Page 56 of Dustwalker

Lara tilted her head. It took a moment, but when the joke hit her, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Smart ass. Why is it you only have a sense of humor sometimes?”

“Memory damage. Leaves me terribly inconsistent.”

Lara smirked. “You can say that again. Not literally!”

He snapped his mouth shut.

“I just need something to do, Ronin. Something to keep me busy. Teach me something, anything, just so I’m not counting the minutes.”

“All right,” he said, looking toward the window. “Tables are for sittingat, noton. Have you learned something?”

“Yeah. Will I obey? Probably not. I’m serious, Ronin.” Lara pressedher palms together in front of her. “Please! I need something to do. I don’t…I don’t have a purpose here.”

He raised a hand and scratched his cheek, eyes still on the window. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“There’s nothing here. I’ve looked.”

“I mean when I go out again. I’m leaving tomorrow. Going into the Dust.”

Lara straightened, eyebrows rising. “I can go with you! We’ll look for Tabitha together.”

His gaze snapped to her. “No.” There was a sharp edge in his voice that she hadn’t heard from him before. “It’s too dangerous, Lara.”

“I’ve scavenged for most of my life. I know the dangers.”

“You know nothing of the dangers out there. Have you ever been beyond the ruins of Cheyenne?”

She threw her arms out in frustration. “You can’t expect me to just stay here!” With a heavy sigh, she let her arms drop to her sides. “How long are you gonna be gone?”

“Depends on what I find. If I push it, maybe two or three weeks.”

“What?” Lara gaped at him before shaking her head. “Tell me you’re just testing out that sense of humor. For the record, that’s not funny. I am notgonna stay here by myself for three weeks with nothing to do.”

He turned his body toward her. It was an eerie, inhuman movement; his head remained fixed in place while the rest of him shifted. “I’ll make sure there’s plenty of?—”

“I’m not kidding, Ronin.” Cold dread clawed up her spine. She’d be trapped, alone. Surrounded by bots. “You can’t leave me here that long.”

“What’s an acceptable timeframe for you?” he asked after a long silence.

“A day. Maybe two. Though I don’t understand why you can’t just take me along.”

Ronin shook his head. The motions accelerated too quickly and stopped too abruptly, giving it an unnatural look. “It’s too dangerous. The first storm without shelter…” He held his hands out in front of him, palms up, and dropped his gaze to them, curling his fingers. “Three days. There’s little chance of me getting far enough to find anything of value in less time than that.”

She stared at him, clenching her jaw. “Damn you.”

“I have to uphold my part of the bargain. That means I need to earncredits. I can only do that with scrap.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“So take me back to my shack, and the deal can be over.”

“No,” he said too quickly, unexpected finality in his tone.

“Why? What do you?—”

Someone—or something—knocked on the front door. Lara snapped her mouth shut as she and Ronin turned their heads to look toward the noise. When their eyes met again, he seemed to have regained his composure. He tipped his head to the side, gesturing for her to go into the kitchen.

“All the more reason why you should take me,” she whispered, walking past him. In the kitchen, Lara pressed herself to the wall beside the entryway, keeping out of sight but not out of earshot.

The locks clicked before he opened the door.