Caleb stood at the bed rail.
His brother had closed his eyes again, but the monitors no longer showed the old coma pattern. The brain harmonic had loosened into something ordinary enough to hurt: exhausted, living sleep.
The room was very quiet.
Caleb's left hand was on the bed rail. His right hand was in his coat pocket, around the folded gown. The fabric was still warm. Looking at it would only make the room smaller.
Soma had been gone for nine minutes.
In nine minutes, his comm had said nothing. The Hacker had stayed silent. Iharu, Hiro, Kikaru. Silent. The squad knew he was sitting with his brother and the squad was leaving him alone for it.
The squad had given him that without making him ask.
[Hacker: Tali is twelve floors down. She's bringing two operators with her. The kid she calls Olu and a quiet one I haven't placed.]
"Okay."
[Hacker: Caleb.]
"Yeah."
[Hacker: He's going to sleep through the move. That's good. Don't wake him for it.]
"I won't."
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