Poh lifted a finger, dropped it, and heaved a breath. "It also took my gun, so...there's that."
"This just keeps getting better." Captain Glenn's fists tightened at his sides.
"But when did it get on the ship?" Ellison asked. "How long has it been here?"
"I don't know." I smoothed my hand down her messy braid and snagged my fingers into the band at the end to release it. "But I don't think it wanted me to see what was in the cargo room, and we only just got that on Orin."
"Nothing's been in the cargo room since the teralinguas," Captain Glenn said.
"Well, now we have boxes and boxes of consumectalons, the Ringers' parasites," I said. "Captain, I saw you on Orin talking to someone near truckloads of that stuff. You locked the door after you to the cargo room, which...I'm about 99 percent sure wasn't really you."
"Jesus Christ," he muttered. "No, it wasn't me. I was hiring clones for you, Ellison, and Mase while...it was cloning me. Jesus Christ."