16 Mohan and old friends
Knox and Alex rode in silence back down the lift. Perez had been convincing, but Knox still suspected Alex was behind some of it. Alex decided his boots were really interesting. And the floor. It was an interesting floor.
They exited out of the back door of the school to the landing pad, reserved for shipment loading and unloading. The baked epoxycrete heated Alex’s ankles and calves. His boots kept his feet safe, but they still started sweating. The smell of burnt rock, a smell only made by scalding epoxycrete, suffocated the air. Had it been that hot when Alex and Knox had landed at IAS? Alex hadn’t noticed over Knox’s brooding.
The breeze teased Alex’s curls, and he inhaled. Air inside the space stations and spaceships always smelled like a metal pipe, even
