The wind hit her face, and she forced her eyes shut. “Companion help me…” She leaned her shoulder against a nearby lamppost. “You ever have one of those days where your heart's just not in it?”
“Thinking about Harry's daughter?”
Anna nodded.
“I know it isn't easy,” Rajel said, “but the best thing we can do is…” Anna stopped paying attention when spatial awareness alerted her to movement on the other side of the road. People were moving all the time; carry a symbiont long enough, and you learned to ignore most of it. But some actions were threatening by their very nature.
The silhouette of a tall and lean man came around the corner of a building. He was too far off for Anna to make out his facial features, but he crept toward the curb and lifted a pistol in his right hand.
“Get down!”
