“Oh,” he said, taken aback.
“Yes,” said Venn quietly. “We believe there is an existential threat to us there. We all feel it. We know it deep inside our beings.”
Existential? Garner felt uneasy. “I don’t understand.”
After another pause, Venn continued, and his voice, though quiet, contained and element of desperate fierceness. “We Vees are being hunted,” he said. “For what we can provide. As sport—for the Norms. And, as a consequence of that—not deliberately, perhaps, but as a consequence—we are being slowly exterminated.”
“Oh.” Garner shivered. He was still confused.
“But,” he began, then stopped and gathered his thoughts. “I’m guessing that you’re talking about the Vee hunter groups. I’ve encountered two. I have been told there are more. But—the industrial park, I get the feeling t
