Page 66 of Red Zone Awakened

“And the broken glass?”

“I sent out sound waves to muffle the noise.”

There was a long silence while Keiko thought.“Do you sleep hanging upside down?”

“No!”Just when he thought they were on the same track, she was off again.And then Mace noticed the sparkle in her eyes.“You’re messing with me.”

“It’s either that or have a meltdown.This is a lot to take in.There’s a bat living in your body.You’re over a hundred years old.And I had sex with you.I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so good.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him.“What other way can you put it?”

“I’m still in my thirties.While I was in stasis for a century, I was lifted out of my time and dropped into this one.The bat doesn’t live in my body.It rests on my skin.”Yeah, no matter how you put it, it still sounded bad.

“Actually, if you put aside all the freaky aspects of this conversation—”

“Which would be all of it.”

“—what you’re left with is kind of funny.I mean, look at you.You’re huge.And you’re sharing your body with a teeny, tiny, furry bat.”She fought back a giggle.

This was why he’d never told Friday what his animal was, even though it irritated the hell out of her not knowing.Well, irritating the hell out of her might have been a reason too.

She pointed at him.“You’re Batman!”And then she howled with laughter.

Mace sighed and waited her out.Three years he’d had to live with this crap from his team.It had gotten old.And how the hell could she not know about movies but still make comic-book references?He didn’t understand one damn thing about this world.

Keiko wiped tears from her cheeks.“I’m sorry.It’s not funny.Really.It’s just… a lot.”

“No kidding.”

“You have a bat.A real live bat.And you told it to set off the fire alarm?”

“Yeah.”

“So it speaks English?”

“It’s only recently started talking, but it understands what I say just fine.We’ve spent the last three years communicating in images.Now the little rat’s using words.I preferred when it was silent.”

“Where’s the bat now?”She looked around the room as though expecting to find it hanging from the ceiling.

“Hunting.”

“Of course.”She nodded.“It’s nighttime.Bats are nocturnal.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Keiko absorbed everything he’d told her, and he watched her closely to make sure she was okay.The fire alarm suddenly stopped, telling him that Freedom had sorted the problem and returned to their base.It was time to get moving again.

At last, she looked over at him with a worried little frown.“Mace, this relationship with the bat—it’s symbiotic, right?”

“Not quite.We thought that’s what it was but turns out our science was off.Friday’s got some big, fancy words to describe our situation.Basically, it boils down to us being hybrids.Two different entities in one body, making up something new.”

“But you both depend on each other for life, right?”

“There’s no separating us, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s what I thought.”She paled.“Which makes me wonder: what happens to you if the bat dies?”