21
The pain in Keli's head slowly receded, consciousness seeping in like rain through a leaky roof. As always, the presence of other minds was the first thing she noticed. And they were hostile.
Keli was curled up on her side on a hard concrete floor, shivering at the chill it left in her skin. What is this place? She rolled onto her back, then sat up with some effort. How did I come here?
There was something on her neck.
Pawing at herself with her fingers, she felt a metal collar around her throat. Terror flared up in her chest. She had seen such a device before; she had worn such a device before. This was not good.
She was in what seemed to be an office with cinder-block walls and one window that looked out on some kind of machine shop. There was a desk to her left with papers scatt
