Extraits

“Yeah,” Jorgen said. “Those devils are slippery. I don’t know how they keep getting out of her crate.” Huh. “Collecting more pets for Spensa?” I asked. That seemed a little pathetic even for Jorgen.

“I can’t do that,” Jorgen snapped. He sounded more upset with himself than irritated with Nedd, as if being a cytonic should have come with a manual. This was Jorgen. He probably “did” think being cytonic should have come with a manual.

Jorgen squinted at Fine, then closed his eyes. He kept them closed for a moment and then he started to hum, a noise I would have described as off-key if it wasn’t so completely tuneless.

“Of course I remember her,” Jorgen said. “That thing was supposed to stay in Spensa’s bunk but it would show up all over to perform. I found it in my cockpit once, and I couldn’t get it to leave! Every time I tried to catch it, the thing kept shrieking ‘Jerkface’ at me. I swear Spensa trained it to do that on purpose.”

That sounded incredibly difficult. No wonder he was frustrated. “So you think when you talked to it, you convinced it to explode?”

“Sometimes I have that effect on people. Just ask Spensa.”