* * *
I GET INTO the coffin to stay dry a few minutes longer. I stare up at the blank stone ceiling overhead. The water splashes around the edges of the coffin.
I know you’re trying to do the right thing.
Just like I tried to do the right thing when I came back from the Frozen City.
They sealed the tunnel with ice when I climbed back out of it, alone. They left the robots down there and watched the live feeds, but nothing else happened. The ghosts were gone. They were in me now.
They put me on a plane back home. The plane had arrived filled with soldiers and left with me and no one else. Smyth and the others who had stayed in the base while we descended into the city flew out on a different plane. I was dangerous cargo now.
I spent a month in quarantine. They studied me with X-rays a
