Chapter 82

Tav settled in, and waited. 26: “You don’t remember?”

Luca was drifting when he heard the beeping stop. The sudden quiet was disorienting, and he tried to blink before realising he already had his eyes closed. Why did he have his eyes closed? God, that was stupid of him—even if the thought slid away, and he couldn’t quite remember why it was stupid of him…

Still. The beeping had stopped, and Luca found he didn’t really like the quiet. All the other times he’d woken up, there’d been beeping or people talking. And there were people talking, but not to Luca. They were murmuring, like he was asleep. Where…where was Paolo? Paolo had been reading from one of his dorky books, and Luca kind of wanted him back. Arthur Dent had just found out about mice ruling the world, hadn’t he?

He blinked for real then, white light flashing briefly, and grimaced.

“Luca?”

“S’bright…”