Al sighed. Weapons on the floor. Weapons slung on his back. He couldn’t imagine how it made any difference, so he wrote the command off as unserious posturing and ignored it. The low-light flashlight was still rolling back and forth a little on the tiles where he’d left it – invisible to normal eyes, but the movement turning the hallway into a gray kaleidoscope to his enhanced vision. Arms crossed, cigarette stub jutting from between two fingers the only visible light. He didn’t move anything but his lips…

……he’d heard the guy.

But there was information here. Something important……

“Well kemo sabe, yer the third feller today’s told me how stupid I’m bein’. But ain’t none of ’em offered a single blessed reason fer it. Maybe you’ll be the first. If’n yer serious about somethin’ bein’ put right, that is.”