Chapter Four: New FactorsA noise disturbed Kia’s concentration. It sounded like a wounded animal, but it came from Rial’s quarters. She peered along the passageway, checking. His door was wide open, and she gasped as she saw him outlined in the bright moonlight, lying on the floor.
She sprinted along the corridor. Had someone poisoned him after all? When she crouched down beside him, she could see he was breathing, but he was rigid, tremors shuddering through his body. Then she saw the blood. The glass he’d been holding had smashed as he fell and cut a long jagged s***h across his palm. She was in and out of his bathroom in a flash, wrapping a wet towel around his hand. The bruise on his chin had disappeared within a day. How long would the nanobots take to seal a wound? She stroked his h
