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Rufus and Lee leaned against the wall, discussing in hushed whispers how to get out of the building once they escaped from the cage.
“She’s getting worse.” Lee looked at Prin who was still sleeping.
“I know, but we can’t risk leaving until they capture that Servant. They were searching all night.”
“You’ve noticed her stomach, haven’t you?” asked Lee.
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to think about that. She was getting bigger every day. It wasn’t normal, not at this stage of the pregnancy. Living on the streets made them all very familiar with pregnant females and none of them showed this early.
The door burst open and Scottsmoor strode into the room, muttering under his breath. “This is Gruntshit. I have to waste my time because McBrid screwed up. Killing an Aranea with water. How does that even happen?” He turned on the computer. “And that Guard should be fed to a River-Man for his stupidity.”
Rufus looked at Lee who shrugged. They’d heard rumors on the street that there were things haunting the forest—unnatural things. One of them was called the River-Man because it stayed in the rivers and lakes, hunting anything that got near. Neither of them had believed the stories, but unless Scottsmoor was being whimsical the creatures existed. He snorted back a laugh. The Almighty was a lot of things, but whimsical wasn’t one of them.
“Come on.” The scientist stared at the computer, pressing a button on the keyboard.” I don’t have time to watch all the footage. I only need to see what happened after the escape.” He tapped faster.
Lee nudged him and he nodded. It seemed the Almighty never watched the tapes and that was excellent news.
Scottsmoor straightened. “He was here.” He looked up from the computer. “Where did he go?”
“What are you talking about?” Rufus didn’t like Servants but he liked Scottsmoor even less.
“The Servant who came in here last night.” Scottsmoor’s face was turning red.
“It’s all on the film,” said Rufus.
The Almighty’s eyes narrowed but he looked back at his screen and then left.
“Hopefully, with all this excitement, he’ll forget about our shots.” Those things did more than hurt. They sparked a fire in his blood and he was pretty sure they were burning away who he was and leaving something new.