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STARTLING STORIES
waist.
And over it went, falling backward off the cliff.
And over I tumbled over too, carried by momentum—
I fell, and figured I was going to hit a rock and die…
But I plunged into deep water. The im-pact after the long fall knocked the wind out of me. I felt brine intruding painfully into my lungs. But nearby, a little below, the an-droid was sinking, its arms flailing. I’d ex-tracted the critical information from Mar-ra—the android was not a subaquatic model. It sank rapidly, even as I struggled to swim upward. It looked up at me, its optical grid flashed—then flickered, and went out. Grey fluid seeped from its thin mouth…
Darkness was closing around me, and my limbs went all rubbery, even as I looked down and watched the now-stiff android, falling face do
