Chapter 34

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"Fatten-jie?"

The girl spun around, her long black braid swinging against

 her lab coat.

"Your Majesty!"

A ghost smile flickered over Kai's face.

"Do you have a moment to assist us with something?"

"Of course." 

Fateen tucked a portscreen into her coat pocket.

Kai moved toward the wall of the white corridor, 

 allowing

 room for reteachers and technicians to pass by. 

"We need access to some patient records.

 I realize they're probably confidential, but..." 

Kai trailed off. 

 There was no "but,"

only a vague hope and a fair amount of confidence that his 

 title  was the only credental he needed.

But Fateen's gaze darkened as she flickered between him

 and Tori.

 "Patient records?"

"A few weeks ago," said Kai, "I came to check on Dr. Erland's

 progress and Linh Cinder was here. 

The Lunar cyborg from—"

"I know who Linh Cinder is," she said, her hardened fading

 as quickly as it had come.

"Right, of course."

 He cleared his throat. 

"Well, at the time, the doctor told me she was there fixing

 a med-droid, but I was thinking about it, and I thought

maybe she had actually been a..."

"A draft subject?"

"Yes."

Fateen shrugged.

 "Actually, she was a volunteer. 

Come on, there should be a vacant lab you can use. 

I'm happy to pull up Linh Cinder's records for you."

He and Torin followed her. 

 Kai wondering whether she would have been as

accommodating had it been any other patient. 

 Since the arrest, Linh Cinder had become a matter

of public concern, and therefore her private records

weren't so private anymore.

"She was a volunteer? 

Really?"

"Yes. I was a here the day she was brought in.

They'd had to override her system to get her in there.

 I guess she put up quite a fight when they came for her."

Kai frowned "Why would a volunteer put up a fight?"

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