Chapter 26
The street dwellers, the four raiders became in their own minds grubby and reduced. Tavia looked down at her hands, at her dirty fingers and bitten nails, at the frayed cuffs of her unwashed, grimy clothes.
Like an incoming wave splashing on a reluctant shore, the first of these strange, clean people reached the tiny, shrunken group of raiders, to wash around them, parting as they came and rejoining when they had passed.
Smurf seemed to be the least affected. “More tupping holos!” He took a step, to deliberately stand in the way of one: an old man, somewhat hunched. The holo paused, then made to go the other side, but Smurf was ready and shuffled across. The holo stopped and regarded him with eyes that at first were dull then brightened, as if a spark within them had been ign
