Page 48 of Mutant Mine

“You can feel that through the door?”

“Yes.”

“What else can you do?”

I wouldn’t have the courage to ask him that normally. But talking through the locked door makes me braver.

There is another, longer pause before Roth replies this time.

“I hear very well,” he says, slowly. “I am sensitive to touch — small movements in the air, vibrations, allow me toanticipate movements. I heal quickly. I will probably live for much longer than the average human. I have a higher body temperature, because I have a more efficient metabolism. I need fewer hours of sleep. I am strong, and have good stamina. I can sense… other things, sometimes, too.”

“Can you see in the dark?”

“No.”

“Bummer.”

“Yes. It would be quite useful.”

“Figures, though. I always wondered why you didn’t manage to catch me that first day.”

“There was too much happening, too many men running around… I could feel movement, but I could not tell which was you,” Roth says. “Rory, I—”

His tone sounds so unhappy, I just know that he’s going to apologize. What for though — scaring me in the dark? Grabbing me? Chasing me?

Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.

“You know,” I interrupt, “I’ve actually wanted to take a bath in here since the moment I first saw the tub.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. But I never felt safe enough to make myself vulnerable like that.”

“…Ah.”

Now though… I don’t know whether Roth could be called a good person. There’s so much darkness in his past — and no denying that past, which is written all over his skin in vivid blue lines. But even so…

“Now I do,” I say primly.

Silence. After a moment, something thumps against the bathroom door. When Roth next speaks, his voice sounds closer to the floor. He must have slid down to sit with his back against the door.

“Rory,” he says, low and quiet, “I would kill any man on this ship to keep you safe.”

…Fuck. I blink fast, my heart pounding.

“Thank you,” I say faintly, so grateful that he can’t see my face. Desperate to lighten the tone, I add: “And if you ever need backing up in a fight, me and my steak knife are always here to help.”

Roth laughs roughly.

“Your little knife got the job done.”

“That’s true.”

We both fall quiet again. I think he may have left, when he asks:

“So, have you been in the bath all day?”

“No! I’ve been reading.”

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