22. Advocates for the Dead
Mina
“What did you do to them?” I asked, eyeing the motionless Sliver-Julie in particular.
“Courtesy of Myra Kessler,” Mom answered grimly, opening her purse to show more of the hollow flechettes, along with her own squirming infestation of miniature suicide parasites. “Via Aldo, of course. He borrowed her gift to reprogram a batch of them into a temporary paralytic.”
“Aldo made it back?”
Mom smiled, but only barely. “I should have started with the good news.”
“Temporary or not, we should press our advantage while we’ve got it,” said Jess, pointing to the unconscious Slivers. “Three of those are fixers, and they don’t have to wake up if we don’t say so.”
“No!” I stepped in front of Julie in particular, but spread myself out as far as I could. I couldn’t le
