The Apology Carl Owed

Carl leaves Grigori in the garage and finds Dong on the safe-room couch with Bigs perched on his head, health sliding, immune to potions and blessings and given about ninety minutes by Imani. Bigs holds Carl to the sluggalo code, tells him he is failing every clause of it, then softens and points him at the apology he actually owes. Carl tells Dong the racing floor is a drain meant to catch whoever came out the bottom of Faction Wars alive, admits he tried to keep him away because being in love with Corky makes him a liability, and then brings him along anyway as one of three race mercenaries beside the fleshmancer and Porky. Dong reports that the sock, Jefferson, wrote him off as a bad investment, and explains he fell for Corky the day Corky promised that at least they would go together. Privately Carl tallies the near-murder of Empress D'Nadia, the collapse after Finley died, the voices under the surface and the tremor in his hands, and concludes he is not standing on the edge but already over it. Porky and Dong are finally left alone together, and the eavesdropping cleaner bot gets an apology of its own.

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