“I…” don’t know, Miles realized. Back was not an option till the drug had cleared his system and he’d garnered some notion of who his enemies were—if he returned to the cryonics conference, assuming it was still going on after all the disruptions, he might just be rushing back into their arms. Home was definitely on the list, and up till yesterday at the top, but then things had grown… interesting. Still, if his enemies had just wanted him dead, they’d had plenty of chances. Some hope there… “I don’t know yet,” he confessed.

The elderly butterbug said in disgust, “Then we can’t very well send you there, can we? Come on, Jin!”

Miles licked dry lips, or tried to. No, don’t leave me! In a smaller voice, he said, “I’m very thirsty. Can you at least tell me where I might find the nearest drinking water?” How long had he been lost underground? The water-clock of his bladder was not reliable—he might well have pissed in a corner to relieve himself somewhere along his random route. His thirst suggested he’d been wandering something between ten hours and twenty, though. He almost hoped for the latter, as it meant the drug should start clearing soon.

The lizard, Jin, said slowly, “I could bring you some.”

“No, Jin!”

The lizard jerked its arm back. “You can’t tell me what to do, Yani! You’re not my parents!” Its voice went jagged on that last.

“Come along. The custodian is waiting to close up!”

Reluctantly, with a backward glance over its brightly-patterned shoulder, the lizard allowed itself to be dragged away up the darkening street.

Miles sank down, spine against the building wall, and sighed in exhaustion and despair. He opened his mouth to the thickening mist, but it did not relieve his thirst. The chill of the pavement and the wall bit through his thin clothing—just his shirt and gray trousers, pockets emptied, his belt also taken. It was going to get colder as night fell. This access road was unlighted. But at least the urban sky would hold a steady apricot glow, better than the endless dark below ground. Miles wondered how cold he would have to grow before he crawled back inside the shelter of that last door. A hell of a lot colder than this. And he hated cold.