rage was still fresh in his mind, and he still didn't feel... right. It seemed as if some element of the Nomad's damage remained, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

He couldn't get around what the Nomad had almost made him do... how for those agonizing minutes, his mind hadn't been his own. How the Nomad had tried to force him to kill Chloe, and how he'd almost been willing to do it.

If I almost did it tonight, what happens later? What if it catches me unaware next time, and forces me to kill an innocent, a friend, or even... Pita?

He knew the cardamine was what made him more susceptible to the Nomads, but if he wasn't dosed up, the other side of him was more likely to come out. It was if his mind was now a fulcrum, with the twin threats, external and internal, vying for power over him. No matter what, he was doomed to slip up and lose control eventually.

Then he remembered the woman sitting next to him on the couch, and that long seconds of silence had passed since she'd finished speaking. With a mental effort, he yanked his mind up and out of the dark pit it had been in, and he came up with another question to ask her.

"So... what do you enjoy doing outside of your work, Chloe?" he asked, struggling to keep things normal and light. He felt that was the most important thing for both of them on this particular night.

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